Multimodal Discourse Analysis Of The Film Oliver Twist

Nowadays as science and technology develop rapidly, Internet Technology popularizes quickly and global cultural exchanges become increasingly frequent. The transference of information and the construction of significance are no longer confined to language only. A variety of social symbols besides the language such as gestures, voice, images, audio, video, etc. have been widely used. As a result, traditional discourse analysis which considers language as the only object cannot fully explain the meaning of the information carrier, therefore the construction of the systematic analysis approach taking multimodal discourse as the object has become urgent. With this background, a research on multimodal discourse analysis emerged in west in 1990 s.According to Halliday’s functional grammar, visual grammar proposed by Kress and Van Leeuwen discussed the expressive way of meaning of image from representational meaning, interactive meaning and compositional meaning. Based on this, O’Halloran attempts to establish a complete filmic discourse analysis system, while Baldry and Thibault also try to establish the analyzing framework for short video advertisements. In recent years, domestic scholars have done many researches in the field of multimodal discourse analysis. However, most of the researches are still restricted to the static multimodal discourses. Therefore, more comprehensive and intensive study on dynamic multimodal discourse analysis are desperately needed with the development of the times. Integrated with image, language, voice, music and other modals, the film is a typical multimodal discourse. Varieties of modalities develop dynamically and interact with each other, which make analysis of film discourse more complicated. Thus, it has become the emphasis in the field of multimodal discourse analysis. Therefore, this study discusses how the use of a variety of modalities in the film attribute to the expression of the textual meaning, at the same time has theory value and practical significance, which has both theoretical value and practical significance.This study attempts to make multimodal discourse analysis of Oliver Twist shot by famous French director Roman Polanski in 2005 within the framework of Kress and Van Leeuwen’s visual grammar, aiming to discuss how the use of different modalities in film discourse attribute to the theme of the film and the shaping of characters. Selecting 32 typical scenes and pictures of Oliver Twist, and analyzing the language materials from representational meaning, interactive meaning and compositional meaning, this study tries to research the effects of different elements in the picture on the expression of meaning of film discourse, and the effects of the cooperation of pictures and actions and words of the characters. Meanwhile, through the discussion of the sound and images in 8 scenes extracted from Oliver Twist, this study analyzes the discourse meaning generated from the cooperation of different modalities, and shows overall outlook presented by the film.Through analysis of language materials, this study comes to the following conclusions: firstly, in the film discourse, the image can express representational meaning through the choice of vector, while interactive meaning can be reflected from the different choice of contact social distance, attitude, and modality. It can also express the compositional meaning through the size and the different locations of the participant in the image. Different scenes of film have different expressive purposes; therefore, the selection of different modes is goal-directed, not arbitrary. The film expresses complete discourse meaning through cooperation of different modalities. Synchronization can enhance the content of the image expresses, while separation can supplement the description of the plots and strengthen continuity of image shift.Through case analysis of the filmic discourse Oliver Twist, this study found that the multimodal discourse analysis especially the visual grammar has a strong applicability for the analysis of filmic discourse. This not only expands the depth and scope of the study, which is the necessary complement to existing multimodal discourse analysis, but also makes the audience have a profound understanding of the theme of the film through the integrated use of a variety of modals, getting edification of love and beauty.