A Contrastive Study of Person Metaphors in the Product Launches by Apple and Huawei

Tao XU, Xinye Li, Wenhui YANG

Abstract


In the dynamic landscape of global product launches, understanding the interplay of language, visuals, and cognition is essential for commercial communication. To construe the cognitive processes in the interplays, this study adopts conceptual blending theory within the framework of cognitive linguistics to analyze the person metaphors as verbal strategies employed by two leading technology companies, Apple Inc. and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., during their global product launches for mobile phones from 2020 to 2023. The authors extract speech texts from their launching presentations, and analyze metaphorical blending processes in the discourses to identify how they collaboratively construct product images and direct consumer’s cognition in the commercial promotion activities so as to delve the interrelationship between marketization of the products and launchers’ intention, which might influence consumers’ cognition of the products and purchasing actions, meanwhile providing practical insights and guidance for product promotion in the tech industry cross cultures.

Keywords


Conceptual blending theory; Person metaphor; Cognitive process; Product launches

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/13624

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