On metaphors in images
Författare
Summary, in English
Proceeding from the assumption that metaphors as well as pictures are iconic signs, the present contribution studies what happens when metaphors occur in figurative pictures. The author distinguishes between primary iconicity, the recognition of which is a condition for the categorization of an object as a sign, and secondary iconicity, which is perceived only after an object has been categorized as a sign. Figurative pictures (as opposed to droodles) are characterized by primary iconicity and metaphors by secondary iconicity. In addition to iconicity the indexicality of metaphors is discussed, which results in the distinction between modularity and contiguity as two possible relations between expression and content in a pictorial metaphor. It is shown that the process of secondary iconization in the understanding of a pictorial metaphor is triggered by its indexicality. In figurative pictures the beholder normally relates all details on the level of expression to specific details of content. However, because of the open character of secondary iconization, this does not necessarily happen in metaphors - not even in metaphors that occur in pictures.
Avdelning/ar
Publiceringsår
2003
Språk
Tyska
Sidor
25-37
Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie
Zeitschrift für Semiotik
Volym
25
Issue
1-2
Dokumenttyp
Artikel i tidskrift
Förlag
Stauffenburg Verlag
Ämne
- Languages and Literature
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt
- ISSN: 0170-6241