Multimodal Textual Analysis of Negation in Princess Diana Panorama Interview 1995: A Critical Stylistic Approach

Abstract

This paper proposes a version of the Critical Stylistics model that explores how multimodal meanings of negation are made and projected in Princess Diana Panorama interview 1995. A framework integrating Critical Stylistics and Visual Grammar models introduces the multimodal textual conceptual function of negation developed from Jeffries (2010a). Applying Jeffries’ (2014, 2016) concept of textual meaning, the analysis shows that the linguistic text and images are two independent texts contributing differently but collaboratively to the meanings of negation made and projected in the multimodal texts.

I argue that a critical stylistic approach is applicable to images, but it needs an equivalent visual model to propose a tool that can analyse the meaning-making of negation in multimodal texts. I adopt Jeffries (2010a) critical stylistic approach and adapt it for images, making use of Kress and van Leeuwen’s (1996, 2006) model of visual grammar and drawing on their notion that images are texts to develop the multimodal conceptual function of negation. The proposed tool can show how the linguistic text and the accompanying images while using resources specific to their underlying structure construct meanings that result in a coherent portrayal of the world of events reported through negation. The multimodal textual conceptual function of negation uses the notion of co-text to reduce the number of possible interpretations an image might suggest, producing a more systematic replicable analysis.