ZENG PU (NORTHWESTERN POLYTECHNICAL UNIVERSITY)

MULTIMODAL CONVEYANCE OF SURPRISE EMOTION IN SCIENCE POPULARIZATION DISCOURSE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF AWARD-WINNING AND NON-AWARD-WINNING 3MT PRESENTATIONS : LINGUISTICS, DISCOURSE ANALYSIS, AND RELATED AREAS

Academic discourse analysis has long been a focal point in linguistic research, yet few studies have delved into emotion expressions in academic spoken discourse through a multimodal discourse analysis lens. This study, adopting the theoretical framework of “multimodal interaction analysis”, probes into the differences in modal density and modal coherence between the award-winning and non-award-winning contestants of Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition in expressing the emotion of surprise. The corpus-based analyses reveal that the award-winning group deploys more linguistic expressions of surprise and demonstrates denser modalities in expressing surprise. This suggests that the award-winning contestants possess a heightened awareness of surprise emotion expression and are adept at invoking multimodal symbolic resources. Additionally, the study finds that the award-winning contestants tend to establish “reinforcing” and “complementary” relationships among modalities, while the non-award-winning contestants employ more modalities which are “irrelevant” to the expression of surprise. This indicates that the modal coherence exhibited by the award-winning contestants is more effective in conveying surprise emotion and disseminating scientific knowledge. By integrating multimodal discourse analysis with emotion conveyance in science popularization discourse, this study offers insights for academic English speaking instruction, aiming to equip college students with the discourse strategies necessary for effective academic oral communication.

Zeng Pu, from Xi'an, China, is a postgraduate student at School of Foreign Studies in Northwestern Polytechnical University, under the guidance of Associate Professor Qian Wang, specializing in Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, with interests spanning cognitive linguistics, multimodality, and academic discourse analysis.