Chapter 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Background
3.2 Data Analysis
3.2.1 Related Metonymic Network: Productive Visual Images
Through the detailed analysis of the multimodal corpus of 56 political cartoons, this study finds that the bull, productively used as metonymy for
“U.S. beef event,” forms a basis for the related metonymic network and is extended to various kinds of bull-related activities and scenarios shown in the cartoons, including bullfighting, cowboys, bullchasing, bullriding, horse-related, and beef-related images, etc. In other words, the visual image is mainly composed by metonymies closely related to the key concept or keywords related to U.S. beef events, such as a “bull” for “U.S. beef”, thus the relevant bull-related or animal-related visual images are productively used to conceptualize U.S. beef events as a (i.e. powerful/playful) bull or a personified-bull. Consequently, the relevant metonymies in visual images contribute to our understanding of how “U.S. beef events” have been
conceptualized. In addition, the visual images of a bull can represent “a
16 We understand there may be multiple explanations from different angles to analyze the following examples due to the complexity of the genre of political cartoon, however, this section mainly provides the interpretative analysis under the scope of multimodal fusion model to examine the one-on-many relationship of how the topic “U.S. beef imports” has been conceptualized as various metonymies/metaphors and represented through different combinations of verbal, visual, and conceptual level in the cartoons. We believe other possible interpretations flexibly exist under the scope of multimodal fusion model as well.
88
huge/powerful/poor/playful bull,” through prominent visual features, such as size or facial expression contrasts. Some bulls are even visually personified as emotional human beings that can express their own thoughts through verbal tags. The highly relevant metonymies and productive visual images marked with the verbal tags thus efficiently integrate the conceptual scenario based on readers’ related background knowledge.
In our data, this type of multimodal fusion accounts for 52 percent (29/56) of the corpus, which reveals its productivity and high frequency. In the following part, we will provide the representative examples of related metonymic network.
As shown in Example 1, the verbal tag “U.S. beef” on the body of the bull indicates the bull is the metonymy for the U.S. beef import event, while the visual image of the gate setting resembles the famous setting in Troy, activating the conceptual level of the “Trojan War” scenario. Specifically, the
“wooden horse” in the original story of Trojan War is transformed into the
“wooden bull” due to the relevance between the bull and beef. Therefore, the innovative metonymy “Trojan Bull” has become the main focus of the multimodal fusion of the U.S. beef event.
89
Example 117 UDN (2009-11-16)
Visual (“wooden bull” metonymy + Trojan War settings+ Party Flags) + Verbal (“Open the door, your commander’s rewards are coming”, “Mayor election war”, “U.S. Beef”) +
Conceptual (Trojan war scenario, POLITIC IS WAR)
=> U.S. beef event is Trojan Bull
As the huge wooden bull shows in the cartoon, the conceptual scenario of the Trojan horse is implicitly integrated with visual images and verbal details. To be more specific, the Trojan horse scenario is conceptually integrated with the visual shape of the Trojan bull and the verbal tag U.S. beef. The flag of the DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) waved by the person hiding in the wooden bull is the visual cue, while the person saying “Open the door, your
17 The quotation of the cartoons in this study is either permitted by the authors or permitted under the doctrine of fair use (Article 52 of Copyright Act: Within a reasonable scope, works that have been publicly released may be quoted where necessary for reports, comment, teaching, research, or other legitimate purpose). Each cartoon is marked with the source of newspaper and published date.
90
commander’s rewards are coming” is the verbal cue. Integrating the conceptual scenario, visual cue, and verbal cue together, the multimodal fusion thus efficiently conceptualizes the U.S. beef import event is being used as DPP’s political winning weapon/strategy to defeat the KMT in the upcoming mayor election.
In example 3, the bull marked with verbal tag of “U.S. beef” indicates the bull metonymy for U.S. beef imports. The conceptual scenario of a circus is reflected through the visual image of circus settings and the verbal tag of
“2010 circus performance” on the top. However, the bull with the verbal tag of
“U.S. beef” is attacking the man in suit with the verbal tag of “Ma”, showing the bull as the metonymy for U.S. beef events. However, the bull with the verbal tag of “U.S. beef” is attacking the man in the suit with the verbal tag of
“Ma.” “Ma” stands for the animal “horse” in Mandarin Chinese, the surname of President “Ma,” and also the first character “Ma” of circus (the literal meaning: horse-trick-show in Mandarin Chinese).
91
Example 3. LT (2010-01-01)
Visual (“bull” metonymy, “President Ma” caricature) +
Verbal (“2010 circus performance”, “Ma”, “U.S. Beef”, “Happy new year to you all!”) +
Conceptual (circus scenario, POLITICS IS GAME)
=> U.S. beef event is circus bull.
To interpret the circus scenario, we understand that the performing animals are normally tame and obedient, so the attacking-animal scene should be rarely seen. In addition, the bull generally does not perform in the circus. Thus, the ironic effect arises from the combination of the bull-attacking image and circus scenario, while the bull metonymy appears in this cartoon due to the relevance between the bull image and U.S. beef.
On the other hand, the audience seems happy with the clapping hands while the host says “Happy new year to you all” when seeing the
92
bull-attacking scene as the circus performance. The ironic effect results from the multimodal fusion of the circus scenario, which is integrated with the bull-attacking and audience-clapping image and the verbal cue “Happy new year to you all.” This strengthens the critical message that while the U.S. beef imports issue is not going as well as President Ma would like, most people are happy about it since they resist hazardous U.S. beef being imported into Taiwan. This example shows how critical messages can be elicited and emphasized through the ironic conflict created from the multimodal fusion process of visual, verbal, and conceptual level in political cartoon.
In example 4, the visual image of the bull’s tail on fire marked with the verbal tag “U.S. beef event” indicates the fire-tail metonymy for U.S. beef event. The cowboy outfits of the man resembling President Ma and the cowboy hat with KMT symbol depicts the conceptual scenario of cowboy.
Example 4. LT (2012-06-04)
93
Visual (“fire-tail” metonymy, angry bull, President Ma’s cowboy look) + Verbal (“U.S. beef has its butt on fire and I’m going crazy too!”, “U.S. beef event”)+
Conceptual (cowboy scenario, POLITICS IS GAME)
=> U.S. beef event is fire.
Although the conceptual scenario of the cowboy is often understood as an energetic cool cow-rider, the facial expression of Ma looks tensed and his leg is tied with bandages, which are not commonly associated with the cowboy frame. In addition, as the verbal tag says “the KMT opposing group is not getting away with this! U.S. beef has its butt on fire and I’m going crazy too!” . In fact, the colloquial term “butt on fire” in Mandarin Chinese means having urgent problem unsolved while running out of time, thus President Ma expresses his frustration and anxiety while riding a bull with “butts on fire”.
Under such circumstances, the fire marked with the verbal tag “U.S. beef import” will not only make the bull angry but also accelerate its speed in danger, thus U.S. beef issue is conceptualized as the main reason causing President Ma’s current dangerous and chaotic situation.
94
The ironic conflict reflected from the multimodal fusion of the visual cues, verbal cues, and conceptual scenario clearly indicates the critical message that President Ma is facing a serious situation since the relaxation of U.S. beef import regulations that he promoted has not been passed and is still being opposed and boycotted by the legislators in the Legislative Yuan during this period. This cartoon shows how the critical messages can be elicited and interpreted through the ironic effect of the multimodal fusion.
The following Example 5 is one of the productive examples where U.S.
beef issue is represented by a personified bull. As the visual image shows, the personified bull with the verbal tag of “U.S. beef” on his body is the metonymy for the U.S. beef event. The personified bull is standing next to the pan-blue party (pro-government stance) and pan-green party (anti-government stance) on a small island with bones on the ground as they all seem struggled to survive without enough food.
95
Example 5. UDN (2012-07-07)
Visual (“bull” metonymy, DPP and KMT personified metonymies, rescue ship metonymy) +
Verbal (“U.S. Beef”, “CODEX”, “10 ppb”, “thanks god”, “political parties acronyms” 朝/野” ) +
Conceptual (isolated island scenario, POLITICS IS SURVIVAL STRUGGLE)
=> U.S. beef event is personified bull.
The visual details reveal the conceptual scenario of an isolated island, which stresses both parties are struggling against the harsh dilemma of opposing U.S.
beef import regulations. However, the bull waves a sheet toward a rescue ship marked with the verbal cues, “CODEX”18 and “10 ppb”, and expresses his gratefulness by the verbal tag saying “thank the gods….” with a tear falling
18 CODEX is the abbreviated form of the Codex Alimentarius Comission. Codex Alimentarius (Latin for "Book of Food"), according to Wikipedia, is a “collection of internationally recognized standards, codes of practice, guidelines and other recommendations relating to foods, food production and food safety.”
96
from his eye, indicating that U.S beef imports law has been relaxed based on the level of 10 ppb CODEX requirements.
In an isolated island scenario, the appearance of a rescue boat means the trapped victims will be saved. The multimodal fusion of the visual cues, verbal cues, and conceptual scenario conceptualizes the U.S. beef issue as a desperate bull being rescued, revealing the critical message that the rescue boat represents a new beef examination standard that allows the relaxation of U.S.
beef import regulations, which is a relief to the pan-blue and pan-green legislators after the long-term boycott. Interestingly, the main character in conceptual scenario of isolated islands, such as the famous Robinson Crusoe is usually a human being. However, this bull is personified as an emotional character being rescued and stands in the center of the cartoon. Examining the isolated island scenario within the visual context of the bull’s facial expression, central position, posture, and verbal expression, the bull creates an ironic and humorous effect that easily attracts most readers’ attention. We believe such use of multimodal fusion provides the reader an innovative, humorous, and efficient way of understanding the event.
In example 6, as the visual image shows, the head of a bull and a leg are hanging on the office wall as hunting trophies, representing the metonymy for
97
U.S. beef and metonymy for President Ma. The man with the verbal tags of
“Ko” (on the shirt) and DPP “party leader” (on the desk) is sitting with content smile in his office desk with a DPP flag standing beside, whereas at the other side of the window, another man resembling President Ma, who appears to have lost one of his legs, looks crippled and unhappy. The contrast between the status and facial expressions of these two men and the alignment of the two trophies implies a paralleled relationship between them and the trophies.
Example 6 UDN (2012-06-16)
Visual (“bull” metonymy, “Ma’s leg” metonymy, Ko’s smiling face, Ma’s injured look, DPP’s flag, office setting) +
Verbal (“party leader”, “Ko”) +
Conceptual (hunting scenario, POLITICS IS GAME)
=> U.S. beef event is hunting trophy.
One of the trophies hang being portrayed as a “leg” can be attributed to President Ma’s nickname “Brave-leg Ma”, which is a Taiwanese colloquial
98
phrase praising how active and strong Ma is since he loves jogging. These visual and verbal cues, integrated with the conceptual scenario of hunting, revealing the critical message that the U.S. beef issue has been conceptualized as the “victory trophy” that the DPP leader won by defeating President Ma. In other words, DPP used the U.S. beef import event to successfully oppose President Ma’s policy on U.S. beef imports and also bring down Ma’s support ratings. This example vividly demonstrates how contrasting visual features through position and facial expression help to highlight the critical message in multimodal fusion. As our analysis shows, we believe it is important to have background knowledge to interpret the accurate meanings of the verbal mode, such as when colloquial phrases or idioms are used, to fully grasp how the multimodal fusion works in political cartoons.
In the following, example 7 demonstrates the productive use of multimodal fusion. In this cartoon, the arrow-attacking war scenario and the head of the D.O.H. official, Yang (who supports U.S. beef imports) visually fused with the bull’s horns and a golden armored bull indicate the “war bull”
as the metonymy for Yang promoting U.S. beef imports. The verbal tag,
“Don’t worry! My skin is tough enough to protect you all,” is combined and integrated with the conceptual scenario of “war animals,” which are often
99
horses that carry warriors in battle. However, the horse transforms into a bull, which is similar to the “Trojan Bull” in example 1, due to the relevance between the bull and U.S. beef. The protective feature of the war animal scenario is highlighted with the arrows being shot at the golden bull with one of the arrows on the right being marked “U.S. beef imports,” thus indicating that the U.S. beef import issue has been conceptualized as attacking arrows being shot at the government.
Example 7. LT (2009-11-01)
Visual (“war bull” metonymy, visual fusion of the bull with Yang’s head, shooting arrows, President Ma’s and Vice President Wu’s caricatures ) + Verbal (“Don’t worry! My skin is hard enough to protect you all”, “U.S. beef imports”) + Conceptual (war horse scenario, POLITICS IS WAR)
=> U.S. beef event is shooting arrow.
100
Through the multimodal fusion of visual images, verbal tags, and the conceptual frame of this cartoon, we perceive the critical message to be that the D.O.H. official, Yang, is taking all the blame and criticism for President Ma and Vice President Wu on health issues, including that on U.S. beef imports. The contrasting facial expressions of Yang’s smile and the frightening look of others ironically expose Ma and Wu’s negative attitudes in terms of avoiding responsibility and the ignorant obedience of the D.O.H.
official. The contrast in Yang’s larger head and Ma and Wu’s smaller heads also indicates that Yang has become the main target for criticism, while Ma and Wu timidly hide behind him to avoid taking responsibility. This example demonstrates the use of multimodal fusion with emphasis on contrasting visual features, such as in depicted size and facial expressions, as prominent visual cues that help to highlight the critical message.
In the next section, we will provide detailed analysis of the representative examples in the type of diversified metaphoric network, showing how prominent verbal cues play an important part in the multimodal fusion process.