Visual rhetoric is considered a powerful tool of persuasion. It is widely used in political discourse, poetry and advertising language. This study tackles the topic of visual metaphor in print advertisements. It examines visual metaphor complexity on the viewer’s comprehension and attitude. It uses Phillips and Mc Quarrie’s classification of visual metaphor which offers an accurate classification of the different types of visual rhetoric. It distinguishes two dimensions, namely; visual structure and meaning operation. The former refers to the nature of the relation between the two pictures in comparison while visual structure refers to the way the relevant pictures are placed together. The combinations of the two dimensions result in nine types of visual metaphor which are: Juxtaposition/connection, juxtaposition/similarity, juxtaposition/opposition, fusion/connection, fusion/similarity, fusion/opposition, replacement/connection, replacement/similarity and replacement/opposition. The main findings show that complex and rich visual metaphors are more difficult to understand and are not positively perceived by the viewers. In fact, viewers of visual metaphor enjoy solving incongruity and are willing to devote extra efforts in understanding and processing visual metaphor. However, a complex and rich visual metaphor is not very appealing as their complexity will lead the viewers to opt out from enjoying and processing visual metaphor incongruity.
Published in | Communication and Linguistics Studies (Volume 6, Issue 1) |
DOI | 10.11648/j.cls.20200601.12 |
Page(s) | 6-9 |
Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
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Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Visual Metaphor, Visual Structure, Meaning Operation, Comprehension, Attitude
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APA Style
Wafa Chakroun. (2020). The Impact of Visual Metaphor Complexity in Print Advertisement on the Viewer’s Comprehension and Attitude. Communication and Linguistics Studies, 6(1), 6-9. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20200601.12
ACS Style
Wafa Chakroun. The Impact of Visual Metaphor Complexity in Print Advertisement on the Viewer’s Comprehension and Attitude. Commun. Linguist. Stud. 2020, 6(1), 6-9. doi: 10.11648/j.cls.20200601.12
AMA Style
Wafa Chakroun. The Impact of Visual Metaphor Complexity in Print Advertisement on the Viewer’s Comprehension and Attitude. Commun Linguist Stud. 2020;6(1):6-9. doi: 10.11648/j.cls.20200601.12
@article{10.11648/j.cls.20200601.12, author = {Wafa Chakroun}, title = {The Impact of Visual Metaphor Complexity in Print Advertisement on the Viewer’s Comprehension and Attitude}, journal = {Communication and Linguistics Studies}, volume = {6}, number = {1}, pages = {6-9}, doi = {10.11648/j.cls.20200601.12}, url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20200601.12}, eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cls.20200601.12}, abstract = {Visual rhetoric is considered a powerful tool of persuasion. It is widely used in political discourse, poetry and advertising language. This study tackles the topic of visual metaphor in print advertisements. It examines visual metaphor complexity on the viewer’s comprehension and attitude. It uses Phillips and Mc Quarrie’s classification of visual metaphor which offers an accurate classification of the different types of visual rhetoric. It distinguishes two dimensions, namely; visual structure and meaning operation. The former refers to the nature of the relation between the two pictures in comparison while visual structure refers to the way the relevant pictures are placed together. The combinations of the two dimensions result in nine types of visual metaphor which are: Juxtaposition/connection, juxtaposition/similarity, juxtaposition/opposition, fusion/connection, fusion/similarity, fusion/opposition, replacement/connection, replacement/similarity and replacement/opposition. The main findings show that complex and rich visual metaphors are more difficult to understand and are not positively perceived by the viewers. In fact, viewers of visual metaphor enjoy solving incongruity and are willing to devote extra efforts in understanding and processing visual metaphor. However, a complex and rich visual metaphor is not very appealing as their complexity will lead the viewers to opt out from enjoying and processing visual metaphor incongruity.}, year = {2020} }
TY - JOUR T1 - The Impact of Visual Metaphor Complexity in Print Advertisement on the Viewer’s Comprehension and Attitude AU - Wafa Chakroun Y1 - 2020/01/17 PY - 2020 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20200601.12 DO - 10.11648/j.cls.20200601.12 T2 - Communication and Linguistics Studies JF - Communication and Linguistics Studies JO - Communication and Linguistics Studies SP - 6 EP - 9 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2380-2529 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20200601.12 AB - Visual rhetoric is considered a powerful tool of persuasion. It is widely used in political discourse, poetry and advertising language. This study tackles the topic of visual metaphor in print advertisements. It examines visual metaphor complexity on the viewer’s comprehension and attitude. It uses Phillips and Mc Quarrie’s classification of visual metaphor which offers an accurate classification of the different types of visual rhetoric. It distinguishes two dimensions, namely; visual structure and meaning operation. The former refers to the nature of the relation between the two pictures in comparison while visual structure refers to the way the relevant pictures are placed together. The combinations of the two dimensions result in nine types of visual metaphor which are: Juxtaposition/connection, juxtaposition/similarity, juxtaposition/opposition, fusion/connection, fusion/similarity, fusion/opposition, replacement/connection, replacement/similarity and replacement/opposition. The main findings show that complex and rich visual metaphors are more difficult to understand and are not positively perceived by the viewers. In fact, viewers of visual metaphor enjoy solving incongruity and are willing to devote extra efforts in understanding and processing visual metaphor. However, a complex and rich visual metaphor is not very appealing as their complexity will lead the viewers to opt out from enjoying and processing visual metaphor incongruity. VL - 6 IS - 1 ER -