Neological cancer metaphors in the Chinese cyberspace
Uses and social meanings
This study examines emerging cancer metaphors that are encoded as a neological construction [X-ái
‘cancer’] using corpus data retrieved from Chinese social media. The quantitative findings show that [X- ái] is a highly
productive construction where the open slot X attracts a wide variety of lexical items. The qualitative findings are twofold. First, the
central meaning of this construction is to express subjective feelings such as self-mockery (e.g., laziness cancer) and contempt for other
people’s behaviors in gender discourse (e.g.. straight man cancer). Second, the development of this construction is caused by the
exemplar-based cognitive mechanism through social labeling practices. I argue that this neological language use is employed to convey
collective emotions in gender discourse and that it indexes a group style, either playful and humorous or contemptuous and disparaging, both
of which construct language user identity and sociocultural ideology in the Chinese cyberspace. This study has implications for research on
neological metaphors and for language use in digital culture in general.
Article outline
-
1.Introduction
- 1.1Neologisms and society
- 1.2The role of metaphor in neologisms
- 1.3The goal of this study
- 2.Data and methods
- 2.1Corpus data
- 2.2Analysis of corpus data
- 3.Results
- 3.1The productivity of [X- ái]
- 3.2The constructional meaning of [X-ái]
- 4.Discussion
- 4.1The cognitive mechanism underlying the development of cancer metaphors
- 4.2Social functions served by cancer metaphors
- 4.2.1Evoking collective emotions
- 4.2.2Promoting the dynamic of social labeling in gender discourse
- 4.3The social indexicality of this neological language use
- 5.Concluding remarks
- Note
-
References
References (57)
References
An, Zhiwei 安志伟. 2008. “网络数字谐音词语浅论 [On number homophones on the Internet].” Journal of Taiyuan University 太原大学学报 41: 36–38.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology; No. 16. Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bruwer, A. 1985. “The Nuclear Weapons Freeze and A Cancer Metaphor: A Physician’s View.” JAMA 254 (5): 657–58. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bybee, Joan L. 2007. Frequency of Use and the Organization of Language. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Calude, Andreea S., and Mark Pagel. 2011. “How Do We Use Language? Shared Patterns in the Frequency of Word Use across 17 World Languages.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences vol. 366(1567): 1101–1107. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Eckert, Penelope. 2000. Linguistic Variation as Social Practice: The Linguistic Construction of Identity in Belten High. Language in Society (Oxford, England) 271. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Eckert, Penelope. 2008. “Variation and the Indexical Field.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 12 (4): 453–76. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Erker, Daniel, and Gregory R. Guy. 2012. “The Role of Lexical Frequency in Syntactic Variability: Variable Subject Personal Pronoun Expression in Spanish.” Language 88 (3): 526–57. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gibbs, Raymond W. 1999. Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics. Amsterdam Studies in the Theory and History of Linguistic Science. Series IV, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, vol. 1751. Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Giora, Rachel. 1997. “Understanding Figurative and Literal Language: The Graded Salience Hypothesis.” Cognitive Linguistics 8 (3): 183–206. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Giora, Rachel. 2003. On Our Mind: Salience, Context, and Figurative Language. OUP E-Books. New York: Oxford University Press. [URL]. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Glucksberg, Sam. 2001. Understanding Figurative Language from Metaphors to Idioms. Oxford Psychology Series; No. 36. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goldberg, Adele E. 1995. Constructions: A Construction Grammar Approach to Argument Structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goldberg, Adele E. 2006. Constructions at Work: The Nature of Generalization in Language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goldberg, Adele E. 2019. Explain Me This: Creativity, Competition, and the Partial Productivity of Constructions. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Grady, Joseph. 1997. “Foundations of Meaning: Primary Metaphors and Primary Scenes.” UC Berkeley Dissertation.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hui, Tiangang 惠天罡. 2006. “网络词语构词探析 [Morphological investigation of Internet language].” Rhetoric Studies 修辞学习 21: 71–74.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ji, Yingchun. 2017. “A Mosaic Temporality: New Dynamics of the Gender and Marriage System in Contemporary Urban China.” Temporalités. Revue de sciences sociales et humaines, (261). ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jing-Schmidt, Zhuo. 2007. “Negativity Bias in Language: A Cognitive-Affective Model of Emotive Intensifiers.” Cognitive Linguistics 18 (3). ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jing-Schmidt, Zhuo. 2008. “Much Mouth Much Tongue: Chinese Metonymies and Metaphors of Verbal Behaviour.” Cognitive Linguistics 19 (2). ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jing-Schmidt, Zhuo. 2016. “Metaphor in Chinese: Cognition, Culture, and Society.” In The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Chinese Language, ed. by Sin-wai Chan. 629–44. London/New York: Routledge.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jing-Schmidt, Zhuo, and Shu-Kai Hsieh. 2019. “Chinese Neologisms.” In The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Applied Linguistics, ed. by Chu-Ren Huang, Zhuo Jing-Schmidt, and B. Meisterernst. London/New York: Routledge. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jing-Schmidt, Zhuo, and Xinjia Peng. 2017. “Winds and Tigers: Metaphor Choice in China’s Anti-Corruption Discourse.” Lingua Sinica 3 (1). ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jing-Schmidt, Zhuo, and Xinjia Peng. 2018. “The Sluttified Sex: Verbal Misogyny Reflects and Reinforces Gender Order in Wireless China.” Language in Society 47 (3): 385–408. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Koestler, Arthur. 1965. The Act of Creation. New York: Macmillan.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kövecses, Zoltán. 2002. Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. New York: Oxford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kövecses, Zoltán. 2005. Metaphor in Culture: Universality and Variation. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kövecses, Zoltán. 2010. “Metaphor and Culture.” Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Philologica 21: 197–220.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kövecses, Zoltán. 2015. Where Metaphors Come from: Reconsidering Context in Metaphor. New York: Oxford University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lederer, Jenny. 2019. “Lexico-Grammatical Alignment in Metaphor Construal.” Cognitive Linguistics 30 (1): 165–203. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Li, Hui, and Minxuan Feng. 2011. “Recognition of the Metaphoric Neologisms.” International Journal of Knowledge and Language Processing 2 (3): 14–20.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Liu, Jenny X., and Kyung Choi. 2006. “Experiences of Social Discrimination among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Shanghai, China.” AIDS and Behavior 10 (4 Suppl): S25–33. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lukač, Morana. 2018. “Grassroots Prescriptivism: An Analysis of Individual Speakers’ Efforts at Maintaining the Standard Language Ideology.” English Today 34 (4): 5–12. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McConnell-Ginet, Sally. 2003. “What is a Name? Social Labeling and Gender Practices.” In The Handbook of Language and Gender, ed. by Janet Holmes, and Miriam Meyerhoff. 69–97. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
McIntosh, Peggy. 2009. “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies.” In Privilege and Prejudice: Twenty Years with the Invisible Knapsack, ed. by Karen Weekes. 7–18. Working Paper (Wellesley College Center for Research on Women); No. 189. England: Cambridge Scholars.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Meisenberg, Barry, and Samuel Meisenberg. 2015. “The Political Use of the Cancer Metaphor: Negative Consequences for the Public and the Cancer Community.” Journal of Cancer Education 30 (2): 398–399. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nosofsky, Robert M. 1988. “Similarity, Frequency, and Category Representations.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 14 (1): 54–65. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Penson, Richard T., Lidia Schapira, Kristy J. Daniels, Bruce A. Chabner, and Thomas J. Lynch. 2004. “Cancer as Metaphor.” The Oncologist 9 (6): 708–16. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Piantadosi, Steven T. 2014. “Zipf’s Word Frequency Law in Natural Language: A Critical Review and Future Directions.” Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 21 (5): 1112–30. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Raskin, Victor. 1985. Semantic Mechanisms of Humor. Synthese Language Library, vol. 241. Dordrecht/Boston;/Hingham, MA: DReidel; Sold and distributed in the USA and Canada by Kluwer Academic Publishers Group.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Silverstein, Michael. 1985. “Language and the Culture of Gender: At the Intersection of Structure, Usage, and Ideology.” In Semiotic Mediation, ed. by Elizabeth Mertz, and Richard J. Parmentier. 219–259. Orlando: Academic Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sontag, Susan. 1978. Illness as Metaphor. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Steen, Gerard J., Aletta G. Dorst, J. Berenike Herrmann, Anna A. Kaal, and Tina Krennmayr. 2010. “Metaphor in Usage.” Cognitive Linguistics 21 (4). ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Walstedt, Joyce Jennings. 1978. “Reform of Women’s Roles and Family Structures in the Recent History of China.” Journal of Marriage and the Family 40 (2): 379. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Yu, Genyuan 于根元. 2001. 网络语言概说 [Introduction to Internet language]. Beijing: China Economics Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Yu, Ning. 2003. “Metaphor, Body, and Culture: The Chinese Understanding of Gallbladder and Courage.” Metaphor and Symbol 18 (1): 13–31. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Yu, Ning, and Dingding Jia. 2016. “Metaphor in Culture: LIFE IS A SHOW in Chinese.” Cognitive Linguistics 27 (2): 147–180. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zhang, Jun 张俊. 2006. “谐音双关的符号学阐释 [A semiotic account of homophonous puns].” In Advances in Signs and Semiotics 符号与符号学新论, 348–59. Nanjing: Southeastern University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zheng, Yanxia. 2015. “A Metaphorical Study on Chinese Neologisms.” Journal of Language Teaching and Research 6 (6): 1379. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zhi, Weihua 支炜华, Feng Wang王峰, and Caichen Jia贾彩辰. 2011. “网媒热词的 隐喻探微 – 以‘给力’、‘神马’、‘浮云’为例 [A probe into network words from the perspective of metaphor – Geili, shenma and fuyun as cases].” Journal of Xi’an International Studies University 西安外国语大学学报 41: 40–43.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zhou, Shao 周芍. 2013. “‘高富帅’ 词义的泛化、专化及其模因效应 [The semantic generalization and specialization of ‘Gaofushuai’ and its memetic effect].” Applied Linguistics 语言文字应用 41: 80–87.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Zipf, George Kingsley. 1936. The Psycho-Biology of Language: An Introduction to Dynamic Philology. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Lang, Jun & Zhuo Jing-Schmidt
2023.
Gendered social address in China’s convergence culture: The case ofmeinü(beautiful woman).
China Information 37:3
► pp. 382 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Chow, Mei-Yung Vanliza & Jeannette Littlemore
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.