A study of cartoon trailers in english from the perspective of multimodal discourse analysis

THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES PHAN THỊ KIM HOA A STUDY OF CARTOON TRAILERS IN ENGLISH FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code: 822.02.01 MASTER THESIS IN LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES Da Nang, 2020 THE UNIVERSITY OF DANANG UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES PHAN THỊ KIM HOA A STUDY OF CARTOON TRAILERS IN ENGLISH FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS Major: ENGLISH LINGUISTICS Code: 822 02 01 MASTER THESIS IN LINGUISTICS AND CULTURAL STUDIES OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES SUPERVISOR: TRẦN VĂN PHƯỚC, Assoc Prof Da Nang, 2020 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Upon the completion of this thesis, I would like to express my heart-felt gratitude to my supervisor, Associate Professor Tran Van Phuoc for spending much time going through my thesis I highly appreciate the invaluable advice and feedbacks as well as patient instructions which greatly helped to improve the thesis over the past few months I would also like to thank my family for providing me constant encouragement and support in this academic journey iii ABSTRACT In this thesis, the researcher proposed a model for the multimodal discourse analysis of cartoon trailers in terms of verbal and visual resources In particular, the researcher analyzed the elements constructing the meaning of image and classified the process type of all the utterances, then reached to the final conclusion Three cartoon trailers were analyzed for a case study with the aim to explore how the semantic features and visual images within a trailer interacted with each other in the process of meaning creation To carry out the study, theoretical background about MDA was briefly reviewed in terms of visual grammar, transitivity process and narrative structure Then the images were analyzed in term of participants, process and circumstance Relating to verbal modes, all the utterances were transcribed and classified into process types Finally, due to the purpose of each shot, it was identified according to narrative structure From the analysis above, a conclusion might be drawn that the final meaning of each shot was a combination of all modalities such as images, sound, music, and spoken language The research is of great significance in theory and practice aspects Firstly, it goes beyond the traditional field of verbal analysis; hence, opens a new dimension for the multimodal discourse analysis of cartoon trailers Secondly, through demonstrating how the spoken language and visual modalities are realized, it testifies the strong applicability and practicality of Grammar of Visual Design in analyzing cartoon trailers Lastly, the proposed model may benefit the image producers and help them make good use of choice-making of visual elements to accomplish the best visual design Key words: multimodal discourse analysis; Grammar of Visual Design; cartoon trailers iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of Authorship…………………………………………………… i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iiii Table Of Contents iv List Of Tables vii Abbreviations vii Chapter One INTRODUCTION 1.1 RATIONALE 1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 1.2.1 Aims 1.2.2 Objectives 1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY .3 1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY .3 Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .5 2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW .5 2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND .7 2.2.1 Definition of terms 2.2.2 Labov (1967)’s model of narrative structure .8 2.2.3 Halliday (1985)’s Transitivity System 10 2.2.4 The Grammar of Visual Design of Kress and van Leeuwen (1996) 16 2.2.5 Multimodal Discourse Analysis 19 2.3 SUMMARY 21 Chapter Three RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 22 3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN 22 3.2 DATA COLLECTION METHODS 22 3.2.1 Sources 22 3.2.2 Sampling 23 v 3.2.3 Data Collection Procedure 24 3.3 DATA ANALYSIS METHODS 25 3.4 ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK BASED ON MDA ADOPTED 26 3.5 SUMMARY 26 Chapter Four FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS .28 4.1 ANALYSIS OF TRAILER “FINDING NEMO” .28 4.1.1 Introduction of “Finding nemo” trailer .28 4.1.2 Analysis of trailer “Finding Nemo” 29 4.1.3 Discussion 45 4.2 ANALYSIS OF TRAILER “Up” .46 4.2.1 Introduction of “Up” trailer 46 4.2.2 Analysis of trailer “Up” .48 4.2.3 Discussion 67 4.3 ANALYSIS OF TRAILER “Small foot” 68 4.3.1 Introduction of “Small foot” trailer 68 4.3.2 Analysis of trailer “Small foot” 69 4.3.3 Discussion .85 4.4 SUMMARY 86 Chapter Five CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 89 5.1 CONCLUSIONS 89 5.2 IMPLICATIONS 92 5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY .95 5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCHES 95 REFERENCES .97 QUYẾT ĐỊNH GIAO ĐỀ TÀI (bản sao) vi LIST OF TABLES Number Name of Table Page 2.1 Table of Attributive clauses 13 2.2 Table of Identifying clauses 13 3.1 Total resources in three trailers 23 3.2 Analytical framework based on MDA adopted 25 4.1 The summary of verbal resources analyzing in trailer 30 4.2 The summary of visual resources analyzing in trailer 31 4.3 The summary of process types in trailer 44 4.4 The summary of verbal resources analyzing in trailer 49 4.5 The summary of visual resources analyzing in trailer 49 4.6 The summary of process types in trailer 66 4.7 The summary of verbal resources analyzing in trailer 70 4.8 The summary of visual resources analyzing in trailer 71 4.9 The summary of process types in trailer 85 4.10 The result of narrative structure identification of three 86 trailers 4.11 The result of utterances classification in three trailers 87 4.12 The summary of verbal and visual resources into 88 processes 5.1 The summary of elements and their structure in three 89 trailers 5.2 The summary of process types in detail of three trailers 91 vii ABBREVIATIONS SFL Systemic Functional Linguistics MDA Multimodal Discourse Analysis Chapter One INTRODUCTION This first chapter is elaborated from five aspects, namely the rationale of the study, the aims and objectives, the scope and the significance of the whole study Primarily, in this chapter, the research questions are set out to work as the guidelines for the whole research 1.1 RATIONALE It goes without saying that cartoons are one of the essential parts of every childhood They are, certainly, the most popular form of entertainment for children, but also much more than that Practically, the growth of main stream animation has changed the landscape of entertainment There are hundreds upon hundreds of cartoons being released each year, so there is always a question that how to create a buzz for a film before it launches That is the reason why they need a lot of advertising campaigns using all means of mass media And trailers, therefore, are considered the most important marketing and publicity tool in the film industry as well as a key feature to the movie going experience The following image is an example of cartoon trailer Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) trailer The first, and by far most memorable full-length animated feature from the Disney Studios, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" made history when it was first released in December, 1937 and since then has become an incomparable screen classic 86 researcher could reach a conclusion that this trailer mainly introduced the characters and their behaviors It was about an adventure but paid more attention to emotional elements than dramatic or violent scenes In this thesis, the genre of trailer could be identified basing on the findings of the analysis of verbal and visual resources instead of analyzing all of the linguistics features That was the different between this thesis and the former researches 4.4 SUMMARY In this chapter, the researcher conducted the analysis of three cartoon trailers from the multimodal discourse analysis perspectives To carry out the study, theoretical background about MDA was briefly reviewed in terms of visual grammar, transitivity process and narrative structure Then the images were analyzed in term of participants, process and circumstance Relating to verbal modes, all the utterances were transcribed and classified into process types Finally, due to the purpose of each shot, it was identified according to narrative structure From the analysis above, a conclusion might be drawn that the final meaning of each shot was a combination of all modalities such as images, sound, music, and spoken language The following table was the result of narrative structure of three trailers Table 4.10 The result of narrative structure identification of three trailers Trailers The narrative structure Abstract Orientation Complication Action Resolution Coda Evaluation (Result) Trailer X X X Trailer X X X Trailer X X X Regarding the table displayed, it showed that all of the three trailers had the same narrative structure consisting of Orientation – Complication Action – 87 Resolution They did not have a full narrative structure according to Labov’s Theory Nevertheless, those parts successfully implemented the main purpose of a trailer that was introducing the main characters as well as revealing most of the events that happening in each story With a resolution, it revealed the last thing happening in the story (trailer 1) or the happy ending (trailer 2, trailer 3) Next, it was the result of utterances classification of some selected shot in three trailers There are processes in total according to Halliday’s Transitivity System All of the utterances were analyzed corresponding to specific context Table 4.11 The result of utterances classification in three trailers Trailers Type of process Material Mental Verbal Relati Total Behavioral Existenal -onal Trailer Trailer 6 22 Trailer 3 10 17 Last, this table was the final summary of process It included the process type of utterances as well as the processes conveyed through the message of each image in every shot It can be said that the whole meaning of each shot consists of two factor, visual and verbal element As a result, it is necessary to mention the combination between those elements in creating final meaning 88 Table 4.12 The summary of verbal and visual resources into processes Trailers Summary of verbal and visual modalities into processes Material Mental Behavioral Verbal Relational Existential process process process process process process Trailer 11 16 Trailer 19 11 13 18 Trailer 10 18 In this paper, we explored that how visual and verbal modes in three cartoon trailers were employed to represent, construct and project meanings as well as how inter-semiotic complementarity of these modes was realized under the approach of MDA The descriptive method was used to investigate outstanding features of linguistic structures in cartoon trailer All these features were to achieve the primary goals of advertising that to tease the audiences into wanting to see the film, and then push them to go to the cinema once the film is released to watch the full movie Special structure of cartoon trailers raises the audience’s interest and curiosity by creating suspense and not revealing the main plot, the linguistic features are powerful tools used to create positive images of cartoon trailers 89 Chapter Five CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS This concluding chapter consists of three sections 5.1 Conclusion 5.2 Implications 5.3 Limitations of the study 5.4 Suggestions for further researches 5.1 CONCLUSIONS This thesis based on adopted MDA to analyze qualitatively and quantitatively verbal and visual resources collected from three cartoon trailers The framework chosen for identifying the narrative structure of each trailer centered on Labov (1967)’s Narrative Structure The framework chosen for the analysis of the visual elements in three cartoon trailers was Kress and van Leewen (1996)’s Grammar of Visual Design All of the resources, i.e images (visual) and utterances (verbal) in selected shots of these trailers were analyzed in term of participants, process types and circumstance according to the Halliday (1985)’s Transitivity System Two research questions were answered completely in Chapter In terms of research question 1: How are the elements of cartoon trailers structured? Table 5.1 The summary of elements and their structure in three trailers Trailers Elements in verbal and Structure visual resources Trailer -Participants: 10 Orientation (shot 1) – Action (a clown fish, a blue fish, Complication 2,3,4,5,6) – a giant fish, his son Nemo, (shot a whale, sharks, a Resolution (shot 7) pelican, a light) - Processes: processes 90 (material process, mental process, behavioral process, relational process, verbal process, existential process) -Circumstances: (under the sea, at the pier) Trailer -Participants: Orientation (shot 1) – Action (an old man –Mr Carl, a Complication boy, a man, a dog, a bird, (shot 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) – a house, a bunch of Resolution (shot 8) balloon) - Processes: (material process, mental process, relational process, behavioral process, verbal process) -Circumstances: (in house, in the sky, in a flying house, in a dirigible balloon, in a mountain) Trailer - Participants: Orientation (shot 1) – Action (Migo, a person -Percy, Complication other yetis, the (shot 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) – Stonekeeper, a small foot, Resolution (shot 8) 91 a fire) -Processes: (material process, mental process, behavioral process, relational process, verbal process, existential process) -Circumstances: (a cave, a snowy mountain, Migo’s village, Percy’s village, a cave with lights, the night time) The result showed that all of the three trailers had elements in selected shots with different number in each trailer Every element collected in each shot played an important role in meaning creation in each trailer As trailers mainly tell story through quick cuts (images), the number of visual elements is much more than verbal elements It is processes that help audiences understand the happening of the story and the circumstances set the background for the whole story In addition, it is necessary to mention the role of participants’ image since the characteristics of every participant are conveyed through their appearances as well as their behavior and facial expression Altogether, there is a close relation between the elements in meaning creation After being analyzed in detail, these elements are summarized into processes for answering the research question number Moreover, all of the three trailers had the same narrative structure consisting of Orientation – Complication Action – Resolution They did not have a full narrative structure according to Labov’s Theory Nevertheless, those parts successfully 92 implemented the main purpose of a trailer that was introducing the main characters as well as revealing most of the events that happening in each story In terms of research question 2: How are meanings expressed through visual and verbal resources in cartoon trailers? Table 5.2 The summary of process types in detail of three trailers Trailers Resources Process types Material Mental process Total Behavioral Verbal process process Relational Existen- process process tial process Trailer Verbal 1 17 6 10 11 22 11 12 15 43 10 resources Visual 29 resources Trailer Verbal resources Visual resources Trailer Verbal 2 14 resources Visual 37 resources Accordingly, trailer had 46 processes including 17 verbal resources and 29 visual resources among which relational process (16 resources/34,34%) and material 93 process (11 resources/24%) gain higher ratio than others processes This reflects main content of the trailer, namely “Finding Nemo” However, in spite of lower ration, other processes also describe what events or actions happening in their journey as well as the friends and enemies of the two main characters related to mental, behavioral, verbal and existential process Trailer included 22 verbal resources and 43 visual resources in total The dominant processes were material process (19 resources/29,23%) and relational process (18 resources/27,69%) which meant that most of the selected shots in this trailer were about the “happening” and “doing” actions Trailer had 47 resources in which 10 resources in verbal resources and 37 resources in visual resources Among them, relational process appeared 18 times (38,29%) and behavioral process appeared 10 times (21,27%) Therefore, the main content of this trailer focuses on introducing the characters in the story more than the events happening in it Most of quick cuts in this trailers were about introducing and describing the two main characters, Migo and Percy as well as the circumstances of some events happening in the film In general, multimodal discourse analysis was applied successfully in realizing the role of verbal as well as visual resources in three trailers They worked together to represent the final meaning in each trailer It can be concluded that the most frequent type of process in each trailer revealed the genre of it 5.2 IMPLICATIONS This thesis was conducted with the hope that its findings would contribute some useful knowledge about cartoon trailers not only in the field of advertising but also in teaching and learning English of Vietnamese learners In theoretical terms, this research will be of necessity for those who are interested in the multimodal discourse analysis method in general as well those who intend to further research into the multimodal discourse of cartoon trailer or movie trailers in particular Take in illustration on copywriters, images and languages used in cartoon 94 trailers are considered as a powerful means to create a good impression on audiences, to appeal to their interest and persuade them to see the film as soon as it is officially shown Nevertheless, it is not easy to create effective lay out to achieve advertising purpose so I hope that the results of the study would supply useful information to better their work For example, it indicates parts and patterns that are often included to form good layouts of a cartoon trailer, points out the most common syntactic features and lexical choices that make spoken language in cartoon trailers gain expected effect By understanding how it works in reality, copywriters as well as advertisers may be better able to enhance their effectiveness in advertising situation In pedagogical term, this research will probably be a practical reference resource for teaching English Cartoon trailers are huge source of that natural input which is always available and very easy to obtain The results of this research can provide English teachers with useful knowledge in the field of multimodal discourse analysis which can be used in their classes for teaching basic skills in the following suggested ways For instance, in speaking classes, the teacher may let students watch an American cartoon trailer in a limited time and student have to invent conversation either dialogue or monologue of a particular situation of each scene in that cartoon trailer After that, teachers show the dialogue or monologue in the movie, the conversation certainly surprise students because they are the most outstanding and attractive ones extracted from the real cartoon Another example may be the use of cartoon trailers in listening classes It is clear that the images can support comprehension of conversation between characters Cartoon trailers can also be used effectively in writing classes in which students are asked to write a part or the whole story or resolution part In these way, students can acquire the knowledge of discourse features and develop their speaking, listening and writing skills easily and naturally Especially to those who intend to participate in the task of writing film trailers, it provides them a linguistic background, methods and strategies to write attractive narrations in cartoon trailers 95 5.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY The purpose of this research is to provide a multimodal discourse analysis in the three cartoon trailers to understand the content and meaning of the film The scope of the study is the dialogue, context, actors, colors, lighting that take place in the film The research cannot avoid restrictions because the selection of the scene may not fully reflect the content and meaning of the movie or may not fully analyze all the factors in the context of the conversation This research is simply the first step in the study of multimodality due to the limited personal academic capacity I can comprehend that the exclusion of some worthwhile aspects concerning this topic is inevitable within a research paper of fewer than 100 pages Hence, there are some points left for further investigation - First of all, I only chose three cartoon trailers for a qualitative study and the conclusion drew only on three samples that may restrict the generality of the research findings -Second, this research only mentioned the verbal structure and the interaction between the verbal and visual images in cartoon trailers All in all, I own a hope that this study would be a valuable reference for anyone who takes an interest in the topic of multimodal discourse analysis 5.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCHES Based on the limitation of the research, further study can be conducted in the following aspects: - More cartoon trailers should be collected and analyzed for a more comprehensive qualitative study - Researcher can make an analysis on the inter-semiotic relation between visual and verbal mode of cartoon trailers or movie trailer - A more comprehensive study of how the scene is staged in cartoon trailers or 96 movie trailers, by integrating the use of camera techniques into Kress and van Leeuwen’s (1996, 2006) visual grammar 97 REFERENCES Dai, S L (2017) On the Relationship of Different Modalities in Multimodal Discourse Foreign Language Research, 6, 1-7 Halliday, M.A.K (1973) Exploration in the functions of language London: Edward 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Handbook of Visual Analysis London: Sage Ye, Q C (2006) A social semiotic analysis of hypertext’s multimodality Foreign Language Teaching and Research (bimonthly), 6, 437-442 Zhao, C P (2016) Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Movie Posters—Taking Tiny Times as an Example, Movie Review, 12, 110-112 Internet Movieclips trailers (2012, May 23rd) Finding Nemo 3D Official Trailer #1 (2012) Pixar Movie HD https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=finding+nemo+trailer 99 Movieclips trailer (2009, September 29th) Disney/Pixar's Up - Official Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORFWdXl_zJ4 Movieclips trailer (2018, September 28th) Smallfoot Official Final Trailer [HD] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBw6EvIxIS8 ... THE STUDY Through this thesis, the researcher attempts to dedicate more to the development of the multimodal discourse analysis by taking cartoon trailers as database Applying an integrated multimodal. .. semiotic account of multimodal texts, the visual space, states of affairs and the social relation of the viewers as well as the images Regarding the topic of trailers in language studies and those of. .. representational meaning, the interactive meaning and the compositional meaning The result of his study was a good illustration of adopting Visual Grammar in analyzing images, which was a useful knowledge