Power and gender

Abstract

This study investigates metaphors used in mergers and acquisitions texts in a Chinese financial newspaper, The 21st Century Business Herald. Based on corpus data, we approach the rhetorical motive and persuasive power hidden behind metaphors from the perspective of rhetorical criticism. The study found four major metaphors: war, marriage, struggle and hunting, and game, in the financial texts about mergers and acquisitions. The war metaphor is the most common variety, followed by the marriage metaphor, suggesting the role of power perception and gender perception in the representation of financial affairs.