Language, Cognition, and Drone Warfare: Applying Cognitive Linguistic Tools in the Critical Analysis of Drone Discourses

Abstract

This paper presents a cognitively oriented analysis of metaphorical and descriptive language, showing how an understanding of cognitive linguistics can be employed by scholars working on drone texts to enhance and support their analyses. Cognitive linguistics provides a powerful framework for understanding the conceptual structure of language, and the choices made by authors in the ways they choose to construe their experiences. Conceptual Blending Theory and Cognitive Grammar’s notion of construal are introduced as linguistic frameworks through which the ideological structures of drone discourses can be interrogated. Overall, it argues that approaches from cognitive linguistics offers valuable resources for understanding how common patterns in discourse (re)produce and resist ideological stances on drone warfare, and it provides example analyses from a range of sources to demonstrate how these particular frameworks can contribute to the analysis of language and ideology.