A Comparative Study On Multimodal Metaphors In Chinese And American Environmental Protection Cartoons

Environmental protection cartoon makes full use of a clever combination of images and text to construct textual meaning,so as to reveal real or potential environmental problems.From the cognitive perspective,environmental protection cartoon contains a lot of pictorial-verbal or verbal-pictorial metaphors,and thus is one of the best genres for the study of multimodal metaphors.However,the current research on cartoon metaphors mainly focuses on political cartoons,and yet very few studies on environmental protection cartoons.Therefore,based on Conceptual Metaphor Theory and multimodal metaphor theory,this study adopts qualitative analysis,quantitative analysis and comparative analysis to explore mode configuration patterns and theme patterns of multimodal metaphors in Chinese and American environmental protection cartoons,trying to uncover the regularities and similarities and differences in the employment of multimodal metaphors under different cultural backgrounds between China and America.A corpus of 200 environmental protection cartoons is constructed from the two websites“Newscartoon” and “Google”,and 100 for each respectively.The findings are as follows:(1)Four mode configuration patterns are identified in both Chinese and American environmental protection cartoons,namely cross-modal mapping,multimodal mapping,implied mapping and monomodal mapping.In this regard,similarities between Chinese and American environmental protection cartoons include two aspects.First,cross-modal mapping occurs most frequently,followed by multimodal mapping,implied mapping and monomodal mapping.Second,the source tends to be represented pictorially,and the target is inclined to be cued verbally.Differences between them also include two aspects.First,under multimodal mapping,the occurring frequency of pictorial or verbal source-pictorial and verbal target,and pictorial and verbal source-pictorial or verbal target in Chinese environmental protection cartoons is opposite to that in American environmental protection cartoons.Second,there is no case that follows pictorial or verbal source-implied target or verbal source-verbal target supplemented with the pictorial mode,while in American environmental protection cartoons several cases are categorized under the two sub-types.(2)The multimodal metaphors in Chinese environmental protection cartoons center around four major target domains: ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM,ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION,POLLUTING INDUSTRY and ECONOMY.The multimodal metaphors in American environmental protection cartoons revolve around six major target domains: ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM,ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION,AMERICAN LEADER,THE EARTH,ENVIRONMENT,and INDUSTRY.In this regard,similarities between Chinese and American environmental protection cartoons include three aspects.First,both of them involve the multimodal metaphors targeting environmental problem,environmental protection,and polluting industry.Second,human metaphor,animal metaphor and object metaphor are widely used.Third,not only CONCRETE IS ABSTRACT metaphor but also CONCRETE IS CONCRETE metaphor occurs in both of them,and the frequency of the former is much higher than that of the latter.Differences between them also include three aspects.First,in Chinese environmental protection cartoons,the metaphors pertaining to environmental protection are mostly positive,while those in American environmental protection cartoons are mostly negative.Second,there are lots of metaphors targeting AMERICAN LEADER,THE EARTH,and ENVIRONMENT in American environmental protection cartoons,often with a hint of irony.(3)Ultimately,similarities in mode configuration and theme patterns of multimodal metaphors in Chinese and American environmental protection cartoons are derived from human shared bodily experience,while differences between them stem from the different cultural experiences and values between the two countries.Through a comparative analysis of multimodal metaphors in Chinese and American environmental protection cartoons,this study helps disclose the cross-cultural variation of mappings and entailments of multimodal metaphors.It also extends the application of multimodal metaphor theory and enriches the related cross-cultural comparative studies of multimodal metaphor in turn.Meanwhile,this study is helpful for the audience to grasp the cartoonists’ communicative intentions,so as to have a deep understanding of environmental problems facing their own countries.