Interactional Meaning Of New Year Speeches By Leaders Of China And The UK:a Multimodal Discourse Analysis

Over the years,New Year speeches delivered by state leaders have drawn broad attention because of their great significance and profound information.However,study on them is limited to linguistic aspect of the speeches.Few analysts have noticed the application of multimodality in these speeches such as proxemics,gestures and layouts,which can construct interactional meanings.New Year speeches delivered by state leaders usually have special contexts.Study on their linguistic aspects may miss some key information.While analyzing it from the perspective of multimodality,we can have more findings and in-depth understanding of interactional meanings conveyed by the speeches.The research objects of the thesis were the New Year speeches delivered by President Xi Jinping from 2014 to 2017 as well as David Cameron’s speeches from 2013 to 2016.The thesis adopted Sigrid Norris’ framework of multimodal interaction analysis.The features of modal application such as spoken language,proxemics,gestures,postures,head movements and layouts in these speeches were described in the thesis.With the assistance of MMAVideo software,similarities and differences of the two leaders’ speeches in terms of modal application and distribution were also found out.The results of the study are listed as follows: the application of gestures,head movements and stress in Cameron’s speeches was denser than that in President Xi’s speeches.Whereas,President Xi Jinping emphasized on the meaning-construction of proxemics and layouts.The differences of modal application indicate the speakers’ different cultural backgrounds.Western leaders prefer to interact with the audience through their own movements and voices,while Chinese leaders tend to construct interactional meanings via implicit modes such as layouts.The value of the thesis lies in the alignment of multimodal interactional analysis and political speeches.It adds new dimensions to the study on multimodal discourse analysis and also provides new perspectives in political speech analysis.The thesis is of practical significance,too.Against the backdrop of Chinese culture going out,understanding the differences of modal application between Chinese and Western speakers can help Chinese speakers tell Chinese stories to the world in a better way.Moreover,it also adds a new dimension to translation study.In subtitle translation,non-linguistic elements should also be interpreted,as they can also construct profound interactional meanings.