Pub Date : 2022-10-02DOI: 10.1080/10926488.2021.2006044
Oluwabunmi O. Oyebode, F. Unuabonah
ABSTRACT This paper examines the forms and functions of religious Internet memes that relate to Covid-19, with a view to identifying the conceptual metaphors that underlie the creation of the memes. The data, which consist of thirty religious Internet memes shared in the Nigerian WhatsApp space, are analyzed qualitatively using the categorization of religious Internet memes, and the concept of multimodal metaphors. The memes contain (non-)linguistic metaphors such as the picture of Biblical Noah’s ark and expressions such as Noah’s family was on lockdown, which reveal underlying conceptual metaphors such as LOCKDOWN IS A GODLY INSTRUCTION and COVID-19 IS A WAR. The memes are used to allay the fears of people in the face of the disease, and encourage adherence to lockdown orders, amongst others. The study concludes that the forms and functions of these religious memes assist in revealing the multimodal conceptual metaphors underlying the memes.
{"title":"“Noah’s Family Was on Lockdown”: Multimodal Metaphors in Religious Coronavirus-Related Internet Memes in the Nigerian WhatsApp Space","authors":"Oluwabunmi O. Oyebode, F. Unuabonah","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2021.2006044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2021.2006044","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper examines the forms and functions of religious Internet memes that relate to Covid-19, with a view to identifying the conceptual metaphors that underlie the creation of the memes. The data, which consist of thirty religious Internet memes shared in the Nigerian WhatsApp space, are analyzed qualitatively using the categorization of religious Internet memes, and the concept of multimodal metaphors. The memes contain (non-)linguistic metaphors such as the picture of Biblical Noah’s ark and expressions such as Noah’s family was on lockdown, which reveal underlying conceptual metaphors such as LOCKDOWN IS A GODLY INSTRUCTION and COVID-19 IS A WAR. The memes are used to allay the fears of people in the face of the disease, and encourage adherence to lockdown orders, amongst others. The study concludes that the forms and functions of these religious memes assist in revealing the multimodal conceptual metaphors underlying the memes.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":"37 1","pages":"287 - 302"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43819020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-02DOI: 10.1080/10926488.2021.2006045
Kalina Moskaluk, J. Zlatev, Joost van de Weijer
ABSTRACT Would metaphors used in the context of psychotherapy by people who experience various forms of anxiety disorders differ from those used by people who experience stress? We investigated this question with the help of the Motivation & Sedimentation Model (MSM), a theory of meaning-making developed within the synthetic new discipline of cognitive semiotics. The analysis of a sample of ten transcripts of psychotherapy sessions concerning the topic of anxiety, and a comparable sample concerning stress, showed a significantly stronger proportion of conventionalized metaphors in the stress sample, and a marginally significant difference in the number of innovative metaphors in the anxiety sample. These results suggest that lived experience of an anxiety disorder or another form of maladaptive anxiety affects metaphorical meaning-making, and manifests itself in spontaneous metaphor use. Furthermore, as a result of the conceptual and the empirical investigations of the topic, we propose novel theoretical and operational definitions of the notion of metaphoricity.
{"title":"“Dizziness of Freedom”: Anxiety Disorders and Metaphorical Meaning-making","authors":"Kalina Moskaluk, J. Zlatev, Joost van de Weijer","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2021.2006045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2021.2006045","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Would metaphors used in the context of psychotherapy by people who experience various forms of anxiety disorders differ from those used by people who experience stress? We investigated this question with the help of the Motivation & Sedimentation Model (MSM), a theory of meaning-making developed within the synthetic new discipline of cognitive semiotics. The analysis of a sample of ten transcripts of psychotherapy sessions concerning the topic of anxiety, and a comparable sample concerning stress, showed a significantly stronger proportion of conventionalized metaphors in the stress sample, and a marginally significant difference in the number of innovative metaphors in the anxiety sample. These results suggest that lived experience of an anxiety disorder or another form of maladaptive anxiety affects metaphorical meaning-making, and manifests itself in spontaneous metaphor use. Furthermore, as a result of the conceptual and the empirical investigations of the topic, we propose novel theoretical and operational definitions of the notion of metaphoricity.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":"37 1","pages":"303 - 322"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41871227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-02DOI: 10.1080/10926488.2022.2091443
B. Giustolisi, L. Mantovan, F. Panzeri
ABSTRACT In a previous study, our research group investigated the expression of irony in Italian Sign Language (LIS) and suggested that specific manual and non-manual markers signaled the signer’s meaning and attitude. The present research aimed at expanding those findings by analyzing whether these markers are used in irony recognition and whether they are language-specific. We designed an experiment in which we compared recognition of ironic remarks out of context considering three groups of Italians: Deaf signers, hearing signers, and hearing non-signers. Our aim was to verify whether the manual and non-manual markers we associated with the expression of irony in LIS constitute a reliable cue to detect irony and whether these cues were accessible to signers more than to non-signers sharing the same cultural background. Although the ironic intent in LIS was accessible also to hearing non-signers, we found, among hearing participants, that knowledge of LIS does improve accuracy in recognizing ironic remarks in LIS. This suggests that signers’ facial expressions and bodily movements do not solve a purely affective function, but are grammaticalized, at least to some degree.
{"title":"The Roles of Manual and non-manual Cues in Recognizing Irony in Italian Sign Language","authors":"B. Giustolisi, L. Mantovan, F. Panzeri","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2022.2091443","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2022.2091443","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In a previous study, our research group investigated the expression of irony in Italian Sign Language (LIS) and suggested that specific manual and non-manual markers signaled the signer’s meaning and attitude. The present research aimed at expanding those findings by analyzing whether these markers are used in irony recognition and whether they are language-specific. We designed an experiment in which we compared recognition of ironic remarks out of context considering three groups of Italians: Deaf signers, hearing signers, and hearing non-signers. Our aim was to verify whether the manual and non-manual markers we associated with the expression of irony in LIS constitute a reliable cue to detect irony and whether these cues were accessible to signers more than to non-signers sharing the same cultural background. Although the ironic intent in LIS was accessible also to hearing non-signers, we found, among hearing participants, that knowledge of LIS does improve accuracy in recognizing ironic remarks in LIS. This suggests that signers’ facial expressions and bodily movements do not solve a purely affective function, but are grammaticalized, at least to some degree.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":"37 1","pages":"323 - 336"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45549914","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-02DOI: 10.1080/10926488.2022.2091445
E. Diniz, Paula Castro, S. Bernardes
ABSTRACT Metaphors are central in communication and sense-making processes in health-related contexts. Yet how the metaphors used by health-care-professionals to make sense of their patients and their relations to them are associated to the perceived valence of their clinical encounters is underexplored. Drawing-upon the ABC Model of Dehumanization, this study investigated how the humanizing or dehumanizing metaphors nurses’ use for making sense of their pain patients are associated with how they perceived their relationships with them. Fifty female nurses undertook individual narrative-episodic interviews about easy/difficult cases in pain care. A content analysis classified the metaphors, identifying eight classes reflecting different types of patients (de)humanization. A multiple correspondence analysis extracted patterns of metaphors and their association with the perceived characteristics of the patient-nurse relationship. It showed how these patterns were not associated with patient sex or socioeconomic status (SES) but were related to the perceived valence of the clinical relationship. By uncovering how patient metaphors guide nurses’ sense-making and potentially modulate interactions in clinical encounters, these findings may contribute to improve quality of pain care.
{"title":"(De)humanizing Metaphors of People in Pain and Their Association with the Perceived Quality of nurse-patient Relationship","authors":"E. Diniz, Paula Castro, S. Bernardes","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2022.2091445","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2022.2091445","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Metaphors are central in communication and sense-making processes in health-related contexts. Yet how the metaphors used by health-care-professionals to make sense of their patients and their relations to them are associated to the perceived valence of their clinical encounters is underexplored. Drawing-upon the ABC Model of Dehumanization, this study investigated how the humanizing or dehumanizing metaphors nurses’ use for making sense of their pain patients are associated with how they perceived their relationships with them. Fifty female nurses undertook individual narrative-episodic interviews about easy/difficult cases in pain care. A content analysis classified the metaphors, identifying eight classes reflecting different types of patients (de)humanization. A multiple correspondence analysis extracted patterns of metaphors and their association with the perceived characteristics of the patient-nurse relationship. It showed how these patterns were not associated with patient sex or socioeconomic status (SES) but were related to the perceived valence of the clinical relationship. By uncovering how patient metaphors guide nurses’ sense-making and potentially modulate interactions in clinical encounters, these findings may contribute to improve quality of pain care.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":"37 1","pages":"337 - 353"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45789171","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10926488.2021.1973869
T. W. Jensen
ABSTRACT This paper investigates an unexplored indexical dimension inherent in the mapping structure of metaphor. The empirical focus is on the metaphor of stain but the scope of indexicality in relation to metaphor might be on a more general level. Based on analyses of a political statement as well as transcripts from a therapy session it is argued that previous accounts on the stain metaphor within CMT are insufficient and only covers parts of the cognitive structures and social aspects of the metaphor. Hitherto, the stain metaphor has been analyzed as part of a larger framework on moral reasoning related to the conceptual metaphors GOOD IS CLEAN, BAD IS DIRTY. This cognitive schema relies on a dichotomy between clean and dirty objects claiming that we understand and experience unmoral, or socially unacceptable behaviors in terms of (interaction with) dirty or filthy objects. However, the analyses in this paper clarify that this account only addresses one dimensions of stains, that is, their tendency to be perceived as dirt, and thereby misses their status as traces or signs. Thus, the accounts offered by CMT miss the fundamental indexical constraints of the stain expression. The source domain of physical stains is in itself constrained by a relation of contiguity (spatiotemporal proximity and association) between the stain and the actions leading to the stain. Thus, in a single expression, the stain metaphor indicates temporal and causal relations in an easily accessible way. Further, the figurative use of “stain” can also be captured as a EFFECT FOR CAUSE metonymy allowing for an intuitive sense of causal relations as well. The central claim of the paper is that metaphor research needs to pay closer attention the kinds of perception of reality that metaphors make possible in-and-through their indexical constraint.
{"title":"The Indexical Affordance of Metaphor: Stain as a Case Example","authors":"T. W. Jensen","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2021.1973869","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2021.1973869","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper investigates an unexplored indexical dimension inherent in the mapping structure of metaphor. The empirical focus is on the metaphor of stain but the scope of indexicality in relation to metaphor might be on a more general level. Based on analyses of a political statement as well as transcripts from a therapy session it is argued that previous accounts on the stain metaphor within CMT are insufficient and only covers parts of the cognitive structures and social aspects of the metaphor. Hitherto, the stain metaphor has been analyzed as part of a larger framework on moral reasoning related to the conceptual metaphors GOOD IS CLEAN, BAD IS DIRTY. This cognitive schema relies on a dichotomy between clean and dirty objects claiming that we understand and experience unmoral, or socially unacceptable behaviors in terms of (interaction with) dirty or filthy objects. However, the analyses in this paper clarify that this account only addresses one dimensions of stains, that is, their tendency to be perceived as dirt, and thereby misses their status as traces or signs. Thus, the accounts offered by CMT miss the fundamental indexical constraints of the stain expression. The source domain of physical stains is in itself constrained by a relation of contiguity (spatiotemporal proximity and association) between the stain and the actions leading to the stain. Thus, in a single expression, the stain metaphor indicates temporal and causal relations in an easily accessible way. Further, the figurative use of “stain” can also be captured as a EFFECT FOR CAUSE metonymy allowing for an intuitive sense of causal relations as well. The central claim of the paper is that metaphor research needs to pay closer attention the kinds of perception of reality that metaphors make possible in-and-through their indexical constraint.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":"37 1","pages":"208 - 228"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42023857","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-03DOI: 10.1080/10926488.2021.1973870
M. S. Peña Cervel
ABSTRACT This paper is a qualitative usage-based treatment of merism from a cognitive-linguistic perspective. Considered a minor or non-basic figure of speech, especially if compared to the master tropes, metaphor and metonymy, merism is approached here as a figure of speech whose complexity has been largely and unfairly underestimated. We provide a principled account of the relationship of merism with metonymy starting off from the well-known assumption that merism is a particular kind of synecdoche. The notion of merism is delimited and used in its etymological sense, which serves as a starting point for a two-fold classification of this figurative use into contrast-based merism and merism in which contrast plays no role (bare merism). We also explore the constructions which might trigger meristic uses and the characteristics of the terms involved in meristic binomials and trinomials which make them readily available for fusion into specific syntactic patterns like “X and Y,” “both X and Y,” “X and Y alike,” “X as well as Y,” and “X, Y, and Z.”
{"title":"For Better, for Worse, for Richer, for Poorer, in Sickness and in Health: A Cognitive-Linguistic Approach to Merism","authors":"M. S. Peña Cervel","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2021.1973870","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2021.1973870","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This paper is a qualitative usage-based treatment of merism from a cognitive-linguistic perspective. Considered a minor or non-basic figure of speech, especially if compared to the master tropes, metaphor and metonymy, merism is approached here as a figure of speech whose complexity has been largely and unfairly underestimated. We provide a principled account of the relationship of merism with metonymy starting off from the well-known assumption that merism is a particular kind of synecdoche. The notion of merism is delimited and used in its etymological sense, which serves as a starting point for a two-fold classification of this figurative use into contrast-based merism and merism in which contrast plays no role (bare merism). We also explore the constructions which might trigger meristic uses and the characteristics of the terms involved in meristic binomials and trinomials which make them readily available for fusion into specific syntactic patterns like “X and Y,” “both X and Y,” “X and Y alike,” “X as well as Y,” and “X, Y, and Z.”","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":"37 1","pages":"229 - 251"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44887552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-27DOI: 10.1080/10926488.2021.1973868
Thomas Van Hoey
ABSTRACT People often use memes to express their ideological stance on real world events. This study departs from a recent COVID-19-related meme which makes use of elements known from the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA) and Avatar: Legend of Korra (LOK), and asks how it came to be and how stance is conveyed through them. After acknowledging the impact of the series, conceptual blending theory is adopted to investigate the worldbuilding of the macrocosm in ATLA. This is identified as a correlative network, which acts as the blended space of multiple input spaces consisting of intertextual references. The world of ATLA then functions as a new input space which is updated with modern elements, resulting in the blend of LOK. Minor blends are identified in the hybrid animals that occupy the fictional world. Lastly, it is shown how the selection of a particular input element for participation in meme blends already conveys an ideological stance, rather than only emerging through readers’ eyes.
{"title":"The Blending of Bending: How We Engage with the World of Avatar: The Last Airbender through Memes","authors":"Thomas Van Hoey","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2021.1973868","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2021.1973868","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT People often use memes to express their ideological stance on real world events. This study departs from a recent COVID-19-related meme which makes use of elements known from the animated television series Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA) and Avatar: Legend of Korra (LOK), and asks how it came to be and how stance is conveyed through them. After acknowledging the impact of the series, conceptual blending theory is adopted to investigate the worldbuilding of the macrocosm in ATLA. This is identified as a correlative network, which acts as the blended space of multiple input spaces consisting of intertextual references. The world of ATLA then functions as a new input space which is updated with modern elements, resulting in the blend of LOK. Minor blends are identified in the hybrid animals that occupy the fictional world. Lastly, it is shown how the selection of a particular input element for participation in meme blends already conveys an ideological stance, rather than only emerging through readers’ eyes.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":"37 1","pages":"185 - 207"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43271107","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-27DOI: 10.1080/10926488.2021.1973871
M. D. Porto
ABSTRACT In 2015 and 2016, European newspapers covered the Syrian migration into Europe in great detail, describing the path followed by millions of refugees as European authorities put up both physical and metaphorical obstacles to stop their advance. Water metaphors, a common resource in immigration discourse, were extensively used in the media during this period. Apparently neutral, expressions like the flow of refugees or a new wave of immigrants seemed to be devoid of ideological bias, and so an objective, factual way to present the news about it. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the contexts in which water metaphors were used in two ideologically opposed Spanish newspapers in this period. Results show that their descriptive function was surpassed by the evaluative one, as revealed by the high frequency of force dynamic schemas underlying the flow metaphor, the most frequent one in the sample. Negatively charged, the frequent use of flow to refer to Syrian refugees could have affected public opinion on the event. Also, a contrastive analysis suggests that there are subtle differences between the right and the left wing when using these metaphors, but they are not as significant as expected, since both newspapers tend to avoid overt negativity in their discourse on Syrian migration. Considering the relatively small size of the sample, further work needs to be done to confirm these results in the Spanish press and also to extend the analysis to other European media.
{"title":"Water Metaphors and Evaluation of Syrian Migration: The Flow of Refugees in the Spanish Press","authors":"M. D. Porto","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2021.1973871","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2021.1973871","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In 2015 and 2016, European newspapers covered the Syrian migration into Europe in great detail, describing the path followed by millions of refugees as European authorities put up both physical and metaphorical obstacles to stop their advance. Water metaphors, a common resource in immigration discourse, were extensively used in the media during this period. Apparently neutral, expressions like the flow of refugees or a new wave of immigrants seemed to be devoid of ideological bias, and so an objective, factual way to present the news about it. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the contexts in which water metaphors were used in two ideologically opposed Spanish newspapers in this period. Results show that their descriptive function was surpassed by the evaluative one, as revealed by the high frequency of force dynamic schemas underlying the flow metaphor, the most frequent one in the sample. Negatively charged, the frequent use of flow to refer to Syrian refugees could have affected public opinion on the event. Also, a contrastive analysis suggests that there are subtle differences between the right and the left wing when using these metaphors, but they are not as significant as expected, since both newspapers tend to avoid overt negativity in their discourse on Syrian migration. Considering the relatively small size of the sample, further work needs to be done to confirm these results in the Spanish press and also to extend the analysis to other European media.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":"37 1","pages":"252 - 267"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-06-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46242619","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-31DOI: 10.1080/10926488.2021.1932505
A. Musolff
ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic tempted some governments to promise to wage “war” against it and implement “world-beating” control mechanisms. In view of their limited success, such claims soon came in for massive criticism, which turned their hyperbolic implicatures and figurative framing against them. Our paper focuses on such cases of “metaphor reversal” within the context of the British public debate. Drawing on examples from a corpus of media texts, we identify several types of the dissociation, including irony (i.e., putting the figurative claims’ implicatures in doubt implicitly), sarcasm (i.e., explicitly decrying their plausibility) and satire (i.e., exhibiting their presumed absurdity), with reference to theory models of irony (echo, pretense, mental space structuring). In conclusion, we argue that the seesaw of exchanges between exaggerated figurative claims of (imminent) success made by government politicians and their sarcastic-satirical debunking by media and opposition politicians has an ambivalent effect on public discourse. On the one hand, it highlights contrasts in policy and policy assessment and may also have entertainment value, but on the other hand, it conveys experiences of repeated, serial exposure of hyperbolic government rhetoric. This in turn may lead to an erosion of trust in official communication as being unrealistic, which may foster beliefs in conspiracy theories.
{"title":"“World-beating” Pandemic Responses: Ironical, Sarcastic, and Satirical Use of War and Competition Metaphors in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic","authors":"A. Musolff","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2021.1932505","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2021.1932505","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic tempted some governments to promise to wage “war” against it and implement “world-beating” control mechanisms. In view of their limited success, such claims soon came in for massive criticism, which turned their hyperbolic implicatures and figurative framing against them. Our paper focuses on such cases of “metaphor reversal” within the context of the British public debate. Drawing on examples from a corpus of media texts, we identify several types of the dissociation, including irony (i.e., putting the figurative claims’ implicatures in doubt implicitly), sarcasm (i.e., explicitly decrying their plausibility) and satire (i.e., exhibiting their presumed absurdity), with reference to theory models of irony (echo, pretense, mental space structuring). In conclusion, we argue that the seesaw of exchanges between exaggerated figurative claims of (imminent) success made by government politicians and their sarcastic-satirical debunking by media and opposition politicians has an ambivalent effect on public discourse. On the one hand, it highlights contrasts in policy and policy assessment and may also have entertainment value, but on the other hand, it conveys experiences of repeated, serial exposure of hyperbolic government rhetoric. This in turn may lead to an erosion of trust in official communication as being unrealistic, which may foster beliefs in conspiracy theories.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":"37 1","pages":"76 - 87"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45188798","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-31DOI: 10.1080/10926488.2021.1954858
D. Gurnham
ABSTRACT Although Covid-19 has been framed using all manner of metaphors, an as-yet under-examined question is how the spreading virus might itself serve as a metaphor and what purpose this might serve. The article redresses this deficit by identifying shared experiences of the mobile virus as the basis for a metaphorical framework for evaluating and judging human behavior, including alleged rule-breaking, during the pandemic. The article traces the appearance of the metaphor spreading across a broad spectrum of sources that includes political speech, the reporting of crime in prosecutorial and local media sources, judicial opinion and poetry. We observe in some limited contexts a straightforward metaphoric transfer or substitution between mobile people and the mobile virus. In a greater number and variety contexts, we find instead more subtle signs of the metaphor: the censuring of bad behavior and the justifying of coercive treatment using the metonymic elements of viral spread: its characteristic unpredictability, speed, agility, irrepressibility, and relentlessness.
{"title":"“Our Country Is a Freedom-Loving Country”: The Spreading Virus as Metaphor for “People on the Move”","authors":"D. Gurnham","doi":"10.1080/10926488.2021.1954858","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2021.1954858","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Although Covid-19 has been framed using all manner of metaphors, an as-yet under-examined question is how the spreading virus might itself serve as a metaphor and what purpose this might serve. The article redresses this deficit by identifying shared experiences of the mobile virus as the basis for a metaphorical framework for evaluating and judging human behavior, including alleged rule-breaking, during the pandemic. The article traces the appearance of the metaphor spreading across a broad spectrum of sources that includes political speech, the reporting of crime in prosecutorial and local media sources, judicial opinion and poetry. We observe in some limited contexts a straightforward metaphoric transfer or substitution between mobile people and the mobile virus. In a greater number and variety contexts, we find instead more subtle signs of the metaphor: the censuring of bad behavior and the justifying of coercive treatment using the metonymic elements of viral spread: its characteristic unpredictability, speed, agility, irrepressibility, and relentlessness.","PeriodicalId":46492,"journal":{"name":"Metaphor and Symbol","volume":"37 1","pages":"140 - 151"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44720518","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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