PICTORIAL AND MULTIMODAL METONYMY IN POLITICAL NEWSPAPER DISCOURSE: THE CASE OF BREXIT REPORTS

Abstract

This paper analyses several examples of pictorial and multimodal metonymy found in political cartoons and photographs related to the topic of Brexit and collected from the two British daily newspapers, The Guardian and The Telegraph. The first part of analysis deals with instances of pictorial metonymy, emphasising the importance of certain distinctive features such as colour, graphic representation, or photographic composition. The second part of analysis focuses on multimodal metonymy of the verbo-pictorial variety, particularly scrutinising the relationships between the two modes. Based on the different ways in which the pictorial and the verbal mode interact, the examples are classified into three separate categories: (1) image-dominant metonymy, (2) text-dominant metonymy, and (3) complementary metonymy. Furthermore, the analysis sheds some light on how these metonymies can form the basis of pictorial and multimodal metaphors, how several source and target concepts can be chained together within a single metonymy, and how metonymy in visual communication can also possess an indexical, rather than merely iconic character.