A Study Of Multimodal Metaphor Comprehension In Public Service Advertisements By College Students

Multimodal metaphor is the development of conceptual metaphor. Language can embody metaphor, so can other modalities. Previous studies of multimodal metaphor mainly focus on one author’s own comprehension and analysis of multimodal metaphor in a certain discourse, whereas this study, based on the theoretical foundation of conceptual metaphor theory and multimodal metaphor theory, aims to explore college students’ comprehension of multimodal metaphor in public service advertisements(PSAs), factors affecting the comprehension and the common comprehension model from the perspective of comprehension. Research questions are proposed as follows:1. How do college students comprehend multimodal metaphors in PSAs?2. What factors affect college students’ comprehension of multimodal metaphors in PSAs?3. What’s the common comprehension model of multimodal metaphors in PSAs of college students?In terms of the presentation of its source domain and target domain, multimodal metaphor in printed advertisement can be categorized into three types, namely, MP2s(metaphors with two pictorially presented terms), MP1s(metaphors with one pictorially presented term and the other hidden), and VPMs(verbo-pictorial metaphors). The study is conducted among college students majored in English, analyzes college students’ comprehension of multimodal metaphors in PSAs through a questionnaire survey and explores factors affecting their comprehension through an interview. Firstly, the study does a quantitative research to analyze the recognition rate of three types of multimodal metaphors and then classifies the reasons of their comprehension. Then a qualitative analysis is conducted to reveal factors affecting the participants’ comprehension. Lastly the common comprehension model of multimodal metaphors in PSAs of the audience is obtained.The findings of this study are as follows:(1) College students show different comprehension levels on three types of multimodal metaphors in PSAs. The questionnaire survey reveals that college students’ comprehension of MP2 s is best; conversely, VPMs worst; and MP1 s in between. In addition, for all the three types of multimodal metaphors in PSAs, target domains are comprehended better than source domains.(2) There are two factors affecting the students’ comprehension. The first factor is students’ subjective thinking mode, including their thinking efficiency, metonymic thinking pattern and comprehensive thinking process. The second factor is the objective design of the PSAs, which is reflected by whether the PSAs are designed to contain verbal descriptions, whether the domains are designed to emphasize the whole or the parts, the relationship between the two domains and the obvious degree of the domains.(3) The study confirms a common comprehension model of multimodal metaphors in PSAs of the students: If the audience cognize the two domains in their minds, it will be confirmed by presenting the two domains when they are asked to tell their understandings of the PSAs. The act of trying to match the source domain and the target domain is conducting the mapping process.