Conceptual Blending Theory and Creative Meaning Construction in Pakistani Television Advertising Discourse: A Cognitive Linguistic and Multimodal Analysis

Abstract

This study examines the nature of conceptual blending and multimodal meaning construction in TV Urdu advertisements of Pakistan. Pakistani advertising constructs persuading meaning by blending language, image and culture, but existing research on Pakistani advertising has been mostly based on Critical Discourse Analysis and social semiotics; where the underlying cognitive processes of meaning, construction have not been explored. In this study, we use Conceptual Blending Theory, (Fauconnier & Turner, 2002) as the overarching theoretical framework, with support from the multimodal metaphor model of Forceville (2007) and the social semiotic approach of Kress & van Leeuwen (2007), to describe the way in which verbal and visual modes work together to create emergent, culturally specific meaning. The goal was to develop a typology of conceptual blends in selected advertisements, to investigate the use of verbal and visual modes in constructing these blends, and to examine culturally specific input space that influences meaning. The information was gathered by taking non-participant observations and digital recording of advertisements of five sources namely, PTV Home, Hum TV, Geo TV, ARY Digital and Express Entertainment. The sample size of the study was fifteen (15) advertisements which were obtained by purposive sampling. Qualitative analysis of data was carried out in the form of blend-mapping and multimodal text analysis. The study will uncover clusters of recurring combinations of familial, national, religious, and modernity-based meanings, which will illustrate the nature of culturally embedded, non-transferable meanings in Pakistani advertising discourse constructed through an integrated verbal-visual approach.