Visual Representation of Phraseological Metaphor in Discourse: A Cognitive Approach

Abstract

The paper deals with the creative aspects of textual and visual saturation in a multimodal discourse. It explores the benefits of the cognitive approach to the stylistic aspects of language in use and focuses on perception and comprehension of the textual and the visual. The perception of an image, whether it is lexical or phraseological, is a cognitive process, which creates a mental picture in one’s imagination, a kind of visualisation in one’s mind’s eye. A visual representation of the image serves to create a new mode of narrative, which is both visual and textual. Comprehension and interpretation rely on the ties between the visual and the verbal, as well as the knowledge of the sociocultural background and the symbolic implications. The visual representation of instantial stylistic use of phraseological units has a semantic function: it enhances and interprets the image, creates a new meaning and sustains figurative thought.