Cover not available

In:Visual Metaphor: Structure and process
Edited by Gerard J. Steen
[Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research 18] 2018
► pp. 47–88

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Chapter 3
VISMIP

Towards a method for visual metaphor identification

Published online: 6 December 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/celcr.18.03sor
Article outline
  • 3.1Introduction
  • 3.2VISMIP: Conceptualization
    • 3.2.1Linguistic classes of metaphor: Indirect and direct metaphor
    • 3.2.2Finding metaphor in the Method for Linguistic Metaphor Identification (MIPVU)
    • 3.2.3Understanding the image’s meaning and unitizing: Conceptualization
      • Adaptation of MIPVU to VISMIP
      • Understanding and unitizing in existing methods
      • Raising issues
    • 3.2.4Finding incongruity and testing need for comparison: Conceptualization
      • Adaptation of MIPVU to VISMIP
      • Finding incongruity and testing need for comparison in existing methods
      • Raising issues
    • 3.2.5Testing cross-domain-ness and indirectness: Conceptualization
      • Adaptation of MIPVU to VISMIP
      • Testing cross-domain-ness and indirectness in existing methods
      • Raising issues
    • 3.2.6Summary: Ten issues in visual metaphor identification
  • 3.3VISMIP: Operationalization
    • 3.3.1Understanding the image’s meaning and unitizing: Operationalization
      • Addressing issue 1: Defining the image’s meaning
      • Addressing issue 2: Procedural steps to understanding the image’s meaning
        • Step 1a: Referential meaning
        • Step 1b: Attaching more general and abstract meaning
        • Step 1c and 1d: Reconstructing the standpoint and deriving the topic
      • Addressing issue 3: Defining the unit of analysis
      • Addressing issue 4: Handling unit of analysis in the procedure
    • 3.3.2Finding incongruity and testing need for comparison: Operationalization
      • Addressing issue 5: Defining visual incongruity
        • Visual incongruity type 1: Topic-incongruity
        • Visual incongruity type 2: Property-incongruity
      • Addressing issue 6: Finding visual incongruity
      • Addressing issue 7 and 8: Deciding on candidates for comparison and testing need for comparison
    • 3.3.3Testing cross-domain-ness and indirectness: Operationalization
      • Addressing issue 9: Testing cross-domain-ness
      • Addressing issue 10: Testing indirectness
  • 3.4VISMIP: Application
    • 3.4.1Application where VISMIP leads to marking as metaphor
    • 3.4.2Application where VISMIP stops due to same-domain-ness
    • 3.3.5Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (44)
References
Alcolea-Banegas, J. (2009). Visual arguments in film. Argumentation, 23, 259–275.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Andriessen, D., Kliphuis, E., McKenzie, J., Van Winkelen, C. (2009). Pictures of knowledge management, developing a method for analysing knowledge metaphors in visuals. Electronic Journal of Knowledge, 7(4), 405–415. Retrieved from [URL], last accessed February 2, 2015.
Birdsell, D. S., & Groarke, L. (1996). Toward a theory of visual argument. Argumentation & Advocacy, 33, 1–10.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blair, J. A. (1996). The possibility and actuality of visual arguments. Argumentation and Advocacy, 33, 23–29.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cameron, L. (2003). Metaphor in educational discourse. London and New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Charteris-Black, J. (2004). Corpus approaches to critical metaphor analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clarke, M. (2010). Iconology. In The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms (2nd ed) (p. 125). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Feteris, E., Groarke, L. & Plug, J. (2011). Strategic maneuvering with visual arguments in political cartoons: A pragma-dialectical analysis of the use of topoi that are based on common cultural heritage. In E. Feteris, B. Garssen & F. Snoeck Henkemans (Eds.), Keeping in touch with pragma-dialectics: In honor of Frans H. van Eemeren (pp. 59–74). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fleming, D. (1996). Can there be Visual Arguments? Argumentation & Advocacy, 33, 11–22.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Forceville, C. (1996). Pictorial metaphor in advertising. Londen: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2002). The identification of target en source in pictorial metaphors. Journal of Pragmatics, 34, 1–14.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2008). Metaphor in pictures and multimodal representations. In R. W. Gibbs, Jr. (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought (pp. 462–482). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goatly, A. (1997). The language of metaphors. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herrmann, J. B. (2013). Metaphor in academic discourse: Linguistic forms, conceptual structures, communicative functions and cognitive representations. LOT Dissertation Series, 333. Utrecht: LOT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hermeren, G. (1969). Representation and meaning in the visual arts. Lund: Scandinavian University Books.
Jensen, K. B. (2008). Semiotics. In W. Donsbach (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Communication. Blackwell Publishing, Blackwell Reference Online. Retrieved from [URL], last accessed September 16, 2011.
Johnson, R. H. (2003). Why ‘‘visual arguments’’ aren’t arguments. In: IL@25. A Conference Celebrating the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the First International Symposium on Informal Logic. Retrieved from [URL], last accessed August 22, 2014).
Kaal, A. (2012). Metaphor in conversation. Oisterwijk: Uitgeverij BOX Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaplan, S. J. (2005). Visual metaphors in print advertising for fashion products. In K. Smith, S. Moriarty, G. Barbatsis & K. Kenney (Eds.), Handbook of visual communication: Theory, methods, and media (pp. 167–177). Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kjeldsen, J. E. (2012). Pictorial argumentation in advertising: Visual tropes and figures as a way of creating visual argumentation. In F. H. van Eemeren & B. Garssen (Eds.), Topical themes in argumentation theory: Twenty exploratory studies (pp. 239–256). Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krennmayr, T. (2011). Metaphor in newspapers. LOT Dissertation Series, 276. Utrecht: LOT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krippendorff, K. (2004). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leeuwen, T. van (2001). Semiotics and iconography. In T. van Leeuwen & C. Jewitt (Eds.), Handbook of Visual Analysis (pp. 92–118). Londen: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lyne, J. (2008). Rhetoric and Semiotics. In W. Donsbach (Ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Communication. Blackwell Publishing, Blackwell Reference Online. Retrieved from [URL], last accessed September 16, 2011.
Moriarty, S. (2005). Visual semiotic theory. In K. Smith, S. Moriarty, G. Barbatsis, & K. Kenney (Eds.), Handbook of visual communication: Theory, methods, and media (pp. 227–241). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, M. G. (2008). Iconography. In W. Donsbach, (Ed.). The International Encyclopedia of Communication. Blackwell Publishing, Blackwell Reference Online. Retrieved from [URL], last accessed 16 September 2011.
Neuendorf, K. A. (2002). The content analysis guidebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pasma, T. (2011). Metaphor and register variation: The personalization of Dutch news discourse. Oisterwijk: BOXpress.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Penn, G. (2000). Semiotic analysis of still images. In M. W. Bauer & G. Gaskell (Eds.), Qualitative researching with text, image and sound: A practical handbook (pp. 227–245). London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pragglejaz Group (2007). MIP: A method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 22(1), 1–39.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Riffe, D., Lacy, S., & Fico, F. G. (2005). Analyzing media messages: Using quantitative content analysis in research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ripley, M. L. (2008). Argumentation theorists argue that an ad is an argument. Argumentation, 22: 507–519.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rose, G. (2005). Visual methodologies. In G. Griffin (Ed.), Research methods for English studies (pp. 67–90). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Šorm, E., & Steen, G. J. (2013). Processing visual metaphor: A study in thinking out loud. Metaphor and the Social World, 3(1): 1–34.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2008). The paradox of metaphor: Why we need a three-dimensional model of metaphor. Metaphor and Symbol, 23(4), 213–241.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2009). From linguistic form to conceptual structure in five steps: analyzing metaphor in poetry. In G. Brone & J. Vandaele (Eds.), Cognitive poetics: Goals, gains and gaps (pp. 197–226). Berlin/ New York: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2010). When is metaphor deliberate? In N. -L. Johannesson, C. Alm-Arvius, & D. Minugh (Eds.), Selected Papers from the Stockholm 2008 Metaphor Festival (pp. 43–63).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steen, G. J., Dorst, A. G., Herrmann, J. B., Kaal, A. A., Krennmayr, T., & Pasma, T. (2010). A method for linguistic metaphor identification: From MIP to MIPVU. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2015). Developing, testing and interpreting Deliberate Metaphor Theory. Journal of Pragmatics. .Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tam, A. M., & Leung, C. H. C. (2001). Structured natural language descriptions for semantic content retrieval of visual materials. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 52(11), 930–937.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wu, L. -l., & Barsalou, L. W. (2009). Perceptual simulation in conceptual combination: Evidence from property generation. Acta Psychologica 132, 173–189.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (38)

Cited by 38 other publications

Castro, Adrián
2025.  The year’s work in stylistics 2023 & 2024 . Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 34:3 ► pp. 302 ff. DOI logo
Echitchi, Raymond
2025. Multimodal metaphors, political activism and Anglophone nationalism in Cameroon. Metaphor and the Social World 15:1 ► pp. 27 ff. DOI logo
Forceville, Charles
2025. Metaphors in Stand Up 2 Cancer animations. Metaphor and the Social World DOI logo
García Romero, Margarita
2025. Manuela Romano (2024). Metaphor in Socio-Political contexts. Berlin and Boston: De Grouter Mouton. 340 pp. ISBN 9783111001258. Complutense Journal of English Studies 33 ► pp. e101966 ff. DOI logo
Gebraad, Nina & Charles Forceville
2025. Facing cancer: metaphors in medical animation films. Visual Communication 24:4 ► pp. 866 ff. DOI logo
Kopecka, Beata & Dorota Rut-Kluz
2025. Inflation is a Person – On Language-Image Relations in Internet Memes. Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric 70:1 ► pp. 319 ff. DOI logo
Levy, Helton
2025. ‘Welcome to favelas, but in Italy’: Urban precariousness, right-wing ideology and phatic nihilism on social media. Discourse & Society 36:5 ► pp. 705 ff. DOI logo
Türker, Ebru & Jae Hyun Park
2025. Multimodal Metaphoric Creativity, Framing, and Recontextualization in Education Discourse: University Advertisements in South Korea. Metaphor and Symbol 40:2 ► pp. 153 ff. DOI logo
Zhao, Xiufeng & Yuxin Wu
2025. Multimodal Metaphorical Constructions of Climate Change in Chinese and American Political Cartoons. Critical Arts ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Andreasen, Søren Mosgaard
2024. The shadow drama. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict DOI logo
Żelachowska, Agata & Susana Marrón-González
2024. Dreamers and caminantes. Linguistics and the Human Sciences 16:1 ► pp. 79 ff. DOI logo
Esbrí Blasco, Montserrat
2023. Review of Pérez-Sobrino, Littlemore & Ford (2021): Unpacking Creativity: The Power of Figurative Communication in Advertising. Metaphor and the Social World 13:1 ► pp. 120 ff. DOI logo
Hidalgo-Downing, Laura & Niamh A. O’Dowd
2023. Code Red for Humanity: Multimodal Metaphor and Metonymy in Noncommercial Advertisements on Environmental Awareness and Activism. Metaphor and Symbol 38:3 ► pp. 231 ff. DOI logo
Julich-Warpakowski, Nina & Paula Pérez Sobrino
2023. Introduction. Metaphor and the Social World 13:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Levunlieva, Milena
2023. Visual Metaphor in Early Second Language Education. English Studies at NBU 9:1 ► pp. 5 ff. DOI logo
Manalastas, Nicko Enrique Lanuzo
2023. (De-)Monstering COVID-19: a diachronic study of COVID-19 virus multimodal metaphors in Philippine editorial cartoons, 2019–2022. Multimodal Communication 12:3 ► pp. 207 ff. DOI logo
Pan, Molly Xie & Dennis Tay
2023. Individual differences in identifying creative metaphors from video Ads. Metaphor and the Social World 13:2 ► pp. 221 ff. DOI logo
Stampoulidis, Georgios & Marianna Bolognesi
2023. Bringing metaphors back to the streets: a corpus-based study for the identification and interpretation of rhetorical figures in street art. Visual Communication 22:2 ► pp. 243 ff. DOI logo
Brdar, Mario, Rita Brdar-Szabó & Tanja Gradečak
2022.  Rosie the Riveter of the COVID time. Review of Cognitive Linguistics 20:1 ► pp. 258 ff. DOI logo
Devylder, Simon
2022. Making metaphor studies less WEIRD. The methodological benefits and challenges of a greater diversity of languages and cultures in the study of metaphor. Lexis :20 DOI logo
Hsu, Iju & Wen-Yu Chiang
2022. ‘Seeing’ music from manga: visualizing music with embodied mechanisms of musical experience. Visual Communication 21:4 ► pp. 623 ff. DOI logo
Kowalski, Grzegorz
2022. Kognitywne modele metafory wizualnej: teoria, metodologia, analizy. LingVaria 17:1(33) DOI logo
Zlatev, Jordan & Kalina Moskaluk
2022. Translation validity in metaphor theories. In Figurativity and Human Ecology [Figurative Thought and Language, 17], ► pp. 123 ff. DOI logo
Abdel-Raheem, Ahmed
2021. Reality bites: How the pandemic has begun to shape the way we, metaphorically, see the world. Discourse & Society 32:5 ► pp. 519 ff. DOI logo
Abdel-Raheem, Ahmed
2021. Conceptual blending and (im)politeness in political cartooning. Multimodal Communication 10:3 ► pp. 245 ff. DOI logo
Chatti, Sami
2021. Visual metaphtonymy in automobile femvertising. Multimodal Communication 10:2 ► pp. 111 ff. DOI logo
Muelas-Gil, María
2021. National vs international cartoons depicting Catalonia’s independence process in the press. In Discourse Studies in Public Communication [Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 92], ► pp. 59 ff. DOI logo
Tseronis, Assimakis
2021. From visual rhetoric to multimodal argumentation: exploring the rhetorical and argumentative relevance of multimodal figures on the covers of The Economist. Visual Communication 20:3 ► pp. 374 ff. DOI logo
Bort-Mir, Lorena, Marianna Bolognesi & Susan Ghaffaryan
2020. Cross-cultural interpretation of filmic metaphors: A think-aloud experiment. Intercultural Pragmatics 17:4 ► pp. 389 ff. DOI logo
Ibáñez-Arenós, María & Lorena Bort-Mir
2020. Going Up Is Always Good: A Multimodal Analysis of Metaphors in a TV Ad with FILMIP, the Filmic Metaphor Identification Procedure. Complutense Journal of English Studies 28 ► pp. 189 ff. DOI logo
Virág, Ágnes
2020. Multimodal conceptual patterns of Hungary in political cartoons. Cognitive Linguistic Studies 7:1 ► pp. 222 ff. DOI logo
Virág, Ágnes
2022. Multimodal conceptual patterns of Hungary in political cartoons. In Visual Metaphors [Benjamins Current Topics, 124], ► pp. 231 ff. DOI logo
Wawrzyniuk, Justyna
2020. “That’s the Metaphor You’re Going for?” Deliberate Metaphor and Humor. Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric 61:1 ► pp. 183 ff. DOI logo
Bolognesi, Marianna, Benjamin Timmermans & Lora Aroyo
2019. VisMet and the crowd. In Metaphor and Metonymy in the Digital Age [Metaphor in Language, Cognition, and Communication, 8], ► pp. 99 ff. DOI logo
Stampoulidis, Georgios, Marianna Bolognesi & Jordan Zlatev
2019. A cognitive semiotic exploration of metaphors in Greek street art. Cognitive Semiotics 12:1 DOI logo
Bolognesi, Marianna, Romy van den Heerik & Esther van den Berg
2018. VisMet 1.0. In Visual Metaphor [Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research, 18], ► pp. 89 ff. DOI logo
van den Heerik, Romy, Ester Šorm & Gerard Steen
2018. Behavioral evidence for VISMIP. In Visual Metaphor [Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research, 18], ► pp. 117 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2017. Multimodal Metaphor and Metonymy in Advertising [Figurative Thought and Language, 2], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 december 2025. 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.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue