Information on the thesis

The thesis is focused on the phenomenon of multimodality in English comics as a visual-graphic text. The phenomenon of multimodality is viewed from a linguistic perspective, the levels and constituents of the phenomenon under study being identified as well as a semiotic system of comics being investigated. Alternatively, the thesis implies a comprehensive analysis dealing with semantic features of both verbal and visual constituents of comics under consideration. The thesis ensures the insight into the origin and further development of comics as a literary genre, where considerable attention is paid to the genre categories of war and a superhero.

As a multimodal text, English comics are considered as a complex semiotic system which implies a combination of communication modalities aimed at delivering the message from different narrative formats. The diversity of narrative scope promotes the communication agreement and text integrity. All the constituents of English comics are manifested in the “author – reader” multimodal communication channel, the latter presupposes the usage of verbal and visual elements of communication.

It has been proved that English comics imply two levels of multimodality: complete and partial realized in text organization peculiarities. The caption in the fragments is considered to be the manifestation of complete multimodality, which is characterized by an auxiliary function. It is emphasized that the partial multimodality occurs at the axiological and symbolic levels of the multimodal meaning, which are determined by autonomous relationships of the multimodal elements. It has been asserted that the semiotic system of comics as visual-graphic texts manifests itself through the interrelationship of the triad “sender – comics – addressee”.

Deictic pairs ‘this – that’, ‘here – there’ refer to both the physical space (nearness – remoteness) and psychological distance of the characters. In English comics, the category of deixis plays an important role for the multimodal text comprehension since the operability of deictic markers is a helpful tool for the retrospection realization. Due to such operability of deictic markers of time and space, it becomes possible to extend the location and timeframe of actions in comics.

The analysis of deictic markers allowed investigating the image format of a superhero. The further perspectives were determined: I am America and American citizens; I  + You = We; I am the opposite of you; not like you. The peculiarity of using a personal deictic marker lies in its direct correlation with the image.

In the process of research performed, the conclusion is drawn that the stock of extralinguistic means is represented by font, color and typographic symbol. Being a multimodal means, font is a valuable extralinguistic tool used to emphasize the verbal components found in the speech balloon or caption of fragments. The results obtained are the evidence show semi-bold or italics are introduced to highlight the key ideas of fragments, the name of characters, elements with the appropriate emotiveness and graphical signs of other languages.

Color as a multimodal means is a tool for character identification, highlighting the verbal content, and promoting extra emotions and feelings. Furthermore, color is a multimodal visual means used to identify the character’s ethnic origin. Phonosemantic channel of communication observed in English comics is associated with color. The sounds are transferred through letter combinations and accentuated with a peculiar color. Phonosemantic channel of verbal–non-verbal communication is a multimodal means which helps to comprehend the written message acoustically, in which letter combinations are the tools for sounds reproduction. Such letter combinations transmit the sounds of eruption, explosion, breaking, wreckage, destruction, collision, scream, laugh, and sounds reaching from other objects (noise, crack).

The function of a typographic symbol, as well as font and color, is determined by its ability to highlight the verbal content of English comics fragments. Besides, the typographic symbol is associated with the connotation of the message. Within the five groups of multimodal means (font, color, phonosemantic channel of communication, typographic symbol, and deictic markers) that were studied, analyzed and presented in the thesis, font is the most relevant and frequently used in English comics is font.

Key words: comics, multimodality, complete multimodality, partial multimodality, visual-graphic text, language sign, channel of communication, deixis, deictic marker, extralinguistic means, phonosemantic channel, font, typographic symbol.