The Construction Of Multimodal Attitudinal Meaning

In the recent past decade, linguists come to realize that word is just one channel to generate the meaning and is also just one of the various ways that convey meaning. In addition to text, images, sound, movement, facial expressions, and so on can also generate and transmit meaning. Traditional analysis of the discourse analysis is concentrated on the text language, ignoring the function of the non-language resources. With the blossom of the multimodal discourse analysis, the language will not be the only target for research, instead language together with non-linguistic devices will be the new hot research object. The Appraisal Theory also pays attention to the non-linguistic devices of the discourse. The Appraisal Theory is concerned with the relationship of the speaker and the listener, the transmission of the information and the attitude meaning of the discourse. The attitude system is the core of the evaluation system, which expresses the aptitude, feeling and stance of the speaker or writer. As a new kind of discourse, the video discourse has attracted the attention of people, in which the language symbol along with sound symbol, kinesic symbols and emoticon convey three-dimensional attitude meaning. Then, how can the language semiotic and the non-language semiotic work together to convey interpersonal meaning of the video discourse, especially the aptitude meaning?Based on the above question, this article will attempt to analyze the construction of the multimodal attitudinal meaning of the speech of Emma Waston in September at the United Nations conference by bridging the Appraisal Theory and the multimodal discourse analysis with the assistance of Elan and Praat which can analyzing both the linguistic resources and the non-linguistic semiotics.This paper aims to resolve the following two questions:1) What is the distribution and feature of the multimodal attitudinal meaning resources in the public speech?2) What is the relationship of the linguistic meaning resources and the non-linguistic meaning resources in the construction of the multimodal attitudinal meaning?The results show that in the construction of the multimodal aptitude meaning, the judgment resources takes the largest proportion, next is the affect resources and the appreciation resources is the least in number. Also, the non-language resources in the speech, compared to language resources in meaning construction, achieved a more significant role in the process. Moreover, the number of positive resources is far more than that of the negative ones. Two main relationships are found: the complementary and the non-complementary. The complementary relationship can be further divided into two relationships: co-manifestation and intensification. And the proportion of the complementary relationship is more than that of the non-complementary relationship.This thesis makes a multimodal attitudinal meaning analysis, which expanded the scope of evaluation theory and the multimodal discourse analysis in theory. Moreover, this thesis provides a new perspective for the study of the multimodal personal meaning. At the same time, this paper proves the significant role of the non-language resources, such as the resources of body movement, facial expression and sound which are rarely been studied before. From the aspect of the multimodal analysis of attitude meaning in the speech, this paper will help readers and audiences to have a better understanding of the classic speech.