Multimodal Discourse Analysis Of Science And Technology Documentary Smart China:Frontiers Of Science

With the development of multimedia technology,people can express discourse meaning through multiple modalities,and the research object of discourse analysis has expanded from verbal modality to multimodality.Based on the theories of systemic functional grammar,visual grammar,and image-text relationship,this study takes the second and third episodes of the science and technology documentary Smart China: Frontiers of Science as the research object to conduct a multimodal discourse analysis.With the combination of qualitative method and quantitative method,the verbal modality and visual modality are analyzed from the perspectives of systemic functional grammar and visual grammar,respectively.Finally,the theory of the image-text relationship is applied to explain the interaction between these two modalities.The specific conclusions are as follows:(1)The verbal modality in this documentary mainly completes meaning construction through ideational function,interpersonal function,and textual function.In terms of ideational function,material process accounts for a higher proportion,which can expound the specific research steps in the experiments.In terms of interpersonal function,declarative mood and low-value modal verbs are mainly used to objectively introduce the details of some inventions to the audience.In terms of textual function,unmarked theme is mostly applied to ensure the coherence of meaning.(2)The visual modality in this documentary mainly completes meaning construction through representational meaning,interactive meaning,and compositional meaning.In terms of representational meaning,narrative process is used to show the scenes of scientific experiments,while conceptual process is used to show the overall appearances and some details of the inventions.In terms of interactive meaning,offer act is mostly used,and three types of shots,including long shot,medium shot,and close-up shot,are applied alternately.Besides,high modality and horizontal angle are mainly employed.By doing so,true appearances of the inventions can be presented,and audience can have a macro to micro grasp of the constructions of the inventions.In terms of compositional meaning,center-margin structures is mostly taken in this documentary and the focus of each frame is placed in the center,which can better attract the audience’s attention.(3)As for relationship between these two modalities,verbal modality is mainly used to explain the contents,and the visual modality is mainly used to display the pictures.These two modalities complement each other to show China’s advanced technology in an objective and three-dimensional way,depicting China as a rapidly developing and innovative technological power.Through the multimodal discourse analysis of Smart China: Frontiers of Science,this study expands the field of multimodal discourse analysis and helps the audience to have a deeper understanding of the Chinese technological image portrayed in this documentary.