A Research On Representation Mechanisms Of Multimodal Metaphor In Front Cover Cartoons

Metaphor, whose cognitive mechanism is widely accepted in linguistics, is an important cognitive method that we live by. Nevertheless, for a long time, most of the researches on metaphor are based on pure language, in other words, they are all linguistic phenomenon-based. The study of Conceptual Metaphor Theory has long been confined by linguistic evidence. Language is actually the external manifestation of metaphor. Led by Forceville,many scholars have turned their attention to multimodal metaphor. Under the influence of multimodal turn of linguistics, multimodal metaphor research has been emerging with generic feature, relation between metaphor and metonymy, etc. However, the research on multimodal metaphorical representation is still not sufficient and needs to be further studied.As a result, by analyzing the front cover cartoons of The Economist from 2006 to 2016 through the theory of multimodal metaphor, this thesis strives to explore the multimodal metaphorical representation of cartoon, with a method of qualitative and quantitative research. This thesis mainly centres on three questions: (1) What are the means of representations of multimodal metaphors in front cover cartoons? (2) How do different modalities cooperate with each other to manifest each type of multimodal metaphort? What are the respective functions of each mode? (3) What are the international images of China that the Western media try to present in front covers? How do they achieve it?Through the analysis of 46 front cover cartoons, this thesis concludes six prominent types of multimodal metaphorical representation, among which the most pervasive one is Sp-Tw (23%), whereas the least one is Sw-Tp (7%). This indicates that to realize their specific aims, front cover cartoonists tend to use different modes in representing metaphors.Different modes cooperate together and play their role in the form of various submodes in the multimodal metaphorical representation, therefore, achieve the communicative intention of cartoonist. Moreover, this thesis also studies the international image of China in the eyes of the West and explains how the Western media strengthen the ideology as well as distort the image of China through the front cover cartoons. Hence, it will make contributions to a better national image of China.