Global Journal of Human Social Science, G: Linguistics and Education, Volume 23 Issue 3

A Study of Different Modes’ Synergy from the Perspective of Multimodal Discourse: Taking Apple Product Launch Conferences as an Example Liu Sijiao α & Professor Tian Jianguo σ Abstract- With the development of science and technology and media information , great changes have taken place in communication methods. Images, music, gestures or written language all play important roles in daily communication besides of spoken language. This study selects Apple Event 2018 as the research subject based on Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics Framework and Zhang Delu's modal synergy theory to analyze the selection, combination, relationship and multimodal application of modes in product launch conference in order to realize the interpersonal functional meaning of Halliday's Metafunction Theory under the coordination of multiple modes. The results show that the visual and auditory modes are the main means cooperating with each otherto express the speakers’ meaning. Besides, this cooperation is not arbitrary, but follows the interaction of complementary and non- complementary relations; At the same time, according to the classification of complementary and non-complementary relations, the modality can promote the acceptability and enthusiasm of the discourse, thus encouraging the audience to have the desire to consume. Through the analysis of multimodal discourse and from the perspective of interpersonal function, this study provides some enlightenment for entrepreneurs to understand how multimodal discourse is acceptedand understood by the audience. Keywords: interpersonal function, modes, multimodal discourse analysis (MDA), product launch conference. I. I ntroduction n recent years, more and more scholars at home and abroad devote themselves to multimodal discourse analysis (MDA). Chinese as well as foreign scholars study multimodal discourse involving many language categories and topics. Kress & Van Leeuwen and O’Toole extended the concept of meta-functionto images and proposed the conceptual and theoretical framework of visual grammar. On this basis, Royce,O’ Halloran and Martinec analyzed and explained the specific text of visual and auditory multimodal. Since the 1990s, more and more domestic linguists have paid attention to the study of multimodal discourses in different genres, including advertisements, poems, films and new media. However, there are few multimodal discourses involved in product launch. Apple's product launches, in particular, are the focus of mass media’s attention. In order to achieve better results, product launches are often elaborately designed and make full use of various modes and media such as language, voice, gesture and video at the same time. These different modes interact with each other to vividly express the meaning of design from the companyand the designers. Based on Systemic Functional Linguistics, this paper attempts to study the synergy of dynamic multimodal discourse modes in Apple's product launches. Theoretically, firstly, the research of product launch from multimodal perspective provides a new method to conduce the research of enterprise launch conference. Second, it draws the application of systematic functional grammar to the multimodal discourse analysis of production promotion release conference. Practically, through the analysis of multimodal discourse in product launch events, this study provides some enlightenment for sellers to understand how multimodal discourse can be accepted and understood by the audience, so as to give full play to the positive impact of product launch events and help merchants to capture the different tastes of the audience. The remainder of the paper is structured as follows. Section 2 reviews multimodal discourse analysis and product launch conferences at home and abord. The methodology and findings of the study are presented in Section 3 and 4 respectively. Finally, Section 5 concludes the study. II. L iterature R eview a) Previous Studies of Multimodality Discourse Analysis i. Previous Studies of Multimodality Discourse Analysis Abord After more than 20 years, a large number of research achievements have been made. The mainstream foreign perspectives on multimodal discourse analysis include: social semiotics multimodal discourse analysis, system-functional multimodal discourse analysis (SF-MDA), multimodal interaction analysis, and multimodal corpus analysis. As for the multimodal study of social semiotics, Saussure believes that symbolshave social characteristics. Halliday (1978) believed that language is a kind of social symbol. Social semioticians believe that the choice of symbol resources is determined by the intention of the symbol interpreter, which means that the choice of symbols determines the I © 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue III Version I 81 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 G Author α σ : Northwestern Polytechnical University, Youyixi Street, Xi’an, Shaanxi, China. e-mail: jocelynbulabula@163.com