Explaining multimodal advertisements in terms of conceptual complexes

Résumé

This proposal implements the developments of Ruiz deMendoza on conceptual complexes (2017, 2021) within amultimodal context in order to study whether those analyticaltools can be useful to account for multimodal examples.According to Ruiz de Mendoza (2021: 100), a conceptualcomplex is “a combination of cognitive models whoseexistence can be detected from a careful examination of themeaning effects of some linguistic expressions.” This scholardistinguishes between two types of conceptual complexes: (1)those that integrate operational cognitive models, and thatare grounded on cognitive operations (metaphor andmetonymy); and (2) those that integrate non-operationalcognitive models (frames and image-schemas). We candistinguish several elements within a conceptual complex: thematrix frame (i.e., the frame that receives the structurecoming from the imported frame); the donor or importedframe; and outgoing elements resulting from the replacement of elements in the matrix frame by new ones of the donorframe. Both frames (i.e., matrix and donor frame) should shareat least partial image-schematic structure to enable theintegration.Our corpus consists on 70 multimodal commercials takenfrom the internet. All the examples were analysed in order totest the explanatory power of the theory beyond verbalcommunication, and also, to contribute to the phenomenon ofconceptual complexes.The data analysed support six main findings: (i) conceptualprominence is crucial when creating multimodaladvertisements; (ii) the nature of the frame determines itsfunction (matrix frames situationalize, i.e., provide contextualelements to the observer, whereas donor frames focalize); (iii)sometimes there is no frame integration but rather internaldevelopment within a given frame; (iv) there are also cases inwhich there is frame composition instead of integration; (v)metonymy proves to be a licensing factor previous to theintegration, and (vi) high-level non-metaphorical correlationscan cue for the activation of metaphorical frames