Danmu (anonymous superimposed video comments) is a popular form of communication
on Chinese and Japanese video sharing sites. While previous studies primarily focused on
the verbal aspects of danmu comments, there is a growing interest in exploring their
multimodal features. This study investigates the unique potential of danmu comments to
communicate visual meaning, interact with on-screen content, and thereby shape audience
perception. Informed by a social semiotic approach to multimodality ...
Danmu (anonymous superimposed video comments) is a popular form of communication
on Chinese and Japanese video sharing sites. While previous studies primarily focused on
the verbal aspects of danmu comments, there is a growing interest in exploring their
multimodal features. This study investigates the unique potential of danmu comments to
communicate visual meaning, interact with on-screen content, and thereby shape audience
perception. Informed by a social semiotic approach to multimodality and relevant
pragmatic theories, the study analyzed 50 screenshots of visually significant danmu
comments to understand the resources used by commenters to craft visual comments and
the relationship between these comments and the screen. Our findings revealed that four
key resources were utilized to create visual comments: arrows, kaomoji, context-specific
special characters and symbols, and ASCII art. Additionally, five types of relationships
were identified between visual danmu comments and the screen, including deictic,
emphasizing, complementing, extending, and independent. This study provides an up-todate examination of the possibilities for visual expression in textual communication and
extends previous research on semiotic resources in social media. It also discusses the role
of danmu visual play as internet memes and the emergence of danmu visual grammar.
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