| With the rapid development of society and modern scientific information,language forms are no longer the only carrier of information transmission.The application of multi-modal discourse in different domains through a variety of modal modes is gradually emerging.The phenomenon of using images,music,colors,gestures and other modal resources to communicate widens the channel of communication,which is called multi-modal discourse,covering language modality,visual modality,auditive modality and other complicated semiotic forms.Multi-modal discourse analysis is the analysis of discourse that uses more than two modes or more than two symbolic systems under one mode.The theory of Visual Grammar is a framework proposed and extended to the mode of visual communication by Kress and Van Leeuwen on the basis of Halliday’s three meta-functions of SFG(ideational function,interpersonal function and textual function),in which visual images are regarded as a kind of social symbol realizing the three meanings of the images.Each meaning can be constructed by the means of different processes and multi-modal modes.Through the analysis of these elements and multi-modal modes,the three meanings conveyed by the images can be accurately grasped.Publicity film of a city image is a window for the city to communicate with the outside world.It is a typical dynamic multi-modal discourse which contains many elements or modal resources such as language,images,color and sound.Its purpose is to let the audience have an objective and comprehensive understanding of the city’s natural scenery,cultural folklore,scientific and technological development urban architectures by the means of relevant modality elements and forms,so as to achieve its publicity and establish a good image at home and abroad.The corpus of the paper is derived from the propaganda film Lanzhou released officially by Tencent platform.The duration is 8 minutes and 9 seconds.42 representative shots(including the number of the series shots in Appendix A)are captured in the research.Based on Kress and Van Leeuwen’s theory of visual grammar and Zhang Delu’s comprehensive analysis framework of the forms and relations of different modes of multimodal discourse as the theory,the study discusses and analyzes the realization of the representational meaning,interactive meaning and compositional meaning of visual shots in the promotional film of Lanzhou,the distribution characteristics of the main multi-modal modes and the main relationship between the main forms of modalities.The findings are as follows:(1)Conceptual representation is more frequently used than narrative presentation in the realization of representational meaning.In the realization of representation meaning,conceptual representation accounts for 62.37%,mainly representing the static material information,including beautiful city scenery,magnificent buildings,cultural relics and sculpture,etc.Narrative representation accounts for 37.62%,mainly focusing on the technological development of Lanzhou and the production of Lanzhou beef noodles.(2)In the realization of interactive meaning,more shots of “offering”(97%)are used than those of “demanding ”(2.99%),mainly providing objective information about Lanzhou’s urban landscape,local customs,scientific and technological development,history and culture with various modal elements.Therefore,the audience have better and more understanding about the development in all aspects in Lanzhou.“Long shot”,accounting for 84.08%,is more commonly used than other shots with the purpose of providing more global information to the audience.The shots mainly adopts “frontal angle”(23.23%)and“eye-level angle”(16.64%)are usually exploited to close the distance between the audience and participants in the image,showing the equal relationship between the two sides and equipping the audience with a sense of experience and participation.“High modality” shots,accounting for 56.38%,are used more in videos,which mainly present natural scenery,city macro scene,illuminated night scene,ancient map,Dunhuang Dance and other cultural and artistic masterpieces,giving audiences more visual shock and enjoyment.(3)In the realization of compositional meaning,the “center-margin structure”,accounting for 74.16%,is more than “top-bottom structure” and “left-right structure”,which highlights the center,thereby the audience can quickly focus on the content expressed in the video.In respect of “salience”,the part of “perspective” is the highest proportion(45.05%),which can be recognized as being in the foreground of the image rather than the background.In framing,“connection”(92.08%),in this video,consists of many continuous different shots,but they express the meaning of continuity so that the audience can grasp the relationship between the parts and the whole of the video.(4)In the promotional film Lanzhou,the relationship of multi-modal discourse forms is mainly shown as complementary relationship.The collaboration between the different modal forms cooperate and interact to express the relevant theme and construct the meaning of Lanzhou city image together.It is hoped that the research of this paper will provide some references for the producers of publicity videos,and also let the public have more comprehensive understanding about the image of Lanzhou. |
PDF Full Text Request