论文总字数：42401字

摘 要

随着互联网和多媒体的发展，多模态性成了人们日常生活中不可缺少的一部分。信息也不再是由单一的文本传递，而是由多种不同的模态如听觉和视觉配合完成传递。如今，多模态话语研究已经成为一种趋势。多模态话语分析理论并没有在国外百花争鸣，在中国许多学者也做出了自己的贡献。系统功能语言学提出了一个关于多模态理论分析的框架，在这个基础上，张德禄(2009)创建了包括文化层面、语境层面、内容层面和表达层面的多模态话语分析综合理论框架。

电影语篇的多模态话语分析不仅涉及多个符号模态系统及其相互作用，还涉及在动态文本流动下，符号系统的意义建构过程中的变化，因此被认为是一个困难而复杂的任务。对电影语篇的多模态话语分析的研究，无论在实践上还是在理论上都具有重要意义。本文运用定性方法, 在张德禄的多模态话语分析综合理论框架下，从文化层面、语境层面、内容层面和表达层面四个方面，对电影《爱乐之城》中的语篇进行了具体分析。它将解决多模态理论框架从文化、语境、内容和表达四个层面是怎样提升观众对电影的理解，电影语篇中各种模式如何组合来建构整个意义以及使用多模态话语分析理论来分析电影话语的优势是什么这三个问题。作者希望通过本文为观众欣赏电影提供新的视角，提高人们的欣赏水平和鉴赏能力。

关键词：多模态；电影语篇；爱乐之城

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements i

Abstract ii

摘要 iii

Table of Contents………………………………………......................................…....iv

Chapter One Introduction.............................................................................................1

1.1 Background of the Study……………………………………………………..1

1.2 Significance and Purpose of the Study…………………………. …...............1

1.3 Layout of the Thesis………………………………………………………….2

Chapter 2 Literature Review..........................................................................................3

2.1 Definition of Multimodality..............................................................................3

2.2 Overview of Multimodal Discourse Analysis...................................................3

2.2.1The Foreign Study of MDA.....................................................................4

2.2.2The Domestic Study of MDA..................................................................4

Chapter 3 Methodology..................................................................................................6

3.1 Research Questions...........................................................................................6

3.2 Research Method...............................................................................................6

Chapter 4 Findings and Discussions..............................................................................8

4.1The Analysis from Cultural Level......................................................................8

4.2 The Analysis from Contextual Level..............................................................11

4.3 The Analysis from Content Level..................................................................14

4.4 The Analysis from Expression Level.............................................................17

Chapter 5 Conclusion

5.1 Major findings.................................................................................................19

5.2 Limitations......................................................................................................19

References............................................................................................................ .......21

Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

In past years, the study orientation in linguistic field has been the text analysis or discourse analysis that pays an exclusive attention on the type of recourse: the language. Nevertheless, with the development of science and technology, especially the computer science and Internet technology, the way of communication has been shifted. In the age of information and Internet, multimodality is becoming a feature of our daily life. In the 1900's, multimodal discourse analysis emerged in the west.

Multimodal discourse refers to the phenomenon of the use of auditory, visual, tactile and other senses to communicate through language, images, sounds, movements and the rest of symbolic resources. Although quite a few linguists have made profound studies and researches of the multimodal texts like architecture, sculpture, film posters, newspapers, magazines and textbooks, there is little attention paid to analysis of movie which involves multiple modes of communication and complex process of meaning construction.

The movie text shows a most similar process of our world experiences, through which the complex meanings and information are constructed and expressed. As a relatively infrequent song and dance drama, La La Land has quickly swept the world and successfully won many Academy Awards. Because of that its vision, sound and other modes coordinate and cooperate with each other perfectly, the author thinks that La La Land is an extremely good example as a study case of MDA. Inspired by the success and popularity of the movie, this thesis is provided with abundant material for further researches on multimodality.

1.2 Significance and Purpose of the Study

Currently, communication between humankind occurs with different modality, which gives a fast development of multimodal discourse analysis. The MDA, now, is a new trend for linguistic research.

Unlike other papers which randomly choose images from different films, this thesis will pick all the text from the movie La La Land. Firstly, the thesis wants to take the dynamic discourse into consideration, for overcoming the disadvantages of traditional linguistic research. Secondly, by the thesis, the author hopes that readers could improve their understanding of the musical film. Moreover, from the perspective of MDA, this thesis can provide a new perspective for viewers to enjoy films, and also contribute to the improvement of audience's appreciation of movies. And finally, it also expands the application of MDA from previous static images to dynamic sequences, which has been improved to have the strong feasibility for film discourse analysis.

1.3 Layout of the Thesis

There are five parts in the thesis.

The first part is the introduction, presenting the research background, the significance and purpose of the study and the overall structure of the thesis.

The second part focuses on literature review, generalizing the theory of multimodal discourse analysis and multimodal discourse analysis of films at home and abroad.

The third part is about methodology, which contains research questions and research method.

The fourth part is the major part of the entire paper. According to the theory of multimodal discourse, the movie La La Land is analyzed from the perspectives of cultural level, contextual level, content level and expression level.

At the last, the fifth part makes a conclusion of this study by making a summary and pointing out the limitations of it, and giving suggestions for future study.

Chapter Two Literature Review

2.1Definition of Multimodality

As multimodal discourse analysis develops quickly and gradually becomes a pervasive research question, different linguists have various opinions on the definition of multimodality.

According to Leeuwen (2001), Multimodality means the combination of different semiotic modes, as an example, language and music in a communicative artifact or event.

What's more, Baldry amp; Thibault (2006) explain that multimodality is the diverse ways in which a number of distinct semiotic resource systems are both co-deployed and co-contextualized in the making of a text-specific meaning.

Machin (2007) considers that multimodality describes the grammar of visual communication that is used by image designers. It is an analysis of the rules and principles that allow viewers to understand the meaning potential of the relative placement of elements, framing, salience, proximity, color saturation, styles of typeface, etc.

From all the opinions, it can be concluded that different researchers have the same standpoint: multimodality is relevant to various semiotic modes like picture, sound, face, etc. As a technical method, multimodality analyzes the meaning potential which is made by the different semiotic modes in the communication. Various kinds of semiotic modes work with each other and construct an overall meaning, so that they make the best communicative effect. And the study on various on those various semiotic modes will make vivid interpretation to spectators.

2.2 Overview of Multimodal Discourse Analysis

Multimodal discourse analysis has become popular in western countries in recent years. In the past ten years, the researchers found that it was very hard to study discourse analysis only from the perspective of pure linguistic level, because the non-linguistic modality such as sound, gesture and facial expression can also express the meaning which the speakers wanted to show. Therefore, for achieving the best communicative effect, a new kind of discourse analysis of the combination of various modes is required.

2.2.1The Foreign Study of MDA

Foreign scholars took Systemic Functional Grammar as the basic theoretical foundation and framework and began the MDA research since 1990s.

The emerging of MDA gets many scholars' attention from the west. The most notable work on MDA is Reading Images: the Grammar of visual design by Kress and Van Leeuwen who derived the theory from Halliday's Systemic Functional Grammar. It has a great impact on future research. Different kinds of examples were taken in this book: photos, children's drawings, newspaper, advertisements, textbook illustrations, buildings and three dimensional sculptures. In this book, their theory defines the functions of image as three kinds: representational, interactive and compositional meaning. And their theory is the study of visual modality and constructs the systemic and comprehensive framework of Visual Grammar.

O'Halloran (2000), a famous linguist from National University of Singapore, provides a new angle for studying mathematics. He not only investigates how semiotic systems represent in the language of mathematics, but also examines the nature of mathematics and helps science become effective in describing the physical world.

Baldry amp; Thibault (2006) make researches on multimodal transcription and the analysis of different kinds of texts. The texts include webpage, film, advertisements, etc.

Apart from the above studies, there are many other theories that we haven't talked about. All these studies contribute to the development of the multimodal discourse analysis, so that foreign studies can be productive. The fact that the theory can be applied to relative fields, which proves its practical significance.

2.2.2The Domestic Study of MDA

The domestic development of multimodal discourse analysis is not quite flourishing. Chinese professor Li Zhanzi (2003) introduced Kress and Van Leeuwen's visual grammar to China, so the domestic study in this field began. Hu Zhuanglin (2007) noted multimodalization was in social semiotics based on the theory of language as social signs. Zhu Yongsheng (2007) found the methodology and basic theory in multimodal discourse analysis, he defined multimodality and determined the standards to identify whether a certain discourse is multimodal or not. Gu Yueguo (2007) distinguished the two learning of multimedia and multimodal, and discussed five hypotheses concerning multimedia and multimodal learning. Zhang Delu (2009) was the first to give a brief survey to studies on multimodal discourse analysis, he intended to set up a theoretical framework for MDA on the basis of systemic functional linguists.

According to the above, multimodal discourse analysis in China does not have own theories, which is only the summary or scattered articles. Thus, Chinese scholars still have a long way to go.

Chapter Three Methodology

3.1 Research Questions

The previous studies focus on the language mode, while the rest modal meanings are ignored. However, with the progress of time, more and more researchers found this problem and created a new discourse analysis. Multimodal discourse analysis provides a new angle for the researchers to study film discourse.

This thesis will analyze the film discourse under the theoretical framework of multimodal discourse analysis. That is to say, the questions that this thesis wants to figure out in the film discourse：

1. How MDA framework is applied to improve audiences’ understanding of the filmic discourse from the cultural level, contextual level, content level and expression level?
2. How is the various modality combined to construct the whole meaning？
3. What is the advantage of using MDA to analyze the film discourse？

3.2 Research Method

The author wants to make a brief introduction of theoretical framework of multimodal discourse analysis.

Systematic functional linguistics provides a theoretical framework for multimodal discourse analysis. On this basis, Professor Zhang Delu proposed a comprehensive theoretical framework for multimodal discourse analysis which includes cultural level, contextual level, content level and expression level.

Cultural level includes ideology which is the main form of culture and the genre which can be the selection potential of a mode of discourse.

Contextual level includes the contextual configuration which is composed of filed, tender, and mode of discourse.

The content level includes the meaning level and the form level. Meaning level mainly refers to the ideational function, the interpersonal function and textual function. The form level refers to the different forms of realizing meaning, including the lexical grammatical system of language, visual form and visual grammatical system, auditory expressive form and auditory grammatical system, tactile ideographic form and tactile grammatical system, and the relationship between different modes of grammar.

The expression level actually refers to the media level, which is the material form of discourse finally expressed in the material world. It includes two main categories: language media and non-language media. At the expression level, non-language media includes the body movements and the non-linguistic means such as tools and environment.

Besides the theoretical framework of multimodal discourse analysis, the paper will also use the case studies and qualitative methods. By using case studies, the paper attempts to apply multimodal discourse analysis to analyze movie works. What's more, by using the qualitative method, this article will from four aspects of cultural level, contextual level, content level and expression level, to make a specific analysis of the text cut out from the movie La La Land, and it will also analyze the text's characteristics, and explore the deep meaning hidden in the film in order to promote the understanding of the film.

Chapter Four Findings and Discussions

4.1 The Analysis from Cultural Level

Let’s see a simple introduction of the film La La Land.

The film tells a love story between a jazz pianist and an actress. The whole film is mainly divided into four chapters of spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The actress named Mia, working as a waiter in a restaurant, but she has a dream to be an actress and a good playwright. In the spring part, Mia meets Sab, who is playing piano at a party. In order to get rid of a man who is pursuing Mia but she isn't interest in him, Mia stops Sab and walks with him in a street. At the next day, they visit the studio, listening to jazz music, watching old movies, dancing, and talk about their dreams. And in the summer part, Mia and Sab are in love with each other, living together. For paying the bills, Sab has to find a stable job. Afterward he goes to cover bands playing popular songs. Mia starts to create a scenario of her own, hoping realize her dream. In the fall, Mia breaks up with Sab because Sab gives up his dream and doesn't attend Mia's play show. After that, Mia fails her interview many times and loses faith in her dream. But with Sab's encouragement, she finally gets a good character in a film. Finally, in winter part, Mia becomes a super start and has her own family. Sab opens his own club. Eventually they meet at the club and Sab plays a piano tune they have started to recognize. And then they let it go with a smile.

Then the author will analyze the film from the cultural level.

The cultural level is the key part to make the communication become possible (Zhang, 2009). Generally, the story of a movie takes a specific time and country as its background, which shows a special culture belonging the time and the country. As the key factor of multimodal communication, the cultural level determines the technology, and the form and tradition of the communication. In this part, firstly the author wants to pick three excerpts to illustrate the culture of Hollywood in the movie.

The length of the whole film is 127 minutes and 48 seconds, the first excerpt is at 09:05, the second from 15:52 to 16:15 and the third from 40:50 to 41:25. And the picture 1, 2 and 3 are selected from the three excerpts.

剩余内容已隐藏，请支付后下载全文，论文总字数：42401字