Analysis of Baby-Boom Promoting Billboards in Iran
301prominent role of political ideology and social-cultural context in the
creation of the figurative meanings. The negative attitude toward western
lifestyle is the major reflection of political ideology in the conceptualizations
of the population increase plan. Recycling the notion of ‘housewife’, as a
social role for women, and the widespread application of core values of
Iranian culture concerning family life and religious beliefs explicitly
indicate the influence of these contextual categories. A number of cultural-
religious interests and concerns, such as the ideal age for marriage, the
preference to have boys, social bans (the ban on women’s bicycling in
public), Islamic dress codes, and the appropriate age difference between
children are visually represented in the billboards and contribute to the
formation of the particular meanings intended by the billboard designers.
Family planning is the dominant previous discourse with respect to which
both negative and positive conceptualizations are constructed. Compared
with Forceville’s (1996) account of context in multimodal metaphors,
which consists of immediate physical, anthropological and cultural context
(p. 130), Kövecses’ theory might be more privileged by including
‘conceptual-cognitive’ category as an influential factor. The research
shows the omnipresent role of cultural conceptual frames in all instances
of figurative conceptualizations. Furthermore, it is indicated that
entrenched conventional conceptual metaphors (GOD IS THE NOURISHER /
GOD IS THE OMNISCIENT) and metonymies (social stereotypes about
western culture motivated by the SALIENT PROPERTIES FOR CATEGORY
metonymy) play a role in creating the figurative meanings, which come to
support Kövecses’ suggestion.
Conclusion
This paper deals with the role of contextual factors involved in the
conceptualization of figurative meaning in the political discourse and
billboards of population increase plan in Iran based on Kövecses’ (2015)
account of metaphor in context. Data analysis indicates that the Iranian top
officials and the billboard designers make use of conceptual metaphor and
metonymy to persuade Iranian couples to procreate. Encouraging families
is pursued by highlighting the negative consequences of family planning
via BELIEF IN FAMILY PLANNING IS DISEASE/AN AGED SOCIETY IS A
DISEASED BODY metaphors and the RESULT FOR ACTION metonymy.
Children, as the main target reference of the political statements and the
billboards are positively conceptualized through CHILDREN ARE FLOWERS
and SIBLINGS ARE GIFTS metaphors. Moreover, certain contextual elements
such as political ideology, social roles, key cultural-religious concepts, and