Multimodal metaphor and multimodal metonymy in television advertising

Abstract

In television advertising, persuasiveness is evident, often escalating into manipulativeness. Advertisement creators employ strategies that media advertising discourse allows them to use. As with cinematic art, commercials often contain a micro-narrative that simulates reality. Synchronously, they employ other expressive devices, both verbal and non-verbal. These devices possess properties that enable advertising to access the realm of human unconscious thought. Metaphor and metonymy, as cognitive operations, are fundamental in natural language, often used unconsciously by language users. Their iconicity and invariance are strategically and creatively exploited in advertising, where they are accumulated or combined. The multi-level semantics of advertising may not always be fully understood by the recipient. The study considers advertising as a multimodal discourse. The focus of analysis is on multimodal metaphors and multimodal metonymies in selected television advertisements. The study is conducted in accordance with the principles of cognitive linguistics.