多模态隐喻研究新发展（2010—2024）

Wu, Yuxin and Zhao, Xiufeng (2025) 多模态隐喻研究新发展（2010—2024）. In: 话语研究论丛 :. UNSPECIFIED, pp. 144-163. ISBN 9787563680764

Abstract

Combining bibliometric approach with closing reading, the present study provides a comprehensive literature review of international multimodal metaphor research since the publication of the seminal work Multimodal Metaphor (2009), whereby foreseeing the prospective development. It finds this field has seen steady progress driven by theoretical expansion and methodological refinement, featured by distinct interdisciplinary orientation. To be specific, from a theoretical perspective, multimodal metaphor research, originated in cognitive linguistics, has been more intertwined with critical discourse and rhetoric studies, signifying an evident shift from cognitive to socio-pragmatic orientation. In terms of the utmost concern, researchers tend to be more preoccupied with social issues, with more focus on constructive and manipulative functions of multimodal metaphors. Methodologically, this period has witnessed heated discussions about criteria for identifying and interpreting multimodal metaphors. More comprehensively speaking, three principal research paradigms have emerged: (1) critical multimodal metaphor studies, which investigate how multimodal metaphors in public communication of digital era, especially in political cartoons and internet memes, shape discourse, influence public perception, and communicate ideologies; (2) methodological studies, which are more concerned with refining and standardizing the criteria and steps for multimodal metaphor identification, around which there has been heated discussions and continual modifications; and (3) cognitive neuroscience studies, which, by adopting the experimental approach and brain-imaging techniques, examine the activation patterns and cognitive process of brain in comprehending multimodal metaphor, thereby providing empirical support for relevant theories and hypothesis. The existing paradigms lay a robust foundation for the next stage of inquiry, primarily including the automatic and intelligent multimodal metaphor identification, the development of multimodal corpora, and integration with emerging fields like multimodal argumentation studies, which are considered to be the promising directions for future research on multimodal metaphor.