Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Two English Learning Visual Advertisements Essay Example for Free

Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Two English Learning Visual Advertisements Essay It was not until the advent of â€Å"new media age†, which by definition involves prevailing digital-mediated communication modes and substantial usage of multiple semiotic resources combined in the realization of discourses, did the mainstream preference of monomodality unprecedentedly challenged (Kress Van Leeuwen, 2001). Language, as one of the semiotic resources, is by no means the only carrier to realize discourses. Diversity should be acknowledged in the current age when visual, audio and other kinds of semiotic resources are convenient and efficient in delivering the abstract discourses concept into expressions (Kress, 2003). The present study will base its analysis primarily on the multimodal discourse analysis framework and visual grammar proposed by Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996, 2001), as an application of their theoretical framework into practices. Since the multimodal discourse analysis (hereafter MDA) theory has been established only within this recent decade, and it is relatively hard to find solid references to support this theory, flaws and limitations are therefore unavoidable. As MDA is considered the subdivision of Systemic Functional Linguistics (hereafter SFL) which focus on social semiotic approach of critical discourse analysis (hereafter CDA), this present study should be considered as an experimental attempt of utilizing MDA in incorporating social culture and ideology into discourse analysis[1]. Firstly, the rationale underneath this present research is based on Kress and Leeuwen’s four-layered meaning rendering domains known as â€Å"strata† (Kress Leeuwen, 2001), as well as their theoretical construction of visual grammar, which is an outspread, or more specifically generalization of verbal grammar (Kress Leeuwen, 1996). Basically, the theory of strata gives an overall account of meaning-making in multiple articulations among discourse, design, production and distribution, the first two of which being associated with content and the latter two with expression. The basic meaning making flow is conceptualization (from discourse to d esign), materialization (from design to production) and reproduction (from production to distribution). In this research, only the first phase of meaning articulation will be dealt with, because the data analyzed here are visual advertisement posters on the internet without tangible material texture such as paper or stone, which made the analysis less complex and more focused. According to Kress and Van Leeuwen (2001, pp.21), the process of design involves three things simultaneously: (1) a formulation of a discourse or combination of discourses, (2) a particular (inter)action, in which the discourse is embedded, and (3) a particular way of combining semiotic modes. This threefold process has at least two implications: (1) the realization of social communication by encoding the abstract discourse into a specific design and (2) deliberate choice of communication media through which the meaning could be more effectively delivered, such as the combination of music, image and sequence in films. For the second implication, this present research only involves visual mode of semiotic resource which further reduced the complication of analysis. The first implication is actually the central focus in this research paper. If the process of designing is, to some extend, a process of encoding, then using the visual grammar to analyze this design is exactly the reverse process, namely decoding. That is to say, this paper is aiming at using visual grammar as a tool to decode the visual image so that to find out the hidden social constructed discourses underneath the poster. The similarity between visual grammar and verbal grammar lies in their system underlying the language-use, the ubiquitous fundamental elements of linguistic rules (Chomsky, 1972). This generative grammar lends validity to the set of rules Kress proposed suitable for analyzing visual literacy or visual language. This present analysis will primarily follow Kress’ framework of visual grammar, divided into three levels: representational, interactional and compositional. The representational grammar is heavily associated with ideational meaning in SFL, which basically deals with the internal relations between the depicted participant s and a setting of circumstances in which they occur[2]. The representational grammar is basically realized by vectors which could exhibit the interrelations between the participants or between the participant and the viewer. In advertisement 1 (see appendix), the participant is a young white-collar employee who desperately gazing towards the reader/viewer. From the perspective of the representational grammar, this is a non-transactional reaction, characterized by a gazer but without a phenomenon appearing on the poster. The non-transactional process is characterized by a vector extending from the gazer’s eyes towards directly outside the poster or to the reader/viewer who looks at the poster. Similarly, advertisement 2 (see appendix) also shows a non-transactional reaction. But the gazer—a caricature figure of ancient Chinese historical character Zhuge Liang—does not extend his eye-line vector directly towards the reader but to somewhere else without specified phenomenon. Moreover, the second advertisement has, though implicit, an action vector: the feather fan in the cartoon figure’s hand indicates a manner of waving. Although this action vector is also non-transactional, it is stronger than a reaction vector. If comparing these two posters from a representational level, the first one is completely reaction vector with clear pointing angle to the reader. That is to say, the reader/viewer here is actually the phenomenon of the gazer. The second one has both action vector and reaction vector, though both non-transactional. The action vector adds to the poster’s agentive quality and centralized its salience on the movement of waving feather fan. The interactive grammar is concerned with social relations between interactants and the represented world of text (readers/viewers). There are four major systems: contacts, social distance, attitude and modality (Kress Van Leeuwen, 1996, pp.43-118). The following part will analyze the two posters within each system. In the first advertisement, the interactive participant, or that young male white-collar imposes a â€Å"demand† contact towards t he viewer, which is a direct eye-line vector towards outside the poster. Contrastively, the gazer on the second poster presented an â€Å"offer† contact, which is characterized by no direct eye contact (though imaginary) with the viewer. The distinction between demand and offer significantly distinguished these two posters. The mood represented in the first one is more engaged, direct and intensive. The young male looks directly to the reader as if interrogating the readers if they had been through the same desperation and suspicion on the fact whether Chinese could ever learn English well. He seeks the recognition and resonances from the reader towards his own feelings. His demanding eye-line attracts the reader’s counter-directional reaction vector, and the reader will feel passively being gazed and therefore a tense feeling and obliged inward self-inspection: â€Å"whether I am just like him who cannot learn English well.† However, the mood in the second poster is more disentangled, aloof and carefree. The cartoon character looks at somewhere else as if intentionally avoiding eye contact with the reader. This manner of â€Å"offer† invites the reader to cast reaction vector towards him. By showing a confident manner of â€Å"already discovered the secrets of learning English†, this advertisement uses the absence of contact as a strategy to arouse viewer’s interest in discovering â€Å"what exactly is the secret that this ancient sage has†. Similarly, under the social distance system of analysis, the first poster is very intimate/personal, characterized by a close shot, yet the second one is relatively impersonal under a medium shot. From the perspective of attitude system, the first poster is presented from a front, eye-level angle which represents heavy involvement and equal status with the viewers. The designer of the poster intends to create a young man who could be anyone of those young white-collar who has problems learning English. The second one is also presented from a front, eye-level angle. Yet it is noticeable that due to the disproportion of its body and the small proportion between his eyes and the entire face, it is very likely to get an illusion that it is a low angle, which signifies the represented participant’s power. The compositional grammar primarily deals with the way in which information or value is transferred from the represented participants towards the viewers. Since the two posters both adopted a centered circular position which presented their central characters in the very core of the composition, there is very little to compare in the aspect.

Adolf Hitler :: Biography Biographies Hitler Essays

Adolf Hitler The interesting life of Adolf Hitler is not fully known to people. Adolf Hitler was born on April 20, 1889, the fourth child of Alois Schickelgruber and Klara Hitler in the Austrian town of Braunau. Two of his siblings died from diphtheria when they were children, and one died shortly after birth. Alois was a customs official, illegitimate by birth, which was described by his housemaid as a "very strict but comfortable" man. His mother showered Young Adolf with love and affection. When Adolf was three years old, the family moved to Passau, along the Inn River on the German side of the border. A brother, Edmond, was born two years later. The family moved once more in 1895 to the farm community of Hafeld, 30 miles southwest of Linz. Another sister, Paula, was born in 1896, the sixth of the union, supplemented by a half brother and half sister from one of his father's two previous marriages. Following another family move, Adolf lived for six months across from a large Benedictine monastery. The monastery's coat of arms' most salient feature was a swastika. As a youngster, Adolf's dream was to enter the priesthood. While there is anecdotal evidence that Adolf's father regularly beat him during his childhood, it was not unusual for discipline to be enforced in that way during that period. By 1900, Hitler's talents as an artist surfaced. He did well enough in school to be eligible for either the university pre paratory "gymnasium" or the technical/scientific Realschule. Because the latter had a course in drawing, Adolf accepted his father's decision to enroll him in the Realschule. He did not do well there. Adolf's father died in 1903 after suffering a pleural hemorrhage. Adolf himself suffered from lung infections, and he quit school at the age of 16, partially the result of ill health and partially the result of poor school work. In 1906, Adolf was permitted to visit Vienna, but he was unable to gain admission to a prestigious art school. His mother developed terminal breast cancer and was treated by Dr. Edward Bloch, a Jewish doctor who served the poor. After an operation and excruciatingly painful and expensive treatments with a dangerous drug, she died on December 21, 1907. Hitler spent six years in Vienna, living on a small legacy from his father and an orphan's pension. Virtually penniless by 1909, he wandered Vienna as a transient, sleeping in bars, flophouses, and shelters for th e homeless, including, ironically, those financed by Jewish philanthropists.

High performance Essay

Conclusion: There are 3 different component dyes in the mix including blue dye, yellow dye and red dye. The blue dye has the highest Rf in chromatography ( Rf=1 in water and ethanol and isoprophy alcohol). The yellow dye has the lowest Rf in chromatography in ethanol and isoprophy alcohol and middle Rf in water (Rf=0.17 and isoprophy alcohol and lowest Rf in water (Rf=0.816 in ethanol, Rf= 0.678 in water and Rf=0.680 in isoprophy alcohol). Real World Connection HPLC-MS stands for High performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. HPLC-MS shares the same principle with paper chromatography. They both separate mixture using the difference in different affinities to mobile/stationary phase of different components. However, HPLC-MC is far different from paper chromatography. Firstly, HPLC-MC is composed of a liquid chromatography and a mass spectrometer. This instrumentation enables HPLC-MC to analyze a much wider range of components. While paper chromatography only qualitatively separate different component in a liquid mixture, HPLC-MS can quantitatively examine each component, including Compounds that are thermally labile, exhibit high polarity or have a high molecular mass. Secondly, paper chromatography use solvent as mobile phase and paper as stationary phase, but in HPLC-MS the mobile phase is the mixture of liquid and the stationary phase is the solid through which liquid flow. Thirdly, paper chromatography can be carried out at normal temperature and pressure, but HPLC-MS sometimes needs to be done under high pressure and certain temperature to successfully drive the liquid through the solid and best demonstrate the difference in affinities of different liquid compound.

Theory of Modernity Essay - 928 Words

Theory of modernity is based on the notion of social progress, it implies that all of society, in whatever era they exist and in what region or were located, are involved in a single, all-consuming, the universal process of the ascent of human society from savagery to civilization. Culture of modernity is defining the development of European civilization for four centuries. It based on the idea of progress and human values, which are now, cherished every European: a democratic political system, economic freedom, professional excellence, autonomy, civil society and legal state. The French Revolution - perhaps the most powerful shock of the XVIII century - changed the face of France, giving it a modern character. It†¦show more content†¦As The Age of Enlightenment passed through Europe, these religious identities began to decline due to the development of national ones that were defined by set geographic regions. One of the main characteristics of modernity is the idea of sovereignty which by definition is the supreme and independent power of a state. The first concrete sovereign states came out during the Age of Enlightenment with the French Revolution and its upheavals in its classes as well as its government. The creation of a National Assembly from t he members of the Third Estate of France is directly linked to the creation of modern sovereignty and the emergence of an identity free of the traditional social order. Modernity arose during the Age of Enlightenment because there was great social and political upheaval going around. Ideas of the old were being thrown out in the favor of new and progressive ones. People began to move away from the feudalistic society that had set social orders with the church as the main power to a society with set geographic boundaries with the state as the supreme power and not the church. 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