A Relevance-theoretic Approach to Multimodal Discourse Analysis: A Case Study of Emoji Advertising

With the development of the internet and mass media, emojis are not only frequently used in daily internet-based communication but have become important marketing tools. Based on the relevance theory, this paper will take emojis in advertising as the research object. From the perspective of implicit/explicit information, contextual construction, and implicated conclusion, it aims to explore how this multimodal resource in advertisement helps the audience to get the advertiser’s communicative intentions and obtain optimal relevance. This study concludes that emojis serve as a tool of ostensive communication, conveying the message with the presumption of relevance; emojis help consumers construct new cognitive context; and they are complementary with other modalities, which increase the ostension of information and save cognitive effort, and promote the audience find the optimal relevance path.