Metaphor and Metonymy Related to the Concept of Anger in the Television Series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Abstract: This study explores uses of metaphor and metonymy related to the concept of anger in the American television series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from 2012. The theoretical framework of the study is Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The data consists of metaphors and metonymies in the verbal and the pictorial mode. The pictorial data are visual expressions of the type called pictorial runes. In both modes, the underlying conceptual metaphors are identified, and the results are then compared between modes. The main finding is that the verbal mode contains a greater variety of metaphorical expressions. Explanations suggested for differences found between modes are: different technical possibilities of the two modes; universality in the pictorial mode and language specific metaphors as well as universal ones in the verbal mode; a connection of pictorial and verbal data respectively to different genres within the series; and the different narrator roles between the two modes.