Meaning Constructions Of Multimodal Subtitles In Chinese Reality TV Shows:from The Perspective Of Conceptual Blending Theory

Globalization and development of digital technology lead multimodal discourse take a bigger and bigger portion in human’s communication.Reality show Dad,where are we going,which swept over the whole China since being aired in 2014,started the “Multimodal Subtitle Age” of Chinese reality TV show,henceforth multimodal subtitle became as one of the most important elements for most Chinese variety TV shows.As a kind of typical multimodal discourse,multimodal subtitles are subtitles combining with other non-linguistic semiotics in video,for example picture,animation effect and sound.Multimodal subtitles are cognitioneffective for audience to access a great amount of information within the limited time.Though it has drawn surging popularity in the field of mass media,multimodal subtitle remains a blind area in linguistic analysis.Based on Conceptual Blending Theory brought by Gilles Fauconnier & Mark Turner,this study analyzed multimodal subtitles in Chinese reality TV shows,and tried to answer these questions: What’s the cognitive mechanisms of multimodal subtitle’s meaning construction,and how does multimodal subtitle different from conventional subtitle in terms of meaning constructions’ cognitive mechanism? During multimodal subtitle’s conceptual blending process,what accounts for the “selective projection” from input mental spaces to blending space? What’s the relation between formal blending and conceptual blending of multimodal subtitles?This research is mainly about case study.On the basis of conceptual blending model,around twenty cases collected from about ten popular Chinese reality TV shows are analyzed in detail.Firstly,it is found that multimodal subtitles construct meaning through conceptual blending process and they obey constraint rules as conventional subtitles do.Secondly,multimodal subtitles prove to have more than one kind of mental space builder: the first kind of mental space builder is multimodal subtitles’ composing artefacts such as linguistic expressions,pictures,animation and sound;and the second kind of mental space builder is formal blending between multimodal subtitles’ composing artefacts,for example the visual arrangement of linguistic expressions and pictorial icons or the combination of linguistic expressions and animation.Those mental spaces triggered by composing artefacts are called “element” input spaces and those triggered by formal blending are called “constructing” input spaces.Along with content of “element” input spaces,conceptual contents of “constructing” input spaces will be projected into the blending space and then take part in conceptual blending;or they will have decision in vital relations between “element” input spaces and in selective projection from “element” input spaces into the blending space.Thirdly,like conventional subtitle’s conceptual blending process,context and viewers’ background knowledge also have a key role in deciding selective projection from the “element” input spaces into “blending” input space.