CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1   Research Topic

With the intention to invite customers and influence their behaviors, financial institutions make great efforts to present themselves to the public. Deeming Internet as a great helper in  self-presentation,  financial  institutions  endeavor  to  present  themselves  as  ideal destinations for potential stakeholders on the Internet, where the ―About us‖, ―Company Overview‖  or  the  ―  Company  Story‖  parts  will  serve  as  the  window  through  which customers  can take  a  glance  at.  However,  time  has  evolved  into  a  period  when information  is  no  longer  conveyed  by  plain written  text  only,  but  by  images,  sounds, videos  and  other  multimodal  resources  as  well.  Company  profiles  on websites,  as  the bridge  through  which  customers  can  get  a  panoramic  view,  play  a  vital  role  in communicating the  right  information.  Company  profiles  interact  with  customers  to establish  and  maintain  relations  with  them,  to influence  their  attitude  and  behavior,  to express their attitudes, which is termed as interpersonal meaning (Thereafter IM will be used  to  replace  interpersonal  meaning).  Under  the  guidance  of  Halliday’s  Mood  and Modality  system and  the  Visual  Grammar  proposed  by  G.  Kress  and  T.  van Leeuwen(1996,2006), this thesis explores different realizations of interpersonal meaning in  both  Chinese  and  American  profiles  on  official  websites  from  perspectives of lexico-grammatical level (written texts) and Visual Grammar (images and videos). On the basis  of  discrepancy analysis  of  IM  construction,  this  thesis  then  makes  a  contrastive comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of the realization of IM under the model of Strategic Credibility raised by Richard. B Higgins (2000). This model is used to evaluate the effect of a company’s investors relation management.

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1.2   Definition of Profiles of Financial Institutions

As  an  introductory  text,  company  profiles  play  an  important  role  in  establishing  their images and offer a view through which customers can get a full picture. They are written to communicate the information like what kinds of products, services can be offered to potential customers, the concrete strategy and the overall performance in recent years. To a  certain  degree,  it  is  what  Bhatia  calls  ―  a  representative  promotional  genre  of text‖(Bhatia, 1993:74). 

Scholars maintain that company profiles turn out to be a general introduction of the range of products and services that a company provides. A company profile is of vital importance  because  it  can  help  build  the  company’s  credibility  with the  market  the company serves. An effective profile will definitely interact with customers in a right way, thus leaving them a favorable image and influencing their behavior.

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CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Various Perspectives on the Profiles of Financial Institutions

A  financial  institution  is  an  institution  that  provides  financial  services  for  its  clients  or members. Broadly speaking, they can be divided into three categories: banks that accept and manage deposits and make loans; insurance companies and underwriters.

A  close  look  at  the  previous  researches  done  by  various  scholars  from  home and abroad will offer us a clearer picture that how profiles of financial institutions have been  probed  into  before.  Fu  Huiping(2007)  researches  into  the interpersonal  meaning realization  in  both  Chinese  company  profiles  and  English  company  profiles.  Wen Jing(2013) also  probes  into  the  interpersonal  meaning  in  both  Chinese  and  English company  profiles  but  mainly  focuses  on the  personal  reference.  What’s  more,  Liu Ping(2013) and Li Quandong(2013) research into Chinese and English company profiles from  the  perspective  of  translation,  and  only  Li  Quandong(2013)  makes  a  contrastive study of translation under Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions.

From what have been mentioned above, a possible conclusion can be drawn is that all the previous studies concerning company profiles just focus on the written texts, ranging  from  the  realization  of  interpersonal  meaning,  the  genre analysis  to  the translation of Chinese profiles into English. Nevertheless, the research on the realization of interpersonal meaning still deserves further exploration because none of these scholars has  laid  emphasis  on  the  multimodal resources  concerning  company  profiles  on  the official  websites,  which  combines  images,  videos  and  written texts as  a  whole  to demonstrate  themselves.  Consequently,  this  thesis  extends  the  view  to  a  wider  range, aiming to make  a  contrastive  study  on  the  written  texts  and  images  on  the  official websites  of  CFIS  and  AFIS  to illustrate  the  different  ways  they  construct  interpersonal meaning. 

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2.2 Previous Studies on Interpersonal Meaning

This part will elaborate  on interpersonal meaning from different perspectives and a full picture of how interpersonal meaning has been researched into by various scholars from both home and abroad will be displayed.

2.2.1 Definition of Interpersonal Meaning

As  for  the  definition  of  interpersonal  meaning,  different  scholars  from  both home and abroad hold different opinions. Eggins(1994) hold that interpersonal meaning is  just  about  the  social  relationship  built  between interactants. Eggins(1994)advances elements  such  as  different  social  status,  various  levels  of  intimacy  and  communication between  different  roles  can  affect  interpersonal  meaning.  Burton  and  Dimbleby(1997) uphold that interpersonal meaning is comprised of four elements: exchange of negotiation, specific  social  context,  how  they  perceive themselves  and  how  they  wish  to  present themselves. To some extent, this illustrates that interpersonal meaning lays emphasis on the  image  presented  in  certain  social  context.  Comparatively  speaking, Thompson(2000:28) gives a  rather  comprehensive  definition  and  believed  that interpersonal  meaning  is  about  using  language  or  other resources  to  influence  others’ attitude,  maintain  relationship  with  them  and  initiate  their  actions.  And  Halliday  & Matthessen  (2004:29-30)  term  interpersonal  meaning  as  the  established  social  and personal relationship with the people we are dealing with‖. Halliday(2000) proposes that when  we  use  language  and  other  resources  to  exchange meaning,  the  two-way communication  will  exert  influence  over  hearers’  attitudes  and  behaviors.  His understanding  shares  certain  similarities  with  Thompson’s,  but  comparatively  speaking, is less comprehensive.

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CHAPTER THREE ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK .............. 17

3.1 Halliday’s Mood and Modality System ................... 18

3.1.1 Overview of Interpersonal Meaning .............. 18

3.1.2 Mood ............. 18

CHAPTER  FOUR  CONTRASTIVE  MULTIMODAL  ANALYSIS  OF INTERPERSONAL MEANING IN DATA ........ 25

4.1 Contrastive Analysis of Mood System ..... 25

4.2 Contrastive Analysis of Modality System........... 30

CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION ................ 48

5.1 Major Findings ............. 48

5.2 Suggestions ................... 50

CHAPTER FOUR CONTRASTIVE MULTIMODAL ANALYSIS OF INTERPERSONAL MEANING IN DATA

4.1 Contrastive Analysis of Mood System

This  part  will  be  dominated  by  the  detailed  analysis  under  Mood  system,  including speech roles and speech functions.

For the analysis of mood system, several pieces of profiles will be provided for readers’  better  understanding  of  speech roles  and  speech  functions.  In  addition,  the following table serves to give a quantitative analysis of the proportion of offer, statement, command and question in both American and Chinese profiles. What merits mentioning is that there are 156 sentences in American profiles in total and 446 sentences in Chinese ones.

It  should  be  noted  that  statement  can  constantly  find  its  application  in  both American  and Chinese profiles, which is in line  with the function of company profiles, conveying the basic information to customers; offers also make up a certain percentage in profiles  and  all  of  them  communicate  to  customers  the  products  and  services  they  can provide. 

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CHAPTER FIVE CONCLUSION

5.1 Major Findings

Based on the contrastive study on the written texts and other multimodal resources on the official websites of profiles for financial institution, this thesis finds out that PAFIS and PCFIS differ significantly from each other in the ways to realize interpersonal meaning. Possible conclusions that can be drawn are as follows:

(1)   As  for  Mood  System,  PAFIS  and  PCFIS  prefer  to  play  ―giving‖  roles,  serving  as bridges  over  which potential  stakeholders  can  obtain  more  information  about  them.  To some extent, the realizations of ―giving‖ roles in both are majorly realized by statements, but  PAFIS  focus  more  on  their  present  performance  and  convince potential  customers with  more  statistics,  while  PCFIS  focus  more  on  the  rewards  and  reputation  they  have gained  over  years  to  win  stakeholder’s  trust,  thus  ignoring  to  familiarize  potential stakeholders  with  the  key information  to  some  extent.  And  offer  accounts  for  a comparatively  bigger  proportion  in  PAFIS,  which  indicates that  PAFIS  lay  more emphasis on the products and service they render customers.

(2)   As for ―demanding‖ roles, it makes up  a bigger proportion in PAFIS.  The written texts in PAFIS sometimes question customers to directly inviting their further thinking, thus  involving  their  interaction  in  a  rather  straightforward way.  However,  it  can  never find  its  application  in  PCFIS  because  it’s  deemed  rude  and  offensive,  thus  leaving potential  customers  with  nothing  but  more  distance  and  failing  to  involve  them  into interaction.  Besides,  AFIS just  demand  customers’  action  in  an  explicit  way,  hence arousing customers’ curiosity, while the demanding sentences in CFIS are alleviated by a model  verb  ―qing‖,  which  again  breeds  inequality  and  create  big  power distance  with customers. 

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