Interpersonal Meaning-making in War Time Posters by A Multimodal Analysis

摘要

Multimodality has become an exciting frontier of research. In this study, I deploy the Appraisal theory of discourse semantics within systemic-functional linguistics and the social semiotic approach of multimodal discourse analysis on images and texts to analyze the interpersonal meaning-making of posters from the US during World War II. It is found that images and verbiages of the multimodal texts of posters co-work in the process of naturalization and realizations of the interpersonal control of the potential viewers. Such an analysis will arouse the awareness of how interpersonal meaning is construed in the viewers and the poster designers.