Double-Scope Conceptual Blending in Iranian Economic Cartoons

نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی

نویسندگان

1 Ph.D. Student of Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.

چکیده

Economic press cartoons constitute a prominent multimodal genre for representing and critiquing economic realities in the public sphere. Drawing on Fauconnier and Turner’s (2002) theory of conceptual blending, this study aims to examine the cognitive mechanisms underlying meaning construction and visual humor in Iranian economic press cartoons. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, the research analyzed a corpus of 300 cartoons selected through random sampling, among which 70 cartoons were identified as containing conceptual blending structures. In the quantitative phase, the types of blends were classified, while the qualitative phase focused on an in-depth analysis of three representative economic cartoons using the four-space blending model. The findings revealed that both single-scope and double-scope blends were employed; however, double-scope blends played a more significant role in producing critical meanings and representing economic instability. In addition, vital relations—particularly causality, identity, role, and power—were central to organizing the blended space and guiding interpretation. Discursively, the theme of currency rate increase showed the highest frequency, reflecting its symbolic role as a marker of economic insecurity in everyday experience. Overall, the study demonstrates the analytical value of conceptual blending for understanding visual humor and economic critique in press cartoons.

کلیدواژه‌ها

موضوعات

عنوان مقاله [English]

Double-Scope Conceptual Blending in Iranian Economic Cartoons

نویسندگان [English]

  • Sepide Kia 1
  • Sahar Bahrami-Khorshid 2
  • Arsalan Golfam 2
1 Ph.D. Student of Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Humanities, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
چکیده [English]

Economic press cartoons constitute a prominent multimodal genre for representing and critiquing economic realities in the public sphere. Drawing on Fauconnier and Turner’s (2002) theory of conceptual blending, this study aims to examine the cognitive mechanisms underlying meaning construction and visual humor in Iranian economic press cartoons. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, the research analyzed a corpus of 300 cartoons selected through random sampling, among which 70 cartoons were identified as containing conceptual blending structures. In the quantitative phase, the types of blends were classified, while the qualitative phase focused on an in-depth analysis of three representative economic cartoons using the four-space blending model. The findings revealed that both single-scope and double-scope blends were employed; however, double-scope blends played a more significant role in producing critical meanings and representing economic instability. In addition, vital relations—particularly causality, identity, role, and power—were central to organizing the blended space and guiding interpretation. Discursively, the theme of currency rate increase showed the highest frequency, reflecting its symbolic role as a marker of economic insecurity in everyday experience. Overall, the study demonstrates the analytical value of conceptual blending for understanding visual humor and economic critique in press cartoons.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • conceptual blending
  • double-scope blending
  • press cartoons
  • economic humor
  • cognitive semantics

مراجع

Attardo, S. (2001). Humorous texts: A semantic and pragmatic analysis. Mouton de Gruyter.
Behdasht News. (2019, March 12). Escorting imported meat to stores [Cartoon]. https://behdasht.news/news/107769/ [in Persian]
Charteris-Black, J. (2004). Corpus approaches to critical metaphor analysis. Palgrave Macmillan.
Charteris-Black, J. (2011). Politicians and rhetoric: The persuasive power of metaphor (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan.
Conners, J. L. (2005). Visual representations of the 2004 presidential candidates in editorial cartoons. American Behavioral Scientist, 49(3), 479–487.
Coulson, S. (2001). Semantic leaps: Frame-shifting and conceptual blending in meaning construction. Cambridge University Press.
Edwards, J. L. (1997). Political cartoons in the 1988 presidential campaign: Image, metaphor, and narrative. Garland Publishing.
El Refaie, E. (2003). Understanding visual metaphor: The example of newspaper cartoons. Visual Communication, 2(1), 75–95.
El Refaie, E. (2009). Multiliteracies: How readers interpret political cartoons. Visual Communication, 8(2), 181–205.
Evans, V., & Green, M. (2006). Cognitive linguistics: An introduction. Edinburgh University Press.
Fauconnier, G. (1994). Mental spaces: Aspects of meaning construction in natural language. Cambridge University Press.
Fauconnier, G., & Turner, M. (2002). The way we think: Conceptual blending and the mind’s hidden complexities. Basic Books.
Forceville, C. (2005). Visual representations of the idealized cognitive model of anger in the Asterix album La Zizanie. Journal of Pragmatics, 37(1), 69–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2003.10.002
Forceville, C. (2008). Metaphor in pictures and multimodal representations. In R. W. Gibbs (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought (pp. 462–482). Cambridge University Press.
Forceville, C. (2017). Visual and multimodal metaphor in advertising: Cultural perspectives. Styles of Communication, 9(2), 26–41.
Forceville, C., & Urios-Aparisi, E. (Eds.). (2009). Multimodal metaphor. Mouton de Gruyter.
Gibbs, R. W. (1994). The poetics of mind: Figurative thought, language, and understanding. Cambridge University Press.
Kazemi, M. (2019). Cognitive analysis of visual metaphors in Persian social cartoons. Language and Cognitive Studies, 6(2), 45–68. [In Persian]
Kövecses, Z. (2010). Metaphor: A practical introduction (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press.
Medhurst, M. J., & DeSousa, M. A. (1981). Political cartoons as rhetorical form: A taxonomy of graphic discourse. Communication Monographs, 48(3), 197–236.
Morreall, J. (2009). Comic relief: A comprehensive philosophy of humor. Wiley-Blackwell.
Oakley, T. (2009). From attention to meaning: Explorations in semiotics, linguistics, and rhetoric. Cognitive Linguistics, 20(1), 153–172.
Rezaei, M., Kheiri, A., & Karimi, H. (2016). Conceptual metaphors in Persian political cartoons: A cognitive approach. Journal of Language and Politics, 15(4), 478–499. [In Persian]
Sarpoosh. (2018, April 10). Fight between the U.S. dollar and the Iranian Rial [Cartoon]. (https://www.sarpoosh.com/caricature/political-society/fight-dollar-rial970121-cartoons.html) [in Persian]
Shafiei Kadkani, M. R. (2009). Imagery in Persian literature. Sokhan. [In Persian]
Sojoudi, F. (2012). Semiotics of visual texts. Elm Publishing. [In Persian]
Tahani, M. (2020, June 24). The impact of the dollar on people's livelihood [Cartoon]. Bartarinha. https://www.bartarinha.ir/بخش-اخبار-روز-20/1009055-شرح-بلایی-که-دلار-بر-مردم [in Persian]
Turner, M. (2007). Conceptual blending. In D. Geeraerts & H. Cuyckens (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of cognitive linguistics (pp. 377–404). Oxford University Press.
Veale, T. (2012). Exploding the creativity myth: The computational foundations of linguistic creativity. Bloomsbury Academy.
مطالعات زبان‌ها و گویش‌های غرب ایران
دوره 14، شماره 2
تیر 1405
صفحه 31-46

فایل ها

هم رسانی

ارجاع به این مقاله

آمار