Abstract
Metaphor has been studied as a pervasive and intrinsic discourse tool over the last decades in many different types of discourse (Lakoff and Johnson 1980, Semino 2008, Kövecses 2010, etc.). Considering the strong effect it has on the discourse participants and how it can persuade them towards one side, action, or thought (Charteris-Black 2004, Silaski 2012), it is necessary to study it when the timeframe and the discourse where it is used are ideologically loaded. Based on recent studies on metaphor in economics (Alejo 2010, Herrera-Soler and White 2012, Soares da Silva et al. 2017), metaphor in the press (Koller 2004/2008) and metaphor and ideology (Goatly 2007, Silaski 2012), this article presents a corpus-based study of metaphor in reports of economic affairs in the English and Spanish press during the pre-election week of 2015. The corpus (about 160,000 words) consists of reports published by six newspapers that support different political spheres (left, centre and right): The Guardian, The Independent and The Telegraph in English, and Público, El País and ABC in Spanish. From a Critical Metaphor Analysis perspective (Charteris-Black 2004), the study starts from the hypothesis that the political stand of each newspaper might condition the metaphors. Indeed, metaphors pointing at certain side of political spheres appear in all the sub-corpora of the study, but in distinctive ways, as will be shown. In any case, critical factors such as cognitive and cultural reasons beyond the political stand of the media in question need to be acknowledged as well, which conveys further and more comprehensive analyses.
Highlights
Metaphor has been studied as a pervasive and intrinsic discourse tool over the last decades in many different types of discourse (Lakoff and Johnson 1980, Semino 2008, Kövecses 2010, etc.)
While the Spanish corpus was twice the size of the English one (105,721 words and 51,897 respectively), this does not prove to be a marker of a higher metaphor frequency, since the latter presents a higher value in metaphor density than the former (10.67 versus 5.38), which implies that it notably makes more use of this device; we cannot extrapolate this to the entire English language, but the numerical results obtained in this part of the analysis do deserve further attention in forthcoming contrastive studies of metaphor density across languages, and an explanation or interpretation of why such difference is obtained would be desired
This article has presented a critical, corpus-based, contrastive analysis of metaphors in the economic discourse published by the national newspapers of Spain and the United Kingdom in the seven days previous to the national elections of 2015
Summary
Metaphor has been studied as a pervasive and intrinsic discourse tool over the last decades in many different types of discourse (Lakoff and Johnson 1980, Semino 2008, Kövecses 2010, etc.). [es] Ideología, metáfora y persuasión en tiempos de elecciones: un estudio de corpus de noticias económicas en prensa británica y española. La metáfora como herramienta constante e intrínseca del discurso en diferentes ámbitos ha sido objeto de estudio durante las últimas décadas (Lakoff y Johnson 1980, Semino 2008, Kövecses 2010, etc.). Basado en recientes estudios sobre metáfora y economía (Alejo 2010, Herrera-Soler y White 2012, Soares da Silva et al 2017), metáfora en la prensa (Koller 2004/2008) y metáfora e ideología (Goatly 2007, Silaski 2012), este artículo presenta un estudio de corpus de metáforas en noticias de índole económica en la prensa española y británica durante la semana pre-electoral de las elecciones generales de 2015. Palabras clave: metáfora, ideología, persuasión, discurso de los medios, estudios contrastivos
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
