Leonzini Luisella (2011) Understanding Multimodal Metaphors by Reading through the Verbo-pictorial Language of The Economist.”, In Vasta, N., Riem Natale, A., Bortoluzzi, M., Saidero, D. (eds.), Identities In Transition In The English-Speaking World, pp. 81-104, Forum: Udine. ISBN 978-88-8420-693

Understanding Multimodal Metaphors by Reading through the Verbo-pictorial Language of The Economist. Luisella Leonzini, University of Trieste, Italy In this article I analyse some images from The Economist and explore the use of multimodal verbopictorial metaphors to shape and comment on reality. I apply Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980/2003) cognitive theory, according to which, metaphors are the expression of something previously conceptualised and thought about. I adopt Forceville’s (1994) framework to define pictorial metaphors, and his approach (2008) to multimodal metaphorical discourse in order to examine how the British magazine practises and apply it to the news. In my analysis, I focus on the impact that the use and realization of a cross-connected process aimed at expressing the source domain and the target domain in two different modes, the verbal and the visual, may have on the reading/viewing public.