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Figurativeness of the Japanese flag

A multilevel analysis of the Japan 2011 earthquake distress relief posters

 | Adam Mickiewicz University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 17 September 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00202.dyr
Abstract
The analysis offered in this article applies the multilevel approach to conceptual metaphor to relief posters, created and distributed widely after the massive Japan 2011 earthquake. The aim of the analysis is to show in what way the multilevel approach to metaphor can be used to illustrate how the figurative meaning of relief posters emerges from the interactions between different levels of schematicity: from basic image schemas and domains, through contextually embedded semantic frames, finishing with metaphorical scenarios at the highest level of specificity and complexity. The present analysis also shows the potential applicability of image schemas as the guiding analytical element, serving as the departure point for the unfolding metaphorical and metonymical interpretation of a multimodal message. Accordingly, it has been shown how the image schemas of part-whole, full-empty, process and force aid the analysis of metaphoricity and how the central metonymic element of the national flag co-constructs the figurative reading of the posters.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Relief posters and humanitarian communication
  • 2.Levels of schematicity in metaphor
  • 3.Metaphor-metonymy cline
  • 4.Corpus
  • 5.Identification procedure
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1Part-whole image schema
    • 6.2Full-empty image schema
    • 6.3Process image schema
    • 6.4Force image schema
  • 7.Discussion and conclusions
  • Note
  • References
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