Transmodal practice and embodied style in audio description: Thinking beyond the academic “but”

This paper considers the language work done by audio describers and, specifically, their transmodalization of bodily actions and movements into language. Orienting to embodied sociolinguistics and social semiotics, my analysis is empirically grounded in a combination of primary reading, interviews with leading practitioners, as well as a participant observation of an audio-described dance performance. On this basis and informed by Macgilchrist’s (2020) ethic of thinking beyond the academic “but”, I identify four particular challenges: (1) managing the semiotic ideology of “description”; (2) transmodalizing bodily actions and movement; (3) determining information value, salience, and framing; and (4) capturing embodied style and identity design. Relevant to the general practices of audio description, these sociolinguistic and social semiotic issues underscore the way applied language experts can inadvertently align with, but also potentially illuminate, academic theory.