关联理论视角下视频广告中的多模态隐喻研究——以苹果AirPods广告为例

Multimodal Metaphors in Video Commercials from the Perspective of Relevance Theory—A Case Study of Apple AirPods Commercials

摘要: 隐喻作为人类的基本认知机制的一种，其不仅存在于语言模态中，还存在于图像、声音等多种模态中。动态广告作为一种特殊的多模态话语，吸引着观众的注意力。在广告领域中，广告商为了吸引和保持观众的注意力并将广告产品信息准确传达给观众，大量使用多模态隐喻。但目前大多数学者都将关注点放在平面广告的多模态研究上，很少对动态广告中的多模态隐喻进行系统的探究。并且关联理论有助于受众者推理和剖析更深刻的广告内涵。然而，也很少有学者结合关联理论分析动态广告中的多模态隐喻。因此，本文以关联理论为框架，以苹果AirPods系列商业广告为研究对象，采用定性分析的方法，研究并分析其中的多模态隐喻的类型及其构建过程，研究发现，(1) 通过对广告视频的分析，苹果广告注重广告受众的体验，视频广告中的多模态隐喻大多与情感息息相关，广告受众通过图像、手势、声音等内容来推断解读广告内容和广告商的交际和信息意图；(2) 将关联理论应用于多模态隐喻分析具有指导意义和可行性，因为关联理论可以有效分析或解说隐喻的隐性意义传递过程。结合关联理论，广告受众能够推断出隐喻的隐性含义，而不仅仅停留于显性含义。

Abstract: As a kind of cognitive mechanism of human beings, metaphor exists not only in the language mode, but also in various modes, such as pictorial symbols, written symbols, verbal symbols, and so on. As a unique multimodal discourse, dynamic advertising attracts the audience’s attention. In the field of advertising, advertisers make extensive use of multimodal metaphors in order to attract and hold the audience’s attention and accurately convey the information of advertised products to the audience. But now most scholars at home and abroad focus on multimodal metaphors in printed advertising, and seldom explore multimodal metaphors in video commercials. What’s more, Relevance Theory can help the audience understand further the implicit information of advertisements. However, only a few scholars analyzed multimodal metaphors in video commercials from the perspective of Relevance Theory. Therefore, from the cognitive perspective, this thesis takes Apple AirPods video commercials as examples and adopts the method of qualitative analysis to identify and analyze the multimodal metaphors in advertising based on Relevance Theory to reveal the cognitive process of the audience and the meaning construction of the multimodal metaphor in advertising. After analyzing video commercials, this thesis draws the following conclusions. (1) Through the analysis of video advertisements, the thesis finds that Apple advertisements pay much attention to the experience and feeling of the audience. Most multimodal metaphors in video advertisements are closely related to emotion. The audience infers and interprets advertising content and the informative intention of the advertiser by virtue of pictorial signs, gestures, sounds and other modes. (2) It’s instructive and feasible to apply Relevance Theory into the analysis of multimodal metaphors because Relevance Theory effectively analyzes or explains the transmission process of metaphors’ implicit meanings. Combined with Relevance Theory, the audience can infer implicit meanings of multimodal metaphors, not just explicit meanings.