A Contrastive Study Of Cognitive Mechanism In Multimodal Metaphors In Chinese And English Kinship-theme Animation Films

Since previous studies mainly probe into the animation films under one culture,rarely noticing the cultural motivation in selecting the metaphors,this study selects animation films-Lotus Lattern and Finding Nemo under the same theme-finding the beloved,which makes the research more detailed and targeted to understand thoroughly the operation mechanism.This thesis is based on the dual-mapping theory in conceptual metaphor and multimodal metaphor theory.Via selecting different situations and sections,this thesis is unfolded on the basis of ontological metaphor,structural metaphor and orientational metaphor to analyze the similarities and differences of metaphorical expressions in the two animation films.In addition,from the perspective of visual and aural metaphors,this thesis contrasts the different presentations to highlight the same theme and probes into Chinese and English expressions from the cultural dimension.Thus,by means of concluding the similarities and differences of cognitive mechanism of multimodal metaphor in two animation films,the thesis gets the following outcome:As an integrated work,the animation film is like a net knitted by metaphors in different modes.The multimodal metaphor makes the whole net close and well-ordered to make the kinship theme and other sub-theme-courage and determination prominent.Thus,the process of interaction of different metaphors is the operation of cognitive mechanism,which is crucial to understand the tho ughts.Through comparative research,this paper summarizes three factors that influence the choice of metaphors-influence of modes,thought patterns and cultural uniqueness.Under different modes,the choice of conceptual metaphor is also different.The distinctive features of Chinese-English thinking patterns also influence the expression of conceptual metaphors.Under different cultural background,for instance,in Chinese culture,the emotion of characters is generally expressed via other things-scenery or music.In contrast,in English culture,the emotion is inclined to be presented verbally and directly.These cultural characteristics can be prominent in two animation films.The similarities of cognitive mechanism of same theme on animation films reflect the universality of cognition and the differences mirror the diversity of cognition.