A Cognitive Study Of Multimodal Metonymies And Metaphors In Belt And Road Commercial A Great Cause

Multimodal metonymies and metaphors are one of the important ways to express meaning in multimodal discourses and they are also important topics in linguistic studies.Although systemic functional and cognitive linguistics have conducted extensive researches into multimodal metonymies and metaphors,there are still some issues remaining to be discussed further,such as classification,ways of meaning construction and cognitive motivations of meaning construction,of multimodal metonymies and metaphors,features and functions of vehicles and source domains,and cultural universality and specificity of multimodal metonymies and metaphors.This thesis,based on the issues listed above,employing conceptual metonymy theory and conceptual metaphor theory,adopting a qualitive method,has conducted a cognitive study of the issues mentioned above in A Great Cause,one of the commercials of Belt and Road Initiative.The major findings of this thesis are as follows:(1)There are two major forms of representation of multimodal metonymies in A Great Cause: vehicle(image)-target(hiding),which is the most frequently-employed way,and vehicle(image)-target(written sign).Multimodal metonymies in A Great Cause,can be categorized into two configurations: whole-part metonymies and part-part metonymies.Four main kinds of metonymies identified and subsumed into the former are SINGLE ENTITY FOR COLLECTION,SUBEVENT FOR COMPLEX EVENT,SALIENT PART FOR WHOLE and PIECE OF CLOTHING FOR PERSON/IDENTITY,and only one kind of metonymy,namely CONTAINER FOR CONTAINED has been subsumed into the latter.The features of vehicles normally are common or salient,clear,highly relevant and of good gestalts and the functions of vehicles,besides the basic cognitive function,reside in playing a crucial role in pragmatic aspects that arouse strong emotional resonance.The meaning of multimodal metonymies has been constructed through metonymical projection from vehicles to targets.(2)There are two major forms of representation of multimodal metaphors in A Great Cause: source(image)-target(hiding),which is the most preferred way,and source(image)-target(written sign).Multimodal metaphors in this commercial can be divided into three categories,namely structural metaphors,orientational metaphors and novel metaphors.The features of the source domains are concrete and clearly delineated,and the functions of the source domains,besides the basic cognitive function,lie in a special way of manifestation,which directly contributes to the correct identification of multimodal metaphors.The process of meaning construction of multimodal metaphors involves metaphorical mappings from source domains to target domains.(3)Cognitive motivation of meaning construction of multimodal metonymies lies in the contiguity between vehicles and targets.Cognitive motivations of meaning construction of structural metaphors reside in perceived structural similarities,orientational metaphors reside in image schema and correlations in experience and novel metaphors reside in correlations in experience and perceived structural similarities.(4)The cultural universality of multimodal metonymies lies in the process of obtaining a desired target from a given vehicle and their cultural specificity lies in the process of obtaining intended meaning of the director from a given target.While the orientational metaphors based on image schema and correlations in experiences tend to be culturally universal,structural metaphors based on perceived structural similarities,and novel metaphors based on the correlations in experiences and perceived structural similarities tend to be culturally specific.All of these multimodal metaphors and metonymies contribute to meaning construction of the theme in the Commercial A Great Cause that China,under the guiding principles(extensive consultation,joint construction,shared benefit),just wants to build a community of shared future for mankind and to achieve mutual gains and shared development for people in the countries along the routes.