Edited by Laura Hidalgo-Downing and Blanca Kraljevic Mujic
[Figurative Thought and Language 7] 2020
► pp. 249–280
This chapter attempts to provide insights into actual language use in multimodal discourse. Observation and analysis focus on multimodal creative use of stylistic patterns: extended metaphor, metonymy, visual pun, allusion, hyperbole, personification. The study also brings out the role of semiotic elements and the significance of background information comprehension and interpretation of multimodal discourse.
My aim is to explore multimodality as a tool, applicable in creative figurative thought instantiations. Multimodal discourse reveals the capacity of the human brain to express figurative thought in various semiotic modes. As our brain is inherently multimodal, it is able to cognise figurative meaning in both verbal and non-verbal representation: visual, audial, body language, sound, color.