A Multimodal (Inter) Action Analysis Of Technology Speeches Of TED

TED(Technology,Entertainment and Design)talks have become one of the world's largest Network learning communities on which elites from all walks of life publish new ideas,demonstrate new discoveries,and use the power of thoughts to change the world,so its influence cannot be underestimated.As a world-renowned speech platform,TED talks have also attracted the attention of the academic field.In recent years,related researches on TED speeches have mainly focused on the speech language from static perspectives and empirical researches in teaching.Few scholars have analyzed TED talks from a multimodal perspective.However,with the development of science and technology,technology speeches include not only the mode of spoken language but also many other modes which are beneficial to the expression and the understanding of themes.This research takes Multimodal(Inter)action Analysis put forward by Sigrid Norris as the theoretical and methodological framework which regards the action as the unit of analysis and pays attention to the employment of multiple modes in the realization of social actions.Taking 20 most viewed Technology speeches of TED as the research corpus,this research draws on quantitative and qualitative methods to address three research questions.Firstly,with the help of multimodal video analysis software Elan which identifies and annotates different types of actions and means,this study finds out the distribution of different types of higher-level actions,foregrounded higher-level actions and means.Secondly,this research discusses the realization of higher-level actions,foregrounded higher-level actions,and means through the employment of multiple modes.Finally,the functions of higher-level actions in the speeches are explored from a multimodal perspective.As for the distribution of actions and means,it is found that there are 14 types of higher-level actions,10 types of foregrounded higher-level actions and 2 types of means.In the limited time of TED speeches,speakers organize different higher-level actions to express speech themes.And the higher-level actions which demonstrate main speech contents are foregrounded mostly and they are shifted naturally through means.As for the realization of actions and means,this study finds that with the theme of Technology,not only embodied modes are fully utilized,but also the mode of layout plays an important role in some speeches.Besides,the mode of spoken language and the mode of layout take on high modal intensity in most of foregrounded higher-level actions.As for the functions of higher-level actions,due to the aims of TED speeches,there are at least three functions are completed,providing evidence,making speeches accessible and attracting attention which are mostly fulfilled by foregrounded higher-level actions.Through Multimodal(Inter)action Analysis of Technology speeches of TED,this study provides one more case on the application of Multimodal(Inter)action Analysis and offers help for the domestic study on multimodal discourses to a certain degree.At the same time,it helps to deepen speakers' understanding to higher-level actions and multiple modes in the process of speeches and promotes speakers to make appropriate arrangements of higher-level actions in speeches.