Cover not available
Article published In:
Pragmatics & Cognition
Vol. 27:2 (2020) ► pp.474–499

Metaphor and metonymy in Chinese and American political cartoons (2018–2019) about the Sino-US trade conflict

| Northeast Normal University
| University of Amsterdam
Political cartoons make meaning by drawing on scenarios that must be immediately recognizable by their intended audience. Crucial meaning-making mechanisms in these scenarios are verbo-visual ensembles of metaphors and metonymies. In this paper we investigate 69 Chinese and 60 American political cartoons published in 2018 and 2019 that pertain to the two nations’ trade conflict. By examining the cross-cultural similarities and differences between metaphors and metonymies, we chart how Chinese and American cartoonists portray this trade conflict. We end by showing how a complete interpretation of the cartoons requires enrichment with insights provided by yet other analytical instruments.
Keywords: visual metaphor, visual metonymy, Chinese political cartoons, American political cartoons, intercultural pragmatics, intertextuality, trade conflict
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Metaphor and metonymy: A very brief characterization
  • 3.The Sino-US trade conflict
  • 4.Data and method of analysis
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Conceptual metaphorical source domains recurring more than five times
      • 5.1.1 trade conflict is war/fight
      • 5.1.2 trade conflict is game/sports/play
      • 5.1.3 trade conflict is an interrupted journey
      • 5.1.4 trade conflict is a natural disaster
      • 5.1.5 world is a person
    • 5.2Other conceptual, and creative, metaphors
    • 5.3Recurring metonymies for the US and China
      • 5.3.1 flag for country
      • 5.3.2 uncle sam for us; trump for us; american citizen for us
      • 5.3.3 xi for china; chinese citizen for china; panda/dragon for china
      • 5.3.4 spiked cudgel for aggressive trade conflict measures
  • 6.Discussion of metaphors and metonymies in the cartoons
  • 7.Methodological issues and meaning-generating mechanisms beyond metaphor and metonymy
    • 7.1Multimodality: Interaction between visuals and language
    • 7.2Intertextuality
    • 7.3Idioms and expressions
    • 7.4Themes and topoi
    • 7.5Pictorial runes and other stylistic resources from comics
    • 7.6An example of a cartoon combining different meaning-making resources
  • 8.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 6 October 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/pc.20013.zha
References (69)
References
Abdel-Raheem, Ahmed. 2019. Pictorial framing in moral politics: A corpus-based experimental study. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Al-Masri, Hanada. 2016. Jordanian editorial cartoons: A multimodal approach to the cartoons of Emad Hajjaj. Language and Communication 501. 45–58. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barcelona, Antonio (ed.). 2000. Metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads: A cognitive perspective. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Barthes, Roland. 1986 [1964]. Rhetoric of the image. In Roland Barthes, The responsibility of forms, 21–40. Translated by Richard Howard. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bergen, Benjamin. 2003. To awaken a sleeping giant: Cognition and culture in September 11 political cartoons. In Michel Achard & Suzanne Kemmer (eds.), Language, culture, and mind, 23–35. Stanford: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Black, Max. 1979. More about metaphor. In Andrew Ortony (ed.), Metaphor and thought, 19–43. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bolognesi, Marianna & Paola Vernillo. 2019. How abstract concepts emerge from metaphorical images: The metonymic way. Language and Communication 691. 26–41. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bounegru, Liliana & Charles Forceville. 2011. Metaphors in editorial cartoons representing the global financial crisis. Visual Communication 10(2). 209–229. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Brzezinski, Mika. 2018 (13 June). Morning Joe. [URL], accessed 14-12-2019.
Charteris-Black, Jonathan. 2019. Metaphors of Brexit: No cherries on the cake. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cienki, Alan & Cornelia Müller. 2008. Metaphor and gesture. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dancygier, Barbara & Eve Sweetser (eds.). 2012. Viewpoint in language: A multimodal perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dirven, René & Ralf Pörings (eds.). 2002. Metaphor and metonymy in comparison and contrast. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Đurović, Tatjana & Nadežda Silaški. 2016. Multimodality and the construal of reality in political cartoons: The case of Serbia-EU relationship. Facta Universitatis, Series: Linguistics and Literature 14(2). 117–128.Google Scholar
El Refaie, Elisabeth. 2003. Understanding visual metaphors: The example of newspaper cartoons. Visual Communication 2(1). 75–95. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2009. Multiliteracies: How readers interpret political cartoons. Visual Communication 8(2). 181–205. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fauconnier, Gilles & Mark Turner. 2002. The way we think: Conceptual blending and the mind’s hidden complexities. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Forceville, Charles. 1996. Pictorial metaphor in advertising. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2004. Review of Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner, The way we think: Conceptual blending and the mind’s hidden complexities. Metaphor and Symbol 191. 83–89.Google Scholar
. 2006. The source-path-goal schema in the autobiographical journey documentary: McElwee, Van der Keuken, Cole. New Review of Film and Television Studies 4(3). 241–261. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2009. Metonymy in visual and audiovisual discourse. In Eija Ventola & Arsenio Jésus Moya Guijarro (eds.), The world told and the world shown: Issues in multisemiotics, 56–74. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
. 2011. Pictorial runes in Tintin and the Picaros . Journal of Pragmatics 431. 875–890. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2013a. Metaphor and symbol: searching for one’s identity is looking for a home in animation film. Review of Cognitive Linguistics 11(2). 250–268. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2013b. Creative visual duality in comics balloons. In Tony Veale, Kurt Feyaerts & Charles Forceville (eds.), Creativity and the agile mind: A multi-disciplinary exploration of a multi-faceted phenomenon, 253–273. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2017. Visual and multimodal metaphor in advertising: Cultural perspectives. Styles of Communication 9(2). 26–41.Google Scholar
. 2020. Visual and multimodal communication: Applying the relevance principle. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Forceville, Charles & Eduardo Urios-Aparisi (eds.). 2009. Multimodal metaphor. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Forceville, Charles & Marloes Jeulink. 2011. “The flesh and blood of embodied understanding”: The source-path-goal schema in animation film. Pragmatics & Cognition 19(1). 37–59. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Forceville, Charles, Elisabeth El Refaie & Gert Meesters. 2014. Stylistics and comics. In Michael Burke (ed.), The Routledge handbook of stylistics, 485–499. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Forceville, Charles & Nataša van de Laar. 2019. Metaphors portraying right-wing politician Geert Wilders in Dutch political cartoons. In Encarnación Hidalgo-Tenorio, Miguel Ángel Benítez-Castro & Francesca De Cesare (eds.), Populist discourse: Critical approaches to contemporary politics, 292–307. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, Raymond W., Jr. (ed.). 2008. The Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015. The allegorical character of political metaphors in discourse. Metaphor and the Social World 5(2). 264–282. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016 (ed.). Mixing metaphor. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2017. Metaphor wars: Conceptual metaphors in human life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Guan, Yue & Charles Forceville. 2020. Making cross-cultural meaning in five Chinese promotional clips: Metonymies and metaphors. Intercultural Pragmatics 17(2). 123–149. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hartmann-Mahmud, Lori. 2002. War as metaphor. Peace Review 14(4). 427–432. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jansen, Sue Curry & Don Sabo. 1994. The sport/war metaphor: Hegemonic masculinity, the Persian Gulf War, and the new world order. Sociology of Sport Journal 11(1). 1–17. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kashanizadeh, Zahra & Charles Forceville. 2020. Visual and multimodal interaction of metaphor and metonymy: A study of Iranian and Dutch print advertisements. Cognitive Linguistic Studies 7(1). 78–110. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kashyap, Usha & Neha Bothra. 2019. Sino-US trade and trade war. Management and Economics Research Journal 51. 1–12. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kövecses, Zoltán. 2010. Metaphor: A practical introduction. 2nd edn. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
. 2015. Where metaphors come from: Reconsidering context in metaphor. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kövecses, Zoltán & Günther Radden. 1998. Metonymy: Developing a cognitive linguistic view. Cognitive Linguistics 9(1). 37–77. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kwon, Iksoo. 2019. Conceptual mappings in political cartoons: A comparative study of the case of nuclear crises in US-North Korean relations. Journal of Pragmatics 1431. 10–27. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, George & Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George. 1991. Metaphor and war: The metaphor system used to justify war in the Gulf. Peace Research 23(2/3). 25-32.Google Scholar
Lan, Chun & Danyu Zuo. 2016. Pictorial-verbal metaphors in Chinese editorial cartoons on food safety. Metaphor and the Social World 6(1). 20–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Chunding, Chuantian He & Chuangwei Lin. 2018. Economic impacts of the possible China-US trade war. Emerging Markets Finance & Trade 541. 1557–1577. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Minghao, Edward J. Balistreri & Wendong Zhang. 2019. The U.S.-China trade war: Tariff data and general equilibrium analysis. Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University. [URL], accessed 9-12-20.
Lin, Tiffany Ying-Yu & Wen-Yu Chiang. 2015. Multimodal fusion in analyzing political cartoons: Debates on U.S. beef imports into Taiwan. Metaphor and Symbol 30(2). 137–161. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Littlemore, Jeannette. 2015. Metonymy: Hidden shortcuts in language, thought and communication. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Marín-Arrese, Juana I. 2019. Political cartoon discourse: Creativity, critique and persuasion. Cultura, Lenguaje y Representación 221. 117–134. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Master Metaphor List. 1991. 1st edn compiled by George Lakoff, Jane Espenson & Adele Goldberg; 2nd edn compiled by George Lakoff, Jane Espenson & Alan Schwartz. [URL] (last accessed 9-12-20).
Mittelberg, Irene & Linda R. Waugh. 2009. Metonymy first, metaphor second: A cognitive-semiotic approach to multimodal figures of thought in co-speech gesture. In Charles Forceville & Eduardo Urios-Aparisi (eds.), Multimodal metaphor, 329–356. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Musolff, Andreas. 2016. Political metaphor analysis: Discourse and scenarios. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Negro Alousque, Isabel. 2013. Visual metaphor and metonymy in French political cartoons. Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada 261. 365–384.Google Scholar
Peirsman, Yves & Geeraerts, Dirk. 2006. Metonymy as a prototypical category. Cognitive Linguistics 17(3). 269–316. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pérez-Sobrino, Paula. 2017. Multimodal metaphor and metonymy in advertising. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Prendergast, Muireann. 2019. Political cartoons as carnivalesque: A multimodal discourse analysis of Argentina’s Humor Registrado magazine. Social Semiotics 29(1). 45–67. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Radden, Günter & Zoltán Kövecses. 1999. Towards a theory of metonymy. In Klaus-Uwe Panther & Günter Radden (eds.), Metonymy in language and thought, 17–60. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rojo López, Ana María & María Ángeles Orts Llopis. 2010. Metaphorical pattern analysis in financial texts: Framing the crisis in positive or negative metaphorical terms. Journal of Pragmatics 421. 3300–3313. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ruiz de Mendoza, Francisco. 1997. Metaphor, metonymy and conceptual interaction. Atlantis 19(1). 281–295.Google Scholar
. 2000. The role of mappings and domains in understanding metonymy. In Antonio Barcelona (ed.), Metaphor and metonymy at the crossroads, 109–132. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Silaški, Nadežda & Tatjana Đurović. 2019. The journey metaphor in Brexit-related political cartoons. Discourse, Context & Media 311. 1–10. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sweetser, Eve. 2017. Metaphor and metonymy in advertising: Building viewpoint in multimodal multi-space blends. Journal of Pragmatics 1221. 65–76. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wales, Katie. 2001. A dictionary of stylistics, revised edn. London: Pearson Education.Google Scholar
Wawra, Daniela. 2018. Multimodal literacy: Meaning negotiations in political cartoons on the refugee crisis. System 771. 10–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wikipedia. 2020. George Armstrong Custer. [URL], accessed 9-12-2020.
Zhao, Xiufeng & Dezheng Feng. 2017. Multimodal metaphtonymy and the construction of China image: A case of China-related political cartoon discourses in the Economist. Journal of Xi’an International Studies University 25(2). 31–36.Google Scholar
Cited by (7)

Cited by seven other publications

Gebraad, Nina & Charles Forceville
2024. Facing cancer: metaphors in medical animation films. Visual Communication DOI logo
Tan, Xiaojuan & Alan Cienki
2024. A dynamic metaphor perspective on Trump and Xi's trade negotiation in governmental discourse. Language & Communication 96 ► pp. 42 ff. DOI logo
Wei, Ping
2024. Metaphorical Interpretation of Early Works of Art Using Symbolization Methods. Applied Mathematics and Nonlinear Sciences 9:1 DOI logo
Yuan, Xiaoben
2023. Metaphors and metonymies in the multimodal discourse of whaling. Metaphor and the Social World 13:2 ► pp. 293 ff. DOI logo
Zhao, Xiufeng & Yuxin Wu
2023. Oil as narcotic or as medicine: the DISEASE metaphor in political cartoons on energy crisis. Language and Semiotic Studies 9:1 ► pp. 79 ff. DOI logo
Mo, Yongyi, Rong Zhou & Xi Chen
2022. The effect of incongruous contextual cues on pictorial metaphor processing. Frontiers in Psychology 13 DOI logo
Zhang, Cun
2021. The Sino–US trade war in political cartoons: A synthesis of semiotic, cognitive, and cultural perspectives. Intercultural Pragmatics 18:4 ► pp. 469 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.