Multimodal metaphors in political entertainment

Metaphor is one of the primary ways we accommodate and assimilate information and experience into our conceptual organization of the world. The present study investigates the internal cognitive mechanisms of multimodal-metaphor construction in the television genre of animated political cartoons. Taking a cognitive-semantic approach, we analyze how zoomorphs are constructed by the audience when they first appear. The study concludes by describing the potential of multimodal-metaphor analysis as a methodological tool.