Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis Of Multimodal Metaphors In Luxury Ruanwens

Ruanwen,which is aimed to promote the image of an enterprise or a product,has appeared on both the traditional media such as newspapers,magazines,TV,radio,and on Internet media,like WeChat public account.Especially on the latter,Ruanwen has increasingly presented its multimodalized characteristics.Nonetheless,the researches related to Ruanwen and multimodal discourse pay less attention to exploring the representation of multimodal metaphors in Ruanwen within the linguistic framework.From the perspective of Systematic Functional Linguistics(SFL),this thesis aims to explore a model for the analysis of multimodal metaphors employed in Ruanwen.Utilizing qualitative and quantitative analysis,the present study attempts to reveal how multimodal metaphors are constructed in luxury Ruanwen to achieve three metafunctions,as well as to fulfill the function of persuasion with the help of the attitudinal meaning of the Appraisal theory.Based on SFL,the study conceives every semiotic resource as a metaphor potential,and thus builds a system which functions on both the content stratum and expression stratum to analyze meaning construction of multimodal metaphors triggered by the combination of language and non-language forms.The present study then explores the construction of metaphors through the representational,interactive and compositional meaning,and classifies multimodal metaphors by the occurrence of metaphors in each process and picture,as well as by the way metaphors map between modes.Meanwhile,drawing on the Appraisal theory,this paper investigates how metaphors can elicit attitudes and achieve persuasion effect through multi-modal resources from cognitive perspective,so as to illustrate the important role of metaphor in constructing multimodal discourse in Ruanwen.Through the analysis of 50 luxury Ruanwen,the following findings are made:(a)the metaphorical targets in LRs usually coincide with advertised products while the source domains conceptualize four kinds of the concrete and the abstract-LUXURY PRODUCTS ARE HUMAN BEINGS;LUXURY PRODUCTS ARE NON-HUMAN OBJECTS;LUXURY PRODUCTS ARE ABSTRACT OBJECTS;GETTING LUXURY PRODUCTS IS GETTING ABSTRACT CONCEPT;(b)multimodal metaphor can realize representational meaning through actional process,classificational process and analytical process,among which actional process has the highest proportion.With regard to the mode mappings,there are two kinds of singlemode mapping and eight kinds of multimodal mapping,among which literal & visual mapping literal & visual,and literal & visual mapping literal are the highest,which fully shows the interdependence between text and image within multimodal metaphor discourse;(c)as for the realization of interactive and compositional meaning,the study respectively considers camera positioning as image-reader relationship,and the spatial position of the product as information value;(d)in respect of the attitudinal meaning in Ruanwen,the readers' attention is usually attracted by metaphors at the beginning,and these event results or entity behaviors constitute the eliciting conditions of attitudes.When the inner feelings related to the value conveyed by the product are aroused in readers,they are likely to develop a desire for the product value.Coupled with the description of the features and functions of the advertised product,the value as the source domain of the aforementioned metaphor will be transferred to the product by readers,and hence the persuasion effect is achieved.