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Article published In:
Argumentative Discourse in Contemporary China: A pragma-dialectical perspective
Edited by Peng Wu and Xu Cihua
[Journal of Argumentation in Context 6:3] 2017
► pp. 359–380

Argument by multimodal metaphor as strategic maneuvering in video advertising

The case of the Lin Dan Commercial

| Zhejiang University
| Zhejiang University

The present study analyzes the strategic maneuvering in the Lin Dan Commercial (LDC), an anti-corruption advertisement broadcasted on China Central Television, with the help of pragma-dialectics and conceptual metaphor theory. In order to evaluate the LDC’s reasonableness and effectiveness, this research aims to establish how an argument by multimodal metaphor is used in practice for disseminating of an anti-corruption view. A pragma-dialectical analysis is provided of the LDC advertisement viewed as a multimodal metaphor. According to the research, the LDC advertisement multimodally contains a conceptual metaphor, career is a match, to enhance the advertisement’s effectiveness by maneuvering strategically. In this endeavor, a sense of identity created by the multimodally-expressed conceptual metaphor is utilized to ensure its reasonableness.

Keywords: anti-corruption, advertisement, argument by multimodal metaphor, conceptual metaphor, pragma-dialectics, strategic maneuvering
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Pragma-dialectics and multimodal argument
  • 3.Conceptual structure of argument by multimodal metaphor
    • 3.1Case study: the Lin Dan Commercial (LDC)
    • 3.2Analyzing the conceptual structure of the LDC advertisement
  • 4.Strategic maneuvering by argument by multimodal metaphor
    • 4.1Analytic overview of the LDC advertisement
      • Confrontation stage
      • Opening stage
      • Argumentation stage
      • Concluding stage
    • 4.2Argument schemes in the LDC
      • 4.2.1Scheme of symptomatic argumentation
      • 4.2.2Scheme of argument from authority
    • 4.3Strategic maneuvering in the LDC advertisement
      • 4.3.1Confrontation stage: Concealing the standpoint
      • 4.3.2Opening stage: Utilizing the common starting point
      • 4.3.3Argumentation stage: Embedded with other strategies
      • 4.3.4Concluding stage: Leaving the conclusion implicit
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 4 December 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jaic.17002.zha
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