An Interdisciplinary Study On The Synergetic Patterns Formed By Major Modes In The Multimodal Genre Of IFM

With the prevalence of multimodal discourse analysis in the 1990s in Western countries,scholars from various fields are highly keen on this field.Notwithstanding much progress achieved both abroad and in China,problems in multimodal discourse studies have been very prominent,including the imperfection of multimodal analytical frameworks,lack of scientific research methods and so on.The following problems have been found in previous studies on multimodal discourse analysis.First,the constructions of multimodal analytical frameworks are primarily grounded on systemic functional linguistics.However,as noted by Kress and van Leeuwen(2006,p.19),multimodal discourse analysis borrowed the thinking from linguistics,but it is not a linguistic one.Instead,it bears the interdisciplinary tendency from the very start.Just as the name of multimodality suggests,it should be particularly related with art graphic design.Second,as far as multimodal analysis is concerned,it is the case that viewers(i.e.,decoders)are actually decoding what designers(i.e.,encoders)have encoded.Nevertheless,"encoders and decoders have not made contact with each other at any point.In other words,they are both monologues(O' Toole,1994,p.3).It is also the case that "designers are just responsible for encoding while viewers are just responsible for decoding.Further,designers and viewers by all means have no way of communication"(Cheng&Zhang,2016,p.7).Thus,what remains unclear is whether decoders' interpretations are in accordance with encoders' designing intentions or not.Third,to date,scholars doing multimodal discourse analysis have mainly been limited to systemic functional linguists.In addition,no public achievements have been found in terms of the interdisciplinary research between linguistics and art graphic design.Centering upon the above problems,the present study is aimed at exploring the synergetic patterns formed by core modes involved within the multimodal genre of investment and financial management by investigating the similarities and the differences in the interpretation of the same multimodal products between linguistic researchers and art graphic designers.This study is conducted to achieve the following three objectives.(1)To find out both the similarities and the differences in the interpretation of the same multimodal discourses by decoders and encoders.(2)To generalize preference orders for the core modes involved in the multimodal genre of investment and financial management.This objective can be subdivided into four sub-aims:first,to construct values-assigned continuums for these core modes.Second,to determine the weight coefficients of core modes.Third,to formulate a formula for calculating total modes' values.Finally,to construct a comprehensive multimodal analytical framework for the multimodal genre of IFM.(3)To establish the best and the general synergetic patterns formed by core modes involved,i.e.,colors,logos,explanatory texts and spatial arrangements.For these research objectives,the present study is an endeavor to seek answers to the following questions:1.What are the similarities and differences in the interpretation of the same multimodal discourses between linguistic and art graphic design participants?2.Are there preferences of colors and spatial arrangements with respect to core modes when selected to represent meanings for this genre?If any,what are they?3.What are the best and the general synergetic patterns formed by core modes involved in the multimodal genre of investment and financial management?Qualitative,quantitative and comparative methods are employed in the present study.The qualitative method is adopted mainly to examine whether the interpretation made by linguistic scholars is in accordance with the designing principles utilized by art graphic designers.While at the same time,quantitative research aims to provide empirical evidence and substantiate the results yielded by the present study.More specifically,the preliminary study is to confirm whether the interpretation made by linguistic scholars is in accordance with designers' intentions.The online questionnaire is intended to find out both the similarities and the differences in the interpretation of the same multimodal discourses between linguistic and art graphic design participants.Preference orders of major modes and synergetic patterns in the multimodal genre will be generalized as well.The retrospective interview,in turn,aimed at crosschecking the results yielded in the online questionnaire.The instruments employed in the present study are three widely-studied multimodal artefacts employed in published research,an interview employed in the preliminary study,a retrospective interview and an online questionnaire.They are used mainly to verify the hypothesis that there are both similarities and differences in interpreting the same multimodal discourses by both linguistic scholars and art graphic designers or equivalents of designers.Moreover,the interview used in the preliminary study is adopted chiefly to investigate the rules and principles used by image designers or their equivalents to interpret the meaning potential of core modes involved.Three categories of participants are involved in the present study.In the preliminary study,two college teachers with MA degrees in art graphic design are chosen as participants.They are both teaching the course "Art Graphic Design".In addition,they have instructed students to take part in designing competitions for five times.As far as the participants in retrospective interview are concerned,there are fifteen professional art graphic designers and fifteen systemic functional linguistic scholars in total.All the SFL scholars have already published at least one article on multimodal discourse study in core linguistic journals.The participants involved in online questionnaire include two kinds:linguistic participants and art graphic ones.The linguistic participants are 30 linguistic teachers from five universities across different regions in China.The participants selected this way are typical and representative.In addition,most of the participants have discussed the confusions of interpreting multimodal products with the author in some academic conferences.Art graphic participants either have part-time job experiences in Ads companies or are actual designers.The reason why art graphic participants are chosen this way is that the designing proficiencies of these participants are equivalent or close to those of the designers designing the research data of the present study.Results of the study demonstrated that in terms of similarities and differences in interpreting the same multimodal discourses,there are similarities and differences both between and within participants.More specifically,the unanimity rate of color interpretation is 46.60%whilst the divergence rate of color interpretation between participants is up to 53.40%.Besides,there are high similarities(i.e.,70%)in the interpretation of spatial arrangements but there are slight variances in terms of visual-verbal arrangements.In addition,two groups of participants are in agreement with each other about the most ideal synergetic pattern formed by core modes involved in the multimodal genre of investment and financial management.In terms of preference orders of multimodal elements in the multimodal genre of investment and financial management,they do exist.They are exhibited as follows.·As to the order of color preference,it is displayed as follows:yellow/golden yellow?blue?red?black/white?green· With regard to the modes of the major images,it goes like this:center?lower left?lower right?upper left?upper right· With respect to the modes of logos,it goes this way:upper lef?upper right ?lower left?lower right?center· As for the modes of explanatory texts,it goes:lower right?lower left?center?upper right?upper leftIn terms of synergetic patterns formed by core modes,both the best and the general synergetic patterns have been generalized.It is found that when the major hue is golden yellow,the major image happens to be placed in the center,the mode of logo is located on the upper left of the framed area,and the explanatory verbal text happens to be placed on the lower left part or the lower right section,this pattern formed by core modes in the multimodal genre of investment and financial management is the best synergetic.As to the general synergetic patterns,the following results have been found.Firstly,the major images belong to the first major modes which highlight core information.Accordingly,they bear the largest weights as well.Besides,they primarily embody the ideational and the interpersonal meanings.Secondly,the modes of logos are the primary ancillary modes,anchoring the "polysemous" as well as"floating" state of the major images.Meanwhile,the modes of logos fulfill ideational,interpersonal and textual metafunctions.Thirdly,the modes of colors play a crucial role in strengthening and assisting other core modes by means of offering multimodal sensory stimulus and multiplying the amount of information to be conveyed by the modes of major images as well as logos.The modes of colors primarily represent the interpersonal meanings.Fourthly,the modes of explanatory texts fulfill the function of elaborating and supplementing other core modes,which embody ideational and interpersonal meanings.The present study has contributed to multimodal discourse analysis from the following four aspects.Firstly,up to date,it is the initial attempt to explore and construct a formula and an analytical model grounded on SFL and art graphic design for interpreting and designing multimodal products.Secondly,this study has ever generated a ten-point and a one-hundred-based schema to evaluate and design multimodal products,which are commonly taken for granted in many cultural traditions especially among Chinese scholars.Thirdly,mode-choosing continuums and the formula for calculating the total modes' values yielded by this study help to unveil the complicated nature of multimodal analytical frameworks to some extent.These will contribute significantly to the development and enhancement of multimodal theory of discourse analysis.Nevertheless,it still has many limitations.First,although the values assigned continuums and the best synergetic patterns have been proved effective in the multimodal genre of IFM,it is of great necessity that they be verified by more genres.Second,the present study is intended to investigate effects generated by different synergetic patterns formed by core modes.However,the present study just focuses on changes of colors only and those of spatial arrangements only.Changes of both colors and spatial arrangements simultaneously are not taken into consideration in this study.In order to present an overall profile of all effects generalized by all kinds of synergetic patterns,changes of all major modes involved in the multimodal genre of investment and financial management are still needed.