Multimodal Discourse Analysis Of Chinese And American Environment Protection Posters:A Corpus-based Study

This dissertation analyzes the semiotic resources(language,images and layout)participating in meaning generation to investigate how modes construct meaning together,and to clarify the features and the rhetorical relations between language and images of environment protection posters from both China and the USA as multimodal discourses.In contrast to the previous case study with so few posters,I build a multimodal corpus for environment protection posters(CEPP).The data consists of one hundred environment protection posters,with fifty in each sub-corpus,CEPP-CN and CEPP-US,which are collected from governmental agencies and organizations in China and the USA respectively.This dissertation takes Genre and Multimodality(GeM)model(Bateman,2008)as the annotation scheme.GeM model adopts XML(e Xtensible Markup Language)to annotate the rhetorical structures and hierarchical organizations of the posters,and uses the GeM-Tools(Hiippala,2015a)to conduct the research.An integrated framework of systemic functional linguistics(SFL),visual grammar,rhetorical structure theory(RST),and multimodal metaphor is adopted to investigate the environment protection posters.First of all,I examine how language and image work individually to generate meaning.Following the meta-functions,I analyze language from ideational and interpersonal function.Following the visual grammar,I analyze image from representative and interactive meaning.Then,I explore the imagetext relations from a logico-semantic perspective.Next,I investigate rhetorical relations of language and images by following the multimodal RST proposed by Bateman in his GeM model(2008).Finally,I make a comparison of semiotic and metaphorical resources,analyze pictorial-verbal metaphors following the multimodal metaphor theory,and explore the causes for differences in Chinese and American environment protection posters from a cross-cultural perspective.The findings can be revealed from four perspectives.First,language and images as semiotic resources differ in generating meaning in environment protection posters in CEPP.Language is the main semiotic resource that is used to express the topic of the poster.Compared with language,images tend to deliver environment-related information,attract the viewers’ attention and interact with the viewers in an equal way.Second,the status of images and texts in Chinese environment protection posters are mostly equal,while half of the status in American environment protection posters are equal and half unequal.Images work as an exposition and complementary for texts in Chinese environment protection posters,while images work as exemplification and subordination for texts in American environment protection posters.Third,language and images work together to make meaning,which is interpreted by the rhetorical relations.Specifically,images are often used to restate the meaning of the verbal language,and to elaborate the information presented through verbal language in order to get a better understanding of the poster.In comparison,American environment protection posters are problem-oriented or solution-oriented since the rhetorical relations of Enablement,Solutionhood and Evidence are frequently used,while Chinese environment protection posters are more education-oriented or evaluation-oriented since rhetorical relations of Circumstance,Result,Evaluation,Joint and Contrast are frequently used.Fourth,pictorial-verbal metaphors appear much more frequently in Chinese environment protection posters than in the US ones.Meanwhile,cultural factors are rich in Chinese environment protection posters.Moreover,American environment protection posters tend to present the objective data and the actual facts of the environment,which are designed in a more rational way.Chinese environment protection posters not only present the environmental situation,but also pay attention to the interaction and the emotional resonance with the viewers.To sum up,through an empirical research,this dissertation undertakes a contrastive analysis of the characteristics of multiple semiotic resources in both Chinese and American environment protection posters,and explores the causes for the differences from a cross-cultural perspective.As a whole,the study examines how various semiotic resources in the environment protection posters,including language,images,metaphorical resources,work together to develop the core message,engage the viewer,and educate the public.