METAPHORIC REPRESENTATION OF THE CONCEPT ‘CRIME’ IN THE U.S. MEDIA DISCOURSE

Oksana Oliinyk,Liudmyla Naumenko

doi:10.20535/2410-8286.135687

Oksana Oliinyk, Liudmyla Naumenko

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.135687

Copy DOI

Abstract

This paper is a study of conceptual metaphors that represent the concept ‘crime’ in the contemporary U.S. media discourse. The theoretical background is based on Cognitive Theory of Metaphor by G. Lakoff that considers metaphor as a cognitive structure that helps understand a complex idea (the target domain) by assigning to it qualities found in a familiar/simple object (the source domain). The main question is how the notion ‘crime’ is conceptualised in the U.S. periodicals, thus shaping social views of it. In order to find an answer, a survey of 1213 fragments of 232 newspaper articles with metaphoric collocations naming the concept ‘crime’ has been conducted. By applying cognitive theory of metaphor analysis to metaphoric expressions, three types of conceptual metaphors have been singled out: structural, ontological, and orientation. The data suggest that orientation metaphors of the concept ‘crime’ are most pervasive in the U.S. media discourse (61% of the total number of collocations), with s tructural metaphors occupying the second position (38%), and ontological metaphors being the least frequent (1%). Orientation metaphors feature the trajectory of crime in space: up – down, forward – backward, from the centre – to the centre , and are used to represent statistics of the crime rate. S tructural metaphors ‘crime is an enemy’, ‘crime is the element of nature’, ‘crime is a disease’, ‘crime is a weed’, ‘crime is goods’, ‘crime is a hazardous substance’ model the strategies of crime rate reduction for ordinary Americans. Ontological metaphors ‘crime is mire’, ‘crime is food’, ‘crime is a beast’ highlight such cognitive features of crime as dirt, harm, and danger.

Highlights

The cognitive linguistic paradigm advocates the understanding of linguistic metaphors more as a matter of thinking and reasoning rather than of language itself, that is mere figurative uses of expressions (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a, 1980b, 1980c; Johnson, 2010)
Since this paper focuses on the U.S media discourse about crime, we turn to the metaphorical expressions conceptualising it in 232 articles chosen from the American periodicals: City Journal (CJ) (1991-2013), Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) (2001-2015), The Daily News (DN) (2015), The Houston Chronicle (HC) (2015), The Huffington Post (HP) (2013), The New York Times (NYT) (2015), The Washington Post (WP) (2015)
All the above mentioned CMs feature the orientation of the concept ‘crime’ in space: up – down, forward – backward, from the centre – to the centre, and they are used to represent statistical data of the crime rates, various tendencies of crime decline and growth in particular regions of the USA

Summary

Introduction

The cognitive linguistic paradigm advocates the understanding of linguistic metaphors more as a matter of thinking and reasoning rather than of language itself, that is mere figurative uses of expressions (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980a, 1980b, 1980c; Johnson, 2010). According to Cognitive Theory of Metaphor ( CTM), the conceptual metaphor ( CM) is a mental structure that helps an addressee “understand a complex idea by assigning to it qualities found in a familiar or simple object” Crime is a global phenomenon and part of people’s social life, cultural differences and arbitrariness of language make its conceptualisation culture-specific. This paper explores conceptual metaphors of the concept of ‘crime’ operating within the U.S media discourse

Methods

Results

Conclusion