| Multimodal discourse refers to the discourses that contains various semiotic resources such as visual, audial and tactile modalities, and that communicates through the interaction of language, image, sound and music. Multimodal discourse analysis (MDA) emerging in1990s provides a method in the analysis of multimodal discourse, which has become a hot topic in linguistic research home and abroad. So far, Halliday has achieved great reward in this field who proposed the systemic-functional grammar to the analysis of verbal modality on the basis of three metafunctions of language. And Kress and van Leeuwen developed a visual grammar based on the three metafunctions of language, that is representational, interactional and compositional meaning of visual images. Film discourse as a typical of multimodal discourse, contains many semiotic modalities such as image, text, sound and music. The MDA assisted film discourse analysis helps understand films through the interaction among different modalities; as well as offer a linguistic perspective to film appreciation.Life of Pi, which won the85th awards on direction, photography, visual effect and original music, makes up a good sample rich in audial and visual resources to explore the relationship between Pi and the tiger Richard-one of the hot topics in the discussion of this film by analyzing the relevant plots in the film.Under the guidance of systemic functional grammar and visual grammar, the present study attempts to explore the relationship between Pi and Richard the tiger in film Life of Pi by analyzing how various semiotic modalities make meaning and how they contribute to understanding the film. The study adopts qualitative approach and case analysis. Firstly, the verbal text selected from the film discourse is analyzed based on three metafunctions of language; then, meaning expressed by visual images from the film discourse is studied; finally, the function of tone and music in the film are also analyzed; The results of study imply that theoretical framework based on functional grammar and visual grammar is adaptive for the film discourse Life of Pi; by virtue of linguistic and non-linguistic analysis, the relationship between Pi and the tiger is mostly determined by Pi’s attitude toward the tiger:various modalities interact to make meaning, which provides a new perspective for film appreciation. In general, the study helps broaden the linguistic understanding of film discourse, and provides a new perspective to understand film, thus improving audience’s level of film appreciation. |
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