Theoretical and empirical studies on metaphor in images: A review of the literature

Metaphor is a figure of style in which the meaning of a term is transferred to that of another term. Most often verbal, the metaphor is also depicted in images. This article offers a review of theoretical and experimental works on the pictorial metaphor. It consists of three parts: the first part is about the definition of the metaphor. The second concerns the typology of the pictorial metaphor, its composition, and its uses. Finally, the third part addresses the question of its comprehension by examining two non-exclusive approaches: an approach based on the transfer of properties and a context-based approach of the objects depicted in the image. The discussion focuses on the vivid questions about the distinction between cognitive processes involved in the understanding of the metaphor according to its pictorial nature and the transition from pictorial relationships to relations of a semantic nature.