From the foregoing, it multimodality can be defined as the study of inner relationship and interaction among assorted communicative semiotic modes, no matter they are visual symbols or auditory symbols, i。e。 using multimodality is a method to express the meaning of a discourse made up of different semiotic modes。 

The publication of Reading Images written by Kress & van Leeuwen in 1996 is generally deemed as The beginning of MDA。 With the combination with Halliday’s Systematic Functional Grammar, Reading Images has offered some guides in detail for people to study in conducting multimodal discourse analysis, what is more, this book is considered as the milestone in MDA this field。 From then on, MDA has become a subject that was paid more attention to。 In addition, Kress & van Leeuwen (2001) propose a new theory about multimodal discourse communication in this brand new multimedia era, that is: the Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication。 Another scholar Rose (2003) puts forward some instructive suggestions and guidance for studying the potential meanings and effects of visual images。 In Discourse and Technology: Multimodal Discourse Analysis, Levine & Scollon (2004) state that it has drew a discussion about influence of new communication technologies on the way that discourse data are collected, transcribed and analyzed, as well as on social interactions and discourses themselves。 Another scholar, Baldry & Thibault (2006), based on their research discovery on multimodal text analysis, they propose a creative method to analyze the meaning and functions of multimodal symbols。 In New Directions in the Analysis of Multimodal Discourse, Royce & Bowcher (2007) offer a comprehensive theoretical framework of multimodal discourse and predict a tendency for studying and applying in this booming field。 

Comparing with those western countries, it can not be denied that MDA research in China “falls behind” a lot (Zhu Yongsheng, 2007), and the first person who firstly introduces MDA to China is a famous linguist named Li Zhanzi (2003)。 However, from then on, MDA is widely applied by scholars in many sorts of research subjects and linguistic field。 For example, Hu Zhuanglin & Dong Jia (2006) explore the methods applied in a PowerPoint presentation contest and the principles by which the meaning can be well constructed and transmitted。 In “Theory and Methodology of Multimodal Discourse”, Zhu Yongsheng (2007) makes a discussion of the definition, theoretical basis, methodology and significance of multimodal discourse analysis。 Xin Zhiying (2008) in his “Multimodal Discourse Analysis—a New Development in Discourse Analysis” states that it is a mistaken view that discourse analysis only consists of text analysis, but it should also should take assorted semiotic modes into consideration。 Zhang Delu’s “On a Synthetic Theoretical Framework for Multimodal Discourse Analysis” (2009) tries to establish a theoretical framework for MDA on the basis of systemic functional linguistics。 In the filed of application, Wang Hongyang (2007)does a research on how the these different symbols co-construct to form interactive meaning through studying the  case of multimodal advertising discourse。 As for another scholars, Wang Lifei & Wen Yan (2008) make an introduction of EUDICO Linguistic Annotator (ELAN) software and its main functions of multimodal analysis of discourses。 And Zheng Haicui & Zhang Maizeng (2008) analyze multiple semiotic resources applied in the Beijing Olympic emblem to build a harmony concept in the sight of MDA and critical social semiotics。 

Recently, people have realized the great significance of MDA, and have made loads of analysis of advertisement, international conference speech, academic text, hypertext, film poster from the perspective of multimodal discourse analysis。 For example, In the Poster Session at the 11th International Pragmatics Association Conference at Gothernburg, Sweden, GuYueguo (2007) sets up the Spoken Chinese Corpus of Situated Discourse (SCCSD) as an assistant methodology applied in the study of MDA。 Besides, multimodal discourse analysis has become more and more popular in the teaching field since multi-semiotic modes have been proved beneficial to guidance and support for teaching。 For example, Zhang Delu and Wang Lu’s “The Synergy of Different Modes in Multimodal Discourse and Their Realization”(2010), and Chen Yumin and Wang Hongyang’s “Ideational Meaning of Image and Text-image Relations” (2008)。