A multimodal cognitive analysis of visual metonymies in picture books featuring same-sex-parent families

Verbal metaphor and also metonymy have been theorized from a conceptual perspective since Lakoff and Johnson published Metaphors we live by in the 1980s. However, the final years of the twentieth century saw a new approach into non-verbal monomodal or multimodal tropes (Forceville & Urios-Aparisi, 2009). In an attempt to expand upon the theorization and communicative functions of visual metonymies, this study aims to explore the meaning potential of metonymic representations of characters in a sample of six picture books which portray same-sex-parent families. A multimodal cognitive approach has been adopted to find out whether, and if so how, metonymic representations of characters contribute to the positive portrayal and acceptance of same-sex-parent families in children’s picture books. The results reveal that monomodal visual metonymies are essentially used to introduce new characters in the story and highlight important aspects of the plot which boost the acceptance of non-traditional families.