Constructing Integrated Meaning Under The Effect Of Intersemiotic Complementarity In Multimodal Discourse

Guided by the theories of multimodal discourse analysis, this thesis explores the construction of integrated meaning under the effect of intersemiotic complementarity in multimodal discourse based on a case study of a print advertisement of service product, aiming to reveal the collective effect between visual image and verbal text.The reason for the choice of a service product advertisement is that since this type of advertisement is to promote an intangible service process, how the advertiser exhibits this special type of product by applying both image and text modes is worth researching.The researcher makes an attempt of a qualitative study based on a case study of a print advertisement of service product in terms of the metafunctional meanings of text and image, referring to Systemic Functional Grammar and Visual Grammar respectively. After each metafunctional meaning is decoded in the visual and verbal semiotic resources, the image-verbiage relations are analyzed to see the effect of intersemiotic complementarity in integrated meaning construction as well as its economic benefit. The data used in this research is chosen from a book where numerous commercial ads, covering a great range of industries, are reproduced to illustrate successful advertising, promotion and market communication. Combination with both page-based visual and verbal modes makes the data ready for this research.Some of the major findings of this research are basically consistent with previous studies. That is, both visual and verbal modes in commercial ads are able to depict the“beings”(ideational), invite certain social interactions between represented participants and interactive participants(interactional) and structure the text(textual).Innovatively, the researcher draws conclusion on integrated meaning construction in commercial ads of service product. In each of three metafunctional meanings, both visual and verbal modes complement each other. To be more specific, ideationally,semantic relations of hyponymy, collocation and meronymy are mainly used to relate the two modes, while there is a smaller number of intersemiotic repetition, synonymy and antonymy. Interactionally, the interactive function of visual image can be complemented by the interpersonal meaning of verbal text. As the main interactional function of image is to intrigue viewers’ attention and invite their involvement to the advertisement, it cannot further lead them to play the expected interactional role. With the availability of verbal text, the viewers would know to whom this ad is addressed and what interactional role they are playing, as the advertiser applies person system(inviting interaction), mood system(giving or demanding information) and modality system. Compositionally, the visual image and verbal text complement each other to make a unified advertising discourse through an intentional placement of elements or features, hence maximize the utility of the limited space.This research demonstrates the applicability and practicability of intersemiotic complementarity theory in interpreting page-based commercial advertisements of service product, opens a new dimension in multimodal discourse analysis and illustrates the effect of inter-mode relations in constructing an integrated discourse meaning as well as reveals the value of inter-mode relations in commercial promotion and persuasion.