Framing affordance transformation in multi-semiotic rhetorical design: a systemic-ordered typological analysis of posters in the Chinese eco-cultural context

Abstract Semiotic affordance transformation – despite its prominence in multi-semiotic rhetorical design – remains under-researched in multi-semiotic discourse analysis. This study proposes a systemic-ordered typological framework for analyzing affordance transformations in environmental posters situated in the Chinese eco-cultural context. The framework integrates material and immaterial affordances to reveal how ecological messages are strategically crafted. Using a corpus of 44 World Environment Day posters (489 signs) annotated with UAM ImageTool 2.1, the analysis identifies recurrent patterns of affordance transformation – metaphorical, trans-categorizational, and systemic order-shift – arising from matter–meaning interactions. Findings advance a systemic-ordered, affordance-precise analytic path for diagnosing hybridization mechanisms and demonstrates their rhetorical functions – knowledge representation, eco-social identity enactment, and inter-semiotic cohesion. These insights extend linguistic systemic principles to multi-semiotic contexts, offering a robust analytical model that enriches both theoretical accounts and practical design of multi-semiotic rhetorical communication.