Abstract：In recent years, with the development of modern science and technology, all kinds of multimedia gradually applied in people's daily life, so the way that people access to information is no longer limited to text, images, sound, color and so on multimodal methods gradually become access to get information in our life, it largely have enriched the language communication pattern and semantic expression. The traditional discourse analysis method cannot satisfy the study of multimodal discourse, and multimodal discourse analysis as a new kind of discourse analysis method can overcome the limitations of traditional studies, and provide a new perspective for discourse analysis.

 Reviewing advertising analysis so far, almost are based on text, most of the scholars have discussed it from the perspectives of journalism, advertising, etc., even the analyses in the perspective of linguistics has not involved a prominent aspect of the public service ads, that is, the function of the images.

Based on the limitations of previous researches, this article is carried out within the framework of systematic functional linguistics to analyze an environmental protection commonweal advertisement in order to investigate the social functions and meanings of the semiotic mode. First, we briefly analyze how the verbal mode realizes the three meta-functions, i.e. experiential function, interpersonal function and textual function, and then analyze how it achieve the communication meaning of the public service advertisement;  finally, we make integration and analysis on the text and image to explore the relationship between words and images of public service advertising.

 Through the study, we broaden the theoretical foundation and research perspective of multimodal discourse analysis and provide a new point of view for the analysis of public service advertising; meanwhile, we have also verified the feasibility of multimodal discourse analysis. 

Key words: multimodal discourse analysis; public service advertisement; visual grammar

CONTENTS

摘要

Abstract

Chapter One: Introduction-2

1.1 The Background of the Research-2

1.2 The Purpose of the Research-3

1.3 Significance of the Research-3

1.4 The Structure of the Research-4

Chapter Two: Literature Review-5

2.1 Overview of the Advertising Discourse Analysis-5

2.2 The Previous Researches on Public Service Advertising Analysis-5

Chapter Three: Theoretical Foundation of the Research-7

3.1 Multimodal Discourse and Multimodal Discourse Analysis-7

3.1.1 Multimodal Discourse Analysis Abroad-8

3.1.2 Multimodal Discourse Analysis at Home-9

3.2 Analysis of Visual Images-10

3.2.1 Representational Meaning-10

3.2.1 Interactive Meaning-11

3.2.3 Compositional Meaning-11

Chapter Four: The Multimodal Analysis of the Meanings of Advertisement— A Case Study-12

4.1 The Linguistic Analysis-12

4.1.1 The Conceptual Meaning-12

4.1.2 Interpersonal Meaning-14

4.1.3 Textual Meaning-14

4.2 The Semiotic Analysis-15

4.2.1 The Representative Meaning-15

4.2.2 The Interactive Meaning-16

4.2.3 The Compositional Meaning-17

Chapter Five Conclusion-19

5.1 Major Findings of the Research-19

5.2 Limitations of the Research-19

5.3 Suggestions for Further Research-20

Reference-21

Acknowledgements-23