War and Apocalypse Metaphors in Media Discourse on the Pandemic and Earthquake in Croatia 2020/2021

The way we talk about complex and abstract ideas is abundant in metaphors. Many research studies have shown that even the most subtle metaphor can have a significant influence on the way people try to tackle various social problems. Thus, the assumption is that metaphors are not just a simple rhetorical tool, but also have a profound effect on how we conceptualize reality and respond to important social issues. In the last two decades, scientists have studied the impact of metaphorical framing on political discourse from different research perspectives. Metaphors are often used for framing political topics, and these metaphorical frames are considered to affect the way people regard these issues, perceive the world, and act, on both the individual and collective level. In accordance with these research studies, in this paper, we will regard the metaphor as a cognitive tool that classifies our conceptual system and enables the understanding of our experiences. The objective of this paper is to examine the use of conceptual metaphors in media discourse on the corona crisis and the earthquake crisis caused by the quake in Petrinja. The research was conducted in three steps, following the methodology of critical metaphor analysis (Charteris-Black, 2004). In the first step, the identification of metaphorical expressions was performed by using a big data corpus of articles published by Croatian web-portals from the beginning of the pandemic (from January 2020 to April 2021) and after the Petrinja earthquake (from 29 December 2020). In the second step, the dominant conceptual metaphors employed in communicating the two crises were interpreted. The results of this interpretation are that war metaphors are ubiquitous in reporting on the COVID-19 disease pandemic, and the apocalypse metaphor is used in reporting on the earthquake. In the third step of the analysis, the reasons and implications of the occurrence of these metaphors are explained.

The container and force schemas in political discourse

The paper focuses on metaphors based on the image schemas of container and force that were employed by U.S. President Barack Obama in the campaign against ISIL (The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). Systematic metaphors based on the schemas of container and force illustrate the strategy of the international alliance against ISIL’s activity. The strategy included the isolation of the organization, the restriction of the flow of foreign fighters and financial resources to the area controlled by ISIL as well as planning military operations designed to weaken the influence of the organization. The analysis has been conducted on the corpus of political speeches delivered by the speaker in the period from June 2014 to September 2016. Theoretical framework that is employed in the analysis of primary data is grounded in Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA) which explores ideological aspects of discourse.

Marriage and family metaphors in online Jordanian sociopolitical editorials

Contextualized within corruption issues in Jordan, the Arab Spring uprisings as well as outsiders’ padded relations and interests in the Arab region, this study explores how marriage and family metaphors construct the political reality of the partners involved. The integrative principles of the conceptual metaphor theory and critical metaphor analysis along with the concept of ‘metaphor scenario’ were applied to the data gathered from online Jordanian editorials published by Ahmad Al-Zu’bi (2010-2015). These metaphors were found in 97 out of 1000 editorials used in a larger study of different metaphors. Findings suggest the political relationships of the Arab rulers with the citizens and the outsiders are akin to marriage of convenience that violate the sociocultural traditions. Gender roles also appear to be tailored to the notion of masculine authority over femininity in so far as husbands’ stubbornness or tenacity contributes to wives’ zero-tolerance, hence the collapse of marriage and family system which is reflected on the ailing situation of the Jordanian sociopolitics. The key emotion of shaming permeates in 7 metaphorical scenarios: A stepmother scenario, illegitimate pregnancy, marriage proposal, dysfunctional family, parentless children, engagement, and married partners scenarios. Rhetorically, these scenarios serve as a call for principled relations between partners and emancipation of the passive Arabs from oppressing politics.

Going negative by metaphors: The Donbass conflict in the Russian and the Ukrainian press

Previous research has established the importance of metaphors as conceptual devices (Semino, 2008; Zinken & Musolff, 2009). This article builds upon existing research and extends the insight into how media use metaphors in their coverage of military conflicts. The media coverage of the ongoing Eastern Ukrainian military conflict (Donbass conflict) presents a suitable case for this investigation. The strength of this study lies in the nature of the data that have been collected, namely articles that appeared in a Russian and a Ukrainian news outlet (September 2014 until January 2015) covering the same stories (same date, same event). Thereby, we investigate metaphor as a conceptual device and an element of framing that contributes to the distinct representation of the conflict in the selected outlets from the two countries. This research follows a qualitative research design, relying on Critical Metaphor Analysis (Charteris-Black, 2004), and Metaphor Power Taxonomy (De Landtsheer, 2015; Beer & De Landtsheer, 2004). We conclude that the selected Russian and Ukrainian media used metaphors for enemy construction, in particular the hostile imagery with “Colony” (Russian outlet) and “Fear” (Ukrainian outlet) as major source domains.

Emerging Trends in Metaphoric Images of Curriculum Reform Implementation in Schools: A Critical Literature Review

Curriculum reform is often difficult to conceive, disseminate, and implement, resulting in the use of metaphors to make sense of how changes initiated at national level are enacted in schools. This theoretical paper, which employs Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA), constructs an account of emerging trends in metaphoric language to unlock the complexity of reform implementation. A deductive critical review of literature was adopted as the qualitative design to glean insights into how metaphors have been used to shape mental images of curriculum reform across time and space. Findings indicated converging and diverging trends in metaphoric semantics. While some studies have equated curriculum change to a battlefield and a ghost of control, others have likened reform implementation to driving through the fog or wearing a donated gown of the wrong size. School reform has also been portrayed as a journey, a jigsaw puzzle, and a gardening project demanding meticulous planning and concentration. The unique contribution of this research is the clustering of reform metaphors into a three-tiered spectrum of pessimism, ambiguity, and optimism, thereby extending insights into the dynamics of curriculum enactment. Strategic implementation is recommended so that curriculum reform may be couched in metaphors of hope instead of anger and confusion.

AN ANALYSIS OF WAR LANGUAGE IN COVID 19 SPEECHES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Purpose of the study: The study aims to include the hidden ideology working behind the metaphor that is used in the speeches of both countries. It will also analyze the source domains used by both countries and will explore whether the two countries are employing similar source domains or using different source domains. Methodology: The Theoretical framework of Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA) by Charteris-Black (2004) has been employed to study the metaphors used. Main Findings: The results reveal that the USA is quite racist in its president naming the virus CHINESE VIRUS, and it appears as an authoritative, dominant, and strong nation that intends to hold its supremacy all around the world. Whereas the UK shows its nationalistic approach. The source domains of War, Enemy, soldier, Home front are found to be a similar while different source domains used are wartime president, victory in the USA, and Blitz spirit, wartime government in the UK. Applications of this study: As the ideologies of the different governments have been linguistically assessed through the metaphorical frameworks used, this study is a helpful study to understand the stance being used by the different governments in dealing with universal problems. It can be helpful in political studies of governmental responses.

A Comparative Analysis of War Metaphors in COVID-19 Reports in New York Times and China Daily

This paper analyzed the use of war metaphors in COVID-19 news reported by the New York Times (NYT) in comparison to the China Daily from the 1st of February 2020 to the 29th of February 2020. Based on self-selected corpus from these two newspapers, a study was conducted to compare the contrasting lexis between NYT and China Daily, as well as to analyze the reasons for their differences using the Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA). It was found that China Daily preferred using war metaphors in COVID-19 reports and war-related words such as “fight,” “combat,” and “battle.” These words appeared frequently which demonstrated that Chinese people were fighting against the pandemic. However, these words were far less used in the NYT reports compared to China Daily and the use of these words were more related to the election, trade war, etc. This reflected their focus which was more on the impact of COVID-19 on politics and the economic sector.

On the development of the social-linguistic nexus in discourse research

This paper gives a critical overview of analytical approaches dominating the field of discourse studies in the last three decades, from the perspective of their philosophical and formative bases: social constructionism and linguistics. It explores different conceptions of the theoretical nexus between these two bases leading to the emergence of three distinct yet complementary strands of thought (i–iii). The paper starts with poststructuralist views of discourse salient in (i) Laclau and Mouffe’s Discourse Theory. Laclau and Mouffe’s assumption that no discourse is a closed entity but rather transformed through contact with other discourses is taken as the introductory premise to present a large family of (ii) critical discourse studies, characterized as text-analytical practices explaining how discourse partakes in the production and negotiations of ideological meanings. Finally, the paper discusses (iii) three recent discourse analytical models: Discourse Space Theory, Critical Metaphor Analysis and the Legitimization-Proximization Model. These new theories take a further step toward consolidation of the social-theoretical and linguistic bases in contemporary discourse studies. The empirical benefits of this consolidation are discussed in the last part of the paper, which includes a case study where the new models are used in the analysis of Polish anti-immigration discourse.

Conceptual metaphor and media bias: a critical metaphor analysis of British and American mainstream media reports on the Hong Kong riots

This article makes a comparative analysis of the use of metaphors in the Hong Kong riot reports by British and American mainstream media. The analysis reveals the conceptualization process of events and finds that the use of metaphors is mainly concentrated in the war domain, the flare domain, and the natural forces domain.