论文总字数：51032字

摘 要

List of Tables v

List of Figures vi

1. Introduction 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Objectives of the study 2

1.3 Data and methodology 2

1.4 Organization of the thesis 3

2. Literature Review 4

2.1 Review of previous studies on multimodal metaphors 4

2.1.1 The origin and definition of multimodal metaphors 4

2.1.2 Previous studies on multimodal metaphors in different genres 5

2.2 Review of previous studies on Brexit-related metaphors 7

2.3 Research gap 8

3. Theoretical Framework 9

3.1 Conceptual Blending Theory 9

3.2 Conceptual Blending and multimodal metaphors 10

4. Conceptual Analysis of Multimodal Metaphors in Brexit-related Comics 11

4.1 Distribution of metaphors for Brexit in political cartoons 11

4.2 Meaning construction of multimodal metaphors in political cartoons 12

4.2.1 The BREXIT IS A JOURNEY metaphor 12

4.2.2 The BREXIT IS A COMPETITION/GAME metaphor 15

4.2.3 The BREXIT IS AN ACROBATIC /A SHOW metaphor 17

4.3 Summary 19

5. Conclusion 20

5.1 Major findings 20

5.2 Significance of the study 20

5.3 Limitations of the study 21

5.4 Suggestions for future research 21

References 22

Appendix 25

Acknowledgments

Upon the completion of this thesis, I would like to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to those who have helped and accompanied me along the journey of my thesis writing.

First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Xiang Mingjian, who has offered me constant guidance and insightful suggestions. He is responsible and patient to read my drafts and offer revision recommendations. What impresses me most is his professional knowledge, strict academic attitude and dedication to scientific research. I am really grateful for his instruction.

Secondly, I want to appreciate all other teachers in the School of Foreign Languages and Literature at Nanjing Tech University. Thanks for their enlightenment and help during the past four years.

Last but not least, I desire to express my gratitude to my parents and friends, whose love and encouragement motivate me to achieve goals both in my study and in my life.

Abstract

Metaphors, pervasive in our daily life, are not only manifested in language, but also in images, gestures and sounds etc. Consequently, the manifestations of metaphors should be examined in various modes rather than language alone. Forceville (2006) puts forward the concept of non-verbal metaphors and multimodal metaphors, and extends the study of these metaphors to different genres, among which political cartoons are a kind of discourse that contains rich metaphors and meanings. Involving verbal and pictorial modes, political cartoons can serve to make comments, reveal stances and satirize politicians. For decades, political cartoons have drawn the attention from scholars at home and abroad. They have been studied in terms of their generic features, construction mechanism, such aspects as metaphors and metonymies. However, few researchers have combined qualitative and quantitative methods to study multimodal metaphors in political cartoons.

Based on Conceptual Blending Theory (Fauconnier and Turner 2002), this study aims to explain the dynamic meaning construction of multimodal metaphors in political cartoons. The corpus used for the study includes 50 Brexit-related political cartoons selected from online database. The quantitative approach is adopted to explore the distribution of commonly used metaphors in the corpus. Subsequently, prototypical instances are chosen to explain how words and images contribute to the meaning construction of multimodal metaphors.

The major findings of the study are listed as follows:

Firstly, there are three main metaphors in Brexit-related cartoons. These are the BREXIT IS A JOURNEY metaphor, the BREXIT IS A COMPETITION/GAME metaphor, and the BREXIT IS AN ACROBATIC/A SHOW metaphor. The first one is the dominant metaphor in the corpus and is used to highlight the potential risks and an uncertain future in the process of Brexit. The other two kinds of metaphors are relatively lower in terms of their frequency of occurrence in the corpus.

Secondly, when it comes to the meaning construction of multimodal metaphors in the corpus, it is actually a blending process of several mental spaces. The pictorial space depicts the main content of the political cartoons vividly, while the verbal space points to the target domains clearly and provides the background information. The added space containing source domains reveals the mappings between the pictorial space and the verbal space. Through the synergy of metaphors and metonymies, elements in different inputs and the partial mappings are selectively projected into the blended space, thereby giving rise to the emergent meaning of the political cartoons.

This thesis not only enriches the studies of multimodal metaphors in political cartoons with more attention to the online construction of dynamic meaning, but also provides a new perspective to interpret how different modes interact in multimodal discourse.

Keywords: multimodal metaphors; Brexit; political cartoons; Conceptual Blending Theory

中文摘要

隐喻在日常生活中十分普遍，不仅可以用语言表达，也可以通过图像、手势、声音等来表达。因此，对隐喻表征形式的探究不应局限于语言形式，而应从不同模态研究。Forceville (2006) 提出了“非语言隐喻”和“多模态隐喻”的概念，将隐喻研究拓展到不同语类中。其中，政治漫画是一种隐喻意义丰富的语篇，由文字和图像模态组成。它们能够实现评论、揭示立场以及批判政客的功能。数十年来，政治漫画吸引了国内外学者的关注，研究主要关于政治漫画的语类特征，构建机制以及隐转喻等方面。然而，鲜有研究者以定性和定量相结合的方法去研究政治漫画中的多模态隐喻。

本文以Fauconnier和Turner的概念整合理论为理论框架，旨在阐释政治漫画中多模态隐喻的动态意义构建。本研究从互联网上选取了50幅脱欧漫画作为分析语料。采用定量的方法考察了脱欧漫画中隐喻的分布情况，然后选取典型案例进行分析来阐释语言模态和图像模态对多模态隐喻意义构建的贡献。

本研究主要发现如下：

第一，脱欧漫画中常用的隐喻主要有以下三种：旅行隐喻、竞争隐喻、和表演隐喻。其中，旅行隐喻为主导隐喻，强调了脱欧过程中潜在的风险和不确定的未来。竞争隐喻和表演隐喻出现频率相对较低。

第二，多模态隐喻的意义构建过程实际上是多个心理空间的整合过程。图像空间生动地描绘了漫画的核心内容，文字空间则明确指示目标域，或是提供背景信息。包含源域的附加空间揭示了图像空间和文字空间的映射关系。通过隐喻和转喻协同作用，概念整合网络中的输入空间内各因素及其映射关系选择性地投射到整合空间，从而完成政治漫画的意义构建。

本文不仅丰富了政治漫画中多模态隐喻的研究，更加注重动态意义的在线构建，而且也为解释多模态语篇中不同模态的相互作用提供了一个新的视角。

关键词：多模态隐喻；英国脱欧；政治漫画；概念整合理论

List of Tables

Table 4.1 Distribution of metaphors for Brexit 11

List of Figures

Figure 3.1 A basic integration network 9

Figure 4.1 The cartoon “Union Jack sails” 13

Figure 4.2 Integration network of the cartoon “Union Jack sails” 13

Figure 4.3 The cartoon “A boxing match” 15

Figure 4.4 Integration network of the cartoon “A boxing match” 16

Figure 4.5 The cartoon “Brexit acrobatic” 17

Figure 4.6 Integration network of the cartoon “Brexit acrobatic” 18

1. Introduction

1.1 Research background

Metaphors are pervasive in our daily life. They are not only one of the traditional rhetorical skills, but also an important cognitive method for people to perceive the world. Therefore, it has drawn the attention of many researchers. In the 1980s, Lakoff and Johnson put forward the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (hereafter abbreviated as CMT), which holds that metaphors are conceptual in nature and are not confined to language alone. Indeed, metaphors can be expressed in various modes (word, image, gesture, etc.). In other words, metaphors can occur multi-modally. Based on this impressive finding, a group of researchers, represented by Charles Forceville, have extended the study of multimodal metaphors to different genres, such as print advertisements (Forceville 1996), political cartoons (El Refaie 2009), animation (Eerden 2009) and films (Rohdin 2009).

Indeed, political cartoons offer a good opportunity to study multimodal metaphors because they contain typical instances of multimodal metaphors, which are frequently realized by the verbal and visual modes. Moreover, political cartoons have distinctive styles, conventions, and communicative purposes (El Refaie 2009). Usually, they depict social events and political figures in a creative or humorous manner and their interpretation requires viewers to take into account the social and cultural background. With further exploration, more and more studies make their attempts in cross-culture discourses to reveal the differences of representation and stances in multimodal metaphors. Meanwhile, attention has also been fixed on the interplay of metaphors and metonymies, as metonymies are abundant in political cartoons for multimodal metaphor construction.

This thesis intends to study Brexit-related political cartoons. Hence, the historical background of Brexit is necessary. Brexit refers to the UK’s decision to exit from the European Union in a June 23, 2016 referendum. The referendum ended with the result that 52% of voters supported the Brexit and 48% opposed. The debate of the “remainers” and the “leavers” was not over. Theresa May, the former Prime Minister, devoted herself to realizing the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU in a smooth and peaceful way as soon as possible. May was in favor of the soft Brexit while the present Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, supports the hard Brexit. Boris claimed that Britain would leave the EU without a deal if the British politicians fail to reach an agreement before October 31st, 2019. It is called “no deal Brexit”. But this decision would make the Britain’s economy and market in chaos, so the UK parliament rejected it through a bill. The date of Brexit was delayed again. Till January 30, 2020, the EU officially approved of the British withdrawal. Brexit is a complicated political event, but political cartoons can portray this event in an interesting way.

1.2 Objectives of the study

Taking several prototypical Brexit-related cartoons as examples, this thesis aims to examine the commonly used metaphors for Brexit and how metaphorical meaning is constructed multimodally in political cartoons. This study draws on Conceptual Blending Theory (Fauconnier amp; Turner 1996, 1998, 2002), in order to analyze how words and images contribute to the meaning construction of multimodal metaphors in political cartoons.

The questions to be answered in this research are as follows:

1. What are the commonly used metaphors in Brexit-related political cartoons? How are they distributed?
2. How are these metaphors constructed multimodally in political cartoons? How do the verbal and visual modes interact to create metaphorical meaning?

1.3 Data and methodology

This study combines the qualitative and quantitative methods. The corpus used in the present study consists of 50 Brexit-related cartoons from online databases (https://twitter.com/Cartoon4sale; https://www.cartoonmovement.com/). These cartoons were published online between June, 2019 and February, 2020. And they depict various topics in the process of Brexit, such as trade talks, hard Brexit, Brexit day etc. The criteria for selecting the political cartoons are as follows: Firstly, the content of the cartoons must be related to Brexit, such as “UK”, “EU”, “Boris Johnson” and so forth. Secondly, we can identify at least one cross-domain mapping. In other words, the relation of “A IS B” or “A-ING IS B-ING” can be labeled.

After selecting the appropriate cartoons for analysis, I summarize the commonly used metaphors for Brexit in these cartoons and count the distribution of them. Then, I analyze prototypical instances of each kind of multimodal metaphor, and explain the online meaning construction of multimodal metaphors based on Conceptual Blending Theory.

1.4 Organization of the thesis

This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One introduces the research background, research purposes, data collection and methodology. Chapter Two reviews previous studies of multimodal metaphors and research on Brexit-related metaphors. It also summarizes the research gap. Chapter Three introduces the theoretical framework Conceptual Blending Theory. Chapter Four examines the distribution of the commonly used metaphors and explains the meaning construction of multimodal metaphors in typical examples. The last chapter is the concluding section, which summarizes the major findings, points out the limitations and puts forward suggestions for future study.

2. Literature Review

This chapter reviews studies of multimodal metaphors and Brexit-related metaphors conducted by previous scholars. Then, the research gap is summarized.

2.1 Review of previous studies on multimodal metaphors

In this section, we briefly introduce the origin and definition of multimodal metaphors before reviewing relevant studies in different genres.

2.1.1 The origin and definition of multimodal metaphors

Lakoff and Johnson (1980) put forth the Conceptual Metaphor Theory in their seminal monograph Metaphors we live by, in which they define metaphors as “understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (1980: 5). In the CMT, metaphors are presented as a set of mappings between two related conceptual domains, namely, the source domain and the target domain. The mapping is unidirectional from the source domain to the target domain. The underlying identify relation between the two domains can be formulated as “A IS B”. The source domains are more concrete and more clearly delineated than the target domains, which tend to be fairly abstract and less-delineated concepts. For instance, in the LOVE IS A JOURNEY metaphor, the abstract concept “LOVE” is described in terms of the concept “JOURNEY”, which has a clear structure. The features and structures of JOURNEY are mapped onto the relationship of LOVE.

The innovative notions of CMT boost the development of cognitive linguistics. This theory endorses that metaphors are one of cognitive approaches and they can be realized by not just linguistic symbols but other semiotic resources. This has attracted researchers’ attention to metaphors in nonverbal forms. It becomes increasingly popular to study metaphors cued in not a single modality, but two or more modalities at the same time, which leads to the so-called “multimodal metaphor”. Monomodal metaphors and multimodal metaphors are defined respectively as “metaphors whose target and source are exclusively or predominantly rendered in one mode” and “metaphors whose target and source are each represented exclusively or predominantly in different modes” (Forceville 2006: 383-384). Then, Forceville transfers “A IS B”, the identification relation of metaphors, to “A-ING IS B-ING”. This is because multimodal metaphors are “dynamic, inviting actions” (Forceville 2016: 244). Provisionally, he (2016: 244) also makes a list of modes that can be used to create multimodal metaphors, which includes spoken language, written language, visuals, music, sounds, gestures, smell, taste, and touch. However, the division of different modes is still controversial and needs to be refined. A general definition of multimodal metaphors is more widely used in China, namely, that metaphors function through the synergy of two or more semiotic systems (Zhao 2013).

2.1.2 Previous studies on multimodal metaphors in different genres

Since the advent of Forceville’s (1996) visual metaphor theory, the study of multimodal metaphors in advertising has drawn much attention from researchers. Forceville (1996) categorized the metaphorical representation in print advertisements into four types: 1) metaphors with one pictorially present term (MP1), 2) metaphors with two pictorially present terms (MP2), 3) pictorial simile (PSs), and 4) verbal-pictorial metaphors (VPMs). This classification was subsequently revised and five new types of metaphors were proposed: contextual metaphor, hybrid metaphor, pictorial simile, integrated metaphor, and verbal-pictorial metaphors (Forceville 2008). Yu (2011) explores how the “HOSTING THE BEIJING OLYMPICS IS PERFORMING OPERA ON AN INTERNATIONAL STAGE” metaphor is manifested through visual, aural as well as verbal information and finds that it is comprised of many primary metaphors and complex metaphors at different levels. Lantolf and Bobrova (2012) make a comparative analysis of 32 American and Ukrainian beer commercials. According to their analysis, the connotations of the same concept are distinct due to the different cultures. Tzanne (2013) examines two commercials from the advertising campaign of a Greek airliner, the Aegean Airlines. He discovers that the advertised commodities are not the target domains of multimodal metaphors in the commercials. This “genre-related” deviation is contrary to the generic features of advertising concluded that “the product advertised (or an element metonymically associated with that product) invariably constitutes the target domain of the metaphor” (Forceville 2002: 7) and that “we are to map only positive connotations from source onto target” (Foceville 2016: 252).

In addition to advertisements, political cartoons are also one kind of multimodal discourses frequently used to study metaphors. El Refaie (2009) explores how the audiences interpret multimodal metaphors in one political cartoon from a British newspaper. The author discovers that the social-cultural contexts make a difference to the viewers’ understanding of metaphorical mappings. Lin and Chiang (2015) explore a model of multimodal fusion to account for the underlying cognitive mechanism of multimodal metaphors in a corpus of 56 political cartoons. They claim that the multimodal fusion model is developed from metonymic-metaphoric networks and a combination of the conceptual, visual, and verbal modes. The interplay of words and images are most frequently discussed in printed cartoons (Tasić and Stamenković 2015), while the combination of visual, verbal and auditory modes is primary in animated cartoons. Popa (2013) takes a cognitive-semantic approach in the genre of animated political cartoons. The study discovers that auditory and verbal modalities are essential to identify source and target in metaphorical construction. Previous studies have deepened our understanding about the contributions of different modes to multimodal metaphors. With further exploration, some researchers are committed to the interaction of metaphors and metonymies. Zhao and Feng (2017) analyze the function of the interplay of multimodal metaphors and metonymies in the construction of China’s image. They claim that source domains highlight negative features mapped to China’s image and call for more studies from social dimension. Political discourses usually portray political events or politicians in a critical or ironic manner. In contrast to the generic attributes of advertisements, political cartoons tend to causes people to think of negative meanings with the interplay of metaphor and sarcasm (Musolff 2017).

So far, we have reviewed previous studies of multimodal metaphors in advertisements and political cartoons. The above two genres have spawned more research than other genres, like films, music and gestures. This is because multimodal metaphors in advertisements and political cartoons are easier to understand than those in films and music, which require researchers to have adequate professional knowledge to encode the metaphors in them (Chen 2013). This notwithstanding, there are some scholars still making attempts to interpret multimodal metaphors in films, music etc. For instance, Lawrence (2009) takes the methodology of exploring metaphors in music into consideration. He holds that conceptual blending models can help us capture the contribution of each mode to the process of meaning construction. Rohdin (2009) analyzes multimodal metaphors in classical film theory and finds that they are often instantiations of the “MAN IS ANIMAL” metaphor. Gomez-Moreno adopts the expressive movement approach to investigate metaphors and metonymies in the German movie Faust. This study shows figurative devices, presented visually, verbally and acoustically, can trigger “sensorial, conceptual and emotional responses in the moviegoers” (Gomez-Moreno 2017: 208).

2.2 Review of previous studies on Brexit-related metaphors

Although research of Brexit-related metaphors is rather limited, some researchers still attempt to encode the multimodal metaphors in Brexit political cartoons. Morozova (2017) studies monomodal and multimodal instantiations of conceptual metaphors of Brexit. The study shows that metaphorical representations of Brexit may represent different attitudes towards this event: proponents describe it as a promising action while opponents depict it as an uncertain process. Yan (2017) counts the frequency of main metaphorical scenarios and frames in Brexit cartoons and interprets the metaphor-frame model from a perspective of conceptual blending. She finds that the frequency of the same scenario or frame is different before and after the referendum,

Besides, researchers also pay attention to the underlying ideology conveyed by metaphors. Zhu (2019) analyzes the ideology from the headlines of news about Brexit based on CMT and Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA). In her research, negative metaphors account for the largest proportion, which suggests negative emotion plays a dominant role in people’s attitude towards Brexit. Charteris-Black (2019) collects Brexit-related metaphors in press articles, political speeches, Tweets and demonstrates how these metaphors are motivated by different stances and moral thoughts.

2.3 Research gap

Multimodal metaphors in political cartoons have been studied from a cognitive perspective for decades. Most studies focus on the generic features and construction mechanism, such aspect as metaphors and metonymies. Just a few pay attention to the online processing of metaphorical meaning through various modes. Besides, studies of Brexit-related political cartoons are rather limited. Moreover, most studies adopt an introspective approach to describe and analyze one or two cartoons. Empirical data and quantitative methods are lacking. To bridge these gaps, this thesis aims to explain the meaning construction of multimodal metaphors in Brexit-related cartoons by combing the quantitative and qualitative methods.

3. Theoretical Framework

This thesis adopts the theoretical framework offered by Conceptual Blending Theory (Fauconnier amp; Turner 1998, 2002), in order to better expound the meaning construction of multimodal metaphors.

3.1 Conceptual Blending Theory

Conceptual Blending Theory (CBT) was put forth by American linguists Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner (1994, 1996, 1998, 2002). CBT derives from Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Mental Space Theory. It is applied for information integration and can explain the ‘creative’ aspects of meaning construction. A basic conceptual blending network comprises four conceptual spaces: Input Space I, Input Space II, Generic Space and Blended Space (see Figure 3.1)

Figure 3.1 A basic conceptual network

(Fauconnier and Turner 2002: 46)

The two input spaces consist of information from different cognitive domains. Partial mappings between elements of the two inputs are represented by solid lines. Connections between input space, generic space, and blended space are designated by dotted lines. The common structures and frames shared by the two inputs are presented in the generic space. In the blended space, the two input spaces give rise to selective projection and finally create an emergent structure. The emergent meaning generates in three component steps: composition, completion, and elaboration. Composition combines elements of two inputs and gives rise to a new relationship projected in the blended space. The process of completion means introducing the information from background knowledge in order to continuously complete the new structure projected from the two inputs. Elaboration is the online processing of all information that contributes to a creative structure unique to the blended space (Evans 2019).

3.2 Conceptual Blending and multimodal metaphors

Compared with CMT, the online processing of conceptual integration can better deal with the dynamic meaning construction of multimodal metaphors. Since Conceptual Blending Theory was put forward, it has been adopted in some research of multimodal metaphors. Lawrence used this theory to analyze multimodal metaphors in music. He (2009: 376) concluded “it has the potential to place language and music on an equal footing so that we may better understand the contribution of each mode to multimodal metaphor.” Considering the limitations of double-domain mapping, Zhao (2013) put forth an integration model of multimodal metaphors, which could elaborate on the interaction of diverse semiotic resources, rhetorical tropes and the meaning construction process in a case study of political cartoon. Pollaroli and Rocci (2015) employed Blending Theory and the Argumentum Model of Topics.to investigate the correspondence between rhetorical tropes and argumentative loci. They discovered meaning operation of metaphors could guide the reconstruction of the argument that advertisements put forth by pointing out the relevant category to which the source and target belong. Studies of multimodal metaphors are not confined to CMT. As illustrated above, Conceptual Blending Theory has provided a new and feasible approach to expound the meaning operation of multimodal metaphors.

4. Conceptual Analysis of Multimodal Metaphors in Brexit-related Comics

In this chapter I analyze the multimodal metaphors in 50 Brexit-related political cartoons. I will first present the distribution of the commonly used metaphors before presenting the most prototypical instances of such metaphors.

4.1 Distribution of metaphors for Brexit in political cartoons

In order to count the frequency of different metaphors for Brexit, I first carry out a survey of Brexit-related metaphors in headlines of newspapers and public reports (Morozova 2017; Musolff 2017; Charteris-Black 2019; Zhu 2019). Mono-modal metaphors in these verbalized discourses have their multimodal parallels. Indeed, some creative metaphors also occur in political cartoons. All the chosen cartoons depict topics of Brexit, so Brexit-related metaphors can be identified from each cartoon. Altogether 50 instances of metaphors are found: 19 instances are journey metaphors, 13 instances are competition metaphors, 10 instances are acrobatic or shows and others. Table 4.1 presents the distribution of Brexit-related metaphors in my corpus.

Table 4.1 Distribution of metaphors for Brexit

From the above table, the first two in ranking in terms of frequency are “BREXIT IS A JOURNEY” and “BREXIT IS A COMPETITION/GAME”. When BREXIT is described in terms of JOURNEY in cartoons, we can identify various vehicles symbolizing the UK or the EU, or find some politicians walking in a downhill path. The most obvious is to tag “Brexit” on the signpost or integrate “Brexit” with a path visually. These features can help us find the JOURNEY metaphors and count the frequency. As for the “BREXIT IS A COMPETITION/GAME” metaphor, the boxing match, the shooting game and varied ball games are common source domains to portray the Brexit negotiations.

In addition, the metaphors “BREXIT IS AN ACROBATIC/ A SHOW” appear 10 times of 50 cartoons and rank the third. In these metaphors, Brexit are conceptualized as acrobatic performance, puppet show, magic show and films. The occurrence of “BREXIT IS A MONSTER” and “BREXIT IS FOOD” is 2 respectively. Also, there are 4 other metaphors: BREXIT IS BURNING FLAME; BREXIT IS BREAKING THE SHACKLES; BREXIT IS THROWING THE EU LAW; BREXIT IS CLEANUP.

4.2 Meaning construction of multimodal metaphors in political cartoons

The above section comes to the three commonly used metaphors in my corpus. In the following, I will explain how these metaphors are constructed multimodally in three prototypical cartoons.

4.2.1 The BREXIT IS A JOURNEY metaphor

In this part, I explain how the metaphor “BREXIT IS A JOURNEY” is generated. Consider the following cartoon “Union Jack sails” in Figure 4.1.

Figure 4.1 The cartoon “Union Jack sails”

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