Analysis Of Multimodal Metaphors In Commercials

Since Lakoff published “The Metaphor We Live By”,conceptual metaphor theory was accepted and proved in linguistics.Metaphor was widely regarded as a way of thinking and a cognitive mechanism.Metaphors are restricted by different cultural patterns and have different cognition and structure.With the explosion of information technology,the language is no longer the only medium of communication.Verbal forms like pictorial modal,sound,verbal,written signal and so on,are increasing.In the field of cognitive linguistic research,it was found that,as a way of thinking,metaphor is not entirely confined to static symbol of the language itself.In 1996,Forceville points out the theoretical field of metaphor from language layer into visual layer,and points out pictorial metaphor and visual metaphor.In 2009,the paper collection “Multimodal Metaphor” were published,which marked the conceptual metaphor has entered a new stage of multimodal metaphor research.Multimodal metaphors are mainly used in print advertisement,movies,cartoons,posters and so on.This thesis selected Chinese and American Coca Cola ads as research corpus and tried to answer three questions from the perspective of cognitive linguistics.First,from the aspect of multimodal,how is metaphor manifested in Coca Cola advertising?Second,what features do multimodal metaphors have? Third,what similarities and differences exist between Chinese and American Coca Cola ads,and what can explain the differences between Chinese and American commercials?This study shows that according to different modes in Coca Cola ads,manifestations of metaphor could be classified into verbal modal,pictorial modal,and multimodal.With the development of modern Internet technology,metaphor in commercial ads is expressed through multi modes,and its manifestations tend to be multimodal.From the advertisings ofCoca Cola,this thesis shows that multimodal metaphor has the advantages of dynamics,vividness and narrative.Compared with the pure linguistic metaphor,multimodal metaphors arrange by images,echo by vitality,or bring vitality to metaphor by comparing notes or adopts visual extension.Chinese and American ads have similarities.Both two countries’ ads used lots of multimodal metaphors.And modals mainly adopt pictorial modal,written signal and sound modal.Besides that,both Chinese and American ads have similar physical experience.From the choice of modal,Chinese ads mainly use written signals,sound,and verbal modal.On the contrary,American ads mainly adopt pictorial modal and non-verbal modal.From the selection of theme,Chinese ads pay attention to collective,and American ads focus on individual.This is because two countries have different national and personal interests,different family values and different senses of missions and entertainments.This study indicates that multimodal metaphors express ideas better and appeal audience’s attraction.For advertisers,combining culture with mode of pictorial,written,sound,metaphors was presented as the best way to meet its demands.