TITLE:
A Cross-Cultural Cognitive Study of Multimodal Metonymy in International News Cartoons
AUTHORS:
Xiaoxuan Yang
KEYWORDS:
Multimodal Metonymy, Cross-Cultural Cognition, Visual Semiotics, Ideological Framing, Cognitive Linguistics, International Communication
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.12 No.8,
August
5,
2025
ABSTRACT: This study examines cultural mediation in metonymic cognition within international news cartoons, arguing that visual metonymy operates as culturally contingent negotiation rather than universal decoding. Integrating visual semiotics and cognitive linguistics, the research employs exhaustive analysis of 81 cartoons from China News Cartoon Network (2025) through a tripartite framework: pattern cataloging, cross-cultural functionality assessment, and paradigmatic case studies. Findings establish cultural positioning as pivotal: metonymic patterns grounded in embodied universals (e.g., container schemas, botanical metaphors) demonstrate transcultural functionality, while those reliant on culture-specific knowledge (e.g., institutional synecdoche, corporeal metonymy) exhibit significant interpretive divergence. Crucially, ideological alignment varies substantially despite metonymic recognition, revealing a disjunction between referential comprehension and pragmatic meaning. The study challenges universalist visual semiotics models and identifies transcultural bridging mechanisms to mitigate semiotic friction in global visual discourse.