Interpretation of the Representational Meaning of Movie Posters from the Perspective of Multimodal Discourse Analysis

摘要

The advancement of modern information technology is challenging the dominant role of language in mass media and communication. The study of discourse analysis goes beyond language itself by incorporating other semiotic resources such as image, sound and animation into its scope. Considering language as a social semiotic and meaning potential, Systemic-Functional Linguistics provides theoretical foundation for multimodal discourse analysis (MDA). As pioneers, Kress and van Leeuwen proposed the grammar of visual design to interpret visual composition from representational meaning, interactive meaning and compositional meaning. With an interpretative approach, this paper intends to have an insightful discussion about how semiotic tools function in realizing the representational meaning of movie posters. The present study may not only enrich the application study of MDA, but also fill in a gap in discourse analysis of movie posters.