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Article published In:
Metaphor and the Social World
Vol. 12:1 (2022) ► pp.1–22

How visual metaphors can contradict verbal occurrences

A cross-linguistic and multimodal analysis of the  imprint of climate change

| University of East Anglia

We investigate the different interpretations related to the metaphorical imprint of climate change in English and French media discourses. This cross-linguistic perspective is motivated by the particularities of both languages which have been assumed to promote different understandings of climate change-related concepts. We focus on the metaphor carbon footprint whose meaning can be compared to another climate change metaphor in English: fingerprint . These two source domains share a highly specific and concrete meaning interpreted from lexical constructions enabled by the English language. In French, however, such a specification cannot be interpreted from the meaning of the metaphor empreinte carbone ( carbon imprint ) which defines a similar concept. We rely on visual representations of these metaphorical expressions in English and French to discuss the characteristics associated with each source domain: we show that visual metaphors can contradict expectations emerging from the interpretations of verbal metaphors.

Keywords: carbon footprint, fingerprint, imprint, climate change, English, French, multi-modal metaphor, media variation of meaning
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The explanatory characteristics of a metaphor
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.Verbal metaphors in English and French
    • 4.1The metaphors carbon footprint and fingerprint in English
    • 4.2 empreinte carbone: A footprint or a fingerprint?
  • 5. footprint, fingerprint , and empreinte in short animated videos about climate change
    • 5.1English visual metaphors reflect source-specific selection of features
    • 5.2 empreinte carbone and its visual representations
  • 6.Discussion
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 1 November 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.20001.aug
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