Le rôle de l’image matérielle dans l’actualisation du sens métaphorique des expressions idiomatiques

Abstract

Analyzing advertisements and illustrations from newspapers, the contribution studies the relationship between physical images and linguistic images contained in idiomatic expressions serving as a slogan within the adverts examined. Starting out from the principle that images are not per se metaphorical, the article examines – from a pragmatic point of view – to which extent photographs, illustrations etc. contribute or not to the creation of a metaphorical link between the “concrete” source domain and the “abstract” target domain of the pictorial element contained in an idiomatic expression. Six different types of incidence on the possibi-lity to interpret the phraseological image metaphorically via the physical image are being discussed: illustration or intensification, opacity, neutralisation, absence of relationship, actualization of a pictorial idiom not represented textually. The study also demonstrates that the metaphorical character of an image depends on both semantic and co- and contextual factors.