Multimodal Stylistic Analysis On Sports Promotional Videos Of Xi’an

The construction of city image is inseparable from effective city promotion.In the era of new media,city promotion is also characterized by diversified media and modes.Among those new media,videos are short in text,rich in content and have prominent multimodal stylistic features;therefore,it soon becomes an important way of the promotion of city image.Based on the theory of multimodal stylistics,this thesis takes the videos of “14th National Games” from Tiktok as the research object,analyzes the stylistic features of different modes and inter-semiotic relations in the videos,and discusses the roles these multimodal features play in the construction of city image of Xi’an in sports promotional videos.This thesis combines both quantitative and qualitative research methods.Specifically,the dynamic videos are transcribed into the static data according to the three segmentation criteria of dynamic multimodal discourse.Then different grammatical systems are used to annotate the corpus and find the prominent features of language,image,color,sound and inter-semiotic relations.Finally,the prominent features of each mode are combined with the context to determine the foregrounded features and interpret the stylistic effects.The results show that verbal process and material process are foregrounded features of the video copywriting,in which the verbs “narrate” and “meet” highlight the video theme of telling sports stories and keep the viewers interested;the foregrounding of the text in the title and ending page and the explanatory text can explain important content and reflect the integrity of the discourse;in the character’s speech,material process,relational process and mental process are foregrounded features,in which verbs such as “cut”,“participate” and goals “competition”,“sports meeting” in material process,key words “the 14 th National Games”,“Xi’an” in relational process and verbs like “hope”,“welcome” in the mental process show people’s real actions to welcome the 14 th National Games and love and expectations for sports.In image mode,action process,reactional process,analytical process and symbolic process are the foregrounded features.In action process,different types of participants,such as the old,students,reflect the theme of the nationwide games,and goals like “balls”,“intangible cultural heritage” emphasize the diversity and inclusiveness of sports;in reactional process,the participants look directly at the camera to communicate with the viewers,making the videos more appealing;in analytical process,three categories of city environment,city construction and sports venues are analyzed from the perspective of shooting,location,time,etc.,reflecting the high-quality development of Xi’an’s city environment,infrastructure and sports industry;in symbolic process,the city’s appearance and life scenes symbolize the city characteristics of blend of history and modernity and the sports spirit of health and enthusiasm.In color mode,red,gray and green are foregrounded features.The red volunteer clothes and paper-cuts express the city spirit of vitality,enthusiasm and dedication;the gray city walls and backgrounds show viewers the ancient and quaint Xi’an;green represents ecology and environment,symbolizing harmony,freedom and health.For sound mode,monologue and cheering are the foregrounded features of the human voice,which reflect people’s enthusiasm and support for sports;the energetic and soothing music are foregrounded features of the music,in which the energetic music creates a cheerful atmosphere and soothing music plays an introductory role;the sound effect of situation in the audio can restore the real scene of the event.The inter-semiotic relation is mainly complementary reinforcement between visual image and color,auditory sound and verbal mode,as well as image and sound,which together constitute the overall meaning of the video discourse,build and promote a diversified,friendly and inclusive city image of Xi’an.This thesis not only analyzes the multimodal stylistic features and their roles in the construction of the city image of Xi’an in sports promotional videos but also verifies the validity and applicability of the multimodal stylistic analytical framework in interpreting videos of new media.