Meaning Construction In Multimodal Metaphors Of Poverty In News Cartoons

Multimodal metaphor refers to the one in which the source domain and the target domain are presented respectively in different symbol patterns(Forceville,2006:384).Non-literal modes play an increasingly important role in life as science and technology advance.The major carrier of information dissemination has developed from mono-mode to multi-mode.The interpretation of the meaning construction process of multimodality metaphors has seized researchers’ concern.Since the 1990s,Forceville has extended the study on conceptual metaphors in the mono-modal domain to interdisciplinary multimodal domain and proposed the concept of multimodal metaphor based on the pictorial metaphor concept.The relevant researches on multimodal metaphor have proved that metaphor is a basic way of thinking of human beings,which not only exists in the literal mode but also in non-literal modes,providing a new perspective for the exploration of the nature and application of metaphors.In recent years,the study on multimodal metaphor has been gradually emerging in China and has become a new development direction of research on metaphor.As a typical representative of visual-verbal multimodal interaction,the cartoon is a high-profile genre for Chinese and foreign scholars in the study of multimodal metaphor.In particular,the news cartoon is used in report and comment on news events,with unique genre features,that is,using the metaphor’s advantages of easily being understood to express the viewpoints which cannot be accurately explained just by words or too sharp to be expressed,so as to enhance the force to reveal the negative aspects of characters or events,and highlight the critical irony to social unhealthy phenomena.The relationship between language and poverty is one of the important topics in China language strategies.Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,the Party Central Committee and the State Council have stressed the poverty alleviation work.Under this situation,China’s news media has strengthened coverage of poverty alleviation.Hence,the conceptual blending theory is used in this thesis as the framework to recognize the multimodal metaphors and analyze the meaning construction process of these metaphors in 198 "poverty"-themed news cartoons.From a theoretical perspective,the explanatory power of the conceptual blending theory to the novel metaphorical implications in cartoons is verified,so is the standpoint that metaphor is s basic way of thinking of human beings,existing not only in the literal mode but also in non-literal modes.From the application perspective,this thesis to some extent enriches the research object on multimodal metaphors.This thesis also proves that investigating the metaphorical meaning construction process of "poverty"-themed cartoons from a multimodal perspective is an effective way to help readers understand more accurately of deep implications conveyed in news cartoons and can achieve a more profound and systematic understanding of the social issue of poverty.