A Study On The Multimodal Metaphoric Representation Of Human Emotions In Fantasy Film The Shape Of Water

Multimodal Metaphor broadly refers to a metaphor constructed by the participation of two or more modes.As a new development of the study on metaphor,an independent and complete theoretical system of Multimodal Metaphor has not been proposed.At present,researches on it give priority to static texts such as advertisements,comics,and music,but the research on dynamic texts is relatively rare,particularly the study on films by combining Multimodal Metaphor and Cognitive Linguistics with the help of Double-Scope Network in conceptual integration networks;therefore,from the perspective of Multimodal Metaphor,this thesis firstly interprets the shortcomings of Double-Scope Network used in the analysis of Multimodal Metaphor alone,and subsequently analyzes the limitations of Blending Network put forward by Line Brandt and Per Aage Brandt as well as the integration model proposed by Zhao Xiufeng,making some subtle adjustments to Zhao Xiufeng’s network and combining this network with Double-Scope Network to propose a new Conceptual Integration Model of Multimodal Metaphor which incorporates cross-space mapping and projection,interactive integration between Multimodal Representation Space,Relevance Space,Input Space,Generic Space and Blend Space into a network system.Thereafter,this thesis takes this new Conceptual Integration Model of Multimodal Metaphor as the theoretical basis,and combines the two research methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis from the aspects of three sub-types of Double-Scope Network: Two-Sided Shared Topology Networks,Asymmetric Two-Sided Networks and Two-Sided Unfilled Shared Topology Networks.Meanwhile,the author sorts and analyzes the different modes of pictorial signs,spoken signs,gestures,sounds,and music in the fantasy film The Shape of Water,and studies the multimodal metaphoric representation model of nine basic human emotions: lust,anger,pride,love,surprise,sadness,fear,happiness and shame in the film.The purpose of the author is to highlight the formation process of Multimodal Metaphor in analyzing the theme and emotional effects in the dynamic text of film.The resultshave shown that(1)the representation of Multimodal Metaphor in the fantasy film mostly uses spoken signs and gestures as the source domain and the written signs as the target domain.This is relevant to the features of films which use character lines to express human emotions and the subtitles to convey meaning;(2)Multimodal Metaphor is presented by different multimodal representations in static text and dynamic text.There are more types of multimodal metaphoric mappings which are more complicated in dynamic texts,so multimodal representation can better interpret human emotions and reveal the theme of the film;(3)the Meaning Space in Conceptual Integration Model of Multimodal Metaphor generates a new meaning in the process of metaphorical mapping,which can provide a cognitive basis for multimodal metaphoric representation of human emotions in the film;(4)as the latest development of metaphor research,Multimodal Metaphor is essentially a cross-space mapping based on the similarity between the source domain and the target domain.So some metaphorical expression of emotions in Multimodal Metaphor can correspond to the metaphorical expression of emotions in traditional Conceptual Metaphor.The corresponding expressions indicate that although the study of Multimodal Metaphor is in the forefront and its working mechanism of metaphorical mapping is more complicated,it is still developed from traditional metaphor and has a certain cognitive theoretical basis;(5)The Conceptual Integration Model of Multimodal Metaphor constructed in this study not only integrates the elements of mapping and projection between Input Space,Generic Space,and Blend Space in the process of metaphorical meaning integration,but also fully considers multiple models and contextual background in dynamic text;hence,it can highlight the role of Multimodal Metaphor in analyzing the thematic meaning and emotional appeal of texts,proving that this model can provide a reference for the establishment of a theoretical system of Multimodal Metaphor.