A Comparative Study Of Multimodal Metaphor In Advertising Discourse

With the speedy development of science and technology,the communicative ways of people have changed enormously.Language is no longer the only mode of communication,and the nonverbal symbols such as images,gestures,sounds,music,colors etc have become important media.Accordingly,metaphor has already been transformed from verbal mode to nonverbal mode,such as pictures,sounds,music,etc...In recent years,in order to adapt to the development of communicative ways,a group of scholars,Forceville(2009)as the leader,have dedicated to shifting the study focus of metaphor from the exclusively verbal text to the multimodal interdisciplinary platform.However,most researches on multimodal metaphors are based on cognitive linguistics,and few involve systemic functional theory.Moreover,the previous studies on automobile print advertisements are mainly from a single systemic or cognitive perspective,and few studies make a comparative study of multimodal metaphor between Chinese and English automobile print advertisements based on corpus within the framework of visual grammar.Considering all of these,based on a self-built corpus of 200 English and Chinese automobile print advertisements,this thesis tries to make a comparative study of multimodal metaphor within the framework of visual grammar by adopting qualitative and quantitative methods,aiming to explore the similarities and differences of multimodal metaphorical constructional process,the image-viewer relation and the information value as well as the multimodal metaphorical mapping ways between the Chinese and English automobile print advertisements(APAs).And the research questions of this thesis are as follows:1.What are the similarities and differences of multimodal metaphorical constructional processes between English and Chinese automobile print Ads?2.What are the similarities and differences of image-viewer relation between English and Chinese automobile print Ads ?3.What are the similarities and differences of information value between English and Chinese automobile print Ads?4.What are the similarities and differences of multimodal metaphorical mapping ways between English and Chinese automobile print Ads ?Based on the multimodal metaphor theory of Forceville & Urios-Aparisi(2009)and visual grammar of Kress & Van Leeuwen(2006),this thesis conducts a contrastive analysis of multimodal metaphor in 200 English and Chinese automobile print advertisements,and the following conclusions are drawn:1)The representational meaning can construct multimodal metaphor by replacing grammatical elements.In Chinese and English APAs,the multimodal metaphorical constructional processes not only exist common points,but also exist some different points.That is,both in Chinese and English APAs,the highest use frequency are the symbolic process and analytical process.The frequency of the action and the classificational process is low,this is mainly because the construction of the symbolic and analytical process is relatively simple,which facilitates the viewers to understand the advertising intention.While the construction of the action and classificational process requires the design of action and taxonomy and it is difficult to design action and taxonomy.Besides,in English APAs,the number of analytical process is dominant,while in Chinese APAs the symbolic process is dominant,which conforms to the holistic thinking in China and the analytical thinking in the Western;2)In the interactive meaning,the construction of metaphor is mainly related to the relationship between the image and the viewer,which forms the metaphor “image-viewer relation is camera positioning”(Feng Dezheng,2011b:27).The metaphor “image-viewer relation is camera positioning”(ibid.)is a metaphorical system,including the sub-metaphors “social relation is the shot distance”,“power relation is vertical angle” and “involvement is horizontal angle”.Both in English and Chinese APAs,long shot,eye-to-eye angle and oblique angle are used extensively,this is mainly because the long shot can make the viewers have an overall concept of the car,and eye-to-eye angle shot can build an equal relationship between the car and the viewers,and the oblique angle shot is to show the viewers the perfect line of the car objectively as well as the related information of the car.However,there are also some subtle differences,that is,in Chinese APAs,the number of high angle is slightly more than English APAs,which is to highlight the viewers' power and make them have a kind of superiority feeling.Compared with Chinese APAs,English APAs tend to use eye-to-eye angle in order to establish a kind of equel relation,and use low angle to highlight the excellent performance of some part in the bottom of the car;3)In the compositional meaning,the construction of metaphor involves the information value of the spatial position.The metaphorical system is “information value is spatial position”(ibid.),including the sub-metaphors “given is left / new is right”,“ideal is up / real is down”,“important is center/unimportant is margin”(Feng Dezheng,2011b:27).The center-margin structure with the car in the center and other auxiliary information at the edge is used heavily in both English and Chinese APAs,which is in accord with the common concept that people are inclined to put the important things in the center.And this structure in Chinese APAs holds a tenuous advantage because this concept in China is particularly prominent;4)In both Chinese and English APAs,the highest use frequency of multimodal metaphorical mapping ways is mono-modal mapping way,that is,the target domain uses the pictorial mode of the product image to refer to the car.This is because the mono-modal mapping way can show the car to the viewers more clearly and explicitly so as to identify the metaphor in advertising better.However,there are some differences between them,that is,the form “B2A1A2”(the source domain is rendered in pictorial mode and target domain is rendered in verbal-pictorial mode)mono-modal mapping way is predominate in English APAs,while in Chinese APAs,the form “B1B2A2”(source domain is rendered in verbal-pictorial mode and target domain is rendered in pictorial mode)is dominant.This is mainly because Chinese Characters are hieroglyphics,which can enlighten viewers' thinking and trigger the association of source domain from “sound,form and meaning” three dimensions,and this is where the Western alphabet can't comparable.The verbal mode in English APAs is mainly used to illustrate the name of the car,which reflects the direct character of the westerners;what's more,in English APAs,the number of cross-modal mapping way is more than that in Chinese APAs,but the multimodal mapping way used in Chinese APAs is far more than that in English APAs.The study on automobile print advertisements has certain innovation and breakthrough in both theory and practice,which are embodied in the following aspects:Firstly,this thesis provides a new way to study the automobile print advertisements,because it is neither a previous one-way pictorial analysis or purely verbal analysis nor a previous single systemic or cognitive perspective analysis,but a comprehensive analysis based on the combination of both verbal and pictorial analysis from duel perspectives.That is,this thesis,putting the multimodal metaphor into the framework of visual grammar and taking metaphorical potential as a breakthrough point,tries to make a comparative analysis of multimodal metaphor inChinese and English APAs.Secondly,this thesis can improve consumers' multiliteracy and can make viewers have a overall and objective understanding of the similarities and differences between Chinese and English APAs as well as the reasons behind them.Thirdly,this thesis can help the designers learn the advanced experience of car advertising in the world and enhance the multimodal design concept and ability of car advertising,so as to promote the development of the automobile industry.Therefore,the comparative analysis of English and Chinese automobile print advertisements,which is of great importance to the development of advertising creativity theory in both Chinese and Western countries.At the same time,the cross-cultural comparative study of multimodal metaphor can open a new window for metaphor and cross-cultural study,which not only can greatly enrich the understanding of metaphorical characteristics but also can make us know the Chinese and Western culture better.