A Cognitive Study Of Multimodal Metaphors In The Chinese National Opera The Ballad Of The Canal

Art is usually presented in an implicit way.It not only expands the connotation of the original imagery,but also leads viewers’ medication.Based on the Chinese folk art,the Chinese national opera delivers the core values of traditional Chinese morality through different media.For delivering in audio-visual mode,it can be regarded as the research in the multimodal discourse.This study aims to explore the meaning construction of multimodal metaphor in the Chinese national opera with artistic discourse,from a perspective inspired by cognitive linguistics,specifically by Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Conceptual Blending Theory.It takes one of the representative Chinese national opera The Ballad of the Canal as the research object to make a case study on metaphor manifestation in the onstage genre.Moreover,the qualitative and basic quantitative analysis methods are applied in order to explore the following research questions:(1)What are the types of multimodal metaphors in the Chinese national opera The Ballad of the Canal?(2)How are the multimodal metaphors manifested in the Chinese national opera The Ballad of the Canal?(3)What are the cognitive bases embodied in the multimodal metaphors manifestation in the Chinese national opera The Ballad of the Canal?The present study finds that multimodal ontological metaphors,multimodal orientational metaphors and multimodal structural metaphors are constructed through the visual,auditory and implicit mode,in order to transmit the meditation of historical culture and moral ethics.The visual mode is mainly presented in symbols of stage art such as character movement,stage layout,props and light,while the auditory mode is generally triggered by symbol of musical elements including lyrics,melody,tone and pitch,and the implicit mode is based on the contextual symbol,which helps the audience comprehensively interpret the plot development and theme connotation presented in the onstage art work.Based on Zhao Xiufeng’s(2013)Blending Model,this present research improves a Blendig Model for multimodal metaphors in Chinese national opera,which is applied to deduce the meaning construction of metaphors in The Ballad of the Canal.Taking it from the Semiotic and Modal Representing Space,combined with the artistic creation elements in the Relevance Space and emergent structure in the Blended Space,it is finally integrated into the metaphorical connotation in the Meaning Space.Multimodal art discourse breaks through the limitation of linear symbols and constructs metaphorical connotations through the spatial superposition,splicing and integration of various symbols in the Semiotic and Modal Representing Space.The exquisite arrangement of stage art and repertoires makes the audience enjoy the charm of Chinese national culture.The multimodal metaphors in The Ballad of the Canal have constructed a complete cognitive experience on great love,not only reflecting the cognitive mechanism of the local creative team’s thinking,but also motivating the Sinicism emotion.Specifically,the multimodal metaphors of The Ballad of the Canal is experiential,cultural and aesthetic.The choice of multimodal metaphors is often based on the cognition of bodily experience from outworld,the cognition of Chinese culture and the cognition of Chinese aesthetics.They contribute to promote Chinese culture to go to the world.This thesis holds the view that the present artistic work attributes its success to the ingenious application of multimodal metaphors.Such application activates the audiences’ universal body perception schema and national aesthetic perception schema,which externalizes the characters’ inner feelings to audiences.It not only creates unspeakable aesthetic experience,but also evokes the meditation of life.Therefore,this study not only provides more evidence for the claim of the metaphorical thinking of human beings,but also provides some reference for the design and dissemination of similar Chinese national operas.