A Cognitive Study Of Multimodal Metaphor In Political Cartoons:A Conceptual Blending Theory Approach

Based on the Cognitive Linguistics,this thesis studies the construction mechanisms and cognitive motivations of multimodal metaphor in political cartoons from the perspective of Conceptual Blending Theory.Compared with monomodal metaphor,multimodal metaphor is more complicated,consisting of two or more modes.And political comics,as an important carrier of multimodal metaphor,have always been one of the research focuses.However,few researches have combined qualitative and quantitative methods to study the construction mechanisms and cognitive motivations of multimodal metaphor in political cartoons.Cognitive Linguistics studies the relationship between language and thought.It is devoted to exploring the inner mind and cognitive motivations through studying other exterior modes.As an integral part of Cognitive Linguistics,Conceptual Blending Theory provides an explanation for innovative thinking of mankind and the formation of new concepts.Thus,this thesis takes the approach of Conceptual Blending Theory to discuss the construction mechanisms and cognitive motivations of multimodal metaphor in political cartoons,specifically focusing oil the following questions:(1)How is multimodal metaphor in political cartoons constructed?(2)What are the cognitive motivations of multimodal metaphor in political cartoons?The linguistic data of this thesis are 150 political cartoons with two or more modes from Chinese News Cartoon Network.The research methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis are used.The research findings are:(1)The meaning construction mechanisms of multimodal metaphor in political cartoons are four kinds of multimodal metaphor networks through activating multiple spaces.(2)The construction mechanisms of multimodal metaphor in political cartoons are motivated by semantic confliction,similarity creation and concretization to abstraction.This thesis studies construction mechanisms and cognitive motivations of multimodal metaphor in political cartoons from the perspective of Conceptual Blending Theory,which,on the one hand,deepens people's understanding of multimodal metaphor,and on the other hand,expands the applications of Conceptual Blending Theory.