A multimodal analysis of the language of children’s picture books about feelings and emotions

Abstract

 This study investigates the underlying meaning of three children's picture books under the theme of feelings and emotions using a systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis approach (SF-MDA). Extended from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) (Halliday, 2004), Appraisal system (Martin, 2005) and Visual Grammar (Kress, 2006) are employed as analytical tools to unpack the interpersonal meaning of the three books at a multimodal level. The combination of verbal and visual analyses uncovered the interplay of verbal and visual resources employed in the three books. The findings suggest that both resources can largely complement each other to convey interpersonal meaning, which could contribute to readers' understanding of the central messages of these books. Therefore, this study suggests a more serious attitude toward producing or reading children's picture books about feelings and emotions is needed. While adult readers reading these books aloud with children or young readers reading these books alone should pay equal attention to both resources to ensure they can understand the underlying meaning correctly, writers and illustrators should communicate with each other to ensure both verbal and visual modes fulfill their role in meaning-making.