A Multimodal Discourse Analysis Of Children From The Distant Planet

The development of modern science and technology has revolutionized human communication.The traditional language-based communication is expanded to the communication of various modes(languages,images,sounds,actions,etc.).Like language,each communication mode provides a new channel for thinking,expressing thoughts and emotions.Therefore,traditional discourse analysis focusing on language has developed into Multimodal Discourse Analysis.It explores the meaning construction of multiple semiotic systems such as languages,images and sounds.After more than twenty years' development,it has gradually shifted from static discourses such as advertisements,posters,and magazine covers to dynamic discourses such as movies and documentaries.Documentary is not only a filmic form that deals with real characters and social events,but also a dynamic multimodal discourse.The documentary Children From the Distant Planet focuses on the marginalized autistic people and creates vivid autistic images,thus arousing the public's understanding and respect for the autistic people.In this study,thirty-two pictures and sixteen sound segments are selected from the documentary Children From the Distant Planet.The representational,interactive and compositional meanings of the thirty-two pictures are analyzed based on Visual Grammar;the melody,perspective and social distance of the sixteen sound segments are analyzed based on Aural Grammar.Then,according to Zhang Delu's framework of relationships between modalities,the relationship between visual modalities and the audio ones will also be discussed.In doing so,this study aims to answer the following two questions:1.What autistic images are constructed with the visual modalities and the audio ones respectively in the documentary Children From the Distant Planet?2.How do the visual modalities and the audio ones cooperate to construct the four autistic images in the documentary Children From the Distant Planet?And the findings of the study are as follows: firstly,in the documentary Children From the Distant Planet,in terms of visual modalities,the representational meaning emphasizes autistic people's special body language and eye contact,extraordinary memory and music ability,sincere pursuit and desire for love and the normal working ability.The interactive and compositional meanings highlight the image characteristics of autistic people,the intimate interaction between the autistic people and their family members as well as their normal working ability.As a result,the documentary succeeds in shaping the autistic images of defectives,talents,love-seekers and workers.In terms of audio modalities,different melodies can trigger different emotions.The pitch movement(smooth,ascending and descending),wide pitch range,and high pitch level emphasize the complicated symptoms of autistic people and cause viewers to have great emotional fluctuations,thereby highlighting the autistic image of defectives.Also,voice-overs,monologues,dialogues(dialogues between a father and his autistic son,dialogues between autistic people and their colleagues),background music and natural sounds(applause,piano music played by autistic people,scene noise)are divided into Figure,Ground,and Field according to the relationship between the sound and the listener.Furthermore,these sounds are divided into Formal Distance,Personal Distance,and Intimate Distance according to the loudness of characters' voice.Thus,the autistic images of talents,love-seekers and workers are emphasized from multiple angles.Secondly,in the documentary Children From the Distant Planet,the visual modalities and audio ones are complementary in terms of Zhang Delu's framework of relationships between modalities.In the image construction of defectives,love-seekers and workers,the visual modality and the audio modality constitute the non-reinforced coordinating relationship,and the two modalities complement each other,which is indispensable to express the overall meaning of communication.Besides,in the image construction of talents,the visual modality and the audio modality constitute the reinforced highlighting relationship.The audio modality functions as the main communicative modality,and the visual modality reinforces it by providing background information.The reinforced and non-reinforced relationships between modalities cooperate to complete the construction of autistic images in this documentary.In summary,the research on the visual and audio modalities of the documentary Children From the Distant Planet can expand the scope of Multimodal Discourse Analysis and verify the feasibility of Visual Grammar and Aural Grammar in analyzing documentaries.In addition,researches on autistic images now are not so much and only related to a single modality.However,from the perspective of multimodality,this study provides a new research perspective for shaping autistic images.Besides,this study can not only improve the viewers' ability to read and appreciate multimodal texts,but also provide reference and inspiration for filmmakers to create characters in documentaries.Finally,it is shown from the analysis that autistic images are complex and diverse.There are not only the negative spectacle images(the autistic images of defectives and talents),but also the positive images(the autistic images of love-seekers and workers),which renews the public's perception of the autistic group.