A multimodal discourse analysis of the textual and logical relations in marketing texts written by international undergraduate students

Abstract

Thematic progression and the composition of information value contribute to the development of well-structured meaningful text. Discourse-based research of the textual features has been confined to language learning and workplace contexts, and in particular advertising and marketing research. However, no published study has explored and analysed the multimodal textual and the logic-semantic features in tertiary marketing texts. This case study employed a Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) to investigate and compare thematic progression patterns and composition of information value in five business marketing plan reports. It also aimed to investigate the logico-semantic expansions between the visual semiotic resources and the text surrounding them. The SF-MDA of the marketing plan texts is underpinned by Halliday's (1994) systemic functional linguistics, Kress and van Leeuwen's (1996) composition of information value and Martinec and Salway's (2005) system for multimodal discourse analysis of logicosemantic relations. The findings of the SF-MDA revealed the extensive use of Theme reiteration pattern, followed by linear thematic progression pattern. Although multiple-Theme pattern was minimally employed, disciplinary-specific uses of this pattern in marketing discourse emerged. The findings suggest that the students have managed professional workplace practices by showing their understandings of marketing as part of overall business management. A number of other interesting findings related to textual and logico-semantic relations that exist between the tables and the graphs and the accompanying text were revealed. The SF-MDA of informational choices in the marketing texts extends Kress and van Leeuwen's (1996) functional interpretations of visual artefacts in terms of compositional zones. As the intersemiotic logic-semantic relations between graphs and tables and the orthographic texts surrounding them play a vital role in marketing discourse, tutors can introduce ways of expanding the meaning-making potential in these semiotic resources. Other pedagogical implications for the teaching and learning of writing are presented, particularly in the teaching of English for Business students.

A multimodal discourse analysis of English dentistry texts written by Saudi undergraduate students: A study of theme and information structure

“…Halliday (2004), for example, investigated scientific English throughout history and showed how it uses grammatical nominalizations and favors relational clauses (attributive for assigning properties and identifying for definitions), material or mental. Discourse studies of the textual multimodal features in tertiary contexts have included the disciplinary fields of business (Alyousef 2013(Alyousef , 2015a(Alyousef , 2016(Alyousef , 2017, science and computing (Drury et al 2006, Jones 2006, mathematics (O'Halloran 1998(O'Halloran , 1999b(O'Halloran , 2005(O'Halloran , 2008, journalism and media (Hawes 2015), history (North 2005), and nursing (Okawa 2008). The majority of research focused on primary or secondary school contexts (Hsu and Yang 2007, Jaipal 2010, Korani 2012.…”

An SF-MDA of the Textual and the Logical Cohesive Devices in a Postgraduate Accounting Course

“…Whereas SFL-based studies of tertiary business discourse are sparse (Alyousef, 2013(Alyousef, , 2015b(Alyousef, , 2016a(Alyousef, , 2016b(Alyousef, , 2017(Alyousef, , 2018Alyousef & Alnasser, 2015a, 2015bAlyousef & Alsharif, 2017;Alyousef & Mickan, 2016), a dearth of research studies investigated cohesion in textbooks or academic texts (Hinkel, 2001;Kim & Crossley, 2018;Liu & Braine, 2005;Tangkiengsirisin, 2010) or other disciplines, such as history (Korani, 2012) or literary texts (Gutwinski, 1976). SFLbased business studies were confined to the fields of marketing (Alyousef, 2016b(Alyousef, , 2017(Alyousef, , 2018, finance (Alyousef, 2013(Alyousef, , 2016aAlyousef & Alnasser, 2015a), accounting (Alyousef & Alsharif, 2017), and management accounting (Alyousef, 2015b;Alyousef & Alnasser, 2015b;Alyousef & Mickan, 2016).…”

Symbolic Portrayal of Social Classes in Pakistani Advertisement

“…Caldas- Coulthard and Coulthard (1996) support the importance of Semiotics in any text as they say that text cannot be analyzed without considering Semiotic resources accompanied with it, such as images and layout. Alyousef (2016) in his research employed a Systematic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SF-MDA) to explore thematic progression patterns in business marketing plan reports. Cheng and Liu (2014) have observed the relationship of Pi and Richard the tiger in the film Life of Pi by employing systematic functional grammar and functional grammar taking into consideration different Semiotics modalities and their contribution for the conception of film.…”