A multidisciplinary linguistic analysis of selected english and arabic political cartoons: a comparative study

Abstract EN

Political cartoons are one form of humorous images that address certain political and social issues occurring in any society.

The main objective of the current study is to investigate how political cartoons carry persuasive messages that are conveyed through images and texts (captions) accompanying them.

It also attempts to explore the various parameters that contribute to creating humor in selected American and Egyptian cartoon images.

Thus, this study deploys four theoretical frameworks: Kress and van Leeuwen's (2006) Multimodality or Visual Grammar, Martin and White's (2005) Appraisal theory, Economou's (2009) Verbal-Visual Appraisal model and Attardo's General Theory of Verbal Humor.

The American cartoons sketch the American presidential race 2020-2021, and the Egyptian cartoons discuss diverse issues such as COVID 19 and Trump's step down.

The rationale for examining political cartoons is because they are multimodal texts that make use of verbal (texts) and visual (images) semiotic resources.

The research hypothesizes that American cartoons rely more on symbolism.

It also assumes that aggressive humor is more common in political cartoons than non-aggressive humor.

The analysis revealed that all the American cartoons depict Trump as irrational, reckless, corrupt and selfish person.

They also use aggressive humor in portraying Trump.

On the contrary, the Egyptian cartoons do not mock certain political figures.

They always criticize the whole system or government in a subtle way.

For deeper investigation of evaluative meaning, further research is needed to investigate political cartoons with regard to the other categories of verbal-visual appraisal i.

e.

engagement and graduation.