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Metaphor and the Social World - Online First
Online First articles are the published Version of Record, made available as soon as they are finalized and formatted. They are in general accessible to current subscribers, until they have been included in an issue, which is accessible to subscribers to the relevant volume
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Military metaphors in the discourses of the pandemic in two post-Yugoslav states
Author(s): Ksenija BogetićAvailable online: 18 September 2023More LessAbstractThe present study contributes to the growing body of work on the pandemic-time use of the war metaphor in public discourse, by focusing specifically on military metaphors in the media discourses of two post-Yugoslav, post-conflict states. Using the approach of Critical Metaphor Analysis, the paper explores the discursive realizations of the war metaphor in this context, with a particular focus on metaphor extension, metaphor entailments, and effects of earlier conflict memory on discursive use of the metaphor. The results show how metaphor entailments may vary according to the kinds of war made salient in discourse. Several forms of discursive use grounded in linking metaphorical and literal senses of war are identified, as creating specific local meanings, which in the case area observed worked to relate representations of threat to dominant instrumentalizations of historical memory and ongoing nationalist discourses. Beyond the local context, the findings are used to discuss some aspects of pandemic-time war metaphor use important both for the theorizing of adversarial metaphors in public discourse, and for more nuanced analyses of the discourses of crisis.
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The diachronic and cross-linguistic use of trade metaphors in U.S.-China governmental discourse
Author(s): Xiaojuan Tan, Alan Cienki and Bertie KaalAvailable online: 08 September 2023More LessAbstractThis article compares diachronic and cross-linguistic uses of source domains for framing the target domain of trade in governmental discourses under the presidencies of Bill Clinton, Jiang Zemin, Donald Trump, and Xi Jinping. Taking a socio-cognitive approach, we examine trade metaphor use across time periods (1993–1997 vs. 2017–2021) and languages (American English vs. Mandarin Chinese) in nationally dominant discourses. At the micro-level of trade corpora, both the quantitative and qualitative analyses show that the higher-level source domains (e.g., building) and their (re)constructed lower-level source domains (e.g., cornerstone vs. pillar) are semantic fields whose use varies with discourse contexts. The usages of the distinct lower-level source domains highlight divergent cognitive forms of trade ideologies, which are embedded in dynamic political structures; they help reveal the implicit trade relations and ideological motivations at the macro-level of trade discourse contexts. The macro-level analyses reveal that nationally dominant discourses are constructed around domestic and global interests, and that power relations are (re)constructed diachronically and challenged transnationally through dominant discursive practices.
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Choosing the dark path
Author(s): Michael D. Robinson, Roberta L. Irvin and Micheal R. WatersAvailable online: 04 August 2023More LessAbstractDark personalities are those that are malevolent and antagonistic. Underlying such tendencies may be some attraction to perceptual darkness, given that darkness has been symbolically linked to malevolence and evil throughout human history. In the present research (total N = 501), participants were asked to choose whether they prefer dark or light as abstract perceptual concepts. Preferences for darkness were non-normative as well as informative concerning interpersonal functioning. Specifically, dark-preferring individuals scored lower in agreeableness or higher in antagonism (Study 1) and they also exhibited lower levels of prosocial feeling and personality in the conduct of their daily lives (Study 2). An attraction to darkness therefore belies tendencies toward antagonism and callousness. In total, the research highlights the manner in which a simple preference judgment involving metaphor-rich stimuli can be used to gain key insights into the motivational substrates of social functioning.
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Metaphors as tools for understanding in science communication among experts and to the public
Author(s): Marthe Smedinga, Alan Cienki and Henk W. de RegtAvailable online: 04 August 2023More LessAbstractScience communication is highly important in present-day society. But mere factual information transfer does not suffice for enhancing public understanding of scientific results, theories, and concepts. In this paper we compare science communication among experts with communication from experts to laypeople, to better understand the role of metaphors in constructing understanding of abstract scientific concepts. As a case study, we analyze specialist and non-specialist scientific articles on epigenetics, the study of heritable changes in gene expression not altering DNA sequence. The results of our analysis show that there is no substantial difference between the two types of articles in frequency of metaphors and in their content. However, the function of the metaphors is different: the figurative aspect of metaphors is employed for public understanding but plays no role in specialist scientific articles. We outline the implications of these results for current philosophical debates on scientific understanding and public understanding of science: (1) metaphors are tools for rendering theoretical concepts intelligible, for both expert and lay audiences; (2) expert and public understanding differ in degree rather than in kind; (3) conveying understanding crucially involves skills: metaphors in this context do not so much add knowledge as enhance relevant conceptual reasoning abilities.
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A qualitative study of endometriosis-related pain
Author(s): Giorgia AndreolliAvailable online: 04 August 2023More LessAbstractThis paper examines the conceptualizations of endometriosis-related pain by combining Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) with a corpus-based approach. Endometriosis is a complex and multi-faceted condition, affecting one in ten people assigned female at birth and bearing serious consequences on one’s physical, social and psychological wellbeing. Especially in cases when the pain is invisible, communication resorts to violent metaphors implying harm, physical damage, or fight. These metaphors are thought to increase the likelihood of eliciting an empathetic response in the interlocutor. However, such narratives may be detrimental at the individual level (e.g., increasing pain catastrophizing) and at the community level (e.g., overshadowing the capacity of communities to construct and use metaphors in alternative ways). Therefore, this study presents an initial exploratory analysis of metaphorical source domains in descriptions of endometriosis-related pain written in online, freely accessible blogs. Metaphorical expressions were manually annotated in a sample of KWICs basing on the MIPVU procedure and thematically categorized. The adoption of a bottom-up and top-down approach within a qualitative framework allowed an empirically grounded analysis of candidate source domains, which calls for further quantitative testing.
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Interacting comparatively
Author(s): Thajbah Al-Sheroqi, Fatima Al-Thani, Mariam Alzini, Ilhem Souayah and Irene TheodoropoulouAvailable online: 15 June 2023More LessAbstractMetaphors and proverbs are an indispensable sociocultural aspect of language. In this paper, we look at the sociocultural linguistic heterogeneity codified through metaphors and proverbs among three Arabic dialects, namely the Qatari, the Palestinian, and the Tunisian ones. The corpora of metaphors and proverbs have been elicited through interviews with relatives and friends, who live in Qatar, Palestine, and Tunisia respectively. The data are analyzed in the context of cognitive metaphor theory with a focus on comparative and interactionist perspectives. With a focus on two emerging themes, namely physical appearance, and sexual orientation, we argue that the Qatari dialect seems to be more inventive in the sexual orientation theme, while the Palestinian dialect foregrounds appearance due to the importance of marriage in Palestinian society, and the Tunisian dialect shows no emphasis on a specific theme. The differences we have found in metaphors and proverbs offer a glimpse of the various social orders, symbolic meanings, and lifestyles found in the three respective cultures, which are a vital aspect of cultural literacy in the Arab world. In this sense, the study is a suggestion on how to analyze qualitatively sociocultural linguistic heterogeneity at the level of figurative language and its symbolic meanings.
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Scepticism voiced through extended metaphors
Author(s): Jurga CibulskienėAvailable online: 30 May 2023More LessAbstractWhen metaphors appear in a text in clusters within the same source domain, they are usually referred to as an extended metaphor ( Gibbs, 2015 ; Naciscione, 2016 ; Semino, 2008 ; Shutova, 2015 ; Thibodeau, 2016 ; Werth, 1994 ). This creates a coherent narrative or a scenario ( Musolff, 2016 ) encoding the evaluation of a particular socially-contested issue. The present study analyses how the evaluation of higher education reform in Lithuanian media is manifested through extended metaphor and whether negative evaluations prevail. For this investigation, a corpus of Lithuanian media texts on higher education reform was examined within the frameworks of Critical Metaphor Analysis ( Charteris-Black, 2014 ) and scenarios ( Musolff, 2016 ). The findings show that, when extended metaphors are ascribed positive, negative or mixed values and categorised into mini-narratives, leitmotif narratives and long narratives, they usually (24 out of 28) follow negatively and often death-related and ironically encoded narratives with differently twisted scenarios. This study, therefore, shows a persistent attempt by the media to evaluate the ongoing reform negatively.
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Landwhales, femoids and sub-humans
Author(s): Ksenija Bogetić, Frazer Heritage, Veronika Koller and Mark McGlashanAvailable online: 26 May 2023More LessAbstractIncels, or involuntary celibates, are a community of typically heterosexual young men who wish to, but do not, have sexual and romantic relationships with women. As a community, they have previously been characterised by their hatred for women and violent acts against members of society who they believe prevent them from having relations with women. In this paper, we highlight the pervasiveness of metaphor in incel communication, so far unaddressed in the budding studies of incel language. Specifically, using a sample of circa 22,500 words from the banned incel Reddit forum r/Braincels, we focus on how members of this community use metaphoric expressions to dehumanise gendered social actors, both as individuals and as groups. We discuss our findings against the backdrop of metaphor approaches to language, gender, and sexuality, and the relevance of dehumanising metaphorical rhetoric for online misogynist groups.
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Metaphors and metonymies in the multimodal discourse of whaling
Author(s): Yuan XiaobenAvailable online: 10 January 2023More LessAbstractMetaphors and metonymies are considered complex phenomena dependent on various factors. This paper looks at genre (as one of the many factors) to verify to what extent the subjective descriptions of a highly controversial and complex social topic such as whaling can be driven by discourse type. The whaling discourse was chosen because antiwhaling activist NGOs’ have had great success with their extensive social campaigns worldwide, while it is a highly controversial and politically charged topic. These unique features resulted in the emergence of advertising and political cartoons. By examining the similarities and differences between metaphors, metonymies, and other meaning-making tropes such as irony and hyperbole, the observed difference concerns both the intention behind the selection of source domains and a preference for favoring certain evaluative metaphorical expressions in one genre as opposed to another to have a distinct impact on its intended audience.
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Metaphors, political knowledge and the basic income debate in Belgium
Author(s): Audrey Vandeleene, François Randour, Jérémy Dodeigne, Pauline Heyvaert, Thomas Legein, Julien Perrez and Min ReuchampsAvailable online: 27 September 2022More LessAbstractThe framing impact of political discourses has long been attested for. Metaphors in particular are known to ease the understanding of complex concepts and processes. Yet, the question remains to what extent metaphors do work the same on different recipients? Based on an experimental design, we test a potentially key moderating variable in the study of political metaphors: political knowledge. Our experiment aims at determining the extent to which the confrontation of individuals to arguments and metaphors impacts their preferences regarding the implementation of a basic income in Belgium. In particular, we hypothesize that the marginal effect of metaphors as cognitive shortcuts decreases when political knowledge increases. Our findings suggest that some metaphorical frames are more successful than others, hereby supporting the idea that the aptness of the metaphorical frame is a key factor when conducting experiments. We conclude that political knowledge is an important variable when analyzing the framing effect of metaphors, especially when it goes about very low or very high levels of political knowledge. The insertion of metaphors in political discourses may easily succeed in rallying individuals behind a given cause, but this would only work if participants have a lower knowledge of politics.
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Individual differences in identifying creative metaphors from video Ads
Author(s): Molly Xie Pan and Dennis TayAvailable online: 12 August 2022More LessAbstractReliable identification of metaphors from multimodal discourse has attracted scholarly attention in recent years. However, the role of individual differences in identifying creative metaphors from video ads is underexplored from an empirical perspective. This includes the extent to which individual differences influence metaphor identification in multimodal discourse and how the individual differences result in divergent identification. Our study contributes to addressing these issues by investigating how the background of researching metaphors influences identifying creative metaphors from video ads. We compared results of creative metaphor identification from three metaphor analysts and three external annotators who were novice to metaphor research and probed into the underlying reasons for divergent identification through discussions among six annotators. Both groups of annotators applied Creative Metaphor Identification Procedure for Video Advertisements (C-MIPVA) ( Pan & Tay, 2021 ) into the same 20 Chinese video ads through a systematic process of inter-rater reliability examinations. Results from Fleiss’ Kappa and Percentage Agreement provided substantial support for reliable identification, regardless of the metaphor research background. Discussions among annotators revealed that the interplay between the individual differences in life experience and the influences of temporal and dynamic discourse lead to extra identification, different content, and missing cases of metaphors.
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