Multimodal Discourse Analysis Of "The Chinese Dream Filial Piety" Public Service Advertisements From The Perspective Of Rhetorical Structure Theory

Rhetorical Structure Theory(RST),dating back to the 1980 s,is an emerging theory of text generation.RST aims to explore the discourse structure through analysis of hierarchical relations above clauses.RST is frequently applied to different kinds of texts,including political speech,news report,English composition and so on.However,the rapid development of multimedia and computer technology makes different semiotic resources continually surge into social practice.Language is no longer the exclusive method to deliver information.People realize that information is simultaneously transmitted by the interaction of various modalities,including image,sound,color,etc.Thus,it brings about multimodal discourse,in which meaning is expressed through different kinds of semiotic modalities.In recent years,the problem of population aging and retirement has become increasingly prominent.So the number of filial piety public service advertisements increases as well.At present,researches on public service advertisements mainly focus on sociology and advertisement science.This thesis attempts to analyze public service advertisements from the perspective of rhetorical structure theory.As authoritative government website,advertisements of the China Public Service Advertising Net and CCTV Net represent voices and concerns of the people.Therefore,with RST as the theoretical tool,this thesis conducts a multimodal discourse analysis on the 15 “The Chinese Dream Filial Piety” advertisements which are downloaded from the China Public Service Advertising Net and CCTV Net.Quantitative and qualitative methods are used to explore the educational function through use frequency of rhetorical relations and selection of various modalities in the public service advertisements.The research questions of the thesis are as follows:1.What kinds of rhetorical relations are embedded in “The Chinese Dream Filial Piety” public service advertisements and how about their distributions?2.Through rhetorical relation's distribution chart,what kind of common rhetorical structure pattern is established in “The Chinese Dream Filial Piety” publicservice advertisements?3.How does “The Chinese Dream Filial Piety” public service advertisement realize the educational function from the perspective of social semiotics and rhetorical structure theory?This thesis is a new attempt to make a multimodal discourse analysis on the basis of rhetorical structure theory.Through analysis on the Chinese dream filial piety public service advertisements,the following conclusion is able to be made that the educational function is realized through modalities and rhetorical relations.Firstly,through analysis of the Chinese dream filial piety public service advertisements,background(20.55%)and elaboration(20.55%)are the most widely used rhetorical relations among all the advertisements.They can deepen readers' understanding of the key words and provide additional information for key words respectively.The use frequency of possession(15.07%)and summary(15.07%)takes up the second place.They can reflect the picture owner and summarize connotation of the Chinese dream respectively.Volitional result(8.22%),identification(8.22%),volitional cause(5.48%)and other rhetorical relations appear in these multimodal discourses as well.But interpretation does not appear as frequently as expected because units of the advertisements are strongly interrelated.Secondly,it turns out that rhetorical structure patterns have some common features through analysis of every advertisement.Almost all advertisements have eight units and the content of the corresponding unit is extremely similar.Some rhetorical relations are repeated in these multimodal discourses such as background and elaboration.But concession,motivation and other rhetorical relations are absent from this series of advertisements.Units with similar meanings are connected by the same or similar rhetorical relation in different advertisements.Finally,educational function of the Chinese dream filial piety public service advertisements is realized through the selection of modalities and use of rhetorical relations.Firstly,the basic principles of modality selection is that texts and picture complement each other.The texts highlight the importance of filial piety with the help of picture which shows people's happy life.It can arouse the positive emotion of viewers and strengthen the educational function.Secondly,elaboration and background are the predominant rhetorical relations in multimodal discourses.The use frequency of them are associated with the genre of public service advertisement,function of rhetorical relations and context of social semiotics.Sociality and popularity of public service advertisements require that the theme of advertisementsshould keep up with the times and the expression of advertisements must be plain respectively.According to the function of elaboration and background,picture is the satellite which can increase viewers' ability to accept the filial piety and educate people.This thesis endeavors to prove the feasibility of rhetorical structure theory in analyzing multimodal discourses and provides an innovative perspective for the understanding of public service advertisements.