A Study Of Multimodal Metaphors In Print Advertisements From The Perspective Of The Conceptual Blending Theory

In order to be more persuasive and appealing, print advertisements favor vibrant pictures and high-quality written explanations. It is believed that applying multimodal metaphors to print advertisements skillfully can contribute to communicating the product information as well as conveying people’s main values better.Guided by the quantitative and qualitative approaches, this thesis lays its theoretical foundation on the conceptual blending theory, trying to analyze multimodal metaphors which are contained in print advertisements. The application of the quantitative approach is mainly reflected in the selection of print advertisements with multimodal metaphors. 100 pieces of print advertisements are collected, and 16 of them are discussed in this thesis.Through the quantitative approach, the thesis finds that, to some great degree, multimodal metaphors in print advertisements can be composed of two paths in input spaces: with both inputs shown in their entirety(42%)and with the representation space shown within a partial view(58%). The similarity between the source domain and the target domain is the metaphorical mapping basis of the multimodal metaphors in print advertisements, which can be divided into four categories in the generic space: sensory similarity(32%), functional similarity(17%),similarity in situation(18%) and similarity in symbolic meaning(21%). Moreover, all multimodal metaphors in print advertisements can be examined in four types of blending networks in the blending space. The 16 pieces of print advertisements that are selected are all equipped with some of these attributes, more importantly, under a certain research framework, some of those properties are highlighted. The application of the qualitative approach is mainly reflected in the analysis of multimodal metaphors in print advertisements. Firstly, to dig out different ways of compositions of multimodal metaphors from the angle of input spaces, namely, to figure out the operating mechanism of selective matching of multimodal metaphors in print advertisements. Secondly, to figure out the types of similarities that appear in thegeneric space, that is to say, to analyze the mapping mechanism of multimodal metaphors in print advertisements. Thirdly, to make an analysis on multimodal metaphors in print advertisements under four types of blending networks, in other words, to understand the construction mechanism of the emergent meaning.This thesis finds out that advertising images which are formed on the basis of the multimodal metaphor theory are novel and vivid, which can not only arouse consumers’ curiosity and interests in the product, but also may help to motivate their purchase desire, therefore, the multimodal metaphor in the print commercial advertisement favors the source domains which is presented in the pictorial modality.While, the multimodal metaphor in the print public service advertisement focuses on both advertising image which is shown in the pictorial modality and the copy-write which is shown in the verbal modality, and, the source domain of the multimodal metaphor in print public service advertisement which is shown in the verbal modality is straightforward, meaningful and striking. Moreover, it is worth noticing that most of multimodal metaphors in both print commercial and public service advertisements are similarity-creating metaphors, which can contribute to make print advertisements more attractive and powerful. The last but not the least, blending networks together is conductive to elaborate the emergent structure of the multimodal metaphor in print advertisements, namely, to highlight the advantage of the target product and the core value of the target concept.This thesis holds that, under the conceptual blending theory, the application of multimodal metaphors in print advertisements can contribute to highlighting the prominent features of the target products and strengthening the core value of the target concepts. it also can help to dig into operating mechanisms of multimodal metaphors in depth and to create more creative and persuasive print advertisements.As for the theoretical significance, this study may help to gain a deeper insight into the multimodal metaphors adopted in print advertisements from the perspective of the conceptual blending theory. As for the practical significance, on one hand, the paper will hope to offer those who design advertisements a reference method to create noveland attractive advertisements, on the other hand, the paper hopes to offer the outer-circle people a way to understand the advertising discourses more accurately.