| Web-page based English basketball game news recap (EBGNR) is a multimodal genre which is fundamentally based on computer and internet technologies, a genre of sports news whose decoding requires certain level of multi-literacy on the viewers (readers). The past studies on sports news are mainly confined to the verbal analysis, neglecting the function of other semiotic resources. However, with the development of newer information and communication technologies (ICTs), the meaning-making process of a text is increasingly related not only to its verbal elements but also to its non-verbal resources and their intersemiotic complementarity. Against this background, this thesis aims to explore the multimodal characteristics of the genre of web-page based EBGNR, its typical semiotic resources in construing metafunctional meanings and their working mechanism.Multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) is a branch of discourse analysis which explores the stylistic features of multimodal discourses. Over more than a decade, there has been a growing interest in the field of multimodal studies and the application systemic-functional theories in MDA. Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) provides many theoretical bases upon which multimodal studies can be carried out. This is so due to the fact that language is regarded as a social semiotic in SFL, and thus language shares the same social semiotic nature with other semiotic systems. The key tenets of SFL applied to MDA include the metafunctional principle, rank and stratification, genre, register, etc.Visual captures of thirty web-page based English basketball game news recaps are collected and transcribed for analysis with the assistance of the visual capturing software SNAGIT. The whole corpus is divided into two subcorpora:Yahoo Sports and ESPN, each with 15 texts and 45 pages. The general analytical methodology is based on Janet Jones'two-stage MDA framework, which includes both a quantitative analysis (Stage 1) and a qualitative analysis (Stage 2). Stage 1, the multimodal content analysis (MCA), aims to explore the typical semiotic patterns used in this genre. Stage 2 looks deeper into the mechanism of intersemiotic complementarity of this genre. Stage 2 is a complement to Stage 1, as it overcomes the inherent defects of MCA in Stage 1 by presenting a finer and down-to-earth analysis.The MCA of this thesis in Stage 1 is carried out on the basis of a reformulated MCA coding frame which includes six parameters:the types of visuals, proportion of visuals/text blocks, visual density, location of visuals on the page, types of text blocks, types/function of interactivity.Stage 2 selects a typical sample text from the corpus and explores how different semiotic modes of the text are coordinated in realizing the metafunctional meanings, especially the ideational and textual meanings.Based on the two-stage analysis, the major findings include:First, for an average text of web-page based EBGNR, the metafunctional distribution of visuals on every page ranks from interpersonal through textual to experiential from high to low. lab (tables) which function to provide the statistics and other information of the game account for the largest share of all the experientially-oriented visuals. The bulk of the interpersonally-oriented visuals (34.4% out of 38.7%) are lbc (icons for operational instructions) which function to facilitate the interaction between the user (viewer) and the activities embedded in the text. More than half of the textually or compositionally-oriented visuals are lc (visual button, icon, tick, etc. with hyperlinks) which mainly function to guide the viewer navigation through both the internet and the intranet. However, the corpus shows inner imbalance due to the different reporting orientations of the two subcorpora: Yahoo Sports and ESPN. ESPN is more oriented to the reporting of straight facts or hard facts (39% of experiential visuals in comparison to 17.2% of Yahoo). In contrast, Yahoo Sports shows more concern for the user interest or the soft information in reporting (51.6% in comparison to 20.7% of ESPN).Second, for an average text of web-page based EBGNR, the metafunctional distribution of text blocks on every page runs from textual through experiential to interpersonal from high to low. There are also inner differences between the two subcorpora. The largest account of TX2 (the highlighted terms which are in italics, bold, color, or capitalized, underlined in running text) among all the experientially-oriented text blocks (10.1% out of 29%) shows that ESPN is more formal in confining the experiential content to the running text. In contrast, Yahoo favors to scatter its experiential content across various types of text blocks. There is a very limited portion of interpersonally-oriented text blocks in this genre. Among the textually-oriented text blocks, the highest percentage contribution is made by TX15 (items in table text as hyperlink), foregrounding the key role of hypertextual navigation in the whole textual meaning system.Third, the comparison between the verbal mode and the visual mode in their construal of discourse semantics shows:both text blocks and visuals produce a highest or almost highest proportion of textual meaning, manifesting the importance of textual function in the whole meaning system of web-page based EBGNR; visuals in web-page based EBGNR are mainly engaged in operational instruction while text blocks are inert in the production of interpersonal meaning.Fourth, the major function of interactivity in web-page based EBGNR is to navigate viewer's reading process by clicking on hyperlinks. Another prominent function is that the viewers can be guided to explore the content of the news recap to the full extent by interacting with the embedded activities on the web page.Fifth, intersemiosis enables a multimodal text to produce a much larger amount of ideational content within the same space than simply using one semiotic mode. Or, intersemiosis enacts a denser encapsulation of information. Verbal language is limited in presenting a large number of participants simultaneously, while tables are exceptional carrier of new participants, due to its embedded columns (visible or invisible) and its relative independency from the reporting proper.Sixth, the qualitative analysis accords with Kress and van Leeuwen's ideas on the informational values of elements relative to their typical locations both vertically and horizontally. A further hypothesis is drawn that typically the elements located higher are visually more prominent than those located lower.Seventh, due to the existence of mini-genres, the generic structure potential of web-page based texts has become multi-channeled and more open-ended. In addition, with the help of hypertexts, the role of the viewer is no longer a passive receiver, but also an active constructor of personalized texts. Viewing web-page based texts has shifted from a decoding activity to an activity that involves both encoding and decoding.To sum up, this thesis probes into the typical patterns of multimodal resources and their intersemiotic complementarity in construing the metafunctions of web-page based EBGNR. It not only enriches the practices of MDA, but also provides a new perspective in the discourses analysis of sports news by exploring the multimodal features of one of its subgenres:web-page based EBGNR.
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