A city of two tales: multimodal metaphorical and metonymic representation of the Olympics and the host country in two official Olympic mascot promotional videos

Abstract

Given that metaphor and metonymy can frame realities by making complex phenomena more comprehensible, their ubiquity in image construction is unsurprising. Drawing upon conceptual metaphor and metonymy, multimodality, and Conceptual Blending Theory, this study analyzes how the two official mascots’ promotional videos frame and reframe both the Olympic Games and the host country in the 2008 and 2022 Beijing Summer and Winter Olympics, respectively. At the conceptual level, both clips employ journey as the main metaphorical source domain, which is blended with metonymy through visual and sonic modes. The 2008 promotional video comprises metonyms for China and the Olympics that are well recognized by Chinese, and often also by international, viewers. In contrast, the other clip creates new metonyms for the particular theme of the 2022 Games. At the communicative level, while the 2008 promotional video highlights China’s enthusiasm for being recognized globally, the 2022 clip is intended to showcase a Chinese edition of the Winter Games powered by technology. The authors also show the importance of integrating genre, conceptual mechanism, and contextual knowledge in order to achieve a fruitful explanation of metaphor and metonymy in image construction.