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

To carry out the study, theoretical background about MDA was brieflyreviewed in terms of visual grammar, transitivity process and narrative structure.Then the images were analyzed in ter

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

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby certify this thesis “A Study of Cartoon Trailers in English from the Perspective of Multimodal Discourse Analysis ” ” is my own work No other person’s

work has been used without the acknowledgement in the thesis

This paper has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in anyother tertiary institution

Da Nang, 2020

Phan Thi Kim Hoa

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Upon the completion of this thesis, I would like to express my heart-feltgratitude to my supervisor, Associate Professor Tran Van Phuoc for spending muchtime going through my thesis I highly appreciate the invaluable advice andfeedbacks as well as patient instructions which greatly helped to improve the thesisover the past few months

I would also like to thank my family for providing me constant encouragementand support in this academic journey

In this thesis, the researcher proposed a model for the multimodal discourseanalysis of cartoon trailers in terms of verbal and visual resources In particular, theresearcher analyzed the elements constructing the meaning of image and classifiedthe process type of all the utterances, then reached to the final conclusion Threecartoon trailers were analyzed for a case study with the aim to explore how thesemantic features and visual images within a trailer interacted with each other in theprocess of meaning creation

To carry out the study, theoretical background about MDA was brieflyreviewed 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 intoprocess types Finally, due to the purpose of each shot, it was identified according tonarrative structure From the analysis above, a conclusion might be drawn that thefinal 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, itgoes beyond the traditional field of verbal analysis; hence, opens a new dimensionfor the multimodal discourse analysis of cartoon trailers Secondly, throughdemonstrating how the spoken language and visual modalities are realized, ittestifies the strong applicability and practicality of Grammar of Visual Design inanalyzing cartoon trailers Lastly, the proposed model may benefit the imageproducers and help them make good use of choice-making of visual elements toaccomplish the best visual design

Key words: multimodal discourse analysis; Grammar of Visual Design;

cartoon trailers

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

1.1 RATIONALE 1

1.2 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES 2

1.2.1 Aims 2

1.2.2 Objectives 3

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 3

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 7

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

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)

LIST OF TABLES Numbe

33.2 Analytical framework based on MDA adopted 5 24.1 The summary of verbal resources analyzing in trailer 1 0 34.2 The summary of visual resources analyzing in trailer 1 1 34.3 The summary of process types in trailer 1 4 44.4 The summary of verbal resources analyzing in trailer 2 9 44.5 The summary of visual resources analyzing in trailer 2 9 44.6 The summary of process types in trailer 2 6

64.7 The summary of verbal resources analyzing in trailer 3 0 74.8 The summary of visual resources analyzing in trailer 3 7

14.9 The summary of process types in trailer 3 5 84.10 The result of narrative structure identification of three 8

6trailers

4.11 The result of utterances classification in three trailers 8

74.12 The summary of verbal and visual resources into 88

processes

5.1 The summary of elements and their structure in three 89 trailers5.2 The summary of process types in detail of three trailers 91

SFL Linguistics Systemic Functional MDA Multimodal Discourse

Analysis

Chapter One INTRODUCTION

This first chapter is elaborated from five aspects, namely the rationale of thestudy, 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 guidelinesfor the whole research

1.1 RATIONALE

It goes without saying that cartoons are one of the essential parts of everychildhood 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 ofentertainment There are hundreds upon hundreds of cartoons being released eachyear, so there is always a question that how to create a buzz for a film before itlaunches That is the reason why they need a lot of advertising campaigns using allmeans of mass media And trailers, therefore, are considered the most importantmarketing and publicity tool in the film industry as well as a key feature to the moviegoing 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.

It is difficult to assess precisely what effects cartoons and cartoon trailers mighthold Still, the images in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) trailer tug theviewer's attention even when the film is seen once and in isolation

Theoretically, the purpose of the movie trailers in general and cartoon trailers inparticular is to tease the audiences into wanting to see the film by creating suspenseand not revealing the main plot Therefore, in two and a half minutes, a trailer has toconvey enough information about the movie to convince the audiences It stands toreason that they will become curious as to know what would happen in the end Itwill then push them to go to the cinema once the film is released to watch the fullmovie As a matter of fact, one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words and agood trailer is itself a mini-story designed to sell the much bigger story of a movie.Over the year, trailers have been seen as worthy of study I hold opinion thatanalyzing popular trailers will help us understand the linguistic features of verbal andvisual resources used in each trailer

For the above reasons, I chose to do research on the topic “A study of cartoontrailers in English from the perspective of multimodal discourse analysis.” Throughthe working of modalities in cartoon trailers, the study is an attempt to contribute tofilm appreciation by raising awareness on how the animated movie works internallyand serves to enhance our experience and enjoyment of films It may also help usbetter understand the film we watch and how they are related to society and cultural

1.2.2 Objectives

The aim is formulated as a set of objectives, as follows:

- to analyze the elements in a cartoon trailer

- to find out how their meaning are construed to attract viewers

- to suggest some implications on advertising as well as on teaching andlearning English of Vietnamese learners

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1 How are the elements of cartoon trailers structured?

2 How are meanings expressed through visual and verbal resources incartoon trailers?

1.4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

As the study of multimodal discourse is interdisciplinary that involves a variety

of linguistics, semiotics, media studies, etc., it requires researchers to make a deepstudy on how the meanings are made in a multimodal way Modalities in cartoontrailers involve the use of dynamic co-occurring moving images, written and verballinguistic text and music However, due to the limitation of time and knowledge, theresearcher did not target at all aspects of cartoon trailers such as grammaticalfeatures, phonetics features, pragmatic features and music analysis as well In thisthesis, the researcher proposed a model for the multimodal discourse analysis ofcartoon trailers in terms of verbal and visual resources In particular, the researcheranalyzed the elements constructing the meaning of image and classified the processtype of all the utterances, then reached to the final conclusion Three cartoon trailerswere analyzed for a case study with the aim to explore how the semantic features andvisual images within a trailer interacted with each other in the process of meaningcreation

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Through this thesis, the researcher attempts to dedicate more to thedevelopment of the multimodal discourse analysis by taking cartoon trailers asdatabase Applying an integrated multimodal approach to analyze a trailer enhancesour understanding of how a trailer works through the different modalities to realizemeanings in the final product and how the overall meaning can provoke response inthe audience viewing the film It is hoped that the findings of the research can not

only contribute to enrich the theory of multimodal discourse analysis but also benefitthe trailer film producers and help them make good use of choice-making ofmodalities as well as the arrangement of visual elements to accomplish perfect visualdesign Finally, this study would help teachers, learners and advertisers to have abetter understanding of cartoon trailers

Chapter Two LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In this chapter, I present a brief review of some previous researches onmultimodal discourse analysis and the discourse analysis of cartoon trailer, thenexplicate the theoretical foundations of this research as well as some definition ofterms This chapter is arranged as follows: 2.1 Literature Review, 2.2 TheoreticalBackground

was used for texts constructed from more than one semiotic resource and

‘multimodality' was used for discourse involving more than one mode of semiotic.

Later, O'Halloran (2008) pointed out the corresponding system of expression ofwords and images based on the analytical framework of System FunctionalLinguistics

Ye (2006) made an attempt to interpret multimodality of hypertext on the basic

of people's website He made an analysis of a social semiotic account of multimodaltexts, 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 discourseanalysis, there are some practical studies related to the analysis of trailers have been

carried out in Vietnam Nguyen Thi Hong Ha (2011) made an investigation into

structure of movie trailers and linguistic features of advertising language of Americanand Vietnamese movie trailers in terms of their grammatical features such as tense,

mood and voice, lexical features such as the use of word layers, the use of first andsecond person addressing terms This study investigated 50 movie trailers, 25American and 25 Vietnamese, mainly on the Internet However, she did not mentionthe role of image in those trailers in her study.

Next, Zhao (2016) made a multimodal discourse analysis of movie posters Inhis study, he adopted Visual Grammar by Kress and van Leeuwen to give a detailexplanation to the two poster “Maid in Manhattan” in English and “Lust andCaution” in Chinese Two movie posters were analyzed from the three meta-functions, namely the representational meaning, the interactive meaning and thecompositional meaning The result of his study was a good illustration of adoptingVisual Grammar in analyzing images, which was a useful knowledge in this research.Another study conducted by Pham Thi Thanh Nga (2016) showed the discoursefeatures in American cartoon trailer in terms of the layout of narration of trailers andsome other lexical choices, syntactic features as well as cohesive devices Theresearcher used 83 American cartoon trailers from the Internet in the period of 2010-

2015 for the corpus The limitation of this study is that it has not mentioned the role

of sound and images in those trailers

Then, Dai (2017) discussed the relationship between language, image, motion,posture, sound and other modalities He made a multimodal discourse analysis of themovie Argo clip (3 minutes 30 seconds) from the perspective of context of culture,context of situation and image meaning Results showed that the clip constructedmultimodal discourse through specific context (namely context of culture and context

of situation), language, image, and consequently, advocated western mainstreamideology successfully The paper applied multimodal discourse analysis to featureand horror movie, which expanded the research field of multimodal discourseanalysis, testified the feasibility and operability of applying multimodal discourseanalysis to feature and horror movie At the same time, the paper integrateddiscourse, movie and television media which also developed interface research field

of linguistics, movie and television media Hence, it provided a new research

perspective for discourse analysis of movie and television media.

In conclusion, these researchers have not mentioned other issues of trailers such

as music, sound, images, etc.; but only discourse structure and linguistic features ofmovie trailers and cartoon trailers That is the reason why I chose to do a research on

“A study of cartoon trailers in English from the perspective of multimodal discourseanalysis'”

2.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.2.1 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Concept of “Multimodality”

The term ‘Multimodality' first appeared in Handbook of Visual Analysis by van

Leeuwen and Jewitt in 2000 This term is introduced to highlight the significance oftaking all semiotic resources into consideration, such as language, color, image andsound As complex social and cultural discourse practices are gaining popularity inthe semiotic landscape, language is losing its position as the dominant meaningmaking method

Concept of “Cartoon”

Cartoon in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary 8th is defined as a film/moviemade by photographing a series of gradually changing drawings or models, so thatthey look as if they are moving In this thesis, cartoon is viewed as a film or moviefor cinema, television or computer screen It is made by playing a series of graduallychanging drawings or models in a quick succession, so that they look as if they aremoving

Concept of “Trailer”

Katz (1980, p.1145) regards a trailer as “ a short publicity film, shown as part of a regular program at a theater, advertising the merits of a forthcoming motion picture the trailer consists of highlight scenes appropriately cut to create an impression of excitement ” He claims that trailers or previews of coming attractions

are both praised and reviled by film scholars and moviegoers Kernan (2004) alsoconfirms that trailers are not only a form of advertising but also a unique form ofnarrative film exhibition, wherein promotional discourse and narrative pleasure are

conjoined She argues that in trailers, images are selected and combined in ways thatprivilege attracting the spectator's attention over sustaining narrative coherence.Following the concepts mentioned above, I consider that a trailer is a short publicityfilm, shown as part of a regular program at a theater, advertising the merits of aforthcoming motion picture to attract the audiences' attention A trailer usuallyconsists of two main parts which are images and narration Trailers often circulateonline on websites for the film and the studio, in trailer archives, on YouTube, and onmedia-centered “magazine” websites.

2.2.2 Labov (1967)'s model of narrative structure

Labov (1967) introduces a model of narrative analysis that differs from some ofthe earlier approaches In his model, Labov focuses on oral narrative instead ofwritten text whereas other linguists in the earlier time believed in a structuralapproach This means that language had to be approached as a fixed, clearly definedset of symbols, which furthermore had to be studied in isolation

Labov (1967)'s model of narrative analysis is based on his belief that “one cannot understand the development of a language change apart from the social life

of the community in which it occurs” He feels that observing and recording sound

changes is not enough to understand the process of change Hence, researcher has toview that change within the context of the community in which it is being made, as it

is being made Labov introduces and explains what he sees as the six main parts of anarrative structure He discusses each part as a tool which we can use to analyzenarrative patterns, to help recognize recurring themes and ideas The six main parts ofLabov's model include abstract, orientation, complicating action, evaluation,resolution, and coda However, it is not necessary to have all six parts presented inevery narrative, for example, some narratives will not have an abstract, while othersmay not have a coda Additionally, these components no need to be appeared in aspecific order, and each may be presented in a variety of ways

- The term “abstract” is used to refer to the introductory part of the narrative.Literally, an “abstract,” is a brief summary of the events; or it may be simply a line or

two that will spark the reader's interest The abstract attracts the listener's interest,and to get the listener to want to hear the rest of the story.

- The next part is “orientation.” In this stage, audiences are given informationabout the setting of the story For example, the people or the characters in the storywill be introduced and described as well as the setting (the place the action occurs)and the time For the story to be valid and understandable, it is essential thataudiences should be informed of the time and place in which the narrative unfolds

- Following orientation is the stage called “complicating action.” This stagedescribes the actual events of the narrative, the occurrences that move it ahead.Complicating actions may also be physical actions, statements spoken aloud, orthought acts

- Next, “evaluation” refers to the point, or reason that the narrative is being told,and it can be done in several ways In other way, “Evaluations” may be specificallyand clearly stated, or they may be implied “Internal” evaluations are those revealedwhile the story is taking place, while “external” evaluations take place outside theimmediate action of the story

- Following this is a part that Labov calls the “result” or “resolution” Basically,

“Result” is the conclusion which indicates that the story has come to a close or a finalaction has occurred

- Finally, there may be a “coda.” in the story Labov means that “Coda” is apoint in which the narrator points out the relevance of the story by connecting it withevery-day life, or with other events or actions that fall outside the story frame Thecoda does not always have to be present in every narrative

In general, Labov's model has strongly influenced language studies since itsfirst introduction, and it continues to be influential in additional settings Nowadays,with the widespread growth of the internet, we now have a new and informal sort ofcommunication However, Labov's model is still a useful tool in the analysis ofinternet writing which is often less formal than academic or other types of writing,

but more structured than spoken language Thus, Labov's model remains effectivetoday as language itself continues to grow and change It is quite probable thatLabov's model will grow to accommodate that change, and to continue to be a usefultool in the future.

2.2.3 Halliday (1985)'s Transitivity System

One of the Systemic Functional Linguistics' aspects is the analysis of clauses interm of process types Process type analysis was first described in Halliday (1976),with an attempt to develop the kind of grammar that could support teachers inteaching language A fuller description was given in Introduction to FunctionalGrammar (Halliday 1985, henceforth IFG) and its two later editions: Halliday (1994)and Halliday and Matthiessen (2004)

According to Halliday (1985), there are 3 main functions of language which can

be used to explain the structure of language They are ideational, interpersonal andtextual First, the ideational function is the mean to express our experience of the realword of our inner world One aspect of this function at the level of clause is thetransitivity system It is a selection among the six processes that can be represented in

Related to the choice of process is the choice of participant (person or thing involved)

or the choice of circumstance (time, place, manner )

Second, the interpersonal function is the mean whereby we achieve communication

by taking on speech roles These roles adopted and imposed on the receiver by thespeaker This function is reflected in the system of “mood” In addition, we may uselanguage to express our attitude toward what we are saying This function is reflected

in the system of modality which included in the interpersonal function Last, textualfunction is the function of creating texts or connected pieces of discourse that cohereinternally or which are situationally relevant as opposed to a random set of sentences.

In conclusion, these three meta-functions can be summarized as follows:

- The ideational function is to organize the speaker's or writer's experience ofthe real or imaginary world

- The interpersonal function is to indicate, establish or maintain socialrelationship It consists of forms of address, speech function, modality and

so on

- The textual function is to create written or spoken texts which coheres withinthemselves and fit the particular situation

In this thesis, the researcher only focused on exploring the ideational meaning

in visual and verbal modes constructed from the cartoon trailers

According to the theory, there are three components of what Halliday calls a

“transitivity process”: the process itself, the participants in the process andcircumstances Then, Halliday (1985) divides into six processes, namely: material,mental, relational, behavioral, verbal and existential

Participants

It is considered as a doer of the action or the people, ideas, things thatparticipated in the processes The participants carry out the processes undercircumstances and they are realized by the nominal groups There are 14 types ofparticipants in realizing the ideational meaning including Actor and Goal in materialprocess, Behaver in behavioral process; Senser and Phenomenon in mental process,Sayer and Target in verbal process; Token, Value, Carrier, Attribute, Identifier andIdentified in relational process and Existent in existential process

Processes

A Material process:

Material process is a “doing” or “happening” process in which it expresses the

notion that some entity does something There are two participants namely actor and goal in this process For example:

B Mental process:

- Perception: seeing, smelling

- Affection: liking, fearing

- Cognition: thinking, knowing

Mental process is a process of sensing in which there are two participants,namely: senser and phenomenon - the conscious being like feeling, thinking, andwhich is ‘sensed' like feel, thought For example:

C Relational process:

There are three types of relational process in the clause:

- Intensive ‘X is A' (relationship of resemblance between two entities)

- Circumstantial ‘X is at A' (location, time or manner of the entity)

- Possessive ‘X has A' (one entity owns another)

Each of these comes in two modes: attributive and identifying

-Attributive means A is an attribute of X ( A: attribute / X: carrier)-Identifying means A is the identity of X (A: identified / X: identifier)For example:

Table 2.1 Table of attributive clausesAttribute of

Carrier Process Attribute

Table 2.2 Table of Identifying clausesIdentification by

- Indicates an activity in which both the physical and mental aspects areinseparable and indispensable to it.

In this process, there is only one participant (behaver -the agent who behaves.For example:

She neither laughs nor smiles at that funny video

E Verbal process

Verbal process is the action of “saying” The participants include sayer(participant who speaks), receiver (the one to whom the verbalization is addressed),verbiage (a name for the verbalization itself)

However, other type of verbal process is the one in which the sayer is in senseacting verbally on another direct participant, with verbs such as: insult, praise,slander, abuse, and flatter This other participant will be referred as the target

2.2.4 The Grammar of Visual Design of Kress and van Leeuwen (1996)

Multimodal discourse analysis thriving in the 90s of the last century helps to

solve the problem to most degree, for which Systemic Functional Grammar founded

by Halliday (1973) is well suited to provide theoretical tools Derived from Functional Grammar, Kress and van Leeuwen (1996) propose a systemic andcomprehensive framework for visual analysis in “Reading Images” Then,polynomial discourse analysis began to develop from the work of Kress and vanLeeuwen (1996) called "Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design" With thiswork, Kress and van Leeuwen build the foundation for visual learning signals, whichprovides the theoretical framework and methods to analyze image signals It is clearthat the polynomial discourse analysis of Kress and van Leeuwen is built on theframework of the theoretical framework of Systematic Linguistics of M.A.K.Halliday

Systemic-In the theory of systematic functional linguistics by M.A.K Halliday (1998), itconsiders functional language and language as a system Language is considered adevelopment system with human culture and society; therefore, it plays a central role

in the evolution and implementation of social functions It can be said that language

is a system of choices, not rules In his theory, Halliday believes that language is apotential force of meaning He assumes the function and uses the owl as a base unit

to explain language functions The system of choices is based on the premise thateach grammatical structure involved in a choice, which is derived from a set ofdescriptive abilities, so the language is considered as a source of meaning Halliday'sgrammar systems have played a significant role in interpreting different meanings.According to Halliday, the functional organization of language determines form aswell as grammar rules and language is a communication tool to perform threefunctions namely as ideational function, interpersonal function and textual function.These three different types of meanings coexist and interact with each other in anytext The three functions have a relation to the three corresponding situationalsituations that work in all communication contexts are field (FIELD), atmosphere(TENOR) and method (MODE)

Kress and van Leeuwen (1996) made a study that describes visual

communication in texts such as newspapers, magazines, textbooks, children's comics.They come to a conclusion that images are similar to languages which describe theprocesses, the participants in the processes, the contexts in which the entities and theprocesses are expressed As words and images are two different signals, the systemthat expresses their functions is therefore different.

Proposed by Kress and van Leeuwen in 1996, the framework is based on thecontribution of the former semiotic school's findings which are originally used toillustrate linguistic texts Halliday sees language as a semiotic mode which representsthree meta-functions: the ideational meta-function, the interpersonal meta-functionand the textual meta-function Based on Halliday's theory, Kress and van Leeuwenuse different terms for the same subjects: representational instead of ideational;interactive instead of interpersonal; and compositional instead of textual in detail.The representational meaning deals with the way which images represent the

relations between represented participants in the picture It is divided into narrative representation and conceptual representation Specifically, narrative representation

can be further categorized into action process, reaction process and speech andmental process, which referred to the six processes in Halliday's Transitivity system.While narrative representation presents unfolding actions and events, processes ofchange, transitory spatial arrangements, conceptual representation representsparticipants in terms of their more generalized and more or less stable and timelessessence, in terms of class, or structure or meaning (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006, p

79) Next, conceptual representation is divided into classification process, analytical

process and symbolic process, with the former two resembling relational process inSystemic Functional Language The interactive meaning is mainly about the socialrelations between represented participants and the evaluative orientations thatparticipants adopt towards each other and to the world represented by the text Itsrealization relies on four elements: contact, social distance, attitude and modality Inparticular, contact, which discusses the demand or offer relation between representedparticipants and viewer, conveys meaning through ‘demands' and ‘offers', which is

related to Halliday's description of four ‘speech acts' Social distance is used torepresent social relations between the producer, the viewer and the representedparticipant, which is realized by size of frame Attitude, which classifies images intosubjective and objective ones, is deemed naturally neutral altered by angles.

Modality is the term which comes from linguistics and refers to the truth value

or credibility of (linguistically realized) statements about the world (Kress & vanLeeuwen, 2006, p 155) Modality explores the role of modality markers includingcolor saturation, color differentiation, color modulation, etc

The compositional meaning relates to the representational and interactivemeanings of the image through three interrelated systems (Kress & van Leeuwen,

2006, p 177) The three principles of composition are information value, salienceand framing Information value refers to the placement of elements and their valuesattached accordingly, with the left and right arrangement represents given and newinformation, top and bottom arrangement resembles ideal and real information, centerand margin arrangement is also discussed in respect of culture context Theconstruction studies Halliday's viewpoint that the combination of known and newinformation is the most common information structure Salience is about how ahierarchy of importance among the elements is created through variations in size,sharpness of focus, tonal contrast, etc Framing is the discussion of the relationshipbetween the degree of connectedness and the significance of individuality ordifferentiation The latter two components of the compositional meaning providepractical insights on the interpretation of images However, the theory does not eludeitself from over-interpretation or misinterpretation of images which consider thepossible subjectivity of the researcher or his/her unfamiliarity with unusualattribution bearing decisive meanings

Kress and van Leeuwen's (1990, 1996, 2006) framework of visual analysis ismetafunctional The meaning of visual communication can be considered in terms ofIdeational, Interpersonal and Textual metafunctions Kress and van Leewen's (2006)visual representation categories are able to be directly applied to both visual and

verbal semiotics They are preferred in this study as the aim is to describeintersemiosis or interaction between the two semiotics The experiential categorieswhich are used here for image analysis are derived directly from the SystemicFunctional Language lexico-grammatical system of transitivity They are processesand participants in those processes.

In this thesis, the researcher followed the Narrative Structure of Labov (1967)

to identify the narrative structure of trailers, the verbal resources were analyzedaccording to the theory of Transitivity of Halliday (1985) and visual meanings wereexplored under the theory of Kress and van Leeuwen (1996)

2.2.5 Multimodal Discourse Analysis

According to O'Halloran (2011, p.120): “Multimodal discourse analysis (henceforth MDA) is an emerging paradigm in discourse studies which extends the study of language per se to the study of language in combination with other resources, such as images, scientific symbolism, gesture, action, music and sound The terminology in MDA is used somewhat loosely at present as concepts and approaches evolve in this relatively new field of study For example, language and other resources which integrate to create meaning in ‘multimodal' (or ‘multi- semiotic') phenomena (e.g print materials, videos, websites, three-dimensional objects and day-to-day events) are variously called ‘semiotic resources', ‘modes' and

‘modalities' Multimodal Discourse Analysis itself is referred to as ‘multimodality',

‘multimodal analysis', ‘multimodal semiotics' and ‘multimodal studies' “.

In his theory, O' Halloran describes 'semiotic resource' as the resources such aslanguage, image, music, gesture and architecture, ‘sensory modalities' as visual,auditory, tactile, olfactory, gustatory and kinesthetic in multimodal texts, discoursesand events, collectively called ‘multimodal phenomena'

Multimodal Discourse Analysis is concerned with theory and analysis ofsemiotic resources and the semantic expansions occurring as semiotic choicescombine in multimodal phenomena MDA also pays attention to the design,production and distribution of multimodal resources in social setting, for example,van Leeuwen (2008) The reasons for the paradigmatic shift away from the study of

language alone to the study of the integration of language with other resources are asfollows: first, discourse analysts which attempt to interpret the wide range of humandiscourse practices have found the need to account for the meaning arising frommultiple semiotic resources; second, technologies to develop new methodologicalapproaches for MDA have become available and affordable; last, inter-disciplinaryresearch has become more common Hence, MDA is an example of this paradigmshift with a key contribution to make with respect to multimodal analysis, search andretrieval of information.

Multimodal research rapidly expanded in mid-2000s onwards as systemiclinguists Then, other researchers became interested in exploring the integration oflanguage with other resource It is concluded that communication is inherentlymultimodal and literacy is not confined to language

Multimodal discourse analysis is an emerging area of discourse studies whichfocuses on how meaning is made through the use of multiple modes ofcommunication such as pictures, films, videos, images and sound in combinationwith words In seeking to understand this interplay, it has integrated insights from anumber of more established approaches to discourse as well as other social sciences

In this thesis, the researcher assigned equal importance to the roles oflinguistic as well as visual modalities in creating the final meaning of a cartoontrailer

This thesis adopted MDA as analytical framework which was described indetail in chapter three

2.3 SUMMARY

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.

Chapter Three RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents how I designed my research to get the answers to the tworesearch questions mentioned in Chapter Two In turn, the Research Design, the DataCollection Methods, the Data Analysis Methods and the Analytical Framework will

be briefly introduced

3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN

This thesis was conducted based on qualitative, quantitative and descriptivemethods and focused on narrative structure according to the theory of Labov (1967),transitivity analysis of ideational meaning of Halliday (1985) instead ofrepresentational meaning of Kress and van Leeuwen and Grammar of Visual Design

of Kress and van Leeuwen (1996)

- The qualitative method was applied as a useful tool to highlight the semanticfeatures of spoken language and image meaning used in trailers

- The quantitative method was used to calculate the frequency of occurrenceand ratio of linguistic elements in cartoon trailers

- The descriptive method was applied to make interpretation of what theresearcher saw, heard and understood through the visual resources in each shot

3.2 DATA COLLECTION METHODS

1. Walt Disney Animation Studio - www.disneymovieslist.com

2. Pixar Animation Studios - www.pixar.com/

3. Warner Bros Animation - www.warnerbros.com

- The second source is the website www.youtube.com The cartoon trailers

which are collected from this website must be uploaded by one of threecompanied mentioned above.

This paper made a multimodal discourse analysis of some selected shots inthree cartoon trailers namely “Finding Nemo”, “Up” and “Small foot” from theperspective of visual meaning and process type of utterances in narrative structure.The reason for choosing these trailers are as follows:

+ First, these cartoon trailers are produced by two famous animated-companies:Pixar Animation Group and Warner Animation Group Pixar Animation Group is an

US studio which continuously reaped great sales and successes as well as conqueredmost fastidious critics All the debuted films received a minimum score of "A-" onthe Cinema Score rating system, indicating positive feedback from viewers ThirteenPixar movies are among the top 50 highest-grossing cartoons including “FindingNemo” and “Up” “Finding Nemo” is one of the Pixar's films that won the Oscar forbest animated film released in 2003 The Warner Animation Group (WAG) is thefeature animation studio and division of Warner Bros Entertainment Films that wereproduced by WAG have grossed a total of $1.4 billion at the box office ‘Smallfoot',released on September 28, 2018, earned a 76% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoeswith mostly positive reviews from critics and has grossed over $214 millionworldwide

+ Second, the three animated films not only won a lot of big awards but alsoconveyed humanity and education meanings Their meanings as well as their specificcharacteristics are mentioned in the introduction of each trailer in chapter 4

3.2.2 Sampling

Through those selected shots in each trailer, the researcher collected 158

resources in total According to MDA, resources include verbal and visual resources(image, sound ect) They are utterances in the three trailers (verbal resources) and allthe elements that make sense such as color, gestures, facial expressions, time, place,appearances of characters (visual resources) As cartoon trailers are structured form

quick cuts, they mainly focus on the images than spoken language, therefore, morevisual resources were collected than verbal resources.

Table 3.1 Total resources in three trailers

number resources each trailer

of in

Verbal resources

Visual resources

3.2.3 Data Collection Procedure

The research was conducted in a series of steps

- Firstly, I watched the whole trailer at least 5 times to get an overview of thattrailer

- Secondly, I classified it into shots and watched each shot again I paused atevery scene to collect visual resources by writing down the elements in each imagesuch as characters, color, appearances

- Next, I listened carefully to the utterances of each character and thentranscribed into written form in sentences for further analyzing These scripts wereregarded as verbal resources for analyzing

3.3 DATA ANALYSIS METHODS

- First, I adopted the theory of MDA, Labov (1967)'s narrative structure,Halliday (1985)'s Transitivity System and Kress and van Leeuwen (1996)'s Grammar

of Visual Design to carry out qualitative and quantitative descriptions of these

resources Specifically,

+ Applied Labov (1967)'s Narrative Structure, each trailer was consideredwhether it had a full narrative structure or not or how many parts there were in eachtrailer

+ The verbal resources were analyzed into processes under the theory ofHalliday (1985)'s Transitivity System

+ The visual resources including images and sound were analyzed in detail ofevery color, position, salience as well as gestures and behaviors Each selected shotmust have three parts in sequence participants, process types and circumstances,basing on the theory of Grammar of Visual Design of Kress and van Leeuwen (1996)

3.4 ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK BASED ON MDA ADOPTED

Table 3.2 Analytical framework based on MDA adopted

ANALYSIS RESOURCES IN SELECTED SHOTS

(Verbal and visual resources)

HALLIDAY (1985)'S TRANSITIVITY SYSTEM

Verbal resources Visual Resources

-Color of clothes 3.Existential3.Complication

expression:

process4.Behavioral

+glint-Actions

in chapter 3 This chapter shows in detail necessary preparations for further findingsand discussion in chapter 4.

Chapter Four FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

In this chapter I explore the elements in each trailer by analyzing in detail everyselected shot in each trailer in terms of visual meaning and process type of verbalmodes This chapter is divided into four sections An introduction, analysis anddiscussion of trailer “Finding Nemo” is provided in 4.1 An introduction, analysisand discussion of trailer “Up” is in 4.2 An introduction, analysis and discussion oftrailer “Small foot” is in 4.3 Summary is in 4.4

Section 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 would deal with the two research questions:

1 How are the elements of cartoon trailers structured?

2 How are meaning construed through visual and verbal resources in cartoon trailers?

4.1 ANALYSIS OF TRAILER “FINDING NEMO”

4.1.1 Introduction of “Finding nemo” trailer

“Finding Nemo” is a 2003 American animated film of adventure produced byPixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures Finding Nemo is thestory of the difficult and adventurous journey of the clownfish Marlin, who, alongwith a regal blue tang named Dory searches for his missing son On the way, Marlinlearns to take risks and comes to terms with Nemo taking care of himself Life in theCoral Reef always contains dangers and traps that lurk in small fish Marlin hadinstructed and carefully told his naughty son, but on the first day of school, Nemoneglected his father's instructions and was taken away by a diver From there, Merlinembarked on the journey to find the little son, and discovered an exciting world underthe ocean that he had never known before

This film was once considered the best animated film of all time when it wonmore than 30 awards, including the prestigious Oscar golden statue in 2003 for BestAnimation In addition, Finding Nemo also received three additional Academy ofMotion Picture nominations for Best Screenplay, Best Soundtrack and Best SoundEffects, the first Pixar film to do so Additionally, this cartoon became the highest-

grossing animated film at the time of its release, and was the second-highest-grossingfilm of 2003, earning a total of $871 million worldwide by the end of its initialtheatrical run In 2008, the American Film Institute named it as the 10th greatestanimated film ever that was made as part of their 10 Top 10 lists “Finding Nemo”was voted one of the 100 greatest motion pictures since 2000.

This is an animated film not only for entertainment but also education DirectorAndrew Stanton - who has won two Oscars with Finding Nemo and Wall-E - sharedthe educational aspect of the film: “At another perspective, “Finding Nemo” is theanxiety of those parents who let their children come into the world that full ofdangers and traps How do they manage that fear?”

4.1.2 Analysis of trailer “Finding Nemo”

Question 1: How are the elements of cartoon trailers structured?

In the 1 minute and 53 seconds cartoon trailer “Finding nemo”, there were 18elements including 10 participants (a clown fish, a blue fish, a giant fish, 3 sharks, apelican, a whale, the clown fish's son), 2 circumstances of places (under the sea and

at the pier) and 6 processes (material, mental, behavioral, relational, verbal andexistential) along with 10 utterances structured in 7 selected shots It begins with an

“Orientation” (1 shot) and then “Complication Actions” (5 shots) and ends with a

“Resolution” (1 shot) Actually, this trailer did not follow a full narrative structure ofLabov because there are no Abstract and Coda in this trailer

- The “Orientation”-shot 1- had 5 visual elements (3 participants) including a

clown fish, a blue tang fish, a light, (1 process) the action of observing thelight of the two fishes and (1 circumstance) in the bottom of the sea Therewere also 6 utterances in their conversation in which 3 participants were aclown fish, a blue tang fish and a light, half of them (3 processes) weremental processes and the others (3 processes) were relational processesand 1 circumstance of the bottom of the sea

- The “Complication Action” is the main plot of this film describing an

adventurous journey of the clownfish and his friend, a regal blue tangsearching for his missing son, Nemo After having introduced the two

main characters and the circumstance in shot 1, the Complication Action

had 5 shots (shot 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) which told the audience a lot of unexpectedthings that they had to face and dealt with These shots made the audiencescurious and pushed them to see the full movie for the final result

+ In shot 2, there were 6 elements including 3 participants (a clownfish, a blue fish, a fierce fish), 2 processes (the action of threatening andthe appearance of the giant fish) and 1 circumstance of place (under thesea) No spoken language was used in this shot The relational processdescribed the ugly and horrible appearance of the giant fish whereas thematerial process presented the action of threatening through the mouthmovement

+ The appearance of 3 sharks in shot 3 brought a feeling that they arefriends not enemies of the two fishes Their physical appearances as well

as their gestures expressed 1 relational process, 1mental process and 1behavioral process without the help of verbal modality This shot had 8elements in total including 4 participants (a blue fish, 3 sharks) and 3processes and 1 circumstance of place (under the sea)

+ In shot 4, there were 2 visual elements including 1 participant (theclown fish) and 1 circumstance of place (under the sea) The onlyutterance included 2 participants (the clown fish and his son) and 1material process

+ Shot 5 and shot 6 introduced another friend of the two fishes, a pelican Shot 5 had 5 elements including 3 participants (2 fishes and 1 pelican), 2 processes and 1 circumstance of place (at the pier) The 3 utterances in shot

5 included 3 participants and 2 processes Shot 6 had 8 elements including

3 participants (2 fishes and 1 pelican), 4 processes and 1 circumstance of place (at the pier).

- The “Resolution” - shot 7 ended the trailer by revealing the last action in

the trailer This last action was a converstation between the two fishestalking about their experiment about whale This shot included 7 elements

in which there were 3 participants (2 fishes, a whale), 3 processes and 1circumstance of place (under the sea) The conversation between the twofishes included 3 participants, 4 processes and 1 circumstance of place

Question 2: How are meaning construed through visual and verbal resources

in cartoon trailers?

Based on the theoretical framework of MDA, Labov's narrative structure andHalliday's Transitivity System,7 shots of the cartoon trailer “Finding Nemo” wereanalyzed in terms of image meaning, language features and the effect of theircombination These shots were chosen due to their longer time duration in the trailerthan others, which meant they were the best scenes and revealed the most unexpectedepisodes in the movie

a) In terms of verbal resources

Table 4.1 The summary of verbal resources analyzing in trailer 1