Business Metaphors Research Articles

A cognitive approach to metaphor translation in business texts

Abstract A metaphor is normally deployed for specific rhetorical and aesthetic functions. However, in the commercial context, metaphor usage displays specific communicative functions as exhibited in the English business texts we sampled for this study. We examine the translation of business metaphor from English into Arabic with a special focus on the game/sports source domain. The authors collected a sample of metaphors from business articles which appear on the BBC, CNN, and Project Syndicate online websites. We use the collected business metaphors to determine the contextual functions as well as the significance and roles each metaphor plays in its context. We adopt the cognitive approach to metaphor analysis in order to identify the level of conceptual systems in the source and target metaphorical references. We have found out that the generic metaphorical instances are translated using the formal translation method while the more business context specific metaphors are simplified, paraphrased, or explicated.

Teodora Popescu (Editor). Cognitive approaches to contemporary media. New Castle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021. Pp. i-xi, 1-210. ISBN: 978-1-5275-6953-9

Teodora Popescu (Editor). Cognitive approaches to contemporary media. New Castle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2021. Pp. i-xi, 1-210. ISBN: 978-1-5275-6953-9

‘Time is money’ metaphor in British and Romanian business press

1 IntroductionIn contrast with General English, Business English features some peculiar traits which lend its peculiarity (Popescu 2007, 2011, 2015a): 1. a certain fixedness of lexical associations, i.e. less free lexical combinations; 2. a certain degree of courtesy and formality which are to be found in the forms and frameworks of conventionalised transactions; 3. sociolinguistic and pragmatic orientation, by which we mean that the used by business people display sensitivity to subject matter, the occasion, shared knowledge and social relations holding between companies and communicators (Pickett 1986:2, as cited in Nelson 2000); 4. metaphoric load: the used in business materials may be characterised by what we could call metaphoric load, i.e. the business borrows words, phrases, similes, idioms, metaphors, metonimies from the general usage and applies them to the specific contexts of the place of work: abort a product, rat race, throw it at the wall and see if it sticks, golden parachutes, etc.; 5. marked idiomaticity: e.g. Instead, rather than undercutting television networks and producers, Joost might .. .give them new juice. (= give vitality). It is particularly the two latter traits that the present project will focus on. The starting point for our endeavours is represented by the seminal works Metaphors We Live By, published by Lakoff and Johnson in 1980, whose Theory of Metaphor (TCM) has opened endless vistas for subsequent research and debate and Zoltan Kovecses's book on universality and variation of metaphor, which has contributed to our further delving into business metaphors, from this perspective of universals and variants.2Literature reviewThe basic assumption of Lakoff and Johnson's theory is that metaphor is not only a stylistic feature of language, but thought itself is metaphorical in nature. Conceptual metaphor is a natural part of human thought, and linguistic metaphor is a natural part of human language (Lakoff, & Johnson 1980:247). Thus, the conceptual structure of metaphors rests on correspondences or mappings between conceptual domains. These mappings function in a natural way, as some of them are already existent in the human mind emerging from background cultural knowledge, as different kinds of similarities between concepts. Further on, Kovecses (2005:64) argues that the cognitive view of metaphor can simultaneously account for both universality and diversity in metaphorical thought. He has proved that certain conceptual metaphors (for anger, time, event structure, and the self) are potentially universal or can be nearuniversal. He identified these as being simple or primary metaphors and/or complex metaphors based on universal human experiences. He then explores embedded manifestations of generic level metaphors in order to prove that they are not candidates for near universal metaphors. Besides variations in conceptual metaphors at specific level there are others, such as when a culture uses a set of different source domains for a particular target domain, or when a culture uses a particular source domain for the conceptualization of a set of different target domains (Kovecses 2005:67).Our theory further draws on Coseriu's (1997) view on as a means of conveying knowledge and thoughts, being closely related to society, civilisation, thinking, community, politics, etc. A linguistic community would mould and influence the future evolution of a by accepting, rejecting or adjusting innovation occurring in language.Furthermore, we also resort to Rodica Zafiu's (2001) research on Romanian journalese, especially the one published after 1989, and her insights into the passage from a wooden language used by communist propaganda. In her writings, there is a general critical and deprecating view on the use of metaphors in Romanian journalese, especially after 1989. Zafiu (2001:53) states that one could notice a correspondence between the pretence of thematic ennobling (which is denied to a certain extent by the very democratising of phonemic transcription of lexical loans) and the adorning and extravagant metaphor. …

Money and money-related metaphors in business English

The paper deals with the metaphorical aspect of business and economic texts with special focus on money metaphors. According to cognitive linguistic approach metaphors are clustered in different conceptual categories. The paper is structured around Conceptual Metaphor Theory and it analyses the mapping and conceptualisation of money metaphors by means of cognitive linguistic categories: money is liquid, money is solid. Out of the business metaphors we selected the money and money-related ones. We also analyse the means by which these categories are obtained: verbs, idioms, pre- and post-modifiers, etc.Â

An Introduction to “Business Essentials”

The term burning platform refers to a popular business metaphor for circumstances demanding immediate and radical action in response to a dire threat. The metaphor involves a worker on an oil platform in the North Sea who is awakened one night by an explosion that ignites the rig, sending flames and burning oil across the platform. He fights his way through the flames and chaos to find himself at the edge of the burning platform, where the flames are relentlessly advancing. His only choices are to be engulfed by the flames for certain death or to jump off the platform and fall 100 feet into the cold sea.

Intention in Hybrid Organizations: The Diffusion of the Business Metaphor in Swedish Laws

Recent studies of conceptual metaphors in a legal context have often dealt with the power of embodiment. However, the connotations of culturally originated metaphors could be different when they appear in laws and regulations. In particular, the role of metaphor when the legislator wishes to define intention in hybrid organizations is investigated here. The case studied is how a conceptual metaphor of ‘business’ manifesting itself in the Swedish simile adjective affarsmassig (businesslike) has spread over 40 years. ‘Business’ early on acquired connotations such as impartiality and methodical approach, and can be used metaphorically. Introduced in the regulation of public procurement, ‘businesslike’ was later used to regulate conflicts of interest, restrict state aid and also entered tax legislation. Analysis of Swedish court decisions where ‘businesslike’ occurs shows how the emphasis has shifted from public sector efficiency to neo-liberal principles of competition, while stronger social norms related to environmental effects have led to the term being removed from the Public Procurement Act. Elements of a mixed jurisdiction arise from reliance on EU case-law, and national use of ambiguous cultural metaphors in legal texts and court decisions is a plausible response.

Developing Business Students’ Linguistic and Intercultural Competence through the Understanding of Business Metaphors

Abstract Business students are not fully aware of the intrinsic relation between language and culture, applied to business language genre. Business English language as a genre in itself has been widely analyzed and debated in specialist literature, as extensive research has been carried out in the field of teaching English for Specific Purposes, specialists having centered on finding the best methods to teach students how to use the business language correctly and appropriately, with clear focus on the notional- functional aspect. However, less research has been done in the intrinsic nature of business English. The aim of this study is to prove that cognitive metaphors are instantiations of cultural categories manifested in the language spoken by the community that shares a common set of characteristics within a given cultural matrix. Our theory will be applied to contemporary business journalese in English and Romanian and we will try to identify universal metaphors and metaphor variations assignable to cultural characteristics of contemporary Romanian and British business reality reflected in the written press.

Follow the Language: Our Science Terms Appearing as Business Metaphors

Copyright: © 2013 Bell AH. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This is the age of intellectual cross-fertilization in fisheries and livestock production. In our university programs and companies, we have in large part escaped the limiting “silos” of the past to make the most of insights from a broad range of scientific disciplines. We also borrow best practices from applied fields such as supply chain management, “big data” analytics, and consumer behavior.

Western Media Perception of the Spy Swap 2010: What Metaphors Construe

This paper aims to analyse the cognitive perception of the spy swap (July 8-11, 2010) in the British and American media by reconstructing metaphorical frames and examining their implications. For that purpose, more than thirty British and American press sources were collected and analysed in the theoretical framework of cognitive linguistics (the Pragglejaz Group’s MIP). The findings reveal that the reconstructed frames of the BUSINESS, RELATIONSHIP and MORALITY metaphors in the collected sample evoke rational approach to solving political problems in the U.S. – Russia diplomatic relations. This gives evidence to the fact that despite deeply entrenched cognitive model of pragmatism on the part of Russia and the U.S. (‘world Superpowers’), Western media perceives rational politics as more acceptable thus morally right. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.0.21.2352

Business metaphors: A case study of Peugeot advertisements in different languages

1 IntroductionThe issue of business metaphor lies at the heart of al stakeholders' interest, people studying or working in an international business communication setting, who need to understand the intrinsic relation between language and culture, applied to the business language genre. Moreover, language educators and specialists working in cross-cultural communications planning and management also need to grasp the far-reaching implications of such knowledge for business success. Business English language, as a genre in itself has been widely analysed and debated in specialist literature, as extensive research has been carried out in the field of teaching English for Specific Purposes, specialists having centred on finding the best methods to teach students how to use the business language correctly and appropriately, with clear focus on the notional-functional aspect. However, less research has been made in the intrinsic nature of business English (Nelson 2000).As opposed to General English, Business English features some characteristics (Popescu 2007, 2011) such as:1. a certain fixedness of lexical associations, i.e. less free lexical combinations;2. a certain degree of courtesy and formality which are to be found in the forms and frameworks of conventionalised transactions;3. sociolinguistic and pragmatic orientation, by which we mean that the language used by business people display sensitivity to subject matter, the occasion, shared knowledge and social relations holding between companies and communicators (Pickett 1986:2);4. metaphoric load: the language used in business materials may be characterised by what we could call metaphoric load, i.e. the business language borrows words, phrases, idioms from the general usage and applies them to the specific contexts of the place of work: abort a product, rat race, throw it at the wall and see if it sticks, etc;5. marked idiomaticity: e.g. Instead, rather than undercutting television networks and producers, Joost might them new juice. (= give vitality). It is particularly the two latter traits that the present project will focus on.Based on former research and literature review, it can be uphold that that cognitive metaphors are instantiations of cultural categories manifested in the language spoken by the community that shares a common set of characteristics within a given cultural matrix. Thus, we uphold the idea that metaphors clustered in cognitive categories account for cultural categories, both in terms of conceptual universals and variants, resulting in a complex mapping of interrelated cross- connections.The starting point for this theory is the seminal work Metaphors we live by, published by Lakoff and Johnson in 1980, whose theory of Conceptual Metaphor has opened endless vistas for subsequent research and debate. The basic assumption of this theory is that metaphor is not only a stylistic feature of language, but thought itself is metaphorical in nature. Thus, the conceptual structure of metaphors rests on correspondences or mappings between conceptual domains. These mappings function in a natural way, as some of them are already existent in the human mind emerging from background cultural knowledge, as different kinds of similarities between concepts.Further on, Kovecses (2005) argues that the cognitive view of metaphor can simultaneously account for both universality and diversity in metaphorical thought. He has proved that certain conceptual metaphors (for anger, time, event structure, and the self) are potentially universal or can be near-universal. He identified these as being simple or primary metaphors and/or complex metaphors based on universal human experiences (p.64). He then explores embedded manifestations of generic level metaphors in order to prove that they are not candidates for near universal metaphors. Besides variations in conceptual metaphors at specific level there are others, such as when a culture uses a set of different source domains for a particular target domain, or when a culture uses a particular source domain for the conceptualization of a set of different target domains (p. …

After method? Ethnography in the knowledge economy

In this article we argue that the knowledge economy is reshaping anthropological research and popular understandings of ethnography. Interviews with British social anthropologists working in, and outside, academia provide insights into how the practices and meanings of ethnography are being reworked. UK policy expectations that research (and its impact) can be measured, monitored and accounted for in monetary terms place particular demands on qualitative social research. To make our case, we focus on the prominence of the business metaphor of the ‘value chain’ in contemporary accounting practice and its use in the quantitative measurement of social research. Within social anthropology this new economy of measurement can be seen in debates over fieldwork practice. We show that as anthropology departments harden their methodological allegiances to fieldwork, very different understandings of ethnography are being developed beyond the academy. We conclude that methods, and debates over methods, are prisms through which to understand the changing social and economic expectations placed upon qualitative research.

The Formula as a Managerial Tool: Audit Culture in Hong Kong

Universities are increasingly moving away from the professional ideal of management by professors to a form of managerialism known as “audit culture.” This article provides two examples from Hong Kong, where audit culture has been imposed very rapidly over the past 15 years: the imposition of a “one-line budget” and the “Research Assessment Exercise” (RAE). The one-line budget shifted control from deans to department chairs, but set up incentives and rules of the game that had unintended consequences, including the dumbing down of classes to attract students and an increase in studentteacher ratios. The RAE was intended to allow administrators to compare all departments against one another, and to shift resources to those that were successful and “efficient.” The article argues that these administrative methods misuse business metaphors and undermine creativity by focusing only on process. The end result is waste of resources and an inability to achieve real excellence.

El lenguaje figurado de las alianzas empresariales

La metafora desempena un papel fundamental en la lengua. Este articulo analiza el uso extendido de la metafora en la prensa economica a traves de las expresiones metaforicas que describen las alianzas entre empresas en Financial Times y El Pais. Estas expresiones pertenecen a los dominios de la GUERRA, la FICCION, el DEPORTE, el Juego y el AMOR, y son realizaciones de metaforas conceptuales generadas por procesos de correspondencia e integracion conceptual y analizadas siguiendo las teorias de la metafora de Lakoff (Lakoff 1980, 1987, 1996), y de Fauconnier y Turner (1995, 2006). El estudio comparativo de las metaforas economicas en ingles y espanol revela numerosas semejanzas en la conceptualizacion de las alianzas entre empresas.

Business Metaphors in a Bilingual Business Lexicon

General purpose dictionaries benefit users at large in many ways, but the definitions and examples might not satisfy the diverse needs of different professional users. This is especially true of metaphors. The article discusses the treatment of business metaphors in the PolyU Business Lexicon derived from the trilingual PolyU Business Corpus (PUBC). During the process the concordances are grouped by senses, and then separated according to their literal and metaphorical meanings, which in turn lead to the decisions of sense order, word meaning and translation equivalents. Since different cultures have different 'bags' of metaphors, and metaphorical meanings also vary in different registers, the focus is primarily on the differences between Chinese and English in terms of culture, psychology, language and how such differences can be translated and presented in a corpus-based business lexicon with a minimum loss of their original connotations. Cultural transformations, such as direct translation, image substitution, explanatory notes and abandonment of the figure of speech, are suggested to bridge interlanguage metaphorical gaps. Keywords: metaphor, definition, translation, cultural difference

You Get What You Pay For: Historicizing Business Metaphors of Government, Principles of Justice in Taxation, and “Benefit Theory”

You Get What You Pay For: Historicizing Business Metaphors of Government, Principles of Justice in Taxation, and “Benefit Theory”

Metaphorically speaking: the metaphor of health care provision as a factory.

Metaphors are figures of speech that use relatively concrete expressions to convey the meaning of an abstract concept. More than 3,800 metaphors are in current use.1 Metaphors are not just a matter of language. We cannot think without metaphors,2 and metaphorical thought can even shape cultural institutions. For example, the westernization of cultures around the world is in part a reflection of the introduction of the metaphor “time is money” into these cultures.3 Changes in metaphorical thought can have harmful consequences to our health and our lives. Medicine, for example, was once seen as a calling or a vocation that, based on compassion, ministered to the sick. This ethical and religious metaphor is being replaced by a business metaphor, with results that have proved less than desirable. In this article, we discuss the metaphor of medicine as a factory and the practical consequences for medical culture of a business-oriented model of patient care.

‘Consuming’ tourist sites/sights: a note on York

Two perspectives on place-consumption are considered: a ‘business metaphor’ by which the city is viewed as a consumable ‘product’; and a cultural perspective whereby a relationship between tourist site and mythical meaning is theorised. MacCannell's theorised trajectory of discovery, by which tourists progressively seek out the ‘unmarked’ and ‘authentic’, appears to be validated by observation of supplyside visitor attractions in York. A conventional product extension strategy inspired by the ‘business metaphor’ and involving the acquisition of a new ‘icon’ attraction would arguably accelerate the process of commodification, simultaneously eroding the potential for self-authored experience on the part of the tourist. Such a strategy may thus prove incomplete in its capacity to secure the long-term health of tourism in a mature, successful destination.

Re-evaluating the realist conception of war as a business metaphor

The state of war is a popular metaphor employed by many business writers seeking to explain the imperatives of strategic decision-making. It is a metaphor which draws on a “realist” characterisation of war as a Hobbesian state of nature devoid of a moral dimension. However, the work of Walzer (1977) has demonstrated that rules of war, established over generations and across cultural divides, play a significant role in the conduct of warfare. Through identifying and analysing rules of war in parallel with ethical dilemmas in business life, such as whistleblowing, it is possible to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the war metaphor in place of simplified, state of nature realism. This alternative version of the war metaphor is a useful means of introducing students to Aristotlean virtues as well as challenging their preconceptions about the nature of business activity.

Theory and practice of family choice in education: Taking stock — review essay: Choice and control in American education. Volume 1: The theory of choice and control in American education; Volume 2: The practice of choice, decentral, and school restructuring. Edited by W.H. Clune and J.F. Witte. London: The Falmer Press, 1990

This review probes developments in two decades of debates over family choice in education. Based on contributions to these volumes by seasoned debate players, one conclusion is that the broad structure of the controversy has changed little. Activists for increased market choice rely on consumer choice theory and a simple business metaphor for schools: Skeptics persist in arguments that children situated by class and race will choose schools for differing rational reasons, with increased segregation a likely outcome of expanded market choice. Evidence of information imperfections further promise class-based advantages in choice schemes. A new development in the choice debate is a shift in its policy terrain: tendencies toward acceptance of national eductional goals may push choice ideas to embrace educational means as their predominant domain, and reduce the attention of choice proponents to private conceptions of goals for education.