A Multimodal Analysis Of Interpersonal Meaning In English Public Service Advertisements

Due to the rapid development of modern science and technology and extensive use of mass media and the Internet,multimodality has become an inseparable part of our daily life and has exerted drastic global impacts on visual and audio culture.Currently,information is communicated increasingly in multimodal texts rather than in mono-modal texts.Thus it is crucial to conduct a comprehensive and systematic research on multimodal discourse by integrating multiple media with multiple modes.As an effective means to publicize social ideologies and provide public services,public service advertisements(PSAs)are crucial in publicizing fine social morals,advocating good ideas and promoting social progress.Therefore,a comprehensive study of the verbal and nonverbal resources in English PSAs from the perspective of multimodal discourse analysis(MDA)is undoubtedly of profound theoretical and practical significance.MDA is a systematic analysis of different semiotic modes utilized in a discourse,including language,images,sounds,actions,and so on.In this domain,the systemic functional linguistic theory is extended to other semiotic resources.Different from traditional discourse analysis,MDA emphasizes the coordination of both dynamic and static semiotic resources.In recent years,it has become a new trend in discourse analysis,which covers movies,TV programs,network videos,posters,advertisements,etc.The present research aims to investigate the transmission of interpersonal meaning in multimodal discourse,particularly in PSAs by integrating the theories and methodologies of Systemic Functional Linguistics(SFL)and Visual Grammar(VG).The data under discussion in this thesis are authentic PSAs issued by governments,organizations,authoritative and influential websites,e.g.http://www.icrc.org/eng,www.millerngo.com,http://image.baidu.com,and www.4a98.com.In the thesis,40 English PSAs are analyzed to test the applicability of SFL and VG to MDA.The findings of this thesis are expected to throw some light on better designing and understanding of PSAs and thus promoting their social impact.The analysis indicates that in PSAs,the verbal part,including the mood,modality and person systems,plays an important role in transmitting the interpersonal meaning;meanwhile,the contact,social distance,perspective and modality of visual images are also designed collaboratively to publicize the interactive meaning.In this sense,texts and images collaborate to present the interpersonal meaning in public service advertising discourse.