The Study of Metaphoric Advertisements in Some Iranian Family Journals Based on Conceptual Blending

Abstract

Over the last years, some studies have been done about the role of metaphor in advertisements. But a few of them have studied it based on Conceptual Blending (CB). Accordingly, the present study is an attempt, first, to study metaphor from the standpoint of conceptual blending theory and second, to divide the metaphoric advertisements according to the network divisions: simplex networks, mirror networks, single-scope networks, and double-scope networks, as presented in this theory. To accomplish this purpose, 5 metaphoric advertisements were chosen from some Iranian family journals. The research results show that previous theories of metaphor, namely Interaction Theory and Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), cannot explain metaphoric advertisements completely. They also indicate that different networks are used in metaphoric advertisements, thus conceptual blending is the best theory that can provide a more complete explanation for metaphoric advertisements.