J. R. Martin is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Sydney, Australia. Dr Monika Bednarek is Research Fellow at the University of Sydney, Australia.

• 1. Introduction: Semantic variation: modelling system, text and affiliation in social semiosis, J R Martin (University of Sydney, Australia); 2. Wrinkling complexity: concepts of identity and affiliation in humour, Naomi Knight (University of Sydney, Australia); 3. Making metre mean: Identity and affiliation in the rap music of Kanye West, David Caldwell (University of Sydney, Australia); 4. A multimodal analysis of Thai-language newspaper front pages, John Knox (Macquarie University, Australia), Pattama Patpong (Mahidol University, Thailand) and Yupaporn Piriyasilpa (Rajamangala University of Technology, Khon Kaen, Thailand); 5. Doubling-up: Allusion and bonding in multi-semiotic news stories, Helen Caple (University of Sydney, Australia); 6. Playing with 'femininity': Inter-modal analysis of bilingual picture book The Ballad of Mulan, Ping Tian (University of Sydney, Australia); 7. Imagining communities: a multifunctional approach to identity management in texts, Ken Tann (University of Sydney, Australia); 8. Intersemiotic relations as logogenetic patterns: towards the restoration of the time dimension in hypertext description, Sumin Zhao (University of Sydney, Australia); 9. The coupling of gesture and phonology, Zappavigna et al (University of Sydney, Australia); 10. Corpus Linguistics and Systemic Functional Linguistics:; Interpersonal meaning, identity and bonding in popular culture, Monika Bednarek (University of Technology, Sydney, Australia); Index.

"This book, by a group of highly talented young scholars, gives us a glimpse of what multimodal discourse analysis might come to look like in the first half of the 21st century." - Professor Theo van Leeuwen, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia