| Title: VISUAL IMAGES IN NEWSPAPER RESTAURANT REVIEWS FROM MULTIMODAL APPROACH TO DISCOURSE ANALYSIS |
| Authors: Thu Le Hoai, Vietnam |
| The images are, like language, rich in many potential meanings and are governed by clearly visual grammar structures that can be employed to decode these multiple meanings. The study adopted Kress and van Leeuwen’s (1996) text-based Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) approach to reading visual images with three meanings: compositional meaning, interactive meaning and representational meaning. Specifically, 30 images used in 5 restaurant review articles by 5 different food reviewers-reporters on The Telegraph newspaper are examined in terms of their representational meaning. The findings of the study support the visual grammar theory and highlight the value of images as semiotic resources in conveying multi-layered meanings. The analysis of the selected images shows various relations existed between the participants and the viewers on the visual level through employing different visual modes. In terms of representational meaning, images are analysed through three elements: participants, processes and circumstances. 90% of the images have objects as participants. The circumstances are mostly inside the restaurant with a warm and cozy, clean and tiny atmosphere and slick interior (87%). Most images convey conceptual representation through symbolic processes (87%). Representational meaning of visual mode contributes and parallels with ideational meaning of verbal modes. |
| Keywords: Visual Images, Representational Meaning, Newspaper Restaurant Reviews, Multimodal Discourse Analysis MDA. |
| DOI: https://doi.org/10.59009/ijlllc.2023.0048 |
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