5.2　Local coherence patterns and the differentiation among the stages in the English learning advertisements

As mentioned earlier，the definition of local coherence adopted in this chapter is the semantic connection between visual and verbal in smaller discourse units or segments.It has two implications for the current analysis here.One is the conceptualization and measurement of the semantic connection between visual and verbal，the other is that the analysis should take into consideration the differences between the stages of the English learning advertisements identified in the genre analysis in Section 3.2.2.For the former issue，the information linking principle will be used.For the latter we need to be aware of the possibility of the different patterns of visual-verbal connection in different stages of the English learning advertisements.In this regard，it has been observed in the preliminary analysis of the visual-verbal connection in the English learning advertisements that the various stages of this specific genre indeed show very different patterns in the visual make-up and accordingly in the visual-verbal relations.Therefore，a differentiation is needed in the application of the principle of information linking in various stages of the advertisements at issue，before we embark on the analysis of the patterns of local coherence in each of them.

In the Reader Attraction stage which is often instantiated as the cover of the leaflets and brochures，the verbal component is usually a verbal slogan and the visual component is a big eye-catching picture with bright and saturated color.What is concerned here is how the verbal slogan and the picture are connected semantically.

In this stage，due to the demand of the advertising industry the message is often unconventional and unexpected.It means that the comprehension of the message intended in the cover requires processing of both the verbal slogan and the picture.Actually，both of the two components are salient in typographical features and have good capability in attracting attention.This assumption is verified by the eye-tracking experiment which will be introduced in Chapter 7.To summarize，since both the verbal slogan and the picture are indispensable for the representation of the message of the designer and for the realization of the communicative function of this stage，we can hold that the two parts have somewhat equal status.

In contrast，in the other stages of the English learning advertisements，including flyers，leaflets，and brochures，the verbal parts and the visual parts display very different patterns.Specifically，the verbal mode plays the dominant role whereas the visual mode the subordinate role.This conclusion is drawn on the basis of the observation that in many such advertisements，these stages are represented by almost purely verbal texts with limited use of visual images.The verbal texts are large in quantity while the visual images，if there are any，are small in both quantity and size.Moreover，the messages in these stages are usually completed in the verbal texts，and the images，if there are any，provide additional subordinate information.That is，the topics of various levels are represented almost completely by the verbal elements.This point is further supported by the fact that the verbal texts are obligatory whereas the visual images are optional.

To illustrate my point，a leaflet is shown.Figure 5.1 is the cover page，and also the Reader Attraction stage.Figure 5.2 and Figure 5.3 show the inside page and the back page of the leaflet respectively.In terms of semantic content，the inside page（see Figure 5.2）is the material affordance of three functional stages of the English learning advertisements as a genre：Corporate Profile，Statements of Competitiveness，Course information.The back page（see Figure 5.3）carries two stages：Testimonial and Contact information.

Figure 5.1　Reader Attraction

Figure 5.2　Corporate Profile，Statements of Competiveness，Course information

Figure 5.3　Testimonial and Contact information

Apart from the brand name and logo on the cover page，the stage of Reader Attraction comprises a big picture of a group of people，and a verbal slogan“N多老外加速你成功”（N-many foreigners speed up your success）at the bottom.In the stage of Corporate Profile，the verbal part comprises a heading and two verbal paragraphs，the visual part comprises an array of national flags of different countries.Under the heading“信赖瑞来英语的企业客户”（corporate clients that trust Reallife English）are an array of logos from which we can read the names of some well-known companies.Logos are semiotic artifacts which combine the verbal names of the companies and certain visual features in a unique way.In logos verbal mode has an important role to play.In the stages Statements of Com petitiveness and Course information there are a large amount of verbal texts and no use of pictures or graphs.The stage of Testimonial incorporates verbal texts and photos of the witnesses.The use of photos of the witnesses is an obligatory feature of all testimonial genres for the purpose of credibility.Even in this stage，the status of the photos is not as important as that of the verbal texts in that the function of the photo is limited to the identity of the witness corresponding to his/her name expressed in the verbal mode while the main point of this stage—the evaluation made by the witnesses—is expressed exclusively in the verbal texts.Contact information will not be considered in this book.

From the above exemplification we can clearly see that the visual-verbal relations show sharply different patterns in the Reader Attraction stage and other stages.Therefore different approaches are needed to analyze the local coherence between visual and verbal in these two parts of the English learning advertisements.It means that the information linking principle，although applies to all multimodal discourses in theory，needs to take on different patterns when we are analyzing the visual-verbal relations in the Reader Attraction and other stages.Therefore we'll consider the Reader Attraction separately in the analysis of visual-verbal coherence.The analysis of the Reader Attraction will be followed by that of the other major stages in the English learning advertisements.