A Comparison of Multimodal Metaphors in Chinese and Foreign Liquor Advertisements ()
1. Introduction
Metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also a way of human thinking. In order to confirm this idea, the study of metaphor is no longer limited to pure language only, but casts its perspective to multimodal metaphor. The so-called multimodal metaphor refers to the fact that the source and target domains are respectively characterized by different modal ways, such as visual, auditory, olfactory and tactile. “Language is the external manifestation of conceptual metaphor”, but it is not the only means of externalization, other symbols such as sound, color, structure, layout, etc. can also construct and express metaphors [1], and multimodal metaphors are then formed. Commercial advertisements contain a large number of multimodal metaphors, which integrate images, words, music and other multimodal to promote goods or services, and display the purpose of the advertisement in a vivid and intuitive form, which makes the audience deeply impressed. In this paper, we choose SANTA MARGHERITA and Moutai commercials from Bilibili video website as the corpus, and focus on the similarities and differences in the use of multimodal metaphors in English-Chinese commercials from the perspective of cognitive linguistics.
1.1. Multimodal Metaphor
Multimodal metaphors were introduced by Forceville in the late 1990s as a product of expanding the study of metaphor into the interdisciplinary field of multimodal studies. Multimodal metaphors refer to metaphors in which the source and target domains are separately or primarily characterized by two or more modalities [2]. As a way of thinking, metaphor can be expressed in a multimodal way. The research on multimodal metaphors is mainly reflected in case studies based on advertisements, cartoons and movies [3]. Domestically, it mainly focuses on: 1) introduction and review of foreign studies on multimodal metaphors; 2) case study analysis; 3) theory construction; 4) application in teaching and learning, etc. [3]. These multimodal metaphor studies all prove the thinking nature of metaphor from different sides.
1.2. Idealized Cognitive Models
In the 1980s, George Lakoff (1987) proposed the theory of Idealized Cognitive Models (ICM) based on the philosophical framework of experientialism, which is an abstract, unified and idealized organization and representation structure of experience and knowledge in a certain domain formed by people in the process of knowing things and understanding the real world [4]. ICM is an abstract, unified and idealized organization and representation structure formed by people in the process of knowing things and understanding the real world [5], and it is a complex set of cognitive models with Gestalt nature built on top of many cognitive models [6]. According to Lakoff, there are four types of constructive principles in ICM:
1) Propositions: comprise the components, attributes, and relational composition between particular objects in the model. Detailed explanations of the concepts, properties, and inter-conceptual relations involved in the cognitive model without the need for imaginative means; the
2) Imagery schema: includes a variety of organizational structures that link abstract relationships and concrete imagery, such as containers, paths, movement, and a variety of spatial and orientation relationships that recur in the process of human daily experience and understanding, providing a structure or framework for ICM.
3) Metaphorical mapping: mapping a proposition or a component or imagery schema in a proposition from one cognitive domain to the corresponding structure in another cognitive domain, to realize conceptualization, understanding and reasoning about abstract things, and to broaden the cognitive scope.
4) Metonymic mapping: mapping the whole or other parts of the whole with a component of the same ICM that is easily perceived or highlighted [7].
In summary, the first two constitute the main content and foundation of ICM providing relevant scenarios as the background for understanding and activating relevant other concepts and knowledge [8]; the last two are the concrete embodiment or means of the first two, and are the extension mechanism of ICM, through which complex and abstract concepts are understood and expressed, and people’s life experiences are regulated.
1.3. Commercial Advertisement
Commercial advertising can be broadly defined as a strategic communication process employed by businesses to promote goods, services, or brands to potential consumers. It operates as a tool for persuasion, aiming to influence consumer behavior and drive purchase decisions by leveraging various media channels, including print, digital, broadcast, and outdoor platforms. At its core, commercial advertising is designed to create brand awareness, foster consumer engagement, and ultimately, generate revenue. The effectiveness of advertising hinges on its ability to craft compelling messages that resonate with target audiences, often utilizing a mix of visual, auditory, and textual elements to convey the desired narrative. This multifaceted approach makes advertising a vital component of modern marketing strategies, where the goal is not only to inform but also to persuade and emotionally connect with consumers.
2. Literature Review
2.1. The Current State of Research on Multimodal Metaphors
So far, research on multimodal metaphors in linguistics can be roughly divided into two “paths”: one is based on the metafunctional framework of Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG). Most of these studies take the characteristics of specific language categories, such as print commercial advertisements or posters, current affairs cartoons, etc., and take the metaphorical resource potential as the entry point to explain the meaning of image metaphors and the construction process of multimodal metaphors and their classification, with the main representatives including Kress & van Leeuwen, O’Halloran, Feng Dezheng, Huang Binyao, etc. The second is the research on image metaphor or “visual metaphor” based on the conceptual metaphor theory of cognitive linguistics, such as Forceville, Zeng Li, Forciville & amp; Urios-Apara, and Kress & van Leeuwen, O’Halloran. Forciville & Urios-Aparisi, Zhang Hui and Zhan Weiwei, and Pan Yanyan, etc. Their research mainly focuses on the semiotics of spatial relations in specific linguistic categories, as well as the interpretation and study of the characteristics of the two phenomena of human cognition, namely, anaphora and metonymy.
Throughout the research on multimodal metaphors, we find that the visual image theory under the influence of systemic functional grammar provides the theoretical basis and analytic method for multimodal discourse analysis, but its “analytic mode is descriptive without explanatory justification”, and “its cognitive justification has been questioned by researchers”; “Most of the multimodal metaphors under the perspective of cognitive linguistics apply the conceptual metaphor theory to explain the hidden and hidden in visual images”. “The cognitive justification of the analytic model has been questioned by researchers” [9]; Most of the multimodal metaphors from the perspective of cognitive linguistics apply the conceptual metaphor theory to explain the implicit and metonymic phenomena in visual images, while less attention is paid to the working mechanism and cognitive justification of multimodal metaphors. As Feng Dezheng said, as a new development of cognitive metaphor theory, the construct type and working mechanism of multimodal metaphor need to be further explored [10].
2.2. Overview of Domestic Advertising Language Research
Advertising originated earlier in China, but its development was slower. 1979 saw the revival of the advertising industry, and treatises on advertising appeared one after another. 80’s, with the vigorous development of the advertising business, the research on advertising language also came into being. The research on advertising language in China is mainly carried out by two forces: the advertising academy and the linguistic academy. Their research ideas, research directions and research focuses are all different. The research focus of the advertising industry is more on market research, creative strategy, image construction and information feedback, etc., while the research on advertising language is more fragmented and less enthusiastic; the linguistic community pays more attention to the ontology of advertising language, including the words, phrases, sentences, and the rhetorical skills of extraordinary collocation, and endeavors to dig out the cultural and cognitive psychological features such as Chinese harmonies, metaphors and similes, in order to reach the goal of “shining in front of the eyes”, in order to achieve the effect of “new, strange and special”, the advertisements are evaluated and moved by the heart.
The study of advertising language has gone through three stages: the first stage is the initial stage, which is mainly from the microscopic angle of pure language, that is, from the structure of language, including phonetics, characters, vocabulary, grammar, etc., and all kinds of linguistic means and their rhetorical techniques, to see how it serves for advertising. This is still mainly limited to the study of language itself, and the results are mainly single articles, which are often on the subject, lacking depth and not systematic. the middle and late 1980s belonged to this stage. The second stage is the development stage, in which the research horizon has been broadened. From the macroscopic angle of language, i.e. from the new angle of sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, communicative linguistics, cultural linguistics, etc. From the end of 1980s to the beginning of 1990s, the first and the second phases were somewhat intersected, and it was also a turning period, and the main achievements of this period include: First, several influential books were published, for example, The Analysis of Advertisement Languages of Xu Yumin and Gong Riying, Practical Writing for Advertisement of Shao Jingmin, Cao Jingmin’s Practical Writing for Advertisement, and so on. The first is the publication of a number of influential books, such as Xu Yumin, Gong Riying’s Analysis of Advertising Language, Shao Jingmin’s Practical Writing of Advertising, Cao Zhiying’s Research on Advertising Language, Li Hongwei and Zhang Bingzhong’s Modern Advertising Writing [8], and Yang Zhisong’s A Sentence to Impress You and Me. Secondly, a certain number of research papers on the topic of advertising language have been published, and useful explorations have been carried out from different perspectives, such as: Advertising Linguistics, Advertising Language and Social Psychology, A First Exploration of Advertising Language, Studying Advertising Language from a New Perspective, Talking about the Phenomenon of Living Idioms in Advertising, etc. The third stage is the deepening stage, which is the 90th century. The third stage, that is, the deepening stage, the end of the 1990s to the beginning of the 21st century, along with the whole society into the high-speed development of the information age, the accelerated fusion of heterogeneous media, emerging media emerging in an endless stream, which has injected fresh vitality into the development of commercial advertisements, and provided a broader platform for the display of advertisements. The idea of language creation has been further broadened, and the omni-directional and interdisciplinary nature of the research perspectives is becoming more and more prominent. At the same time, the study of advertising language has also made great progress. During this period, the research papers on advertising language are not only large in number, but also have greatly improved in quality. Li Juan et al. “Effective Translation of English Advertisement Language in Order to Be More Competitive in the New Market”, Lu Mei and Han Juan “Implication of Advertisement Language and Advertisement Translation under the Perspective of Purpose Theory”, and Zhang Wei “On the Dialectical Logic of Contradictory Rhetoric and Its Pragmatics Function in Advertisement English”. In addition, numerous papers have appeared to conduct comprehensive or overview studies of existing studies on advertising language in a certain field, such as Yang Xianshun’s The Development Trajectory of Contemporary Chinese Advertisement Language Creation in 2004, and Li Luni and Ma Caimei’s A Glance at the Study of Domestic Advertisement Translation in 2005. During this period, many excellent works on advertising language research also appeared, such as: Wang Junyuan’s The Language of Advertising, Zhang Yinglan’s Principles and Appreciation of Advertising Language Rhetoric, He Xinxiang’s The Art of Advertising Language Rhetoric, and Cao Wei’s Tutorial on Advertising Linguistics.
3. Theoretical Foundations and Research Methods
3.1. Cognitive Metaphor Theory
The late 70’s was the climax of the study of metaphor in Europe and America, especially in the U. S. In 1977, a conference on Metaphor and Thought was held in the U. S., and the main papers of the conference were edited by A. Ortony into the book Metaphor and Thought. In 1980, Lakoff & Johson published two monographs, Metaphors We Live By and Women, Fire and Dangerous Things, which marked the beginning of a whole new era in the study of metaphor, a milestone. In 1980, the publication of Lakoff & Johson’s two monographs, The Metaphors We Live By and Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things, marked a milestone in the study of metaphors as they entered a whole new era. Lakoff & Johson argue that metaphor is ubiquitous in everyday life, not only in language but also in thought and behavior. The everyday conceptual systems by which we think and act are also essentially metaphorical in nature. Lakoff & Johson’s definition of metaphor is that the essence of metaphor is to understand and experience one kind of thing through another. So, modern metaphor theory recognizes the essence of metaphor—metaphor is a cognitive phenomenon. Metaphor must involve two things, one as the point of departure and the other as the destination. In Chinese, these are called “metaphor” and “ontology” respectively. Lykov and others call the former “source” and the latter “target”. Metaphor is the interaction between two different domains that are related in some way, i.e., one domain is used to illustrate the other. The domain being illustrated is called the target domain and the domain being illustrated is called the source domain. Understanding the meaning of metaphor is actually mapping the experience of the source domain to the target domain, so as to achieve the purpose of reconceptualizing the characteristics of the target domain. Lakoff & Johson pointed out that there are two criteria for identifying metaphors: 1) the ontology and the metaphor belong to different activities, and 2) only part of the characteristics are involved in the use. In short, the functions of metaphorical multimodal commercial advertising language cannot be analyzed without the basic use of multimodal discourse analysis theory and cognitive metaphor theory [11].
3.2. Research Methodology
In this paper, the corpus contains the advertisement text of the advertisement, and the research methods used include literature reading method, corpus organization and categorization method, and qualitative depiction method. This paper mainly adopts the qualitative description method to describe and analyze the verbal text and non-verbal text of advertisements, through analyzing and figuring out the several main functions of verbal text, analyzing the expressive characteristics of language, and finding out the lexical and syntactic characteristics of verbal text in multimodal commercial advertisements. The two commercial advertisements are analyzed according to visual, auditory and textual modalities, and their similarities and differences in the use of ICM are compared. The multimodal metaphors of the two commercials are classified according to their categories. In the initial stage of multimodal metaphor understanding, the metaphor solver always tends to use the most direct conceptual information of the ICM-propositions and typical members of the imagery schema, i.e., the relevant knowledge and experience in the cognitive world, and to search for and build up the similarity (physical or psychological) or correlation in the recognized overall difference between the two domains through the information characterized by each modality of the source domains, and to activate the correspondence between concepts of the two domains. The correspondence between the concepts of the two domains is activated; And the cognitive mechanisms such as metaphor and metonymy in ICM are further utilized to map the relevant conceptual elements of the source domain onto the target domain, and the conceptual elements mapped onto the target domain are thus highlighted to complete the literate understanding of the metaphorical meaning.
4. Multimodal Metaphors in English-Chinese Liquor Advertisements
In today’s multimedia era, businessmen put a lot of effort into advertising design in order to make their products or services penetrate into people’s hearts and attract more customers. Commercial advertisements skillfully combine images, sounds, words and other modalities with the intention of enhancing the readability and artistry of the advertisements, creating sensory and psychological impacts on the audience, and thus serving to attract attention and stimulate the audience’s interest in purchasing. The two English-Chinese mineral water commercial advertisements studied in this paper mainly utilize three types of modal metaphors: visual, auditory and textual.
4.1. Visual Modality
Visual perception is the most important of the five human faculties, and humans perceive the world as well as acquire information through vision. Vision and thinking are inseparable [12]. Compared with single-modal text advertisements, multimodal advertisements can give full play to the role of visual perception, give the audience a more intuitive, image sensory experience [13], and better capture their attention to achieve the purpose of advertising and marketing.
The Chinese Moutai advertisement uses the principle of metonymic mapping, highlighting a part of the same cognitive model to understand the whole or a part of the whole. The advertisement begins with a moving mural showing two nymphs in flowing garments passing by in the clouds, followed by an image of ancient laborers brewing liquor, accompanied by the voice-over “Unique and distinguished for thousands of years of spirits producing history…”, it is not difficult to remind people of the long history and exquisite craftsmanship of Maotai. The originating domain “mural” points to the concept of “long history” in the target domain, which is a typical use of specificity to refer to categories. The scene then shifts to real nature, with the mountains turning yellow after the water is green, and the voiceover reads, “With environment that cannot be duplicated, Moutai embraces all friendly micro-organisms all the year round.” Color is an important factor in visual modality, and warm and cool tones can be used for emotional expression and affect the viewer’s emotions. In this advertisement, the four seasons of the color origin and target domains form a metaphorical relationship. In this advertisement, the color metaphor of “spring is green” and “autumn is yellow” is constructed by using the color changes of spring and autumn in Guizhou’s local natural scenery, and “Spring Green, Yellow Autumn” as the origin domain further replaces the target domain “all seasons of the year”, which is a kind of metaphorical use of using parts to refer to the whole. After that, a series of processes for brewing Moutai wine appear on the screen, which mainly include the production of quartz, fermentation, cellar storage, etc. However, the complexity of the liquor production process can not be shown to the audience in just one advertisement, so a part of the screen is chosen to refer to the whole process of liquor production, and only the quartz warehouse and the ceramic altar are shown on the screen, which is accompanied with the narrator’s words “long time cellar storage makes such divine look and heavenly aroma.” The audience can naturally associate the process with a series of complicated and tedious liquor brewing process, which is also a kind of part of the whole. After the brewing is complete, a glass of white wine appears on the screen with the red and blue logos of the national liquor Moutai on it, and the white wine is being poured into this glass, and the screen shifts to more glasses with logos, and the voice-over reads, “China Maotai brews quality into life.” The mere presence of cups with the Moutai logo on them makes the viewer think that the cups are filled with Moutai, which is a metaphor for using the originating domain’s “logo” as a proxy for the target domain’s “product”. It is only after this that the advertised product, Guizhou Moutai, actually appears in the advertisement, the first appearance of the product, with the word “liquor” in various fonts in the background, and the advertisement then ends here. It can be seen that Chinese liquor advertisements use more metaphors, using specifics to refer to categories and parts to refer to the whole. From the images, the entire advertisement only shows the product itself at the end, and the rest of the advertisement uses references to tell the viewer about Moutai’s long history of brewing and its excellent production process. But this is an advertisement for foreign audiences, so textual modality, i.e., narration, is added on top of image modality to make it easier for foreign audiences to understand what the advertisement is trying to convey.
Foreign wine advertisements consist of a thematic metaphor throughout—“Winemaking is like life”—with alternating images of the source domain “human growth” and the target domain The ad alternates between images of the source domain “human growth” and the target domain “wine making”. The idealized cognitive model of growth consists of a complex series of ICMs, including birth, exploration of interests, frustration, education, creation, and harvest. The image begins with a newborn baby opening its eyes, followed by a newly grown seedling, a toddler stumbling and learning to walk, which corresponds to the beginning of the fruiting of the grapevine, a teenage girl becoming interested in drawing and learning to draw on her own, which corresponds to the ripening of the grapes, the girl enrolling in an art school, a painting being knocked out of the collection by someone else in the corridor, which corresponds to the grapes being picked by a worker, and the girl being guided by the teacher to modify the drawing, which corresponds to the grapes in the machine. Corresponding to the grapes being sorted in the machine, the girl attends the graduation ceremony, corresponding to the appearance of the Santa Margherita logo printing, the girl starts her own creation, corresponding to the winemaker savoring the red wine, the girl applies for a job with her work, corresponding to the wine being boxed up, and finally the red wine is brought to the exhibition by the waiter, and the girl’s work is successfully selected, and the girl picks up a glass of red wine and smiles at herself with relief. Through the ICM mapping of life and winemaking, the viewer interprets the multimodal metaphor through their own experience and realizes that winemaking is like life with many complex steps, and that Santa Margherita’s wines are made through a series of complicated processes. Under the thematic metaphor of “winemaking is like life” lies another very important event metaphor—“drinking wine equals success”. The event metaphor takes the concepts of space, motion and force as the origin domain and the event concept as the target domain [14]. The businessmen use the figurative metaphor for abstraction, reflecting the inner event with the help of actual behavioral actions, shaping the brand image and conveying the brand concept. the action of “drinking wine” at the end of the Santa Margherita wine advertisement activates the origin domain, while the target domain “success” is activated by the girl’s “drinking wine” and the target domain “success” is activated by the girl’s “drinking wine”. The target domain “success” is reflected by the girl’s smile of relief at the exhibition after her work has been selected. This is also in line with the objective of the wine ad, which is to convince the audience that red wine is the choice of successful people, in line with the slogan “FOR WHO YOU ARE”.
The two advertisements are very different in terms of visual metaphors. The Chinese liquor advertisement mainly uses metaphors, substituting the specific for the category and the part for the whole, while the foreign red wine advertisement mainly uses metaphors, mapping from one ICM to another, subconsciously influencing the audience’s emotions and perceptions, so that the audience can empathize with the product. Both advertisements also emphasize the complexity and mastery of the winemaking process, while the white wine advertisement chooses to highlight a part in an ICM to map the whole, the red wine advertisement chooses to map from one cognitive domain to another to expand the cognitive scope.
4.2. Auditory Modality
The background music of the liquor advertisement consists of two parts—solemn and low to high and exciting, the first half of the picture about the mural background music is low and slow piano, with the narrator has a kind of narration feeling, the second half of the display of the natural scenery and brewing process is mainly used in the crisp flute, so people have a kind of enlightened feeling, constructing “history is heavy music” and “natural ecology is crisp music” this auditory metaphor. The second half of the movie shows the natural scenery and the brewing process with the sound of a flute, giving people a sense of clarity and constructing an auditory metaphor of “history is heavy music” and “natural ecology is crisp music”. The thousands of years of brewing technology are still being used today, and the audience naturally trusts the product.
The background music of the red wine advertisement uses the intertwining sounds of piano and violin to express the changes in the storyline. When the girl is born, the rhythm becomes faster and faster as she explores her interest in learning, and the rhythm of the music reaches a climax when the girl creates her artwork, and then slows down when she is interviewed, and then calms down when she picks up the red wine at the exhibition, thus constructing auditory metaphors such as “birth is calm music”, “growth is fast-paced music”, and “harvest is soothing music”. This creates the auditory metaphors of “birth is calm music”, “growth is fast-paced music” and “harvest is soothing music”. Both advertisements use pure music as background music, the difference is that the white wine advertisement focuses on showing the difference in music style, and the red wine advertisement focuses on the difference in music rhythm, the former is used to communicate with the audience emotionally, and the latter is used to assist in conveying the changes in the advertisement content and plot, and the two background music enhance the infectiousness of the advertisement itself, and convey a certain message.
4.3. Textual Modal
Only the Chinese liquor advertisement uses text modality in both Chinese and foreign advertisements. The foreign wine advertisement does not show any language text in the whole advertisement, but only the logo of Santa Margherita and the advertisement slogan “FOR WHO YOU ARE”. In the background of the final scene of Moutai’s advertisement, the Chinese character for “wine” appears in many ancient Chinese scripts such as oracle bone inscriptions, gold inscriptions, Warring States scripts, and small seal scripts, which builds up an idealized cognitive model of the character for wine.
5. Conclusions
Chinese and foreign advertisements use multimodal metaphors for different purposes and therefore have different source domains and different pathways. Chinese Moutai wine advertisements mainly want to emphasize the history and quality of the wine, while foreign wine advertisements want to emphasize the difficulty of brewing the wine, so as to make the audience empathize with the wine. The former mainly uses visual modal metaphors, with the source domain coming from a part of the same idealized cognitive model, while the latter mainly uses visual modal metaphors, with the source domain coming from another idealized cognitive model similar to the target domain. Chinese liquor advertisements use one more textual modality and traditional musical instruments in the auditory modality, both of which are culturally influenced.
Literacy and interpretation of metaphors constructed in multimodal contexts require the mobilization of multiple senses, such as vision and hearing, in order to achieve effective interactions between modal information. ICM participates in the process of metaphor literacy and interpretation, and plays an important role in the process of transmitting features of the two domains. Multimodal metaphors are created by the casters based on their own knowledge and experience while the decoders often do not have such knowledge and experience, or the conceptual structure formed by such knowledge and experience does not occupy a prominent position. Therefore, the metaphor solver needs to mobilize multiple senses, absorb external symbols in multiple modal forms, and tap into the relevant knowledge and experience of the cognitive world, i.e., the propositional structure and typical members of the imagery schema as the basis and main content of the ICM, and search for and establish the similarity or correlation between the source and target domains, so as to activate the correspondence between the two domains. The metaphor solver utilizes the ICM cognitive mechanism to realize the mapping of conceptual elements from the source domain to the target domain, highlighting the conceptual elements and recognizing the metaphorical meaning.
Through analyzing two advertisements, this paper understands the significance of multimodal metaphor in advertisement creation. Multimodal metaphor is a dynamic process jointly constructed by a variety of modes, involving visual, auditory, olfactory and linguistic modes, which interact with each other to promote the theme and express the spirit and connotation of the brand.
The differences between Chinese and foreign liquor advertisements mainly come from the differences in their respective cultural backgrounds, for example, Chinese liquor advertisements utilize textual modality, while foreign wine advertisements do not have textual modality, this is due to the fact that Chinese language and writing are important symbols of the country’s history and culture, and the Chinese characters have had a great impact on the daily life of the Chinese people. Cultural norms play an important role or a decisive role in the differences of multimodal metaphors, and cross-cultural comparisons of multimodal metaphors should continue to be promoted.
In this paper, we analyze the metaphorical meanings of two Chinese and foreign liquor advertisements characterized by multiple modalities under the theoretical framework of the Idealized Cognitive Model (ICM) proposed by Lakoff, which further proves that abstract conceptual metaphors can not only be externalized into language, but also be represented figuratively through the synergistic action of other modalities or multiple modalities. It is further demonstrated that abstract conceptual metaphors can not only be externalized into language, but can also be symbolized by other modes or the synergistic effect of multiple modes, and it is also verified that ICM has the same explanatory power for multimodal metaphor.
Conflicts of Interest
The author declares no conflicts of interest.