Stance beyond words: How TED speakers construct stance through multimodal semiotic resources

This study examines how speakers construct stance toward online non-specialist audiences through multimodal resources, including verbal language, paralanguage, gesture, and head movement. Drawing on multimodal discourse analysis and adapting Hyland's (2005b) stance framework, this study analyzes twenty TED Talk videos in hard and soft sciences. The analysis focuses on the types and frequencies of stance markers, the composition of multimodal ensembles, and the interrelations among semiotic resources. Results indicate that (a) stance markers occur more frequently in soft science talks; (b) speakers in soft sciences employ a wider range of multimodal resources to convey stance; and (c) stress and beat gestures constitute the top two most frequently used modes in expressing stance. The findings provide insights into the multimodal construction of stance and its disciplinary variation within academic communication and contribute to our understanding of the form-function mapping of stance. The findings also shed light on how academic knowledge is effectively communicated and made accessible to broader audiences by means of strategic multimodal integration of verbal and non-verbal resources in digital contexts. • TED speakers use language, gesture, and paralanguage to construct stance. • Systematic associations occur between stance types and multimodal resources. • Hard science talks employ attitude markers more frequently than soft sciences. • Soft sciences show a greater frequency of co-speech semiotic resources.