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From Monomodal to Multimodal Metaphors in the Portuguese sports newspaper A Bola

Da Metáfora Monomodal à Metáfora Multimodal no Jornal Desportivo Português A Bola

Abstracts

Following our comprehensive study of conceptual metaphor occurrences in the Portuguese sports newspaper A Bola (ALMEIDA, 2013ALMEIDA, M.C et al. Jogar futebol com as Palavras. Imagens metafóricas no jornal "A Bola". Lisboa: Colibri, 2013.) and the research on multimodal metaphor (Forceville, 2008FORCEVILLE, C. Metaphor in Pictures and Multimodal Representation. In: GIBBS, Raymond (Ed.).. The Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. p. 462-482., 2009FORCEVILLE, C. Non-verbal and multimodal metaphor in a cognitivist framework: Agendas for research, In:; FORCEVILLE, C. URISO-APARISI, E. (Ed.). Multimodal Metaphor, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009. p. 19-44., 2012FORCEVILLE, C. Creativity in Pictorial and Multimodal Advertising metaphors. In: JONES, Rodney (Ed.). Discourse and Creativity. London: Longman, 2012. p. 113-133.), the present paper aims to analyse multimodal metaphors, depicting Cristiano Ronaldo on the covers of this very same newspaper. We wish to uncover conceptual affinities or differences between monomodal and multimodal metaphors as far as their source domains are concerned, namely those of WAR and RELIGION (ALMEIDA, 2013ALMEIDA, M.C et al. Jogar futebol com as Palavras. Imagens metafóricas no jornal "A Bola". Lisboa: Colibri, 2013.). Upon confronting monomodal and multimodal metaphors, we have unveiled that source domains of multimodal metaphors appear to be more restrictive in comparison to the vast panoply of source domains in monomodal metaphors (ALMEIDA, 2013ALMEIDA, M.C et al. Jogar futebol com as Palavras. Imagens metafóricas no jornal "A Bola". Lisboa: Colibri, 2013.).

Metaphors; multimodal metaphors; Portuguese sports-newspapers; socio-cultural framings


Na sequência do estudo extensivo de ocorrências da metáfora conceptual no jornal desportivo português A Bola (ALMEIDA, 2013ALMEIDA, M.C et al. Jogar futebol com as Palavras. Imagens metafóricas no jornal "A Bola". Lisboa: Colibri, 2013.) e da investigação sobre a metáfora multimodal (Forceville, 2008FORCEVILLE, C. Metaphor in Pictures and Multimodal Representation. In: GIBBS, Raymond (Ed.).. The Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. p. 462-482., 2009FORCEVILLE, C. Non-verbal and multimodal metaphor in a cognitivist framework: Agendas for research, In:; FORCEVILLE, C. URISO-APARISI, E. (Ed.). Multimodal Metaphor, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009. p. 19-44., 2012FORCEVILLE, C. Creativity in Pictorial and Multimodal Advertising metaphors. In: JONES, Rodney (Ed.). Discourse and Creativity. London: Longman, 2012. p. 113-133.), o presente artigo visa a análise das metáforas multimodais com a figura de Cristiano Ronaldo nas capas deste mesmo jornal desportivo. É nosso propósito descortinar as afinidades ou divergências conceptuais entre as metáforas monomodais no respeitante aos domínios fonte das mesmas, ou seja, os da GUERRA e da RELIGIÃO, (ALMEIDA, 2013ALMEIDA, M.C et al. Jogar futebol com as Palavras. Imagens metafóricas no jornal "A Bola". Lisboa: Colibri, 2013.) e as metáforas multimodais em análise no presente estudo. No confronto entre estes dois tipos de metáfora verificou-se que os domínios-fonte das metáforas multimodais se limitam à GUERRA e à RELIGIÃO, o que as distingue das metáforas monomodais nos jormais desportivos, que emergem de uma vasta panóplia de domínios-fonte (ALMEIDA, 2013ALMEIDA, M.C et al. Jogar futebol com as Palavras. Imagens metafóricas no jornal "A Bola". Lisboa: Colibri, 2013.).

Metáforas; metáforas multimodais; jornais desportivos portugueses; perspectivas socioculturais


1 Monomodal metaphors and metonymies in the sports newspaper A Bola

The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor (CMT) (Lakoff, 1993LAKOFF, G.The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor. In: GEERAERTS, Dirk (Ed.) Cognitive Linguistics: Basic Readings. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1993. p. 185-238.) was applied in this study to analyse an extensive corpus of metaphorical occurrences in the sports newspaper A Bola (ALMEIDA, 2010ALMEIDA, M. C.; SOUSA, B. Heldenmetaphern in der deutschen und portugiesischen Sportpresse. Revista de Estudos Filógicos Allemanes, v. 20, Sevilla: Fénix Editora, 2010. p. 243-256.; 2013ALMEIDA, M.C et al. Jogar futebol com as Palavras. Imagens metafóricas no jornal "A Bola". Lisboa: Colibri, 2013.). Taking into account the panoply of source domains of metaphors, metaphorical images were analysed using the source domain of WAR, based on the fact that the conceptual metaphor SPORTS IS WAR seemed to be quite dominant. However, it did come to our attention that other source domains of metaphorical occurrences proved to be pervasive as well, such as PORTUGUESE GASTRONOMY, MYTHs and RELIGION, among others, as shown in table 1.

Table 1
Metaphorical Occurrences (ALMEIDA, 2013, p. 58, 81; ALMEIDA, SOUSA, 2010ALMEIDA, M.C.; SOUSA B.Worldmaking in Rap -Predators, Fighters - Salvagers: a multimodal approach. Presentation to the International Conference: Communication to Multimodal Communication: Language, Performance and Digital Media, held on May 2, 2013 at CCB-Lisbon (to be published in future conference annals)., p. 252)

However, some occurrences could not be deconstructed by simply resorting to explanations based upon conceptual mappings from source domains to target domains. The reason why CMT could not be used for this type of analysis relies upon the fact that they were counterfactually architectured by depicting scenarios in which the source and target domains refer to the very same entity, as illustrated below in (4).

(4) Afinal, é a águia a empurrar a águia lá para baixo...

(transl. After all, it is the eagle that is pulling the eagledown...)

A Bola, 12.04.2008

(ALMEIDA, 2013ALMEIDA, M.C.; SOUSA B.Worldmaking in Rap -Predators, Fighters - Salvagers: a multimodal approach. Presentation to the International Conference: Communication to Multimodal Communication: Language, Performance and Digital Media, held on May 2, 2013 at CCB-Lisbon (to be published in future conference annals)., p. 99)

Hence, neither the cognitive tool of metaphorical conceptual mapping from a source domain to a target domain, nor the cognitive tool of metonymic conceptual mapping, a conceptual projection within the same cognitive domain that is established between two different elements or parts in a contiguous relation (Lakoff & Turner 1989, p. 103LAKOFF, G.; TURNER, M. More than Cool Reason: a Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press, 1989., among others), could be of any use to the analysis of the scenario of the eagle - the symbol of both Sport Lisboa and Benfica - that pulls itself down, certainly defying the laws of physics, but pragmatically making perfect sense to Portuguese sports newspaper readers.

For the deconstruction of apparently paradoxical conceptual architecturings in the sports newspaper A Bola, it was necessary to resort to a theoretical framework that could adequately explain them from a pragmatic-conceptual-cultural point of view, the Mental Space Network Model (Brandt, 2004BRANDT, L.; BRANDT, P. A.Making sense of a Blend: a Cognitive Semiotic Approach to Metaphor. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 3. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2005. p. 216-49.; Brandt & Brandt, 2005BRANDT, L.; BRANDT, P. A.Making sense of a Blend: a Cognitive Semiotic Approach to Metaphor. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 3. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2005. p. 216-49.). Emerging from a discursive act, metaphoric mappings come to life from a semiotic Base Space that promotes the blending between the Reference Space and the Presentation Space, monitored by relevant cultural scenarios. Therefore, meaning (re)construction derives essentially from inferential processes emerging from a Virtual Space, as Brandt (2010, p. 190-191) explains: (...) By virtuality I mean the very as-if-ness that characterizes the blend of a Reference Space and a Presentation Space. (...) Virtual spaces are momentary fictions that yield lasting inferences."

This mental space network, semiotic in its nature, was designed to schematically reproduce the semantic process by which metaphorical blends are cognized. It aims to validate all virtual integrations of meaning and intends to reinforce the idea that blends - one input becomes a sign for the other - are context-sensitive, both pertaining to how the content of the input is understood, as well as to the semantic and pragmatic relevance of blending these inputs. The reader/listener is able to decode, online, the intentionally motivated metaphorical expressions, giving logical sense to a virtual blend, grounded in a Relevance Space, which contains structural knowledge that interprets mappings between the Reference and Presentation Domains, thus constructing a final meaningful blend (the Meaning Space).

Diagram 1
The Mental Space Network (Brandt, 2004BRANDT, L.; BRANDT, P. A.Making sense of a Blend: a Cognitive Semiotic Approach to Metaphor. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 3. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2005. p. 216-49.; Brandt & Brandt, 2005BRANDT, L.; BRANDT, P. A.Making sense of a Blend: a Cognitive Semiotic Approach to Metaphor. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 3. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2005. p. 216-49.)

Consequently, and according to the cognitive semiotic approach, the aforementioned example (4) makes sense because:

1. It is a communicative time-place-bound and speaker-hearer-bound act;

2. In the Reference Space, Sport Lisboa and Benfica's defeat (using the football club's symbol) is mapped onto the Presentation Space to pull down;

3. This mapping is monitored by a relevant cultural scenario, namely the negative fall TOP-DOWN;

4. In the Virtual Space, the counterfactual scenario of eagle-pulling down-eagle inferentially conveys the intentional meaning that "the eagle brought the defeat upon itself".

One must take into consideration that in semiotic processes both world-based and imaginative processes play a decisive role. In fact, "(...) meaning can be modelled as dynamically related both to the imaginary and to the experiential world in which meaning is meaningful" (Brandt, 2005BRANDT, L.; BRANDT, P. A.Making sense of a Blend: a Cognitive Semiotic Approach to Metaphor. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics 3. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2005. p. 216-49., p. 1585).

The distinction of two types of monomodal metaphors, namely metaphorical images emerging from metaphorical mappings from a source to a target domain and metaphorical elaborations grafted by counterfactual processes constitutes by itself a resourceful tool for the analysis of multimodal metaphors in the sports newspaper A Bola, because, as highlighted by Cameron (2010CAMERON, L. The discourse dynamics framework of metaphor. In:; CAMERON, L. MASLEN, R. (Ed.). Metaphor Analysis. Research Practice in Applied Linguistics, Social Sciences and the Humanities London/Oakville: Equinox, 2010b. p. 77-96., p. 88): "(...) when first used, metaphor may be striking and memorable, and thus act as an attractor for future talking-and-thinking". Hence, one must observe whether the panoply of source domains in monomodal metaphors, as illustrated in Table 1, will emerge from our corpus of multimodal metaphors depicting Cristiano Ronaldo.

2 Multimodal metaphors - from adverts to sports newspapers

Forceville (2009FORCEVILLE, C. Non-verbal and multimodal metaphor in a cognitivist framework: Agendas for research, In:; FORCEVILLE, C. URISO-APARISI, E. (Ed.). Multimodal Metaphor, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2009. p. 19-44., p. 23) postulates a multimodal approach to metaphors, in which an integrated analysis of several modes, such as pictorial signs, written signs, spoken signs, gestures, sounds, music, smells, tastes and touch, are targeted in the deconstruction of audio-visual materials. However, taking into account that our study targets multimodal analyses of newspaper covers for obvious reasons, some of the modes, namely, spoken signs, gestures, smells, tastes und touch, will be excluded.

Central to Forceville's studies is the clear-cut identification of the source domain of multimodal metaphors, considering that there are the following possibilities:

1. the source domain is conveyed by the written mode (Forceville, 2012, p. 120-121FORCEVILLE, C. Creativity in Pictorial and Multimodal Advertising metaphors. In: JONES, Rodney (Ed.). Discourse and Creativity. London: Longman, 2012. p. 113-133.), as illustrated by the reference to Mona Lisa in Amsterdam Zoo billboard;

2. the source domain is spawned by the pictorial mode (Idem, p. 123-125) as in the New York buildings integrated in the Nespresso advert, due to a perceptual resemblance between the Nespresso coffee machine (the target domain) and New York skyscrapers (the source domain).

Notice that in both cases the target domain is rendered in the pictorial mode.

Drawing upon the conceptual definition of multimodal metaphors "(...) as metaphors in which target, source and/or mappable features are represented or suggested by at least two different sign systems (one of each may be language) or modes of perception" (Forceville, 2008FORCEVILLE, C. Metaphor in Pictures and Multimodal Representation. In: GIBBS, Raymond (Ed.).. The Cambridge Handbook of Metaphor and Thought Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. p. 462-482., p. 463), we claim that multimodal metaphors in sports newspaper covers are structured in a similar fashion to advertising/pictorial metaphor, i.e.

both are forms of mass communication to a fairly anonymous audience;

"the advertiser, in order to communicate something to the (prospective) consumer must by her stimulus activate certain schemas from the consumer's memory, that is, must trigger certain assumptions in his cognitive environment" (Forceville, 1998FORCEVILLE, C. Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising. London: Routledge, 1998.:101).

Thus, the task of the journalist responsible for the editorial is very similar to the task of the advertiser, namely, architecturing a creative representation of a semantic source domain that can be mapped onto the target domain (Forceville 2012, p. 119FORCEVILLE, C. Creativity in Pictorial and Multimodal Advertising metaphors. In: JONES, Rodney (Ed.). Discourse and Creativity. London: Longman, 2012. p. 113-133.), and we should add to this the implicit requirement that it must be in line with the journalist's intentions and adequate for communicative needs, i.e. discursively relevant. The use of multifarious socio-cultural contexts in the source domains of metaphorical mappings signals a predominant purposeful conceptual elaboration of blended architecturings in Portuguese football news. This can be showcased by the aforementioned occurrence (3), which is clearly culture-bound, given that it emerges from a Portuguese historical myth, namely the myth of 'Dom Sebastião', a Portuguese King who disappeared in the battle of Alcácer Quibir, North Africa, and will return on a foggy day to save the Portuguese people from mischief. By mapping the source domain (the myth of 'Dom Sebastião' as the savior of Portugal) onto the target domain (Nuno Gomes, the football player who scored the winning goal), Nuno Gomes is virtually constructed as a mythical figure, with the purposeful intention of praising his decisive performance.

In fact, most of the source domains of the metaphorical occurrences analyzed in the present study are alien to football, which stresses the deliberate dimension of metaphorical elaborations in the Portuguese football media, as shown in occurrences (1), (2) and (3) above.

Hence, inspired by Forceville (2012, p. 119-125)FORCEVILLE, C. Creativity in Pictorial and Multimodal Advertising metaphors. In: JONES, Rodney (Ed.). Discourse and Creativity. London: Longman, 2012. p. 113-133., the methodology for a comprehensive analysis of multimodal metaphor on sports newspaper covers must unveil: 1) the attributes of the depicted player or scenario; 2) the source domain of the multimodal metaphoric image, both linguistic and pictorial modes, whenever possible; 3) the target domain in both linguistic and pictorial modes, if pertinent; and 4) the motivation for mapping a source onto a target. This motivation goes well beyond the embodied nature of source domains, emphasizing their physical nature, as is the case of CMT. As will be seen below, the source domains of the multimodal metaphors in our corpus, are essentially culture-bound, in that they draw upon historical, political and religious figures, thus corroborating Forceville's argument that:

"Knowledge about source domains is not simply a matter of embodiment, however, but also of cultural connotations (...). More recent studies have demonstrated in a variety of ways how the structure of source domains - and the salient (and hence: easily mappable) elements in it - is influenced by culture (Forceville, 2009 p. 28)

Finally, it is important to add the communicative relevance of the multimodal metaphor, especially in the case of the written press, with special reference to the sports press.

Our choice to target multimodal metaphors on sports newspaper covers of A Bola is motivated by the need to pursue a multimodal analysis of the covers in comparison with the monomodal metaphors found in the very same newspaper. Special reference must be made to the conceptual metaphor FOOTBALL IS WAR, which will be deconstructed within a multimodal analysis of the newspaper covers, depicting conceptual frames with Cristiano Ronaldo. Thus, the reader is invited to construct a pictorial and linguistic mapping from a source domain to the target domain, with the purpose of praising his qualities and athletic skills as a football player.

In the present study, the corpus of pictorial/multimodal metaphors in the newspaper covers of A Bola deploys framings with Cristiano Ronaldo's face or bust, in the form of a photograph or stencil, as evidence of the conceptual metaphor FOOTBALL IS WAR intertwined with FOOTBALL IS HISTORY, FOOTBALL IS MYTH and FOOTBALL IS RELIGION. Given that he is the most prominent and talented player of the Portuguese national team, he has gained the status of national hero1 1 see Almeida; Sousa (2010) , therefore metonymically voicing national hopes and aspirations for a good result in the "upcoming2 2 Notice that these newspaper editions were published before the 2014 FIFA Football World Cup. Football World Cup in Brazil.

Figure 1
A Bola, November 16, 2013

Figure 2
A Bola, November 21, 2013

Notice that the conceptual mappings, which motivate the cover layouts' designs depicted above are strikingly creative but in reality are quite different, giving rise to multimodal metaphorical images.

In figure 1, the interplay between linguistic and visual elements is obvious: the historical "Cry of Ipiranga"3 3 In September 1822, in a great open-air assembly at Ipiranga (today a suburb of São Paulo), Dom Pedro proclaimed the independence of Brazil. Three months after this "Grito do Ipiranga" (Cry of Ipiranga) he was crowned emperor, as Dom Pedro I. and the image of Cristiano Ronaldo screaming vigorously. In fact, the picture of Ronaldo was taken while he was celebrating his goal in the first play-off match between the national teams of Sweden and Portugal. The results of both play-off matches would determine which of the national teams would participate in the forthcoming World Cup in Brazil in 2014. The war scenario is activated, because there are two opposing parties struggling against each other, both in the source domain (Brazil and Portugal) and in the target domain (the Swedish and Portuguese national teams). Hence, a conceptual mapping is established between a football match and war-like confrontations, such as the struggle for independence. Counterfactually, while the original royal "Cry of Ipiranga" signalled Brazil's independence from Portugal and the birth of an independent Brazil, Ronaldo's cry represents the joy and excitement of Portugal 'going to Brazil', given that the scored goal takes the national team one step closer towards its qualification, i.e. the re-birth of Portuguese hope in participating in the world's most important football competition, the FIFA World Cup.

The cover in figure 2 is also cunningly architectured, since it encompasses multiple metaphorical constructions based on both visual and linguistic conceptual mappings.

First, the portrait framing, along with the facial expression and the background colour, creates a significant similarity between the target and the source domains. This visual correspondence gives rise to the conceptual metaphor RONALDO IS CHE GUEVARA, anchored upon the linguistic frame "Comandante CR7", a blend of Che Guevara's4 4 "Che Guevara, by the name of Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (born June 14, 1928, Rosario, Argentina - died October 1967, Bolivia), theoretician and tactician of guerrilla warfare, prominent Communist figure in the Cuban Revolution (1956-59), and later guerrilla leader in South America. After his execution by the Bolivian army, he was regarded as a martyred hero by generations of leftists worldwide and his image became an icon of leftist radicalism and anti-imperialism." (In: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/248399/Che-Guevara) military rank and Ronaldo's brand name, deliberately highlighted in yellow, an editorial choice to draw the public's attention to Ronaldo's brand name.

Figure 3
A Bola, November 21, 2013

Figure 4
Che Guevara

This conceptual architecture resembles that presented by Forceville (1996; 2012FORCEVILLE, C. Creativity in Pictorial and Multimodal Advertising metaphors. In: JONES, Rodney (Ed.). Discourse and Creativity. London: Longman, 2012. p. 113-133.), where the portrait of a mysteriously smiling orangutan is mapped onto the portrait of the enigmatic Mona Lisa. In fact, this conceptual mapping is effectively activated by the billboard headline "MONA LISA" (Forceville, 1996:158; 2012:120FORCEVILLE, C. Creativity in Pictorial and Multimodal Advertising metaphors. In: JONES, Rodney (Ed.). Discourse and Creativity. London: Longman, 2012. p. 113-133.). Hence, the linguistic message is meant to foreground the pictorial mapping, which has resulted in a humorous advertisement promoting the Amsterdam Zoo:

"If advertisements contained only visual information, interpretation would depend very heavily on inference processes. However, they have a - usually rather limited - textual (that is: coded) component as well as a visual one. (...) Barthes (1986/1964) argues that in advertising verbal information 'anchors' visual information: the former, that is, not only helps identify elements in the latter, but also restricts the number of interpretations it might give rise to" (FORCEVILLE, 1996, p. 102).

Returning to our analysis of the sports newspaper cover design with Ronaldo as Che Guevara, it is important to focus on the fact that the cover is artfully designed to the slightest detail in order to achieve maximal coherence. In fact, Ronaldo is wearing Che Guevara's military beret, his trademark as a revolutionary leader, explicitly (re)constructing Ronaldo as the Commander of the Portuguese team, since his beret is branded with the logo of the Portuguese Football Federation.

Figure 5
Ronaldo’s beret

Figure 6
Logo of the Portuguese Football Federation

The conceptual architecturing of Ronaldo as a powerful and charismatic leader is further spawned by the representational statement "O mundo a seus pés" ("the world at his feet"6 6 "have the world at your feet: to be extremely successful and admired by a great number of people" in Cambridge Dictionaries Online at http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/the-world-at-your-feet ). Notice that the conceptual meaning of the expression 'the world at his feet' conceptualizes dominance, based on the orientational metaphors HAVING CONTROL OR FORCE IS UP, BEING SUBJECT TO CONTROL OR FORCE IS DOWN (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003JOHNSON M.; LAKOFF, G.Metaphors We Live By. Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press, 1980/2003., p. 15)7 7 Also "HIGH STATUS IS UP; LOW STATUS IS DOWN (...) Social and physical basis: Status is correlated with (social) power and (physical) power is UP." (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003, p. 16) . Ronaldo is depicted as an idol (as a figure on a pedestal) to whom people look up and revere.

Moreover, the graphic design of the texts, "Comandante CR7" and "O mundo a seus pés", has inevitably caught our attention.

Figure 7
Lettering in half circles

Laid out in half circles around Ronaldo's portrait, the lettering reminds us of honorary or commemorative inscriptions engraved either on medals or on badges. This visual effect is meant to rank Ronaldo as a figure of merit by activating both cultural/historical and mythical cognitive environments.

The cover in figure 8 below depicts the statue of Jesus Christ at the summit of Mount Corcovado, Rio de Janeiro. The Christ the Redeemer Statue8 8 "It was completed in 1931 and stands 30 meters tall, its horizontally outstretched arms spanning 28 meters. The statue sits on a square stone pedestal base about 8 meters high, which itself is situated on a deck atop the mountain's summit. In the 1850s the Vincentian priest Pedro Maria Boss suggested placing a Christian monument on Mount Corcovado to honour Isabel, princess regent of Brazil and the daughter of Emperor Pedro II, although the project was never approved. In 1921 the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro proposed that a statue of Christ be built on the 704-meter summit, which, because of its commanding height, would make it visible from anywhere in Rio. Citizens petitioned Pres. Epitácio Pessoa to allow the construction of the statue on Mount Corcovado. Permission was granted and the foundation stone of the base was ceremonially laid on April 4, 1922, to commemorate the centennial on that day of Brazil's independence from Portugal, although the monument's final design had not yet been chosen. (...) Funds were raised privately, mainly by the church. Under Silva Costa's supervision, construction began in 1926 and continued for five years. After its completion, the statue was inaugurated on October 12, 1931." (In: www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1435544/Christ-the-Redeemer) is one of the most recognizable Brazilian landmarks, but in this photomontage, it is artfully dressed up with Cristiano Ronaldo's toga-like national team shirt.

Figure 8 and 9
Magazine A Bola Mundial 2014

We cannot help but acknowledge the conceptual metaphor FOOTBALL IS RELIGION, which is one of the most productive monomodal metaphors both in the Portuguese and German sports newspaper corpora (ALMEIDA, 2011ALMEIDA, M. C. More on' forbidden-fruit blending': prying into the Portuguese Mind. In: ABRANTES, A. M.; HANENBERG, P. (Ed.). Cognition and Culture. Frankfurt/Bern: Peter Lang, 2011. p. 123-142. ). Hence, a divine aura is projected from the Christ statue onto Cristiano Ronaldo. Moreover, the Brazilian Christ, as the most prominent Brazilian religious symbol, is mapped onto Ronaldo, metonymically represented by his team shirt, endowing him with divine powers to succeed in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Following Forceville's approach, this multimodal metaphor of the verbal-pictorial variety (FORCEVILLE, 2002FORCEVILLE, C. The identification of target and source in pictorial metaphors. Journal of Pragmatics. v. 34, n. 1, p. 1-14, Jan. 2002.) becomes effective because the source domain is easily recognizable, evoking religious connotations that are mapped onto the target domain, which is equally evident. Though the visual context, which allows the reader to infer the identity of the source, is obvious, the montage itself, by placing the represented object in this unlikely context, is quite unexpected. Hence, we advocate that this metaphorical multimodal architecture was intentionally used as a powerful conceptual tool to metonymically promote Cristiano Ronaldo's success in the Brazilian World Cup. From Brandt's perspective, the blending of the source domain (in the Presentation Space) and the target domain (in the Representation Space), as previously stated of pictorial and written nature, produces a Virtual Blend (Christ the Redeemer wearing Ronaldo's team shirt), which relates to experientially grounded knowledge aspects (Relevance Space) that make the Meaningful Blend (Meaning Space) easily accessible. In other words, the intended message is quickly grasped, because the reader structures and grounds the virtual blend in his/her physical, social, cultural and, more specifically, religious experience. Moreover, one must bear in mind that the blended construction is context-sensitive, i.e. it is an intentionally motivated construction, anchored in time and space with pragmatic intentions. It is the sports newspaper's deliberate intention to artfully convey a message of praise and reinforcement.

It should also be highlighted that a new inference emerges from this graphic montage: "God is Portuguese", challenging the Brazilian saying: "Deus é Brasileiro" ("God is Brazilian"). Taking into account that the most passionate football fans proudly wear their football hero's team shirt, one can also claim that this montage might evoke Christ as Cristiano Ronaldo's fan. Anchored upon the bicoloured verbal incitement "Força Portugal" (Go Portugal), the intended message of encouragement is narrowed down to the absolute faith in Portugal's success in the 2014 World Cup.

3 Final Remarks

In the present study, our investigation ranging from monomodal to multimodal metaphors, collected from the sports newspaper A Bola, has unveiled realizations of three of the most productive conceptual metaphors, namely FOOTBALL IS WAR/HISTORY, FOOTBALL IS MYTH and FOOTBALL IS RELIGION. In fact, these metaphorical architecturings, which account for the prospective scenarios of a victorious Portuguese team, metonymically represented by Cristiano Ronaldo (in one case, he himself metonymically represented by his own team shirt), reveal some coherent constructions of mappings from the source domain of WAR/HISTORY, MYTH and RELIGION onto the target domain of FOOTBALL.

However, the construction of multimodal metaphors necessarily stems from cognitive environments familiar to the Portuguese newspaper readers, activated in covers 2 and 3 by the juxtaposed source-target pictorial assemblages, namely, Che Guevara/Cristiano Ronaldo, and Christ the Redeemer/Cristiano Ronaldo's team shirt. In a different fashion, the multimodal metaphor (cover 1) depicting Cristiano Ronaldo's joy as the "Grito do Ipiranga" ("The Cry of Ipiranga") results from a mapping involving two different modes, namely, the written mode and the visual mode, since the source domain is rendered by the headline, whereas the target domain is rendered visually.

Hence, multimodal metaphors on the cover of the sports newspaper A Bolaseem to be to some extent attuned to monomodal metaphors appearing in the very same sports newspaper (ALMEIDA, 2013ALMEIDA, M.C.; SOUSA B.Worldmaking in Rap -Predators, Fighters - Salvagers: a multimodal approach. Presentation to the International Conference: Communication to Multimodal Communication: Language, Performance and Digital Media, held on May 2, 2013 at CCB-Lisbon (to be published in future conference annals).) by resorting in the source domains to cultural framings that are clearly recognizable by the Portuguese readers. However, within multimodal metaphors, it must be emphasized that there is a vast array of source domains, such as PORTUGUESE GASTRONOMY, PORTUGUESE MUSIC, OTHER SPORTS (such as CAR RACING or HUNTING) (ALMEIDA, 2013ALMEIDA, M.C et al. Jogar futebol com as Palavras. Imagens metafóricas no jornal "A Bola". Lisboa: Colibri, 2013.; ALMEIDA, SOUSA, 2010; Monteiro, 2009MONTEIRO, A. Representações metafóricas do futebol nos media portugueses e ingleses: abordagem cognitiva, 2009. Thesis (Masters in Translation) - Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa. , p. 479 9 MONTEIRO (2009, p. 47): "Águia deixou-se caçar. Penafiel merecia sair vivo", in A Bola, October 20, 2008. )), which could not be found in the multimodal metaphors in the newspaper covers depicting Cristiano Ronaldo analysed in the present paper. Hence, further investigation is warranted to corroborate these results. Nevertheless, the fact that metaphorical mappings, both in visual and linguistic modes, are superintended by the aforementioned historical, mythical and religious frames leads us to believe that, when national (football) pride, metonymically represented by Cristiano Ronaldo, is at stake, key epic cultural references can be activated as source domains of Multimodal Metaphors on the covers of the most widely read sports newspaper - A Bola.

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  • 1
    see Almeida; Sousa (2010)
  • 2
    Notice that these newspaper editions were published before the 2014 FIFA Football World Cup.
  • 3
    In September 1822, in a great open-air assembly at Ipiranga (today a suburb of São Paulo), Dom Pedro proclaimed the independence of Brazil. Three months after this "Grito do Ipiranga" (Cry of Ipiranga) he was crowned emperor, as Dom Pedro I.
  • 4
    "Che Guevara, by the name of Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (born June 14, 1928, Rosario, Argentina - died October 1967, Bolivia), theoretician and tactician of guerrilla warfare, prominent Communist figure in the Cuban Revolution (1956-59), and later guerrilla leader in South America. After his execution by the Bolivian army, he was regarded as a martyred hero by generations of leftists worldwide and his image became an icon of leftist radicalism and anti-imperialism." (In: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/248399/Che-Guevara)
  • 5
    in http://salmanshaheen.com/hasta-siempre-che-guevara/
  • 6
    "have the world at your feet: to be extremely successful and admired by a great number of people" in Cambridge Dictionaries Online at http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/the-world-at-your-feet
  • 7
    Also "HIGH STATUS IS UP; LOW STATUS IS DOWN (...) Social and physical basis: Status is correlated with (social) power and (physical) power is UP." (Lakoff & Johnson, 2003, p. 16)
  • 8
    "It was completed in 1931 and stands 30 meters tall, its horizontally outstretched arms spanning 28 meters. The statue sits on a square stone pedestal base about 8 meters high, which itself is situated on a deck atop the mountain's summit. In the 1850s the Vincentian priest Pedro Maria Boss suggested placing a Christian monument on Mount Corcovado to honour Isabel, princess regent of Brazil and the daughter of Emperor Pedro II, although the project was never approved. In 1921 the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Rio de Janeiro proposed that a statue of Christ be built on the 704-meter summit, which, because of its commanding height, would make it visible from anywhere in Rio. Citizens petitioned Pres. Epitácio Pessoa to allow the construction of the statue on Mount Corcovado. Permission was granted and the foundation stone of the base was ceremonially laid on April 4, 1922, to commemorate the centennial on that day of Brazil's independence from Portugal, although the monument's final design had not yet been chosen. (...) Funds were raised privately, mainly by the church. Under Silva Costa's supervision, construction began in 1926 and continued for five years. After its completion, the statue was inaugurated on October 12, 1931." (In: www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1435544/Christ-the-Redeemer)
  • 9
    MONTEIRO (2009, p. 47): "Águia deixou-se caçar. Penafiel merecia sair vivo", in A Bola, October 20, 2008.

Publication Dates

  • Publication in this collection
    June 2015

History

  • Received
    29 July 2014
  • Accepted
    05 Dec 2014
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