A Study Of Multimodal Metaphor In Automobile Video Advertisements

Metaphor stems from the use of rhetorical techniques in literary works,and its use in the field of literature dates back to the Plato period.With the development of cognitive linguistics,linguist Lakoff realizes metaphor is a way of thinking and widely exists in our daily life.He holds that language is only a symbol of external expression as a metaphor,and metaphor also exists in other symbols.Until the publication of Lakoff’s Metaphors We Live By,the theory of conceptual metaphor was formally put forward.The connotation of the conceptual metaphor theory is that human conceptual system is based on metaphor.As a mode of thinking and a means of cognition metaphor is a systematic mapping from a specific conceptual domain to an abstract conceptual domain.Therefore,understanding a concept is perceived by the metaphorical mapping from the source domain to the target domain.Metaphor means that as the source domain,a simple concrete object is used to comprehend the complex abstract concept of the target domain.In other words,one thing is used to understand another thing.Lakoff assumes that since conceptual metaphor is a mode of thinking and cognition,it does not only exist in texts.With the development of the media era,the diversity of modes has attracted people’s attention.After studying different modes in addition to pure texts,scholars represented by Forceville confirm that metaphor exists in other modes.Accordingly,more and more researches into multimodal metaphor have been made.One field of researches into multimodal metaphor is to study how meanings of metaphor are constructed by different modes.In multimodal metaphors,the construction of metaphorical meaning is achieved through metaphorical mapping.In the mapping process,the source domain and the target domain are presented by different modes.For example,the source domain is represented by an image mode and a text mode,while the target domain is represented by a sound mode.Based on conceptual metaphor,multimodal metaphor is applied widely in advertisements,comics,music,and sign languages.However,the previous studies of multimodal metaphor on advertisements are mostly made about print advertisements.Although there are some studies on video advertisements,they are mostly about public service advertisements.Studies on multimodal metaphor in automobile video advertisements are rare and incomplete.Therefore it is worthwhile to study video advertisements from the perspective of multimodal metaphor.Video advertisements are an important means of marketing in contemporary society.In addition to the quality of the product itself,the success of a product depends heavily on how advertisements are applied to promote products.Therefore,taking Cadillac automobile video advertisements as an example,this thesis studies automobile video advertisements from the perspective of multimodal metaphor to answer the following three questions.1.How is the multimodal metaphor in Cadillac automobile video advertisements constructed?2.What are the features of the multimodal metaphor in Cadillac automobile video advertisements?3.What are the unique functions of the sound mode in meaning construction of multimodal metaphors in Cadillac automobile video advertisements?Taking the four major themes in automobile advertisements as the research objects— car speed,car space,car owner’s identity and driving experience and based on conceptual metaphor theory and multimodal metaphor related theories,this thesis studies Cadillac video advertisements to find out the meaning construction and features of multimodal metaphors,and to identify the source and target domains of the multimodal metaphor and the effects of various modes,and the following conclusions are drawn.Firstly,the multimodal metaphor in Cadillac video advertisements is constructed by cross-domain mapping of conceptual metaphor theory,and the way of mapping is the cross-modal one,in which the source domain and the target domain are presented by different modes.For example,the source domain is a yoga room and ant it is presented by images,while the target domain is a car,which is presented by images and texts together.In the mapping process,the target domain and the source domain show their own characteristics.The target domain presents the product—the car,while the source domain is presented by a material object or a simple concept.Secondly,dynamics,vividness and universality are the three features of multimodal metaphor in Cadillac video advertisements.Dynamics of multimodal metaphor is Forceville’s complement to conceptual metaphorical expressions proposed by Lakoff.The expression of the conceptual metaphor is “A IS B”,such as the conceptual metaphor “LIFE IS JOURNEY”,while in multimodal metaphor the expression is modified to “A-ING IS B-ING”,which is determined by the dynamic presentation of multimodality.Vividness means that multimodal metaphor is presented by the interaction of various modes.Universality means that,on the one hand,multimodal metaphors are widely found in video advertisements;on the other hand,the mapping process from concrete things to specific things is universal,which is different from Lakoff’s conceptual metaphor,in which the mapping is conducted from the concrete things to abstract concepts.Thirdly,although the presentation of multimodal metaphors is the result of the interaction of modalities,there are unique functions of the sound mode in the multimodal metaphor of Cadillac video advertisement.Vocal music is applied to activate directly the source domain;instrumental music plays an auxiliary role in the meaning construction of multimodal metaphor and creates atmosphere for the video advertisements;other sound effects are used to indirectly activate the target domain.Therefore,different modes should be adopted more widely to attract the audience’s attention to video advertisements.Applying multimodal metaphor to the study of automobile advertising is a supplement to metaphor researches.In addition,the study of unique functions of sound mode in video advertising provides valuable references for future research.Finally,this study reveals a new design means for future video advertisement designers.Multimodal metaphors are used to show the characteristics of products,which can be applied to other types of video advertisements.