A corpus-based study of metaphors used to describe Syrian refugees in Jordanian politico-economic discourse

Abstract

This study aims to examine the metaphors used to describe Syrian refugees in Jordanian politico-economic discourse, adopting a Critical Metaphor Analysis Approach for data analysis. I compiled a specialised corpus containing political and economic articles from two daily Jordanian newspapers. The data was analysed using WordSmith Tools (Scott 2012), which is compatible with Arabic data. The data analysis reveals that several metaphors are used to describe Syrian refugees in Jordanian politico-economic discourse. The majority of metaphors employed have negative connotations in the contexts in which they are used, especially in the years 2015 and 2016 compared with 2012. The metaphors used reflect the internal struggle of Jordanians in relation to whether Syrian refugees should stay or leave. The struggle stems from deeply-entrenched Arab traditions, which make receiving guests perceived as a duty on the one hand, and the economic struggle of Jordanians living in a fragile economy, on the other.