Multimodal Manifestations Of Emotions In Japanese Comics

Though it is widely accepted that metaphors shape the way we think and act,most evidences are from verbal discourses.More researches investigating metaphors in other modes are needed.Therefore,this thesis tries to fill the void by studying how multimodal metaphors contribute to the expression of emotions in Tsure·dure Children within the framework of Forceville's visual representation of Idealized Cognitive Model.Forceville's model is modified by distinguishing metonymic and metaphorical representation of emotions in comics.The visual signs in manga are also compared to their counterparts in the animated version to verify their effectiveness in communicating emotions of the characters.The major findings of the present paper are as follows.First,there are two categories of visual signs in Tsure·dure Childre,i.e.indexical sign and pictorial rune.Droplet is the only one which cannot be unambiguously assigned to either of them,since whether it denotes indexical or runic meaning depends on its orientation.Second,all the discussed visual signs are motivated by metaphors in a certain degree.But it doesn't mean that they are all metaphors.Instead,some of they form a continuum from metonymy to metaphor.This is also true with onomatopoeias which are special cases of visual signs in comics in the sense that their mode configuration patterns are both implied and multimodal mapping.Third,manga-specific metaphors are found despite that in most cases the same conceptual metaphor is shared by verbal and visual modality.Last but not least,more features are added to some of the original pictorial signs in the animation,such as color and motion.However,some signs in manga which are totally replaceable by motion and sound are retained in the original form in the animation,which means that the communicative function of these visual signs is fully understood and valued.