Toward Multimodal Pragmatics

This study uses the multimodal corpus approach to examine how speakers use multiple devices to perform illocutionary acts and express illocutionary forces. The author combines qualitative and quantitative methods to show that illocutionary forces are multimodal in nature.

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Classic pragmatic theories emphasize the linguistic aspect of illocutionary acts and forces. However, as multimodality has gained importance and popularity, multimodal pragmatics has quickly become a frontier of pragmatic studies. This book adds to this new research trend by offering a perspective of situated discourse in the Chinese context.

Using the multimodal corpus approach, this study examines how speakers use multiple devices to perform illocutionary acts and express illocutionary forces. Not only does the author use qualitative analysis to study the types, characteristics, and emergence patterns of illocutionary forces, he also performs a quantitative, corpus-based analysis of the interaction of illocutionary forces, emotions, prosody, and gestures. The results show that illocutionary forces are multimodal in nature while meaning in discourse is created through an interplay of an array of modalities.

Students and scholars of pragmatics, corpus linguistics, and Chinese linguistics will benefit from this title.