Metaphor and the Social World - Volume 10, Issue 1, 2020

Abstract

This paper is part of a project begun at Portland State University that examines political polarization through metaphor analysis (Ritchie, Feliciano, & Sparks, 2018). The current study looks at two sources of discourse on immigration in the United States, each exemplifying opposing sides of the larger immigration debate. The first source is a speech by then presidential candidate Donald Trump at a campaign rally, and the second is Senator Kamala Harris’s maiden speech delivered on the Senate floor. The goal of this analysis is to investigate the way metaphors may be used in political discourse to demonstrate or create polarization between opposing sides of the debate.

Abstract

The rhetorical fabric of the recent Arab uprisings resorts to mythology and metaphoricity to elicit an ideologically-biased polarization of the popular revolts. Building on some striking resemblances the Greek myth of Persephone and the journalistic construction of the Arab revolts hold in common, this paper delves into the oblique parallelism that informs the use of seasonal metaphors to serve ideological functions. The analysis of this pragmatic aspect of metaphorical structuring elaborates on findings of a corpus study, focusing on the collocational tendencies of the Arab Spring and Arab Autumn metaphors in Tunisian and Saudi press outlets. Empirical results show that the anti-revolts agenda selects negatively valued collocates to occur with the Arab Autumn metaphor, whereas the pro-revolts ideology recruits positively-valued lexis to mirror the emancipatory journey voiced by the Arab Spring trope. The paper uses a blend of cognitive theories of metaphor with research from a critical metaphor perspective to elucidate the ideologies which motivate and guide the figurative construal of the popular uprisings in Arab journalistic discourse.

Abstract

Pregnancy loss, encompassing miscarriage, stillbirth and termination for foetal abnormality, can be considered a particularly intense and unique form of bereavement, which engenders difficult or painful emotions. When people are talking about such emotions, they have been found to make extensive use of metaphor (Semino, 2011). In this paper, we use metaphor analysis of a small corpus of interviews with individuals in England who have suffered such losses, and people who support them, to explore the nature of the bereavement. In particular, we focus on the ways in which metaphor is used to describe the experience of the loss, the effects that this loss has on people’s conceptions of themselves and their bodies, and the implications this has for recovery. We identify a number of characteristics that can lead the bereaved to conceptualise their realities in different ways, which have implications for the grieving process, the ways in which people respond to their grief, and ultimately their recovery.

Abstract

This study analyzes five political cartoons published in the Taiwan Nichinichi Shinpo (Taiwan Daily Newspaper) depicting the Musha Uprising, an indigenous rebellion against Japanese colonial rule that occurred in Taiwan in 1930. The study has produced two important findings and theoretical implications. First, two of the political cartoons deployed The Great Chain of Being multimodal metaphor, and the artist’s conceptual blending of Japanese kabuki stories with the Musha Uprising dramatically portrayed the colonizers as humans and the colonized as animals. We analyze the social and historical context to explain why these cartoons used the boar as a metaphor representing the indigenous people. Second, our results reveal paradoxical and ambivalent perspectives in the cartoons. On one hand, the metaphor of Human vs. Animal reproduced the unequal hierarchical relations between the colonizers and the colonized. On the other hand, the cartoonist also portrayed the rulers in a critical and satirical way. Finally, the research relates the content of this analysis with the post-colonial theorizing of Edward Said. In sum, the study makes a contribution to interdisciplinary research by applying metaphor theory to the analysis of political cartoons and colonial discourse, as well as revealing the hierarchical colonial thinking and racial prejudice lurking behind the metaphors.

Abstract

The conceptualization of abstract concepts is very often metaphorical, meaning that we think and talk about abstract concepts in terms of other, usually more concrete experiences. Recent research suggests that many abstract concepts are linked to bodily sensations. In two experiments, we tested a hypothesis about weight as an embodiment of difficulty. We hypothesized that participants wearing a heavy backpack would judge a psychomotor task to be more difficult than participants wearing an empty backpack. We also hypothesized that manipulation of psychomotor task difficulty would affect judgement of backpack heaviness. In line with our hypothesis, the results demonstrated that participants wearing a heavy backpack judged the task to be more difficult. The results of Experiment 2 demonstrated that, regardless of task difficulty, there was no difference in weight judgement when backpack weight was estimated on a 7-point scale. However, we found a difference in the judgement of backpack weight when participants were asked to express it in kilograms, where weight was judged to be lower by participants doing the easy task than by those doing the difficult task.

Abstract

The use of violence metaphors for cancer has been widely criticised both in academic and non-academic contexts (see Harrington, 2012; Semino et al., 2015). Whereas previous research on violence metaphors for cancer has focused on the use and functions of these metaphors by and for different stakeholder groups, no studies to date have examined the (various) arguments that are raised in public discourse that is critical of said metaphors. Applying concepts from pragma-dialectical argumentation theory (Van Eemeren & Grootendorst, 1992), this paper sets out to analyse types of argumentation occurring in critical public discussions of violence metaphors for cancer. Close argumentative analyses of actual discourse examples will be provided in order to illustrate the differences between two types of argumentation in particular, i.e. pragmatic and symptomatic argumentation.

Abstract

The rising prominence of women in politics has sparked a growing interest in comparing the language of male and female politicians. Many researchers have explored whether gender in politics has had an impact on their metaphor styles. While these studies have been oriented qualitatively and have concentrated on the two-way interaction between metaphor and gender, the possibility that metaphor and gender may interact with other additional factors is largely overlooked. This article adopts a quantitatively oriented approach complemented with textual analysis to explore potential multiple-way interactions between ‘metaphor’, ‘gender’, ‘speech section’ and ‘political role’ in political discourse. By conducting a case study of metaphor use in Hong Kong political speeches, we found evidence of gendered metaphors and their variability according to politicians’ political roles and different rhetorical sections in their speeches.

This article reviews Visual Metaphor: Structure and Process978 90 272 0151 5978 90 272 6347 6

This article reviews MetaNet978 90 272 6340 7978 90 272 6341 4

This article reviews Applying Cognitive Linguistics. Figurative Language in Use, Constructions and Typology97890272015399789027263452