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Chapter 11. Mixing in pictorial and multimodal metaphors?

  • Charles Forceville
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Mixing Metaphor
This chapter is in the book Mixing Metaphor

Abstract

“Mixed metaphors” in language use two or more different source domains to predicate something about the same target domain in a short stretch of discourse. This often leads to unintendedly humorous results and is usually considered bad style. Given that metaphors may be expressed pictorially or multimodally as well as verbally, one may ask whether non-verbal modalities can also give rise to metaphors of the “mixed” kind. If so, would such instances be considered odd, humorous, or stylistically awkward? And what, if anything, would make such “mixed metaphors” different from metaphoric blends with three input spaces (one target and two sources)? The provisional conclusion is: we should, for the time being, not adopt “mixed pictorial/multimodal metaphor” as a technical term; but the discussion provides leads for further research from which both metaphor theory and multimodal discourse analysis will benefit.

Abstract

“Mixed metaphors” in language use two or more different source domains to predicate something about the same target domain in a short stretch of discourse. This often leads to unintendedly humorous results and is usually considered bad style. Given that metaphors may be expressed pictorially or multimodally as well as verbally, one may ask whether non-verbal modalities can also give rise to metaphors of the “mixed” kind. If so, would such instances be considered odd, humorous, or stylistically awkward? And what, if anything, would make such “mixed metaphors” different from metaphoric blends with three input spaces (one target and two sources)? The provisional conclusion is: we should, for the time being, not adopt “mixed pictorial/multimodal metaphor” as a technical term; but the discussion provides leads for further research from which both metaphor theory and multimodal discourse analysis will benefit.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction
  4. Introduction vii
  5. Part I. Is Mixed Metaphor a Problem?
  6. Chapter 1. A view of “mixed metaphor” within a conceptual metaphor theory framework 3
  7. Chapter 2. Mixed metaphors from a discourse dynamics perspective 17
  8. Chapter 3. Why mixed metaphors make sense 31
  9. Chapter 4. Tackling mixed metaphors in discourse 57
  10. Part II. Reasons for Mixing Metaphor
  11. Chapter 5. Mixed metaphor 75
  12. Chapter 6. Mixed metaphor is a question of deliberateness 113
  13. Chapter 7. When languages and cultures meet 133
  14. Chapter 8. The ‘dull roar’ and the ‘burning barbed wire pantyhose’ 155
  15. Part III. Effects of Mixing Metaphor
  16. Chapter 9. We drink with our eyes first 179
  17. Chapter 10. A corpus-based study of ‘mixed metaphor’ as a metalinguistic comment 203
  18. Chapter 11. Mixing in pictorial and multimodal metaphors? 223
  19. Chapter 12. Extended metaphor in the web of discourse 241
  20. Index 267
https://doi.org/10.1075/milcc.6.11for

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction
  4. Introduction vii
  5. Part I. Is Mixed Metaphor a Problem?
  6. Chapter 1. A view of “mixed metaphor” within a conceptual metaphor theory framework 3
  7. Chapter 2. Mixed metaphors from a discourse dynamics perspective 17
  8. Chapter 3. Why mixed metaphors make sense 31
  9. Chapter 4. Tackling mixed metaphors in discourse 57
  10. Part II. Reasons for Mixing Metaphor
  11. Chapter 5. Mixed metaphor 75
  12. Chapter 6. Mixed metaphor is a question of deliberateness 113
  13. Chapter 7. When languages and cultures meet 133
  14. Chapter 8. The ‘dull roar’ and the ‘burning barbed wire pantyhose’ 155
  15. Part III. Effects of Mixing Metaphor
  16. Chapter 9. We drink with our eyes first 179
  17. Chapter 10. A corpus-based study of ‘mixed metaphor’ as a metalinguistic comment 203
  18. Chapter 11. Mixing in pictorial and multimodal metaphors? 223
  19. Chapter 12. Extended metaphor in the web of discourse 241
  20. Index 267
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