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image of A multimodal analysis of a Japanese TV commercial
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Abstract

Abstract

By examining a popular Japanese TV commercial as an archetypal example of discursive practice, this paper shows that quotidian discourse is poetically organized and achieved through multimodally accumulated preferences in order to maximize appeal for anticipated recipients. Building on this assumption, a linguistic anthropological approach, called ‘ethnopoetics’, is adopted and modified to elucidate the cultural norms and assumptions embedded in layered ‘texts’. Specifically, focus is given to verbal, visual, aural, and somatic elements in the commercial, and an attempt is made to elucidate the multi-layered coordination of these semiotic resources, which eventually evokes an underlying social configuration, called ‘interactional text’.

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/content/journals/10.1075/ps.22038.kat
2025-06-23
2025-07-19
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