Charles Forceville

1. Contact Information

2. Introduction

3. Scholarly background and beliefs

4. Education

5. Work

6. Peer reviewing of articles, conference abstracts, PhDs, book proposals

7. Conference papers, seminars, workshops

8. Publications

9. Abstracts of articles

10. Reviews of Forceville (1996)

11. Summary of "Expanding cognitive linguistics to pictures: Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising"

Contact Information

Dr. Charles Forceville
Dept of Media Studies
Turfdraagsterpad 9
1012 XT Amsterdam
The Netherlands

E-mail: c.j.forceville@uva.nl

Semioticon Cybercourse on Pictorial and Multimodal Metaphor website:

Lecture 1

Introduction

Charles Forceville was born in Heemstede, the Netherlands, in 1959. Apart from publishing scholarly articles, he occasionally writes reviews of English language fiction for the Dutch national newspaper Trouw (some 200 since 1987) and sometimes contributes to the Dutch film magazine Skrien. He is review editor of Metaphor and Symbol (formerly Metaphor and Symbolic Activity ) since 1999, and serves on the advisory boards of Journal of Pragmatics and Public Journal of Semiotics .

Scholarly background and beliefs

“Educated in a literature and linguistics department, I started out with a passion for literature that I still indulge in. But gradually I found the activity of interpreting literary works, while an enjoyable and important pursuit, no longer quite satisfied my academic ambitions. Discovering the Cognitive Linguistics' work on metaphor coincided with a growing fascination with the study of images in popular culture. Combining these interests eventually led to the publication of Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising (1996). Partly due to my appointment as lecturer and researcher in Media Studies, a department with a strong emphasis on film, my research has broadened from pictorial metaphor to multimodal metaphor, and from static representations to moving images.

While I see text-based analyses of contemporary representations (literature, advertising, cartoons, film) as basic to my scholarly work, my goal, in the broadest sense, is to contribute to cognitivist theories of the image and of multimodal representations. Metaphor, narration, relevance theory, genre, documentary film, animcation, and multimodal discourse, are key terms in these pursuits. I strive to make my work both theoretically insightful and practically applicable and attempt to formulate my findings in such a way as to enable falsification as well as to provide starting points for empirical testing. One of my missions is to show that humanities-oriented research focusing on art and popular culture is of interest to work that is being done in the social sciences – and vice versa. In short, I consider myself a cognitivist scholar. ”

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Education

1971-1977 Murmelliusgymnasium, Alkmaar. (Subjects: Greek, Latin, Dutch, English, French, German, History).
1977-1988 Study of English Language and Literature, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.
1982-1983 Harting Scholarship, University of Durham.
13-12-'94 PhD Pictorial metaphor in advertising, NWO/Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

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Work

Until 1990 Part time lecturer Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, English dept.; freelance translator/editor/corrector/literature reviewer
1/6/90--1/6/94 Researcher at Dutch Organization of Scientific Research (NWO), section Comparative Literature.
Project: "Pictorial metaphor in advertisements." Promotors: Prof. E. Ibsch (Comparative and Empirical Literature) and Prof. J.L. Mackenzie (Linguistics), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.Researcher at Dutch Organization of Scientific Research (NWO), section Comparative Literature. Project: "Pictorial metaphor in advertisements." Promotors: Prof. E. Ibsch (Comparative and Empirical Literature) and Prof. J.L. Mackenzie (Linguistics), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
1992-1999 Part time lecturer Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, English dept., comparative literature dept., word & image dept.
2/'96-9/'98 Post-doc "Narration in fiction and film." Onderzoekschool Literatuurwetenschap (OSL/Rijksuniversiteit Leiden (50%).
9/'99 - now Lecturer & researcher, Media studies dept. (formerly: Dept. of Film and Television), Universiteit van Amsterdam. [ LINK ]
9/’04 - now Coordinator of Research Master Media Studies, Universiteit van Amsterdam. [ LINK ]
5/'04 - Member advisory board Applications of Cognitive Linguistics (ACL) series, Mouton de Gruyter.
9/'04 - ASCA (Amsterdam School of Cultural Analysis) programme Multimodal Representations (project 7). [LINK]
2005 - 2008 External examiner M Phil. in Textual & Visual Studies (TVS), Trinity College Dublin. [LINK]
9/'06 - Member “board of advisory editors” of Journal of Pragmatics [LINK]
Member “board of scientific advisors” of Public Journal of Semiotics. [LINK]

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Peer reviewing of articles, conference abstracts, PhDs, book proposals by Charles Forceville

January ’07 Peer review of article for Humor (via Salvatore Attardo).
August ’06 Peer review of article for Journal of Pragmatics (via Jacob Mey).
July ’06 Peer review of article for Functions of Language (via Geoff Thompson).
July ’06 Peer review of article for Public Journal of Semiotics (via Paul Bouissac).
Spring ’06 Confidential report on submitted project (provenance: University in Western Europe).
Oct. ’05 Peer review of article Journal of Pragmatics (via Jakob Mey).
Sept. ’05 Confidential report on submitted project (NWO, via Ms. Soeleman).
3 Mei ‘05 PhD committee (advisor) Thomas van Rompay, TU Delft. Promotors: Paul Hekkert and Jan Jacobs
Nov. ’04 Peer review of article Document Design) (via Cathy De Waele).
Oct. ’04 Confidential report on grant request submitted at British Academy.
Sept. ’04 Peer review of article Philosophical Psychology (via Cees van Leeuwen).
July/Aug ’04 Examination PhD thesis Radu Daniliuc. Australian National University, Canberra, Australia . Promotor: Avery Andrews.
June ’04 Peer review of article Language and Literature (via Paul Simpson).
13 April '04 PhD committee Tarja Laine, Universiteit van Amsterdam. [Promotor: Thomas Elsaesser]
3 Dec. ’03 PhD committee Klarijn Loven, Universiteit Leiden (NL), promotor: Ben Arps.
Sept. ’03 Peer review of article special issue on metonymy Style (via Gerard Steen).
Oct. ’02 Peer review of article Poetics (via Cees van Rees).
Oct. ’02 Peer review of article Document Design (via Cathy de Waele).
Sept. ’02 Peer review of article Journal of Pragmatics (revised version).
August ’02 External report on tenure track proposal, University of Oklahoma, Texas (USA).
March ’02 Peer review of article for Metaphor and Symbol (via Ray Gibbs).
Jan. ’02 Peer review of two articles for proceedings RAAM IV (via Zouhair Maalej).
2 Nov. ’01 External Examiner University of East Anglia (UK), Dept. of Language, Literature, and Translation/Film Studies. (Internal Examiner: Jon Cook).

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Nov. ’01 Peer review of article Journal of Pragmatics.
June ’01 Confidential report on book proposal Routledge (via Christy Kirkpatrick/Louisa Semlyen).
Dec. ’00 Peer review of article Science as Culture (via Richard Tutton, U. of Lancaster).
Oct. '00 Member steering committee of/ reviewing proposals for Conference "Researching and Applying Metaphor" (RAAM IV), University of Manouba, Tunis, Tunisia, 5-7 April 2001. Organization panel on pictorial metaphor. (org. Zouhair Maalej).
Oct. '00 Confidential report on submitted project (NWO, via Dr. H. Gooren).
Sept. '99 Confidential report on submitted project (NWO, via Drs. J. Nap).
Sept. '99 Peer review of article Metaphor and Symbol (via John Kennedy).
June '99 Three peer reviews of articles metaphor special Theoria (Denmark, via Finn Collin).
Jan. '99 Reviewing proposals for Conference "Researching and Applying Metaphor" (RAAM III), KUB [Catholic University], Tilburg NL, July 1999 (org. Gerard Steen).
Sept. '95 Confidential report on submitted project (NWO, via Drs. J. Nap).

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Conference papers, seminars, workshops

2008

9-12 Oct. ‘08 Invited paper in panel "Zeichenmaterialität, Körpersinn und (sub-)kulturelle Identität" in conference Das Konkrete als Zeichen (German Society of Semiotics, at University of Stuttgart. (Panel org.: Klaus Sachs-Hombach & Eva Kimminich).

2007

21-26 May ‘07 Invited paper and workshop at “Multimodal Metaphor” expert meeting. Tilburg University. (Org. Fons Maes). [LINK]
7-9 June ‘07 Invited paper at Signs of Identity – Exploring the Borders conference, Leibniz University Hanover (Org. Klaus Rehkämper et al.). [LINK]
15-20 July ’07 Paper “The Source-Path-Goal schema in animation film” (with Marloes Jeulink) at 10th International Cognitivist Linguistics conference at Jagiellonian University, Krakow (Poland). [LINK]

2006
10-12/4/’06 “Sound and music in multimodal metaphor.” Researching and Applying Metaphor (RaAM 6). University of Leeds (UK).
21-25/4/’06 Two invited lectures on multimodal metaphor, PhD course on Multimodal Discourse + one invited plenary lecture on Peter van Straaten, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Facultad de Letras/Ciudad Real (Spain). (Org. Rosario Caballero.
5-7 July ‘06 Invited lecture and workshop in Summer course “Multimodal discourse(s): image and communication.” Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha/ Cuenca, Facultad de Letras (Spain). (Org. Jesús Moya, Maria-Jésus Pinar, Rosario Caballero.)
13 Oct. ’06 “Picturale en multimodale metaforen in reclame.” Lecture department Taalbeheersing, Argumentatie en Retorica. Universiteit van Amsterdam (org. Eveline Feteris).
3 Nov. ’06 “Pictorial and multimodal metaphor in advertising.” Lecture department “English and Rhetoric” of University College Roosevelt Academy, Middelburg, NL (org. Michael Burke).
23/2-3/3/’07 Various lectures and workshops at Universidad di Aruba and Instituto Pedagogico Arubano in Animation Art Aruba programme (org. Mirto Laclé).

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2005

10/15-7-’05 [With Eduardo Urios-Aparisi] Organization of panel “The Pragmatics of Multimodal Representations.” International Pragmatics Association. 9th Conference. Riva del Garda, Italy, + paper in this panel.

2004
17-2-’04 In-house pre-screening introduction to Grey Gardens (Maysles brothers, Ellen Hovde, USA 1974). In series Film Repertoire for Media Studies students.
29-3-’04 Invited talk “Cultural factors in the interpretation of multimedial metaphor." Semiotics and the Humanities (International Congress jointly organized by Chinese Association of Social Sciences (CASS) and the International Association of Semiotic Studies (IASS), Beijing, China, March 25-29, 2004.
11-7-’04 Paper “Addressing an audience: time, place, and genre in Peter van Straaten’s calendar cartoons” at Semiotics Conference, University Lumière II, Lyon, France.

2003
24-7-'03 “The source-path-goal schema in first person [travel] documentaries.” 20-25 July, 2003, ICLC 8 , University of Rioja, Logroño, Spain. [ International Cognitive Linguistics Association (ICLA): www.cognitivelinguistics.org ]
5-9-'03 “The source-path-goal schema in first person [travel] documentaries.” RAAM V , 3-5 September 2003, Université Paris 13, France.
24-28/9-'03 Invited talk “Pictorial metaphor in images and film.” Conference Bildwissenschaft zwischen Reflektion und Anwendung . Otto von Guericke Universität Magdeburg, Germany. Org. Klaus Sachs-Hombach. [ Virtuelle Institut für Bildwissenschaft (VIB): www.bildwissenschaft.org ]
31-10-'03 Presentation on “complexity of words and images,” OSL, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (organization: Dick Schram).

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2002
4-1-'02 “Cognitive linguistics and cognitive film studies” PhD seminar University of Amsterdam . Dept. of Film and Television.
22-2 '02 “Visual representations of the Idealized Cognitive Model of ANGER in comics.” Conference Social Cognition and Verbal Communication: Cultural Narratives, Linguistic Identities and Applied Argumentation in a Period of Social Transition,” University of Pécs (PTE), Hungary (invited paper).
27-2-'02 “De semiotiek van het beeld in reclame” [The semiotics of the image in advertising] Lecture to +/- 120 students Communication Studies, Hogeschool van Amsterdam. (Contact: Dick Gilsing, Mireille Middelhof).
13-3-'02 Introduction to screening Peter Greenaway's ZOO/ A Zed and Two Noughts . Organisation: Amfibios (student film club dept. of philosophy, University of Amsterdam). CREA-building.
15-3-'02 Workshop “Overtuigen met stijl: het raffinement van de reclamecommercial.” [“Persuading with style: the subtleties of the advertising commercial”] Dag van Taal & Cultuur , Rijks Universiteit Groningen/UCLO [Day organized for humanities/CKV secondary school teachers.]
7-6-'02 Introductory workshop for secondary school pupils, Universiteit van Amsterdam (topic: In Eén Klap Phil van Tongeren, Netherlands, 9'30”).
16-9-'02 “The source-path-goal schema in first person documentaries.” Laterna Magica Film Academy 9 conference Representations of Time and Space in Film (University of Pecs (PTE), Hungary, September 16-18, 2002).

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2001
6-4- 01 “Pictorial and multi-modal metaphor: Setting agendas for further research.” RAAM IV , University of Manouba , Tunis , Tunisia.
12-4-01 "Visual representations of the ICM of ANGER in comics." PALA conference 21 Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary. [Poetics and Linguistics Association: http://www.pala.ac.uk ]
24-7-'01 "Blends and metaphors in multimodal representations." ICLC 7 conference, University of Santa Barbara CA, USA.

2000
22-2-00 Talk about Comfort of Strangers film-based-on-book, 1st year students "Filmacademie" Amsterdam (Organisation: Ernie Tee).

1999
8-1-99 Participant symposium "Cognitive Stylistics" UvA, Humanities dept. (org. Peter Verdonk & Michael Burke).
16-3-'99 Talk about Comfort of Strangers film-based-on-book, 1st year students "Filmacademie" Amsterdam (Organisation: Ernie Tee).
3-6-'99 "Ervaringen met onderzoek naar intermedialiteit in de literatuurwetenschap: literatuur en film." OSL basiscursus "Interdisciplinariteit in de literatuurwetenschap," VU Amsterdam, 3-4 June 1999.
30/6-2/7-‘99 Paper on metaphor in Comfort of Strangers at RAAM III , Tilburg, The Netherlands.
10-16/7 ‘99 “Metaphor in moving images.” ICLC 6 conference, Stockholm , Sweden.

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1998
23-1-'98 "Spelen met het Shakespeare-sonnet." Workshop nascholingscursus [Teachers' day] "De (On)mogelijke liefde" (VU Amsterdam), 2 x 1,5 hrs.
5+ 19-2-98 Lectures HOVO-course [for senior people] "Fiction & Film": "De hachelijkheid van het herinneren" (Ishiguro/Ivory, The Remains of the Day ); "De motten en de lamp" (McEwan/Schrader, The Comfort of Strangers ).
13-2-'98 Lecture "Woord en beeldrelaties." Nascholingscursus [Teachers' day] "Reclame als discourse" ["Advertising as discourse"](VU Amsterdam, Engels/Taalkunde), 1 hr.
Feb '98 etc. Lecture "Grenzeloze identiteiten in Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient (Zwolle 17-2-'98, Rotterdam 3-3-'98, Leeuwarden 17-3-'98, Apeldoorn 27-10-'98, Amsterdam 10-11-'98, Middelburg 8-2-'99), part of the VUSA-course De moderne Engelstalige roman [The modern novel in English].
9-5-'98 "Metaphor in moving images" Makars in motion Conference, organized by Iain Davidson/Scottish Word & Image Group (SWIG), Aberdeen, Scotland.
14-10-'98 "Sinistere vooruitwijzingen in The Comfort of Strangers : verteltechniek in de roman en de film." [Ominous foreboding in The Comfort of Strangers : narrative technique in the novel and the film.] Paper given at faculty "Cultuurwetenschappen," University of Maastricht.
5/8-11-98 "Introduction" Day 1 ("Word & Image in Context") of two-day symposion Intermediality for PhD and MA students, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, i.s.m. Johan Callens (speakers: Leo Hoek, Gunther Kress, Bernard Scholz, Ed Tan).

1997
17-1-'97 Fiction & film: Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day and James Ivory's The Remains of the Day " Workshop nascholingscursus [Teachers' day] "Over de grenzen" (VU Amsterdam), 2 x 1,5 hrs (with Drs. K. Quint).
17-3- '97 "Kijk, champagnebier: picturale metafoor in reclame" (VU Amsterdam), Workshop HOVO-course [= for senior people] Series Literatuur en Visuele Kunsten [Literature and Visual Arts], 3 hrs.
3-7-'97 "Metaphors in moving images." PALA 20 conference, Nottingham, UK.
9-9-'97 "She ... cradled his head against her breasts": The BABY metaphor in Ian McEwan's, Harold Pinter's, and Paul Schrader's The Comfort of Strangers ." Cognitive stylistics panel, ESSE 4 conference, Debrecen, Hungary.

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1996
19-1-'96 " The Comfort of Strangers ": novel, screenplay, film." Workshop teachers' day "Dood en verderf" [Death and decay in word & image] (VU Amsterdam), 2,5 hrs.
11-3- '96 "Kijk, champagnebier: picturale metafoor in reclame" (VU Amsterdam), Workshop HOVO-course [= for senior people] series Literatuur en Visuele Kunsten [Literature and Visual Arts], 3 hrs.
12-'8-'96 "The influence of genre attribution on the interpretation of images," Word & Image conference Dublin, 11-17 August.
27-9-'96 "Metaforische beelden," [Metaphorical images] Symposium Ex Libris & Epilogos. Van teksten naar beelden. [From texts to images] Faculty of Arts, Tilburg .
6-11-'96 Lecture on Michael Ondaatje's In the skin of a lion in cycle "Masterpieces from Non-Western World Literature," Leiden, ALW (Coordinators Prof. M. Schipper and Drs. U. Speerstra).
17-12-'96 Workshop "De invloed van genre-toekenning op de interpretatie van beelden," [The influence of genre attribution on the interpretation of images] Basiscursus Intermediale Processen (OSL), VU Amsterdam.

1995
18-1-'95 "Towards a theory of pictorial metaphor." Lecture in series "Representatie in kunst en wetenschap," University of Amsterdam (organization: Bipin Indurkhya & Mehdi Dastani).
6-2-'95 VUSA-course on Ishiguro's The remains of the day , Amsterdam VU (22-2: Middelburg; 6-3: Zwolle; 16-10: Rotterdam; 31-10: Arnhem.)
20-23/3 '95 Paper about the influence of genre-attribution on the interpretation of images, Conference Semiotics of the media , Kassel , Germany.
30-11-'95 Speaker/participant interactive video symposium (Amsterdam, Delft, Groningen, Toronto-McLuhan Institute) on metaphor (part of "The World Series on Culture and Technology" organised by "Amsterdam Cultural Studies-interactive" [ACS-i]). With: Geert Lovink (media-theorist) and others.

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1994
April '94 Two post-graduate seminars on pictorial metaphor, Trinity College, Dublin.
April '94 Experiment about the influence of genre-attribution on the interpretation of images, Trinity College, Dublin.

1993
1993 Seminar on Nadine (Matt Cohen). VUSA-course Jewish-American literature . (Zwolle: 1 February; Amsterdam: 8 March; Leeuwarden: 22 March; Utrecht: 15 November.)
16-8-'93 "IBM is a tuning fork: degrees of freedom in interpreting pictorial metaphors." Word & Image conference, Ottawa , Canada.
4-10-'93 "Degrees of freedom in interpreting pictorial metaphors." Conference "Zeichen und Zeit" Tübingen, Germany.
13/14-10-'93 "De gekleurde bril van de metafoor." [The coloured glasses of metaphor.] Workshop as part of Wetenschapsweek 1993 Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. [Science week for secondary school pupils.]
6-12- '93 Seminar (3 hrs) on Alice Munro's Friend of my Youth , HOVO-course [for senior people] "Literary Highlights."

1992
20-3-'92 "Pictorial metaphor in printed advertisements," conference Towards a pragmatics of the audiovisual (Film and Television Studies, University of Amsterdam).
11-6-'92 Pilot study "Responses to advertisements" [brief experiment on the identification of pictorial metaphors], Faculty of Arts, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
2-9-'92 "Pragmatic aspects of (pictorial) metaphor.” “Opening lecture" Dept. of English, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
11-9-'92 Workshop "responses to billboard advertisements" PALA conference Gent. [Replication of experiment 11-6-'92 VUA.]
13/14-10-'92 "De gekleurde bril van de metafoor." [The coloured glasses of metaphor.] Workshop as part of Wetenschapsweek 1992 Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. [Science week for secondary school pupils.]

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1991
6 Nov. '91 Seminar on Alice Munro in Post-Academic Course "Post-war tendencies in Canadian and American literature," Nijmegen (organizer: Dr. Hans Bak).
25 Sept.'91 Introduction Canadian literature + seminar on Guy Vanderhaeghe in Post-Academic Course "Post-war tendencies in Canadian and American literature," Nijmegen (organizer: Dr. Hans Bak).
Sept. '91 "Pictorial metaphor in advertising: relevance perspectives" PALA conference Lancaster.
28-3-'91 On pictorial metaphor at Colloquium with Mark Johnson, International School for Philosophy, Leusden.

1990
22 Nov. '90 On pictorial metaphor for "VU Letterkundekring", Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
23 Oct. '90 "Layered structures in the fiction of Alice Munro," Conference on Commonwealth Literature (University of Leiden, The Netherlands).
Sept. '90 "Verbo-pictoral metaphors in advertisements," PALA conference , Amsterdam.
Aug. '90 "The role of context in pictorial advertisement metaphors," Word & Image conference , Zürich.

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1989
3-6-'89 "De picturale metafoor in reclames" at the annual meeting of the International Society for the History of Rhetoric (Dutch branch), Universiteit van Amsterdam, Klassiek Seminarium.
20-1-'89 "Picturale metafoor in reclames," conference De semiotiek van het visuele , organized by the Dutch Society for Semiotics, Catholic University Brabant (KUB), Tilburg.

1988
7-10-'88 "Iris Murdoch: het verzet tegen vorm" [Iris Murdoch: the resistance to form] on conference Iris Murdoch: schrijfster en filosofe , International School for Philosophy, Leusden, 7-8 October 1989.
18-3-'88 "Picturale reclamemetaforen" on Metaphor -colloquium, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.

1987
15-10-'87 At conference Metaphor , Aesthetics Society, Ljubljana, [former] Yugoslavia + a talk in Sarajevo.
8-5-'87 On Guy Vanderhaeghe's fiction at colloquium Contemporary Canadian Literature -- Possibly Post-Modern , Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.

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Publications (selection)

In preparation

Charles Forceville and Eduardo Urios-Aparisi (eds.), Multimodal Metaphor (Mouton De Gruyter).

Forthcoming
Charles Forceville, “Relevanz und Praegnanz: Kunst als Kommunikation” [in German] In: Martina Plümacher and Wolfgang Wildgen (eds.), Zeitschrift für Semiotik. [ABSTRACT]
Charles Forceville, “Multimodal metaphor.” In: Ray Gibbs (ed.), Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought.
Charles Forceville, “Pictorial and multimodal metaphor in commercials.” In: Edward F. McQuarrie & Barbara J. Phillips (eds), On Figure: New Directions in Advertising Rhetoric. Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe.
Charles Forceville, review of Rosario Caballero, Re-Viewing Space: Figurative Language in Architects’ Assessment of Built Space (Mouton De Gruyter 2006) for Metaphor and Symbol.
Charles Forceville, review of Anthony Baldry & Paul J. Thibault, Multimodal Transcription and Text Analysis: A Multimedia Toolkit and Coursebook. (Equinox 2006) for Journal of Pragmatics.
Charles Forceville, “Commentary” for Psychology of Anger (ed. Frank Columbus). Nova Science: Hauppauge NY.

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2007

Charles Forceville, “Multimodal metaphor in ten Dutch TV commercials.” The Public Journal of Semiotics 1:1,19-51. http://semiotics.ca/ [ABSTRACT]

2006

Charles Forceville, ”Non-verbal and multimodal metaphor in a cognitivist framework: Agendas for research.” In: Gitte Kristiansen, Michel Achard, René Dirven and Francisco Ruiz de Mendoza Ibàñez (eds.), Cognitive Linguistics: Current Applications and Future Perspectives. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 379-402. [ABSTRACT]
Charles Forceville, “The source-path-goal schema in the autobiographical journey documentary: McElwee, Van der Keuken, Cole.” The New Review of Film and Television Studies 4:3, 241-261. [ABSTRACT]
Charles Forceville, Paul Hekkert and Ed Tan. “The adaptive value of metaphors.” In: Uta Klein, Katja Mellmann, Steffanie Metzger (Eds.): Heuristiken der Literaturwissenschaft. Einladung zu disziplinexternen Perspektiven auf Literatur. Paderborn: Mentis, 85-109. [ABSTRACT]
Charles Forceville, review of Zoltán Kövecses, Metaphor in Culture: Universality and Variation (Cambridge University Press 2005). Journal of Pragmatics 38: 1528-1531.
Charles Forceville, review of Jonathan Charteris-Black, Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis (MacMillan/Palgrave 2004) Language and Literature 15: 402-405.

2005
Charles Forceville, “Visual representations of the Idealized Cognitive Model of anger in the Asterix album La Zizanie.” Journal of Pragmatics 37: 1, 69-88. [ABSTRACT]
Charles Forceville, ”Cognitive linguistics and multimodal metaphor.” In: Klaus Sachs-Hombach (ed.), Bildwissenschaft: Zwischen Reflektion und Anwendung. Cologne: Von Halem, 264-284. [ABSTRACT]
Charles Forceville, “Addressing an audience: Time, place, and genre in Peter Van Straaten’s calendar cartoons.” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 18:3, 247-278. [ABSTRACT]

2004
Charles Forceville, Review of Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner, The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities. Metaphor and Symbol 19:1 (2004), 83-89.
Charles Forceville, “The role of non-verbal sound and music in multimodal metaphor.” In: Henk Aertsen, Mike Hannay, and Rod Lyall (eds): Words in their Places: A Festschrift for J. Lachlan Mackenzie. Amsterdam: Faculty of Arts, VU Amsterdam, 65-78. [ABSTRACT]

2003
Charles Forceville, "Bildliche und multimodale Metaphern in Werbespots” [Translated from English by Dagmar Schmauks] Zeitschrift für Semiotik, 25: 1-2, 39-60 [published June 2005]. [ABSTRACT]
Charles Forceville, Review of Zoltán Kövecses, Metaphor: A Practical Introduction . Journal of English Linguistics 31:2, 178-183.
Charles Forceville, Review of Yuri Engelhardt, The Language of Graphics: A Framework for the Analysis of Syntax and Meaning in Maps, Charts, and Diagrams . Document Design 4:3, 287-290.
Charles Forceville, “Creatieve waarheden.” [In Dutch. “Creative truths” – about documentary film] Skrien 35:2, 19-22.

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2002
Charles Forceville, "The identification of target and source in pictorial metaphors." Journal of Pragmatics 34:1, 1-14. [ ABSTRACT ]
Charles Forceville, Review of Lars Hermerén English for Sale: A Study of the Language of Advertising . Journal of Pragmatics 34:3, 341-44.
Charles Forceville, "The conspiracy in The Comfort of Strangers – narration in the novel and the film," Language and Literature 11: 2, 131-147. [ ABSTRACT ]
Charles Forceville, "Further thoughts on delimiting pictorial metaphor." Theoria et Historia Scientiarum 6:1, 213-27. (Nicolaus Copernicus UP, Torun, Poland). [ ABSTRACT ]

2001
Charles Forceville, Review of Rick Altman, Film/Genre , Journal of Pragmatics. 33: 11, 1787-90.
Charles Forceville, Review of Guy Cook, Language Play, Language Learning . Language and Literature 10: 4, 371-74.
Charles Forceville, Review of Adrian Pilkington, Poetic Effects . Language and Literature 10: 4, 374-77.

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2000
Charles Forceville, "Compasses, beauty queens and other PCs: pictorial metaphors in computer advertisements," Hermes, Journal of Linguistics 24, 31-55. [ ABSTRACT ]
Charles Forceville, "Categorisering, genre en reclame." [In Dutch. “Categorization, genre and advertising”] In: Thomas Elsaesser and Pepita Hesselberth (eds), Hollywood op Straat . Amsterdam: Vossiuspers AUP, 2000, 58-73.
Charles Forceville, Review of Bradd Shore's Culture in Mind: Cognition, Culture, and the Problem of Meaning Metaphor and Symbol 15:3, 189-95.

1999
Charles Forceville, Review of Brian McFarlane's Novel to Film: an Introduction to the Theory of Adaptation . In: Sara Martín (ed.) Links and Letters 6 ("Word and Screen"), 145-48.
Charles Forceville, "Educating the eye? Kress and Van Leeuwen's Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (1996).” Review article, Language and Literature 8:2, 163-78.[ ABSTRACT ]
Charles Forceville, "The metaphor ' COLIN IS A CHILD' in Ian McEwan's, Harold Pinter's, and Paul Schrader's The Comfort of Strangers ." Metaphor and Symbol 14:3, 179-98. [ ABSTRACT]
Charles Forceville, "Art or ad?: the influence of genre-attribution on the interpretation of images," SPIEL (Siegener Periodicum zur Internationalen Empirischen Literaturwissenschaft] 18:2, 279-300. [ ABSTRACT ]
Charles Forceville, "Grenzeloze identiteiten in The English Patient ." [In Dutch.] Bzzlletin 261-262, 13-26.

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1998
Charles Forceville, Review of Keiko Tanaka, Advertising Language: a Pragmatic Approach to Advertisements in Britain and Japan (Routledge, 1994). Word & Image 14:3, 317-18.
Charles Forceville, "Metaphor" in: Paul Bouissac (ed.), Encyclopedia of Semiotics (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press), 411-15.
Charles Forceville, " The remains of the day : Ishiguro's boek en Ivory's film. De verfilming van romans als thema voor een les." [In Dutch] In: Dick Schram & Cor Geljon (eds), Grensverleggend Literatuuronderwijs: Literaire en Kunstzinnige Vorming in de Tweede Fase . Zutphen: Thieme, 7-24.

1997
Charles Forceville, Review of Matthias Hurst, Erzählsituationen in Literatur und Film . [In Dutch] Tijdschrift voor Literatuurwetenschap 2:2, 178-81.
Charles Forceville, "Timothy Mo," Lexicon of Post-War Literatures in English 36, 1-17; A1; B1-B3.
Charles Forceville, Review of Louis Goossens, Paul Pauwels, Brygida Rudzka-Ostyn, Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen and Johan Vanparys, By word of Mouth: Metaphor, Metonymy and Linguistic Action in a Cognitive Perspective . Journal of Pragmatics 28:5, 637-44.
Charles Forceville, "Making literary studies matter more." SPIEL 16: 1/2, 116-20.

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1996
Charles Forceville, Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising , London/New York: Routledge (ISBN 0-415-12868-4) 233 pp. [ SUMMARY BY AUTHOR ]

[Reviews: (1) Iina Hellsten, “Mainoskuvien metaforat halki, poikki ja pinoon”, Finnish review devoted exclusively to the book, Tiedotustutkimus (1996:3), 82-84; (2) Richard Gwyn, "Limits of the literal: Five recent books about metaphor," Journal of Sociolinguistics 1:2 (1997), 269-76 [ EXCERPT ]; (3) Ernest W.B. Hess-Lüttich, "Werbebotschaften: Neues zur Semiotik der Marktkommunikation," Medienwissenschaft: Rezensionen 1997/1, 31-37 [also published in Kodikas/Code: Ars Semeiotica 19:4 (1997), 399-404] [ EXCERPT ]; (4) John M. Kennedy, "Visual metaphor in contest," Semiotic Review of Books 8:2 (May 1997), 2-5 [ EXCERPT ]; (5) Sarah R. Stein, "Visuality and the Image," Journal of Communication 48:2 (1998), 170-77 [ EXCERPT ]; (6) Orly Goldwasser, untitled review devoted exclusively to the book, Journal of Pragmatics 31:4 (April 1999), 609-17 [ EXCERPT ]; (7) Patrick A. Cabe, untitled review devoted exclusively to the book, Metaphor and Symbol 14:3 (1999), 229-38. [ EXCERPT ]
Charles Forceville, 'As far as I remember': forms of evasive recall in the novels of Kazuo Ishiguro." In: Richard Todd & Henk Aertsen (eds), Chicago/Amsterdam -- A man of Two Cities: Essays in Memory of August J. Fry . Amsterdam: VU Uitgeverij, 129-44.

1995
Charles Forceville, “IBM IS A TUNING FORK: degrees of freedom in the interpretation of pictorial metaphors." Poetics 23, 189-218. [ ABSTRACT ]
Charles Forceville, Review of Guy Cook, The Discourse of Advertising . Word & Image 11:1, 103-105.
Charles Forceville, European Perspectives on English-Canadian Literature , Nijmegen: ACSN. Canada Cahier 8. Edited and introduced by Charles Forceville & Hillig van 't Land (eds), 1995, 68 pp.
Charles Forceville, "(A)symmetry in metaphor: the importance of extended context." Poetics Today , 16:4, 677-708. [ ABSTRACT ]

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1994
Charles Forceville, "Pictorial metaphor in advertisements," Metaphor and Symbolic Activity 9:1, 1-29 . [ ABSTRACT ]
Charles Forceville, "Pictorial metaphor in billboards: relevance theory perspectives." In Jürgen E. Müller (ed.), Towards a Pragmatics of the Audiovisual vol. 1, Münster: Nodus Publikationen, 93-113.
Charles Forceville, "Towards a delineation of pictorial simile." Kodikas/Code 17: 1-4, 187-202.
Charles Forceville, " Nadine van Matt Cohen." [In Dutch] In: B. Voorsluis (ed.) Joods-Amerikaanse Literatuur 4. Amsterdam: VU Uitgeverij, 85-104.

1993
Charles Forceville, "Alice Munro's layered structures." In: C. Barfoot & Th. D'haen (eds), Shades of Empire in Colonial and Post-Colonial Literatures. Amsterdam/ Atlanta GA: Rodopi, 301-10.
Charles Forceville, Review [in Dutch] of Fred van Besien, Metafoor en Onderwijs [Metaphor and Education]. Revue Belge de Philologie et d'Histoire , 71:3, 763-65.

1992
Charles Forceville, "Kazuo Ishiguro." Lexicon of Post-War Literatures in English 17, 1-9; A1; B1-B2.

1991
Charles Forceville, "'Allemaal verleden tijd' -- over de romans van Kazuo Ishiguro" [In Dutch. 'All over now' – about the novels of Kazuo Ishiguro]. Bzzlletin 183, 53-62.
Charles Forceville, "Verbo-pictorial metaphor in advertisements," Parlance 3:1, 7-19.
Charles Forceville, "Alice Munro." Lexicon of Post-war Literatures in English 13, 1-13; A1-A2; B1-B2.

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1990
Charles Forceville, "Guy Vanderhaeghe." Post-war Literatures in English 8, 1-4; A1; B1-B2.

1989
Charles Forceville, Verhalen uit Canada , [Stories from Canada], edited by Charles Forceville, August Fry and Leo Gillet, with an afterword by the anthologists, Van Gennep: Amsterdam.

1988
Charles Forceville, "De ellende met helden -- 'macht' en 'onmacht' in de fictie van Guy Vanderhaeghe" [In Dutch. The trouble with heroes -- "power" and "powerlessness" in the fiction of Guy Vanderhaeghe], Bzzlletin 152, 46-50.
Charles Forceville, "The case for pictorial metaphor: René Magritte and other Surrealists". In: Ales Erjavec, (ed.) Vestnik IX, Institut za Marksisticne Studije, Ljubljana, 150-160.
Charles Forceville, External and Detached: Dutch Essays on Contemporary Canadian Literature . Edited by Charles Forceville, August Fry and Peter de Voogd . Canada Cahiers 4, Amsterdam: VU Uitgeverij, 64 pp.
Charles Forceville, " My Present Age and the 'Ed'-stories; the role of language and story- telling in Guy Vanderhaeghe's fiction", in External and Detached , 53-61.
Charles Forceville, "Language, time and reality: the stories of Alice Munro," in External and Detached , 37-44.
Charles Forceville, "Some notes on Canadian literature in The Netherlands", in David Homel and Sherry Simon (eds.), Mapping Literature: the Art and Politics of Translation . Montréal: Véhicule Press, 111-12.

1987
Charles Forceville, "Metafoor en maatschappij" [In Dutch. Metaphor and society], Massacommunicatie 3, 268-76.
Charles Forceville, Canadian Mosaic: Essays on Multiculturalism . Edited by August Fry and Charles Forceville. Canada Cahiers no. 3, Amsterdam: VU Uitgeverij, 92 pp.

1985
Charles Forceville, "Craig Raine's poetry of perception." Dutch Quarterly Review , 15:2, 102-15.

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Abstracts of articles and book chapters by Charles Forceville

Charles Forceville (2006). “Multimodal metaphor in ten Dutch TV commercials.” Public Journal of Semiotics 1:1, 19-51 http://semiotics.ca/

ABSTRACT. Since the publication of Lakoff and Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By (1980), conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) has dominated metaphor studies. While one of the central tenets of that monograph is that metaphors are primarily a phenomenon of thought, not of language, conceptual metaphors have until recently been studied almost exclusively via verbal expressions. Another limitation of the CMT paradigm is that it has tended to focus on deeply embedded metaphors rather than on creative metaphors of the kind that Black (1979) discusses. One result of this focus is that relatively little attention is paid in CMT to the form and appearance a metaphor can assume (cf. Lakoff and Turner 1989). Clearly, which channel(s) of information (language, visuals, sound, gestures, among others) are chosen to convey a metaphor is a central factor in how a metaphor is construed and interpreted. A healthy theory of metaphor as a structuring element of thought therefore requires systematic examination of both its multimodal and its creative manifestations. Conversely, research into non-verbal and multimodal metaphor can help the theorization of multimodality.

In this paper it is shown that creative metaphors occurring in commercials usually draw on a combination of language, pictures, and non-verbal sound. After an inventory of parameters involved in the analysis of multimodal metaphors, ten cases are discussed, with specific attention to the role of the various modes in the metaphors’ construal and interpretation. On the basis of the case studies, the last sections of the paper discuss three issues that are crucial for further study: (1) the ways in which similarity is cued in multimodal, as opposed to verbal, metaphors; (2) the problems adhering to the verbalization of multimodal metaphors; (3) the influence of textual genre on the interpretation of multimodal metaphors.

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Charles, Forceville, “Relevanz und Praegnanz: Kunst als Kommunikation” [“Relevance and “prägnanz”: Art as communication”]. In: Martina Plümacher and Wolfgang Wildgen (eds.), Zeitschrift für Semiotik, forthcoming.

ENGLISH ABSTRACT. The elusive German concept “prägnanz,” used as a form of praise for artistic representations, pertains to the aesthetic and emotional impact on its appreciators, but also to the concise way in which this impact is achieved. Impact and conciseness correspond, it is assumed, to what in Sperber and Wilson’s communication theory, Relevance theory (1986, 1995), are called “effect” and “effort.” The proposal to consider art as a special form of communication is explored by using concepts from the Relevance Theory framework. The article ends by demonstrating the viability of the framework by applying it to Blindenspiegel (1998), a work by the Dutch artist Erna van Sambeek.

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Charles Forceville, Paul Hekkert, Ed Tan (2006). "The adaptive value of metaphors". In: Uta Klein, Katja Mellmann, Steffanie Metzger (eds), Heuristiken der Literaturwissenschaft. Einladung zu disziplinexternen Perspektiven auf Literatur . Paderborn: Mentis, 85-109.

ABSTRACT. In this article we speculate that the human ability to metaphorize has adaptive value. Our argument runs as follows: Darwinian survival requires adaptation; adaptation requires learning; and learning crucially involves metaphorizing. To metaphorize is to map the meaning, emotions and/or attitudes associated with one, more or less familiar, conceptual domain (the source) onto another, more or less unfamiliar, conceptual domain (the target). Metaphors have survival value because they are economical and allow for the development of new perspectives. Since pleasure facilitates learning, we hypothesize that the aesthetic attractiveness of metaphors increases with the degree to which they obey the principle of minimum means for maximum effect. After showing that there is a continuum from entrenched or integrated metaphors to creative ones, we discuss our claims with reference to six case studies from the realm of advertising, design, and art.

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Charles Forceville, “Addressing an audience: time, place, and genre in Peter Van Straaten’s calendar cartoons.” Humor: International Journal of Humor Research 18:3, 247-278 (2005).

ABSTRACT. Cartoons, like other forms of mass media, are aimed not just at anybody, but at a multitude of individuals. The extent to which these numerous individuals understand the cartoons in the same way depends not only on their shared interpretations of the word & image texts themselves, but also on interpretation strategies suggested by the (near)identical circumstances under which the cartoons are accessed. As Gail Dines points out, “locating cartoons within the cultural realm of mass communication requires an understanding of how these media forms come into existence and how they are consumed by the intended audience” (1995: 238). To understand better how cartoons are processed, it is necessary to generalize about contextual factors governing their perception. In this paper I examine cartoons by the Dutchman Peter van Straaten that all appeared on a tear-off calendar in the year 2001. The question addressed is how the temporal and spatial circumstances under which the cartoons are accessed, in combination with the generic conventions of the calendar in which they appear, trigger the activation of specific cognitive schemata, and thus steer and constrain possible interpretations. The general framework in which these matters are discussed is Sperber and Wilson’s (1995) Relevance Theory.

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Charles Forceville, “Cognitive linguistics and multimodal metaphor.”In: Klaus Sachs-Hombach (ed.), Bildwissenschaft: Zwischen Reflektion und Anwendung. (ed. Klaus Sachs-Hombach). Cologne: Von Halem, 264-284 (2005).

ABSTRACT. Although the cognitive approach to metaphor emphasizes that metaphor is primarily a conceptual, and only derivatively a linguistic matter, it focuses almost exclusively on verbal manifestations of conceptual metaphor. Studying pictorial and other non-verbal metaphors, however, is indispensable not only as a means to chart Idealized Cognitive Models (e.g., Lakoff 1987, Kövecses 2000), but also to stimulate the integration of cognitive and cultural dimensions of metaphor (e.g., Emanatian 1995, Hutchins 1995, Shore 1996, Gibbs 1999a). This article is an attempt to outline the parameters that need to be identified and analysed for the label “multimedial metaphor” to make sense.

KEYWORDS: Pictorial metaphor; picture analysis; images & cognition; commercials.

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Charles Forceville, “Visual representations of the Idealized Cognitive Model of anger in the Asterix album La Zizanie,” Journal of Pragmatics 37: 1, 69-88 (2005).

ABSTRACT. The conceptual metaphor program launched by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) attempts to chart and describe the Idealized Cognitive Models that govern human thinking. The manifestations of these models studied hitherto, however, are almost exclusively verbal ones. In the interest of enriching insights into ICMs, non-verbal and multimedial representations need be investigated as well. In turn, picture theory can benefit from instruments developed in the cognitive linguistics paradigm.

Kövecses (1986, 2000) has demonstrated that verbal expressions and idioms used to describe emotions can be traced back to a limited number of conceptual metaphors. This paper investigates non-verbal manifestations of anger in the Asterix comics album La Zizanie in the light of Kövecses’ findings. It is argued (i) that the representations of anger found here are, at the least, compatible with the most dominant anger metaphor found by Kövecses, ANGER IS THE HEAT OF A FLUID IN A CONTAINER, and are probably motivated by it; and (ii) that the medium of comics may privilege aspects of ICMs that are less dominant, or even absent, in its linguistic manifestations. Furthermore, the method of analysis employed is reflected on, since it is intended to be applicable beyond the questions addressed here.

KEYWORDS: Anger; Idealized Cognitive Models; Asterix; Picture analysis; Images & Cognition.

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Charles Forceville, “The role of non-verbal sound and music in multimodal metaphor.” In: Henk Aertsen, Mike Hannay, and Rod Lyall (eds) Words in their Places: A Festschrift for J. Lachlan Mackenzie. Amsterdam: Faculty of Arts, VU Amsterdam, 65-78 (2004).

ABSTRACT. Andrew Ortony’s (1979) Metaphor and Thought (1979) and George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By (1980) provided the base for what, in the next 25 years, developed into a tremendous revival of research into the trope. However, the vast majority of publications in the conceptual metaphor paradigm (e.g., Johnson 1987, 1993, Lakoff 1987; Lakoff and Turner 1989, Lakoff and Johnson 1999, 2003, Kövecses 2000, 2002, Gibbs 1994; Gibbs & Steen 1999) focuses only on verbal manifestations of metaphor. The crucial claim that metaphor is “not a figure of speech, but a mode of thought” (Lakoff 1993: 210) oddly did not preclude theorists from almost exclusively discussing verbal manifestations of conceptual metaphor. This biased view is now gradually being corrected. Research into pictorial (or: visual) metaphor is by now well under way (for references see Forceville, in press, forthcoming). By contrast, investigations into the role of sound in multimodal metaphor are hitherto rare (exceptions are Cook 1998: chapter 2; Thorau, in press, both examining metaphor in music). The present article is an exploration of how sound and music can contribute to metaphor by discussing ten cases of such metaphors. Five originate in advertising, with its clearly identifiable and specifiable genre-convention of attempting to persuade an audience of positive qualities adhering to a specific product; and five are fragments from art film, a genre which is supposed – let us say with Horace – to delight, instruct, and move.

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Charles Forceville, "Bildliche und multimodale Metaphern in Werbespots. ” [Translated from English by Dagmar Schmauks] Zeitschrift für Semiotik 25: 1-2, 39-60 (2003).

ENGLISH ABSTRACT. Studying pictorial metaphor and other forms of non-verbal metaphor is indispensable for the development of a complete and balanced theory of cognitive metaphor, and moreover provides a practical tool for the analysis of certain images. Hitherto, the scant literature has primarily focused on pictorial metaphor in static images. This article focuses on pictorial and multi-modal metaphor in moving images, specifically commercials. Pictorial metaphors in moving imagesdiffer from those in static ones in at least the following respects: (1) target and source need not be represented (or suggested) simultaneously, but can occur after one another; (2) in the post-silent film era, a metaphorical term can be cued by the aural track (via music or a sound effect) as well as by visual information. In the latter case the metaphor is better labeled „multimodal“ than „pictorial“; (3) framings and camera movements can create metaphorical similarity in ways not open to static, standalone pictures and photographs. The model developed for static pictorial metaphors developed in Forceville (1996)is shown to be adaptable to those in moving images. The article ends by discussing some questions raised by the analyses, and by suggesting avenues for further research.

Charles Forceville. “The conspiracy in The comfort of strangers – narration in the novel and the film.” Language and Literature 11: 2, 131-147 (2002).

ABSTRACT. Since stories increasingly take on pictorial and mixed-medial forms, narratology needs to investigate to what extent narrative devices exceed the boundaries of a specific medium. One way to examine this issue is to focus on film adaptations of narratologically complex novels or stories. This article presents a detailed comparison of the narration in McEwan's (1981) The Comfort of Strangers and Schrader's (1990) film based on a scenario by Harold Pinter. It is shown how the novel creates deliberate confusion (via free indirect speech and thought) about the agency responsible for the conveyance of crucial information, and how the film finds non-verbal means to achieve the same effect.

KEYWORDS: Narration in fiction and film, Free Indirect Discourse, The Comfort of Strangers, Ian McEwan, Paul Schrader, Harold Pinter.

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Charles Forceville. “The identification of target and source in pictorial metaphors.” Journal of Pragmatics 34:1, 1-14 (2002).

ABSTRACT. Lakoff and Johnson's dictum that "metaphor is primarily a matter of thought and action and only derivatively a matter of language (1980: 153) has given rise to numerous studies investigating how metaphors' verbal manifestations relate to their cognitive origins. Curiously, little attention has hitherto been paid to a logical extension of this adage, namely the examination of non-verbal metaphor, for instance pictorial metaphor. In this article, Noel Carroll's (1994, 1996) proposals concerning the nature and identifiability of pictorial metaphors are discussed in terms of the model developed by Forceville (1996). Two theses inherent in Carroll's approach are investigated and rejected: (1) that most prototypical pictorial metaphors, unlike verbal ones, allow a reversibility of their respective targets and sources; and (2) that prototypical pictorial metaphors are `homospatially noncompossible', that is, that they are visual hybrids. The article ends by making suggestions concerning the investigation of cinematic metaphors in line with Forceville (1996).

KEYWORDS: Pictorial/visual metaphor; picture analysis; images & cognition; metaphorical (ir)reversibility.

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Charles Forceville, "Further thoughts on delimiting pictorial metaphor." Theoria et Historia Scientiarum 6:1, 213-27. (Nicolaus Copernicus UP, Toruń, Poland).

ABSTRACT. The concept of pictorial metaphor is in need of further theorizing. After a summary of the model of pictorial metaphor developed in Forceville (1996), some adaptations to this model are proposed to accommodate future manifestations of non-verbal, and multimedial, metaphor. Apart from introducing some modifications to the earlier terminology, the article addresses the matters of (i) the irreversibility of target and source in pictorial metaphors, (ii) the possibility of pictorial metaphor in moving images; and (iii) thorny questions pertaining to the need to verbalize pictorial and multimedial metaphors.

KEYWORDS: Pictorial/visual metaphor; multimedial metaphor; verbalizing non-verbal metaphor; metaphor in moving images.

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Charles Forceville. “Compasses, beauty queens and other PCs: pictorial metaphors in computer advertisements." Hermes, Journal of Linguistics 24, 2000 (ed. Carlo Grevy), 31-55.

ABSTRACT. Computer advertisements make extensive use of pictorial metaphors. The model proposed in Forceville (1996) is used as a starting point to analyze 27 advertisements in PC Magazine, July/August 1999 (American edition) that contain a pictorial metaphor. The aim is twofold: (1) to further contribute to the theory of pictorial metaphor by testing the model against a new corpus; (2) to make an inventory of the source domains used in the metaphors, and thereby to make some observations about the ways in which representations of computer technology interact with our daily lives.

KEYWORDS: Pictorial/visual metaphor; computer advertisements; images & cognition.

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Charles Forceville. “The metaphor 'COLIN IS A CHILD' in Ian McEwan's, Harold Pinter's, and Paul Schrader's The Comfort of Strangers." Metaphor and Symbol 14:3, 1999, 179-98.

ABSTRACT. In the cognitivist paradigm, metaphor's conceptual nature is investigated almost exclusively in its verbal manifestations. Research on non-verbal expressions of conceptual metaphors is still surprisingly scarce. While some pioneering work has been done in the area of pictorial metaphor, this has hitherto focused on specific instances of isolated metaphors. For better insight into the nature of conceptual metaphors, it is necessary to examine if they can be rendered pictorially and mixed-medially and, if so, what forms they could take. In this case-study, a structural metaphor from Ian McEwan's novel The comfort of strangers is analysed and compared to its counterpart in the film Paul Schrader based on the book. The article ends with suggestions for generalizations across different media, including a distinction between explicitly and implicitly signalled metaphors.

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Charles Forceville. “Educating the eye? Kress and Van Leeuwen's Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (1996).” Language and Literature 8:2, 1999, 163-78.

ABSTRACT. This review article of Kress and Van Leeuwen's Reading Images (1996) begins by giving a summary of its contents, in which its innovative and daring proposals are highlighted. In the following sections, some weaknesses and controversial aspects of the book are discussed. Both are seen as following from the semiotic and ideological approach adopted by the authors. Specifically, these affect the proposals for the classification and interpretation of images, and the degree to which the concepts delineated are generalizable. In the last sections, tentative suggestions are made how KvL's approach is relevant to the currently emerging 'cognitivist' paradigm.

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Charles Forceville. "Art or ad?: the influence of genre-attribution on the interpretation of images." SPIEL (Siegener Periodicum zur Internationalen Empirischen Literaturwissenschaft] 18:2, 1999, 279-300.

ABSTRACT. The interpretation of an image is not only guided by text-intenal information, but also by the genre to which it belongs. To test this hypothesis, this paper presents an exploratory empirical investigation. Three related images without accompanying text were shown to two groups of subjects; to one group as if they were advertisements, to the other group as if they were artistic representations. The hypothesis that the different genre-attributions influenced the interpretations by the subjects was confirmed. A notable difference was that people in the “ad condition” projected positive associations from the most salient object in the picture onto the (unknown) product, while people in the “art condition” commented upon various contrasts and tensions between these salient objects and their contexts. The results are discussed with reference to Siegfried Schmidt’s (1991) distinction between polyvalence versus monovalence conventions, and between esthetic and fact conventions.

KEYWORDS: Genre, interpretation conventions, relevance theory, empirical research, IBM.

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Charles Forceville. “(A)symmetry in metaphor: the importance of extended context.” Poetics Today, 16:4, 1995, 677-708.

ABSTRACT. A crucial aspect of the investigation of any metaphor is the assessment which of its two terms is the tenor and which the vehicle. This issue is less uncontroversial than is often thought. The present paper discusses three related aspects of the matter. In the first place, Black's (1962, 1979) interaction theory is shown not to support the bidirectionality of feature transfer or even the reversibility of terms, as is sometimes claimed (e.g., by Hausman 1989 and Lakoff & Turner 1989). Secondly, three experimental studies analyzing what principles guide the distribution of tenor and vehicle (Malgady & Johnson 1980; Verbrugge 1980; and Connor & Kogan 1980) are criticized for ignoring context-levels beyond the sentence. Thirdly, whereas the overall stance taken in this paper is that the projection of features in a metaphor is only from vehicle upon tenor, and not vice versa, there appear to be exceptions to this principle. Four examples are discussed in some detail and an attempt is made to account for them.

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Charles Forceville. "IBM IS A TUNING FORK: Degrees of freedom in the interpretation of pictorial metaphors." Poetics 23, 1995, 189-218.

ABSTRACT. The article reports the results of a highly exploratory experiment pertaining to the identification and interpretation of what are claimed to be (verbo)pictorial metaphors in three IBM billboard advertisements. The experiment makes use of a design developed by Mick & Politi (1989) and relies on the metaphor theory of Black (1962, 1979) and its adaptation to pictures in Forceville (1991, 1994a, 1994b). The experiment tests (1) whether the participants in the experiment (academics working in the field of language or literature) identify the metaphors as such, without explicitly having been forewarned to look for metaphors; (2) to what extent the participants agree in their interpretations of these professed metaphors. Moreover the data provide insight into what associations the billboards evoke in participants besides those the participants think the advertisers intended them to have. The experiment makes use of existing billboards (i.e., "real-world texts" ‑‑ see Kreuz & Roberts 1993: 152) and focuses on qualitative rather than quantitative results.

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Charles Forceville. “Pictorial metaphor in advertisements.” Metaphor and Symbolic Activity 9:1, 1994, 1-29.

ABSTRACT. Metaphor has been first and foremost studied in its verbal variants. As Lakoff and Johnson (1980) claimed, however, “metaphor is primarily a matter of thought and only derivatively a matter of language”(p. 153). Presuming this idea to be correct, this article makes an exploratory contribution to the study of a different type of metaphor, namely, pictorial metaphor. With reference to Black’s (1962, 1979) interaction theory, several pictorial metaphors in advertisements are considered with the following discussion in mind: What are the two terms of the metaphor and how do we know? Which of the two terms is the (“literal”)