Verbal and Non-Verbal Modes to Mark Stance in a Cinematic Text. (In Eng.)

Abstract

This empirical study focuses on stance representation in a cinematic text, which is treated as a semiotically complex construct. The stance is viewed as the manifestation of the author’s feelings, attitudes and values. Studies on stance to date have largely examined its expression in linear texts based on the natural language. However, the way stance is marked in multimodal texts, specifically in cinematic ones based on the interaction of verbal and non-verbal modes, remains an underexplored area. To fill the gap in scholarship the present research aims to identify linguistic, paralinguistic and non-verbal markers of stance in a film dialogue. The film “The Man who Knew Infinity” serves as the material for analysis. The study employs the stylistic and contextual analyses as well as the Multimodal Discourse Analysis. The research shows that stance is expressed verbally both on lexical and grammatical levels and is supported by paralinguistic and non-verbal means. The main linguistic means used to express objective stance in the sample multimodal text is the morphological category of mood. The subjective stance, on the other hand, is mainly marked with the help of various lexical items. In reference to stance expression, syntactic means proved to have very limited use in the cinematic text. It can be explained by the colloquial nature of a film dialogue, which makes it syntactically simple. The research elucidates the way the interaction of verbal and nonverbal modes, that include gestures and facial expressions, affects stance building in a cinematic text, which opens avenues for further studies of marking stance in other types of multimodal texts.