A Multimodal Discourse Analysis Of Print Mobile Phone Advertisements From The Perspective Of Visual Grammar

With the development of science and technology,languages,images,colors,sounds and other media play important roles in people’s communication.Print mobile phone advertisements are multimodal discourses that integrate multiple symbol systems such as images,languages,colors.A beautifully designed print mobile phone advertisement can not only attract consumers’ attention but also demonstrate the brand value of mobile phones.Based on Kress & van Leeuwen’s Visual Grammar theory,this study analyzes print mobile phone advertisements from the perspective of representational meaning,interactive meaning,compositional meaning.This thesis adopts qualitative and quantitative research methods to analyze the three meanings in the chosen50 print mobile phone advertisements and count the frequency of each meaning,aiming to explore the realizations of the three meanings and the multimodal characteristics of print mobile phone advertisements.These 50 print mobile phone advertisements are from the official websites and microblogs of Apple,Huawei,Oppo,Vivo,and MIUI in 2018 and 2019,with 10 advertisements for each brand.It is found that,firstly,in terms of the representational meaning,the conceptual process accounts for 56%,reflecting that the function of print mobile phone advertisements is to convey information;the action process accounts for 30%,showing the action process of a person holding the mobile phone in his or her hand,therefore the potential consumers can appreciate the features of the mobile phone,such as its lightweight and good-looking design;the analytical process accounts for24%,and its purpose is to display the structure of the mobile phone,such as the camera and screen of the mobile phone.Secondly,in the interactive meaning,advertisers prefer to offer information(78%);medium shots account for 44%,which shorten the social distance between the mobile phone and the viewers,and improve the viewer’s recognition of the mobile phone;oblique angle accounts for 66%,objectively showing the design of the mobile phones;eye-eye equal angle is 64%,which illustrates the equality between the viewers and the mobile phone;high modality accounts for 78%,which reflects the authenticity of the information.Thirdly,in the compositional meaning,the top-bottom composition accounts for 64%,indicating that advertisers tend to put the ideal information(language)on the top and real information(picture)at the bottom;framing line accounts for 34%,reflecting the integrity of the components in print mobile phone advertisements;salience is achieved by color contrast,size contrast,etc.This study can enrich the research of Visual Grammar in print mobile phone advertisement discourse analysis.Besides,this study not only helps designers of mobile phone advertisements to design mobile phone advertisements scientifically and rationally but also provides consumers with a way to interpret print mobile phone advertisements by using Visual Grammar.Thus,it helps consumers choose the proper mobile phone.