A Social Semiotic Approach To The Multimodal Discourse Analysis Of Advertisements

As an important discourse type, advertisements (ads) are the important recourses to study. Looking back to the study of ads, we can find most researches focus on the linguistic characteristics, while the modern ads and ad posters are realized through many modes such as picture, animation, sound and color. It is a fact that modern ads deeply depend on the interaction between language and image, and the pure linguistic methods cannot satisfy the present situation. The era of image is coming, but the researches into image have not been made yet.The limitation of present discourse analysis lies in the methodology which concentrates on the system of language, the semantic structures and the relation between social culture and psychological cognition. However those modes like image, sound and color are always ignored. Actually these modes play an essential role in discourse. The rise of multimodal discourse analysis helps overcome these limitations to a considerable degree. The publication of Reading Images in 1996 which is written by Kress and Van Leeuwen opened up a new prospect for the discourse analysis. This book is considered as the foundation of multimodal discourse analysis. Then they published a series of thesis to discuss the role and use of layout, sound and color in discourse. Since the 1990s, multimodal discourse analysis has been developed considerably and many scholars analyze various types of multimodal discourse: ads, news, movie, painting, sculpture, photograph and teaching material. The researches of multimodal discourse analysis started relatively late in China, but it still attracts much attention. Li Zhanzi(2003) introduced this theory of multimodal discourse analysis into China. Zhu Yongsheng(2007) also made much efforts to study the multimodality. Meanwhile many researches applied the theories of multimodal discourse analysis to the reality and explained some multimodal discourses.This paper starts from social semiotics, analyzes an advertisement with the visual grammar and attempts to explain the representational, interactive and compositionalmeanings in it. The present research adopts the qualitative, descriptive and interpretative methods to reveal how ads communicate with the viewers and influence their attitudes and behavior. It also proves the applicability and practicability of the theoretical framework in the ads discourse, broadens the research dimensions of ads discourse analysis and meanwhile provides a necessary reading method for image for those readers who are interested in communication, media and arts. The varieties of modes in modern ads and the interdisciplinarity of ads research determine the complexity of ads study. The analysis on language and image cannot suffice the meaning construe in ads. The knowledge of photograph and painting should be involved. Therefore, it remains to be improved. In addition, many ads are quoted to explain the framework of multimodality, but there is only one ad in the part of case study and the samples selection is quite limited. These should be avoided in later researches. Because of the limited ability, the paper is not perfect and many aspects should be improved. Hence scholars in other fields should participate in the study of multimodal discourse analysis. It must be better developed with interdisciplinary efforts.