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Article published In:
Visual Metaphors
Edited by Réka Benczes and Veronika Szelid
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies 7:1] 2020
► pp. 78–110
Applications of visual and linguistic metaphor

Visual and multimodal interaction of metaphor and metonymy

A study of Iranian and Dutch print advertisements

| University of Amsterdam
| University of Amsterdam

Conceptual Metaphor Theory’s central idea that metaphor is a figure of thought rather than a figure of language has led to the examination of non-verbal and multimodal manifestations of metaphor. Over the past twenty years, the verbal trope of metonymy has similarly been theorized from a conceptual point of view, but the implications of this work for visual studies have only begun to be examined. Investigating visual manifestations of metonymy will moreover also improve our understanding of visual metaphor, as often these latter depend on, and interact with, metonymies. In this paper we propose to explore the interaction of metaphor and metonymy in the visual/multimodal realm of print advertising, using Francisco Ruiz de Mendoza and Olga Díez’ (2002) typology, and building on Paula Peréz-Sobrino’s (2017) applications of this typology. Our twofold aim is (1) to see if, and if so, how, all patterns of this typology appear in ads; and (2) to investigate a number of Iranian and Dutch print advertisements in which metaphor and metonymy interact. Analyzing ads from two cultures will enable us to demonstrate how cultural background knowledge is essential for understanding metaphor-metonymy interactions.

Keywords: visual and multimodal metaphor, visual and multimodal metonymy, metaphor-metonymy interaction, Iranian advertisements, Dutch advertisements
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Conceptual metonymy
  • 3.Types of metonymy
    • 3.1Source-in-target
    • 3.2Target-in-source
  • 4.Metaphor and metonymy in interaction
    • 4.1Metonymic expansion of a metaphoric source
    • 4.2Metonymic expansion of a metaphoric target
    • 4.3Metonymic reduction of a metaphoric source
    • 4.4Metonymic reduction of a metaphoric target
  • 5.Metonymic complexes
    • 5.1Double domain expansion
    • 5.2Double domain reduction
    • 5.3Domain expansion plus domain reduction
    • 5.4Domain reduction plus domain expansion
  • 6.Conclusions
  • References
Published online: 19 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cogls.00050.kas
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