Meaning Constructed by Images in Cross-border E-business Websites - A Case Study in China from Social-semiotic Perspective

摘要

In the new ear of cross-border e-commerce, businesses should raise awareness of globalization and pay more attention to multimodal communication. Image is a kind of social semiotic as important as language. Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwe's theory of Visual Grammar suggests that images can convey representational, interactive and compositional meaning, which provides concrete and feasible guidance for this research. The study also employs the comprehensive theoretical framework of multimodal discourse analysis proposed by Delu Zhang and attempts to build a basic framework to analyze meanings constructed by images in cross-border e-business websites, mainly on three levels: contextual layer, expressive layer and technical layer. A case in China was further studied under this framework. With findings drawn from the general data analysis based on the case, this paper aims to provide useful advice for website designs and enhance people's visual literacy.