METAPHOR AS A MECHANISM OF RESEMANTIZATION AND RECONTEXTUALIZATION OF SLOGANS IN MULTIMODAL DISCOURSE

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of metaphor as a mechanism for resemantisation and recontextualisation of slogans in multimodal discourse. Оn the corpus of illustrative material, the evolution of the company’s development has been considered. It has been revealed that slogans were initially used in their literal sense, but later, thanks to the existential framework, they acquired additional meanings. There’s a glass & a half in everyone is the key slogan of the Cadbury brand, which, like others, is characterised by metaphorisation, represented through resemantisation (change of meaning) and recontextualisation (transfer of constituents from one domain to another within a different environment).
It has been proven that the slogans “There’s goodness in everyone” and “There is a story in everyone” were created according to the same cognitive model, based on conceptual metaphors: goodness is a substance, person is a container, and more than enough equals virtue. It has been established that these conceptual metaphors form a holistic concept of the company, focusing on people and their moral values, which they are willing to share, adapting to different situations depending on specific circumstances.
The focus is on the fact that the addition of ‘in everyone’ in the more modern concept of the slogan ‘There’s a glass & a half in everyone’ serves as a kind of key that appeals to people and indicates an anthropocentric focus that shifts from the product to the person who radiates goodness and joy. This suggests that the company prioritises people and their value over sales and profit. Therefore, the new meaning does not devalue the denotative meaning, because generosity is represented not as a marketing ploy, but as a norm of behaviour that corresponds to the British humanistic model of existence. As a result, we observe a semantic shift: ingredient generosity is replaced by human generosity when Cadbury positions itself as a catalyst for latent joy and kindness, rather than their source. It has been demonstrated that the same slogan, through partial transformation, acquires new semantic nuances and functional roles.