Title: Multi-functionality of metaphor in newspaper discourse
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2011, vol. 37, iss. 1, pp. [139]-151
Extent
[139]-151
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2011-1-9
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/118127
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
This paper investigates cognitive and social functions that metaphor fulfils in newspaper discourse on natural catastrophes, aiming to reveal multi-functionality of figurative language. The analysis shows that natural phenomena are metaphorically constructed as ANIMALS, MONSTERS and WAR. These metaphor themes function as a conceptual tool and an effective ideological weapon. They simplify reality, hide politico-economic and social conditions, bipolarize the world, dramatize stories by appealing to readers' emotions, and create feelings of community and belonging.The analysis draws upon critical discourse analysis and the cognitive theory of metaphor, as introduced by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). The corpus used in the analysis consists of articles on the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and 2005 Hurricane Katrina, which are compiled from The Globe and Mail (2004; 2005), a Canadian national daily newspaper, and The New York Times (2004; 2005), an American national daily newspaper.
References
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[25] Lule, Jack (2004) 'War and Its Metaphors: News Language and the Prelude to War in Iraq, 2003'. Journalism Studies 5(2), 179–190. | DOI 10.1080/1461670042000211168
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[27] Musolff, Andreas (2004) Metaphor and Political Discourse: Analogical Reasoning in Debates about Europe. Palgrave Macmillan.
[28] Niman, Michael I. (2010) 'The Political Tsunami: Not All Death and Destruction Is Natural'. In: Fuller, Linda K. (ed.) Tsunami Communication: (Inter)personal/intercultural, Media, Technical, Ethical, Philanthropic, Development, and Personal Responses. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
[29] Ortony, Andrew (1979) 'Metaphor: A Multidimensional Problem'. In: Ortony, Andrew (ed.) Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1–16.
[30] Radford, Benjamin (2003) Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us. Amherst: Prometheus Books.
[31] Radman, Zdravko (1997) Metaphors: Figures of the Mind. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
[32] Richardson, John E. (2007) Analysing Newspapers: An Approach from Critical Discourse Analysis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
[33] Santa Ana, Otto (1999) '"Like an Animal I Was Treated": Anti-immigrant Metaphor in US Public Discourse'. Discourse and Society 10(2), 191–224.
[34] Semino, Elena (2008) Metaphor in Discourse. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
[35] Simpson, Robert H. and Herbert Riehl (1981) The Hurricane and Its Impact. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
[36] Thompson, John B. (1990) Ideology and Modern Culture: Critical Social Theory in the Era of Mass Communication. Cambridge: Polity Press.
[37] Thornborrow, Joanna (1993) 'Metaphors of Security: A Comparison of Representation in Defence Discourse in Post-Cold-War France and Britain'. Discourse and Society 4(1), 99–119.
[38] van Dijk, Teun A. (1996) Discourse, Racism and Ideology. La Laguna: Rcei Ediciones.
[39] van Dijk, Teun A. (2008) Discourse and Power. Palgrave Macmillan.
[40] Weiss, Gilbert and Ruth Wodak (2003) 'Introduction: Theory, Interdisciplinarity and Critical Discourse Analysis' In: Weiss, Gilbert and Ruth Wodak (eds.) Critical Discourse Analysis: Theory and Interdisciplinarity. Palgrave Macmillan, 1–32.
[41] Wodak, Ruth (2006) 'Mediation between Discourse and Society: Assessing Cognitive Approaches in CDA'. Discourse Studies 8(1), 179–190.
[42] Wodak, Ruth and Michael Meyer (2009) 'Critical Discourse Analysis: History, Agenda, Theory and Methodology'. In: Wodak, Ruth and Michael Meyer (eds.) Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, 2nd edition. SAGE Publications, 1–33.
[2] Charteris-Black, Jonathan (2005) Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphor. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
[3] Chilton, Paul A. (1996) Security Metaphors: Cold War Discourse from Containment to Common House. New York: P. Lang.
[4] Chovanec, Jan (2010) 'Legitimation through Differentiation: Discursive Construction of Jacques Le Worm Chirac as an Opponent to Military Action'. In: Okulska, Urszula and Piotr Cap (eds.) Perspectives in Politics and Discourse. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 61–81.
[5] Conboy, Martin (2007) The Language of the News. Oxon: Routledge.
[6] Dobrovol'skij Dmitrij and Elisabeth Piirainen (2005) Figurative Language: Cross-cultural and Cross-linguistic Perspectives. Amsterdam and Oxford: Elsevier.
[7] Eagleton, Terry (1991) Ideology: An Introduction. London and New York: Verso.
[8] El Refaie, Elisabeth (2001) 'Metaphors We Discriminate By: Naturalized Themes in Austrian Newspaper Articles about Asylum Seekers'. Journal of Sociolinguistics 5(3), 352–371. | DOI 10.1111/1467-9481.00154
[9] Fairclough, Norman (1989) Language and Power. London and New York: Longman.
[10] Fairclough, Norman (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. London and New York: Longman.
[11] Fairclough, Norman and Ruth Wodak (2010) 'Critical Discourse Analysis in Action' In: Coffin, Caroline, Theresa Lillis and Kieran O'Halloran (eds.) Applied Linguistics Methods: A Reader: Systemic Functional Linguistics, Critical Discourse Analysis and Ethnography. London and New York: Routledge, 98–111.
[12] Fowler, Roger (1991) Language in the News: Discourse and Ideology in the Press. London and New York: Routledge.
[13] Gamburd, Michele R. and Dennis McGilvray (2010) 'Introduction'. In: McGilvray, Dennis and Michele R. Gamburd (eds.) Tsunami Recovery in Sri Lanka: Ethnic and Regional Dimensions. London and New York: Routledge, 1–16.
[14] Gibbs, Raymond W., Jr. (1994) The Poetics of Mind: Figurative Thought, Language and Understanding. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
[15] Goatly, Andrew (2007) Washing the Brain: Metaphor and Hidden Ideology. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
[16] Greene, Linda S. (2009) 'Governmental Liability for the Katrina Failure'. In: Levitt, Jeremy I. And Matthew C. Whitaker (eds.) Hurricane Katrina: America's Unnatural Disaster. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 206–225.
[17] Hiraga, Masako K. (2005) Metaphor and Iconicity: A Cognitive Approach to Analyzing Texts. Palgrave Macmillan.
[18] Koller, Veronika (2004) 'Women and War Metaphors: "Possessive, jealous, and pugnacious?"' Journal of Sociolinguistics 8(1), 3–22. | DOI 10.1111/j.1467-9841.2004.00249.x
[19] Kövecses, Zoltán (2000) Metaphor and Emotion: Language, Culture, and Body in Human Feeling. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
[20] Kövecses, Zoltán (2010) Metaphor: A Practical Introduction, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press.
[21] Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson (1980) Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[22] Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson (1999) Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books.
[23] Lakoff, George and Mark Turner (1989) More than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[24] Levitt, Jeremy I. and Matthew C. Whitaker (2009) 'Truth Crushed to Earth Will Rise Again'. In: Levitt, Jeremy I. and Matthew C. Whitaker (eds.) Hurricane Katrina: America's Unnatural Disaster. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1–21.
[25] Lule, Jack (2004) 'War and Its Metaphors: News Language and the Prelude to War in Iraq, 2003'. Journalism Studies 5(2), 179–190. | DOI 10.1080/1461670042000211168
[26] Martin, Janet and Rom Harré (1982) 'Metaphor in Science'. In: Miall, David S. (ed.) Metaphor: Problems and Perspectives. Sussex: The Harvester Press, 89–105.
[27] Musolff, Andreas (2004) Metaphor and Political Discourse: Analogical Reasoning in Debates about Europe. Palgrave Macmillan.
[28] Niman, Michael I. (2010) 'The Political Tsunami: Not All Death and Destruction Is Natural'. In: Fuller, Linda K. (ed.) Tsunami Communication: (Inter)personal/intercultural, Media, Technical, Ethical, Philanthropic, Development, and Personal Responses. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
[29] Ortony, Andrew (1979) 'Metaphor: A Multidimensional Problem'. In: Ortony, Andrew (ed.) Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1–16.
[30] Radford, Benjamin (2003) Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us. Amherst: Prometheus Books.
[31] Radman, Zdravko (1997) Metaphors: Figures of the Mind. Kluwer Academic Publishers.
[32] Richardson, John E. (2007) Analysing Newspapers: An Approach from Critical Discourse Analysis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
[33] Santa Ana, Otto (1999) '"Like an Animal I Was Treated": Anti-immigrant Metaphor in US Public Discourse'. Discourse and Society 10(2), 191–224.
[34] Semino, Elena (2008) Metaphor in Discourse. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.
[35] Simpson, Robert H. and Herbert Riehl (1981) The Hurricane and Its Impact. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
[36] Thompson, John B. (1990) Ideology and Modern Culture: Critical Social Theory in the Era of Mass Communication. Cambridge: Polity Press.
[37] Thornborrow, Joanna (1993) 'Metaphors of Security: A Comparison of Representation in Defence Discourse in Post-Cold-War France and Britain'. Discourse and Society 4(1), 99–119.
[38] van Dijk, Teun A. (1996) Discourse, Racism and Ideology. La Laguna: Rcei Ediciones.
[39] van Dijk, Teun A. (2008) Discourse and Power. Palgrave Macmillan.
[40] Weiss, Gilbert and Ruth Wodak (2003) 'Introduction: Theory, Interdisciplinarity and Critical Discourse Analysis' In: Weiss, Gilbert and Ruth Wodak (eds.) Critical Discourse Analysis: Theory and Interdisciplinarity. Palgrave Macmillan, 1–32.
[41] Wodak, Ruth (2006) 'Mediation between Discourse and Society: Assessing Cognitive Approaches in CDA'. Discourse Studies 8(1), 179–190.
[42] Wodak, Ruth and Michael Meyer (2009) 'Critical Discourse Analysis: History, Agenda, Theory and Methodology'. In: Wodak, Ruth and Michael Meyer (eds.) Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, 2nd edition. SAGE Publications, 1–33.