A Study Of Multimodal Metaphors In Food Printed Advertisements In English

As consumption has upgraded,diet consumption environment has been molded by new consumption consciousness activated by consumption concepts such as green consumption,healthy ageing,and sustainable development.Diet cultures and concepts worldwide interact with each other while circulating in the process of global importing and exporting of food products.While the food products are travelling around the world,both business value and cultural connotation are conveyed by food advertisements.The characteristics of food products are highlighted or hidden through multimodal metaphor by branders so as to convey the interests of products accurately and contribute to food consumption.Meanwhile,consumers decode multimodal signs to identify food metaphors,whose interpretation will react to the creation and construction of more metaphors.Studying multimodal metaphors in FPAs will help readers identify what is hidden besides what is highlighted in a multimodal metaphor,furthermore,it guides consumers to promote iterative and sustainable development of food through perfecting diet and consumption concepts.In this thesis,a cognitive study of multimodal metaphors in FPAs is conducted within the theoretical framework of conceptual metaphor theory.By illustrating the distribution,meaning construction processes and factors influencing meaning construction of multimodal metaphors in FPAs,this study aims to conduct a cognitive study of multimodal metaphors in the 80 FPAs.Conceptual metaphor theory emphasizes the conceptualization of basic metaphorical expressions,so as to map the source domain to the target domain at a higher level(Lakoff,1992: 8).The richness of source domain content at a higher-level ensures that the possibility of mapping content is maximized,and it also best reflects the structure of human cognition.Moreover,there are a large number of multimodal signs in the FPAs,including images,texts,tastes,smells and so on,which ensure the diversity of mapping paths of multimodal metaphors.In this thesis,80 FPAs selected as research data,including meat product advertisements,vegetable and fruit product advertisements,grain product advertisements,dessert product advertisements and sauce product advertisements,come from www.adsoftheworld.com and www.welovead.com.Based on the metaphor identification method(Forceville,1996:108)and a self-built multimodal metaphor annotation procedure,a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods is used in this study.The mixed method used in this study includes quantitative calculations of the distribution of multimodal metaphor in the corpus based on manual annotation with the aid of NVivo 12,a reliability test towards two raters' manual annotating results through weighted kappa supported by SPSS,as well as qualitative descriptions of the meaning construction processes of multimodal metaphors.And this study aims to answer the following three research questions:(1)How do multimodal metaphors distribute in food printed advertisements in English?(2)How are multimodal metaphors constructed in food printed advertisements in English?(3)What factors influence meaning construction of multimodal metaphors in food printed advertisements in English?It is found that firstly there are eight types of multimodal metaphors distributing in the 80 FPAs,among which the source domains of “HUMAN”(23.75%),“PLANT”(23.75%),“ANIMAL”(16.25%)and “PHYSICAL OBJECT”(15%)are the major used ones,and the minor ones include “WAR”(7.50%),“ORIENTATION”(6.25%),“JOURNEY”(3.75%)and “ENJOYMENT”(3.75%).Moreover,there is a correlation between some multimodal metaphors and some food product advertisements.For instance,vegetable and fruit product advertisements(81.25%)tend to use “HUMAN”,dessert product advertisements(62.50%)and meat product advertisements(62.50%)make the most of “PLANT” and “ANIMAL” respectively,“ORIENTATION” and “WAR” is utilized by sauce product advertisements.Secondly,in regard to meaning construction of major multimodal metaphors in the 80 FPAs,“HUMAN” metaphor highlights food function of being beneficial to human health by visual metonymy and the integration of two conceptual domains.“PLANT” metaphor or “ANIMAL” metaphor is prone to juxtapose raw materials(source domain)and terminal food products(target domain)in food processing chain simultaneously so as to visualize the concept that high quality is traceable.Whether two conceptual domains are integrated,hybrid,or aligned in accordance with the perceptual resemblance in shapes,tastes,colors or layouts,the entity and its characteristics in source domain ranks higher than that in target domain in the Great Chain hierarchy,and the nutritional function,natural quality and real flavor of a target product is upgraded in this way.Regarding meaning construction of minor multimodal metaphors in the 80 FPAs,“WAR” metaphor constructs a hostile relationship between human and food in a metaphor scenario by conceptual metaphor of “ACTION IS FORCE”,and the superior function of target food is extended by verbal signs.“ORIENTATION” metaphor is constructed in two ways,on the one hand,vertical orientation vectors visualize the flavor proportion of each ingredients,and a combination of image schemas of upward orientation and force connotes an infinite extension of flavor on the other.Activated by image schema of path,visual scenario constructed by “JOURNEY” metaphor connotes the concept that the high speed of food delivery is the high quality of food.Thirdly,it is found that there are two main factors influencing meaning construction of multimodal metaphors in FPAs.For one thing,diet and consumption concepts of hedonism and Ecologism influence what mapping attributes are highlighted or hidden in a multimodal metaphor.Specifically,an integrative consumption concept of morally responsible forms of hedonism and spiritually enjoyable forms of Ecologism or health is the most constructive factor to influence meaning construction of multimodal metaphors in the 80 FPAs.For the other,meaning potential and functions of multimodal signs enriches the meaning construction of metaphor scenario and shows superiority in diminishing the peddling nature of advertising so as to construct the meaning of multimodal metaphors successively.This study has the following practical significance.On the one hand,for the food product manufacturers and advertisement design agencies when facing different consumer groups,they are provided with a reference to promote brand concepts,select modal collocation to highlight food product characteristics more accurately and avoid divergence,and finally attract target consumers successfully.On the other hand,this study aims to provide readers with a cognitive method to analyze and understand the essential information and brand concepts conveyed by multimodal metaphors in food printed advertisements,and help readers to identify what is hidden besides what is highlighted in a multimodal metaphor so as to identify food characteristics more accurately and dialectically,finally guide consumers to promote the iterative development of food through perfecting diet and consumption concepts.