A Cognitive Study Of Verbal And Visual Metaphors In Advertisement

Advertisement is an important economic medium in the commercial society, and it establishes a close relationship between producers and consumers. The crucial strategy that an advertisement can achieve its effect lies in how advertisers apply some skills and techniques such as words, pictures, music and so on to arouse consumers'curiosity and stimulate their psychological needs. Metaphor as a rhetoric device is increasingly used in creating advertisement. Metaphors are involved in both verbal and visual advertisement. Words and pictures come into a mutual relationship in advertisement, and they convey messages jointly to fulfill the needs of human communication.This thesis takes Conceptual Blending theory as the theoretical foundation, and it adopts a qualitative method to have a cognitive study of verbal and visual metaphors in the printed advertisement respectively to explore and interpret their underlying cognitive mechanism and meaning construction. According to forms of expression of advertisement, this thesis divides it into three categories, namely, verbal-oriented, visual-oriented and verbal-visual advertisement. Cognitive illustration of metaphors in these kinds of advertisement is carried out with the framework of Conceptual Blending theory. This study reveals how a new and creative idea is cultivated in various advertisements and meanwhile it is beneficial to the audiences who can understand the implied meaning of metaphor by conceptual blending.The author strives for breakthrough in application of Conceptual Blending theory. In the thesis, this theory is made more concrete rather than described itself. Specially, according to different structures and contents in the generic space, similarities in the metaphorical advertisement are classified into physical similarity and psychological similarity. Similarity is not just based on physical properties as well as endowed by subjective understanding, which provides a theoretical basis for the interpretation of advertised creativity and individuation. During the analysis of meaning and intention that advertisement aims to express, the present thesis gives its attention to interaction of two kinds of similarities in the cognitive process. It expounds and proves the explanatory power and theoretical significance of the Conceptual Blending theory. Furthermore, this thesis analyzes the cultural nature that has an effect on the application of metaphor. Both divergences and similarities of metaphorical expression are shared in different culture. Advertisers should focus on psychological characteristics of different nationalities and design some advertisements precisely to different people's cognitive value. Thus, effectiveness of the efforts will be multiplied in promoting the sale of the products.