1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Pragmatics and Society
  4. Volume 17, Issue 3
  5. Article
Volume 17, Issue 3
  • ISSN 1878-9714
  • E-ISSN: 1878-9722
USD
Buy:$35.00 + Taxes

Abstract

This study investigates the evolution of protectionism metaphors in English-language media across China, the UK, and the US from 2001 to 2019. It reveals varying degrees of fundamental and incremental changes with cultural variations in the three corpora based on a refined metaphor evolution analytical model. Despite observed changes, the thematic contexts of the examined metaphors remain relatively stable within the UK, US and Chinese narratives with cultural variations and similarities. The Chinese corpus employs metaphors suggesting recurring themes that conceptualize protectionism in ‘dual roles’ and often frame China as a victim. In contrast, the UK and US corpora frame protectionism as a growing and contentious force. The consistent use of the ‘rising protectionism’ frame across three corpora suggests a shared bodily experience and global economic framework. This study contributes to metaphor theory by providing empirical insights into the diachronic metaphorical framing of protectionism from the UK, US and Chinese perspectives. It also contributes to proposing a refined analytical model for understanding metaphor evolution in global economic narratives.

© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/ps.24053.cai
2025-09-19
2026-07-19

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/ps.24053.cai
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Ahmed, Kamal
    2018 “Global Economy ‘under Threat as Tariff War Bites’.” BBC, July 5. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44711257
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Alvato, Joseph J.
    2015 “Analysing China’s English-language Media.” World Englishes34 (2): 260–77. 10.1111/weng.12137
     https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12137 [Google Scholar]
  3. Arrese, Ángel, and Alfonso Vara-Miguel
    2016 “A Comparative Study of Metaphors in Press Reporting of the Euro Crisis.” Discourse & Society27 (2): 133–55. 10.1177/0957926515611552
     https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926515611552 [Google Scholar]
  4. Azevedo, Flavio, John T. Jost, Tobias Rothmund, and Joanna Sterling
    2019 “Neoliberal Ideology and the Justification of Inequality in Capitalist Societies: Why Social and Economic Dimensions of Ideology Are Intertwined.” Journal of Social Issues75 (1): 49–88. 10.1111/josi.12310
     https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12310 [Google Scholar]
  5. Berentson-Shaw, Jess
    2018 A Matter of Fact: Talking Truth in a Post-truth World. Bridget Williams Books. 10.7810/9781988545387
     https://doi.org/10.7810/9781988545387 [Google Scholar]
  6. Bloomberg News
    Bloomberg News 2023 “External Pressures, Population Threaten China Growth, Key Official Says.” Bloomberg, March 25. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-03-25/external-pressures-population-threaten-china-growth-key-official-says
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Boers, Frank, and Murielle Demecheleer
    1995 “Travellers, Patients and Warriors in English, Dutch and French Economic Discourse.” Revue Belge de Philologie et D’histoire73 (3): 673–91. 10.3406/rbph.1995.4030
     https://doi.org/10.3406/rbph.1995.4030 [Google Scholar]
  8. Burgers, Christian
    2016 “Conceptualizing Change in Communication through Metaphor.” Journal of Communication66 (2): 250–65. 10.1111/jcom.12211
     https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12211 [Google Scholar]
  9. Burgers, Christian, Elly A. Konijn, and Gerard J. Steen
    2016 “Figurative Framing: Shaping Public Discourse through Metaphor, Hyperbole, and Irony.” Communication Theory26 (4): 410–30. 10.1111/comt.12096
     https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12096 [Google Scholar]
  10. Burgers, Christian, and Kathleen Ahrens
    2020 “Change in Metaphorical Framing: Metaphors of trade in 225 Years of State of the Union Addresses (1790–2014).” Applied Linguistics41 (2): 260–79. 10.1093/applin/amy055
     https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amy055 [Google Scholar]
  11. Byrne, Barbara M.
    2010 Structural Equation Modeling with Amos: Basic Concepts, Applications, and Programming. 2nd ed.New York: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Cai, Dongman
    2025 “Zero-sum or Win-win Game? Comparative Studies on Sports/game Metaphors and Ideological Framing in Economic News on Sino, EU and US Trade Disputes.” Review of Cognitive Linguistics23 (1): 182–207. 10.1075/rcl.00164.cai
     https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00164.cai [Google Scholar]
  13. Cai, Dongman, and Alice Deignan
    2019 “Metaphors and Evaluation in Popular Economic Discourse on Trade Wars.” InCurrent Approaches to Metaphor Analysis in Discourse, ed. byIgnasi Navarro i Ferrando, 57–78. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton. 10.1515/9783110629460‑004
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110629460-004 [Google Scholar]
  14. Cameron, Lynne, and Alice Deignan
    2006 “The Emergence of Metaphor in Discourse.” Applied Linguistics27 (4): 671–90. 10.1093/applin/aml032
     https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/aml032 [Google Scholar]
  15. Cameron, Lynne, Graham Low, and Robert Maslen
    2010 “Finding Systematicity in Metaphor Use.” InMetaphor Analysis: Research Practice in Applied Linguistics, Social Sciences and the Humanities, ed. byLynne Cameron and Robert Maslen, 116–46. London: Equinox.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Cardini, Filippo-Enrico
    2014 “Analysing English Metaphors of the Economic Crisis.” Lingue e Linguaggi111: 59–76.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Carlquist, Erik, and Joshua Phelps
    2014 “Neoliberalism.” InEncyclopedia of Critical Psychology, ed. byThomas Teo, 1231–37. New York: Springer. 10.1007/978‑1‑4614‑5583‑7_390
     https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_390 [Google Scholar]
  18. Charteris-Black, Jonathan
    2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/9780230000612
     https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230000612 [Google Scholar]
  19. 2017 “Competition Metaphors & Ideology: Life as a Race.” InThe Routledge Handbook of Language and Politics, ed. byRuth Wodak and Bernhard Forchtner, 202–17. London and New York: Routledge. 10.4324/9781315183718‑16
     https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315183718-16 [Google Scholar]
  20. Dadush, Uri
    2019 “Implications of the Escalating China-US Trade Dispute.” Bruegel, May 14. https://www.bruegel.org/blog-post/implications-escalating-china-us-trade-dispute
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Dagnino, Giovanni Battista, and Anna Minà
    2021 “Unraveling the Philosophical Foundations of Co-opetition Strategy.” Management and Organization Review17 (3): 490–523. 10.1017/mor.2020.68
     https://doi.org/10.1017/mor.2020.68 [Google Scholar]
  22. Damstra, Alyt, and Rens Vliegenthart
    2018 “(Un)covering the Economic Crisis? Over-Time and Inter-media Differences in Salience and Framing.” Journalism Studies19 (7): 983–1003. 10.1080/1461670X.2016.1246377
     https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2016.1246377 [Google Scholar]
  23. De Landtsheer, Christ’l De
    2015 “Media Rhetoric Plays the Market: the Logic and Power of Metaphors behind the Financial Crisis Since 2006.” Metaphor and the Social World5 (2): 205–22. 10.1075/msw.5.2.02del
     https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.5.2.02del [Google Scholar]
  24. Dunning, Ted
    1993 “Accurate Methods for the Statistics of Surprise and Coincidence.” Computational Linguistics19 (1): 61–74.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Eubanks, Philip
    2000 A War of Words in the Discourse of Trade: the Rhetorical Constitution of Metaphor. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Fillmore, Charles J.
    1976 “Frame Semantics and the Nature of Language.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences280 (1): 20–32. 10.1111/j.1749‑6632.1976.tb25467.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1976.tb25467.x [Google Scholar]
  27. Geiß, Stefan
    2022 “The Agenda-setting-effects of News Factor Exposure: A Field Study Comparing the Transmission Paths and Impact of Issue Exposure and News Factor Exposure.” Sage Open12 (2): 1–15. 10.1177/21582440221091259
     https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440221091259 [Google Scholar]
  28. Goatly, Andrew
    2011 The Language of Metaphors. 2nd ed.London and New York: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Hair, Joseph F., William C. Black, Barry J. Babin, and Rolph E. Anderson
    2010 Multivariate Data Analysis: A Global Perspective. 7th ed.Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Halliday, M. A. K.
    1994 An Introduction to Functional Grammar. 2nd ed.London: Edward Arnold.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Hodge, Bob
    2017 Social Semiotics for a Complex World: Analysing Language and Social Meaning. Cambridge: Polity Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Jiang, Xinyan
    2013 “Chinese Dialectical Thinking — the Yin Yang Model.” Philosophy Compass8 (5): 438–46. 10.1111/phc3.12035
     https://doi.org/10.1111/phc3.12035 [Google Scholar]
  33. Kiernan, Paul
    2019 “Officials View Trade Uncertainty as Biggest Global Economic Risk.” Wall Street Journal, Oct 19. https://www.wsj.com/articles/officials-view-trade-uncertainty-as-biggest-global-economic-risk-11571497200
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Kilgarriff, Adam, Vít Baisa, Jan Bušta, Miloš Jakubíček, Vojtěch Kovář, Jan Michelfeit, Pavel Rychlý, and Vít Suchomel
    2014 “The Sketch Engine: Ten Years On.” Lexicography1 (1): 7–36. 10.1007/s40607‑014‑0009‑9
     https://doi.org/10.1007/s40607-014-0009-9 [Google Scholar]
  35. Koller, Veronika
    2004 Metaphor and Gender in Business Media Discourse A Critical Cognitive Study. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/9780230511286
     https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230511286 [Google Scholar]
  36. Kövecses, Zoltán
    2005 Metaphor in Culture: Universality and Variation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511614408
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511614408 [Google Scholar]
  37. 2015 Where Metaphors Come From: Reconsidering Context in Metaphor. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190224868.001.0001
     https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190224868.001.0001 [Google Scholar]
  38. Landis, J Richard, and Gary G. Koch
    1977 “An Application of Hierarchical Kappa-type Statistics in the Assessment of Majority Agreement among Multiple Observers.” Biometrics33 (2): 363–74. 10.2307/2529786
     https://doi.org/10.2307/2529786 [Google Scholar]
  39. Lee, Yueh-Ting, Honggang Yang, and Min Wang
    2009 “Daoist Harmony as a Chinese Philosophy and Psychology.” Peace and Conflict Studies16 (1): 68–81. 10.46743/1082‑7307/2009.1103
     https://doi.org/10.46743/1082-7307/2009.1103 [Google Scholar]
  40. Liu, Ming
    2015 “Scapegoat or Manipulated Victim? Metaphorical Representations of the Sino-US Currency Dispute in Chinese and American Financial News.” Text & Talk35 (3): 337–57.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Ljung, G. M., and G. E. P. Box
    1978 “On a Measure of a Lack of Fit in Time Series Models.” Biometrika65 (2): 297–303. 10.1093/biomet/65.2.297
     https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/65.2.297 [Google Scholar]
  42. Loda, Teresa, Rebecca Erschens, Christoph Nikendei, Katrin Giel, Florian Junne, Stephan Zipfel, and Anne Herrmann-Werner
    2020 “A Novel Instrument of Cognitive and Social Congruence within Peer-assisted Learning in Medical Training: Construction of a Questionnaire by Factor Analyses.” BMC Medical Education201: 1–8. 10.1186/s12909‑020‑02129‑x
     https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-020-02129-x [Google Scholar]
  43. López, Ana María Rojo, and María Ángeles Orts Llopis
    2010 “Metaphorical Pattern Analysis in Financial Texts: Framing the Crisis in Positive or Negative Metaphorical Terms.” Journal of Pragmatics42 (12): 3300–13. 10.1016/j.pragma.2010.06.001
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.06.001 [Google Scholar]
  44. Musolff, Andreas
    2006 “Metaphor Scenarios in Public Discourse.” Metaphor and Symbol21 (1): 23–38. 10.1207/s15327868ms2101_2
     https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327868ms2101_2 [Google Scholar]
  45. Oliynyk, Natalya, and Iryna Shevchenko
    2016 “Conceptualisation of Economic Crisis in Discourse: from the Great Depression to the Great Recession.” Advanced Education61: 76–81. 10.20535/2410‑8286.78867
     https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.78867 [Google Scholar]
  46. Pae, Hye K.
    2020 Script Effects as the Hidden Drive of the Mind, Cognition, and Culture. Springer. 10.1007/978‑3‑030‑55152‑0
     https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55152-0 [Google Scholar]
  47. Petricevic, Olga, and David J. Teece
    2019 “The Structural Reshaping of Globalization: Implications for Strategic Sectors, Profiting from Innovation, and the Multinational Enterprise.” Journal of International Business Studies501: 1487–1512. 10.1057/s41267‑019‑00269‑x
     https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-019-00269-x [Google Scholar]
  48. Pragglejaz Group
    Pragglejaz Group 2007 “MIP: A Method for Identifying Metaphorically Used Words in Discourse.” Metaphor and Symbol22 (1): 1–39. 10.1080/10926480709336752
     https://doi.org/10.1080/10926480709336752 [Google Scholar]
  49. Quinn, Naomi, and Dorothy Holland
    1987 “Culture and Cognition.” InCultural Models in Language and Thought, ed. byDorothy Holland and Naomi Quinn, 3–40. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511607660.002
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511607660.002 [Google Scholar]
  50. Sardinha, Tony B.
    2012 “Metaphors of the Brazilian Economy from 1964 to 2010.” InMetaphor and Mills: Figurative Language in Business and Economics, ed. byHonesto Herrera-Soler and Michael White, 103–26. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. 10.1515/9783110274585.103
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110274585.103 [Google Scholar]
  51. Scheufele, Dietram A., and David Tewksbury
    2007 “Framing, Agenda Setting, and Priming: The Evolution of Three Media Effects Models.” Journal of Communication57 (1): 9–20. 10.1111/j.0021‑9916.2007.00326.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0021-9916.2007.00326.x [Google Scholar]
  52. Semino, Elena
    2002 “A Sturdy Baby or a Derailing Train? Metaphorical Representations of the Euro in British and Italian Newspapers.” Text: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Discourse22 (1):107–39.
     [Google Scholar]
  53. 2008 Metaphor in Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  54. Semino, Elena, Zsófia Demjén, and Jane Demmen
    2018 “An Integrated Approach to Metaphor and Framing in Cognition, Discourse, and Practice, with an Application to Metaphors for Cancer.” Applied Linguistics39 (5): 625–45.
     [Google Scholar]
  55. Tan, Xiaojuan, Alan Cienki, and Bertie Kaal
    2024 “The Diachronic and Cross-linguistic Use of Trade Metaphors in U.S.-China Governmental Discourse A Socio-cognitive Approach.” Metaphor and the Social World14 (1): 130–53. 10.1075/msw.23004.tan
     https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.23004.tan [Google Scholar]
  56. Van Dijk, Teun A.
    2009 “News, Discourse, and Ideology.” InThe Handbook of Journalism Studies, ed. byKarin Wahl-Jorgensen and Thomas Hanitzsch, 191–204. New York and London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  57. Xie, Qiuyuan, and Daniel Fu Keung Wong
    2020 “Culturally Sensitive Conceptualization of Resilience: A Multidimensional Model of Chinese Resilience.” Transcultural Psychiatry58 (3): 323–34. 10.1177/1363461520951306
     https://doi.org/10.1177/1363461520951306 [Google Scholar]
  58. Xu, Yiqing, and Jiannan Zhao
    2023 “The Power of History: How a Victimization Narrative Shapes National Identity and Public Opinion in China.” Research & Politics10 (2): 1–9. 10.1177/20531680231154837
     https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680231154837 [Google Scholar]
  59. Zeng, Winnie Huiheng, Christian Burgers, and Kathleen Ahrens
    2021 “Framing Metaphor Use over Time: ‘Free Economy’ Metaphors in Hong Kong Political Discourse (1997– 2017).” Lingua2521: 1–16. 10.1016/j.lingua.2020.102955
     https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2020.102955 [Google Scholar]
  60. Zhu, Lili
    2022 “Framing the Political Conflict Discourse in Chinese Media: A Case Study of Sino-US Trade Dispute.” Journal of Language and Politics21 (6): 867–89. 10.1075/jlp.21005.zhu
     https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.21005.zhu [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/ps.24053.cai
Loading
The evolution of protectionism metaphors in English-language media
Pragmatics and Society 17, 356 (2026); https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.24053.cai
/content/journals/10.1075/ps.24053.cai
/content/journals/10.1075/ps.24053.cai
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): diachronic studies; fundamental and incremental changes; metaphorical framing; protectionism; systematic metaphors

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error