An Analysis Of Multimodal Metaphors In Cellphone Advertisements

Traditional conceptual metaphor concerns with verbal mode,while multimodal metaphor,based on traditional conceptual metaphor,focuses on various modes,such as verbal mode,visual mode,and acoustic mode and so on,Meanwhile,in order to attract the audience's attention,cellphone print and video advertisements contain a variety of multimodal metaphors.Based on Forceville's multimodal metaphor,this thesis discusses the construction of multimodal metaphors under the framework of Kress and Van Leeuwen's Visual Grammar.In addition,the study of 100 cellphone print and video advertisements containing multimodal metaphor is carried out.Among these advertisements,30 cases are selected for the qualitative research.The metaphorical meanings of the cellphone advertisements are explored to find the characteristics of cellphone advertisements reflected by multimodal metaphors.Combined with multimodal metaphor and Visual Grammar,the thesis analyzes the meaning construction in cellphone advertisements.It can be summarized in the following aspects.Firstly,in the aspect of representative meaning,for narration representation,the visual realization of multimodal metaphor relies on a replacement of participant,process or circumstance.Conceptual representation can be divided into classificational process,analytical process and symbolic process.Correspondingly,the construction of multimodal metaphors under conceptual representation is realized by symmetric juxtaposition of the participants,the fusion of the part or the whole participants and identifying relation in the image.The multimodal metaphors constructed in these ways make the cellphone advertisements thought provoking.Secondly,as regard to interactive meaning,the metaphor in cellphone advertisements is mainly conceptual metaphor,which is based on the relation between image-viewer and camera position.The metaphor system of IMAGE-VIEWER RELATION IS CAMERA POSITIONING is constructed,which includes three sub-systems,that is,SOCIAL DISTANCE IS SHOT DISTANCE,POWER RELATION IS VERTICAL ANGLE and INVOLVEMENT IS HORIZONTAL ANGLE.In cellphone advertisements,the cellphone and the viewer can establish a variety of spatial relation,such as,in equal relation or power relation.Thirdly,for compositional meaning,based on the relation between spatial position and information value,the metaphorical system INFORMATION VALUE IS SPATIAL POSITION is constructed.The sub-systems consist of the conceptual metaphor GIVEN IS LEFT/NEW IS RIGHT,IDEAL IS UP/REAL IS DOWN and IMPORTANT IS CENTRAL/UNIMPOTTANT IS MARGINAL,etc.The cellphone is the promoted target.Therefore,the cellphone advertisements are designed to highlight the unique functions and the features of the cellphone,in which the cellphone can be placed on the right side as the new information,at the bottom as the real information and in the center as the important information.Finally,based on the previous analysis,it is concluded that the features of cellphone advertisements reflected by multimodal metaphors are as follows:(1)Creativity.Integrating two weakly connected entities by multimodal metaphors in cellphone advertisements makes the effect unexpected.(2)Accessibility.The construction of metaphor from the perspective of special relation in cellphone advertisements can bring the viewer access to the product easily.(3)Personality.To build multimodal metaphors through the juxtaposition of the character and the product gives the cellphone personal characteristics,such as pure,active personality.(4)Narrativity.Multimodal metaphor constructed through the replacement of process can make the plot of cellphone advertisements prominent and attractive to the viewer.(5)Transferability.Multimodal metaphors are influenced by different cultures and can transfer the cultural differences to the audience.To sum up,this thesis combines systemic functional perspective and cognitive perspective,analyzes multimodal metaphors under the framework of Visual Grammar,and obtains the features of cellphone advertisements reflected by multimodal metaphors.All the features can establish a direct connection between the cellphone advertisements and the audience,highlight the superiority of the products and contribute to the publicity of the product.