Unrealistic scenarios, metaphorical blends and rhetorical strategies across genres

Elena Semino | Lancaster University

In this paper I discuss a form of metaphorical creativity that involves the introduction of ‘unrealistic’ scenarios for rhetorical purposes in expository and argumentative texts. I primarily account for the nature and function of this form of creativity in terms of Fauconnier and Turner’s (2002) notion of Blending, with some references to Conceptual Metaphor theory (Lakoff and Johnson 1980, 1999). I show that a proper account of the textual extracts I analyse needs to include the role of genre in the construction and interpretation of texts, and allow for differences in meaning construction between writers and readers, and between different groups of readers.

Published online: 11 October 2010
https://doi.org/10.1075/etc.3.2.07sem

Cited by

Cited by other publications

Ansah, Gladys Nyarko

2014. Cognitive models of anger in Akan. Cognitive Linguistic Studies 1:1 ► pp. 131 ff.

Han, Chong

2011. Reading Chinese online entertainment news: Metaphor and language play. Journal of Pragmatics 43:14 ► pp. 3473 ff.

HUANG, Kuan-chung & Ming-yu TSENG

2020. The creative use of DEFEAT IS CONTROL in metaphors for sport: A study of NBA news headlines written in Chinese. Dil ve Dilbilimi Çalışmaları Dergisi 16:1 ► pp. 14 ff.

Kwon, Winston, Ian Clarke & Ruth Wodak

2014. Micro-Level Discursive Strategies for Constructing Shared Views around Strategic Issues in Team Meetings. Journal of Management Studies 51:2 ► pp. 265 ff.

McIntyre, Dan

2011. The year’s work in stylistics 2010. Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics 20:4 ► pp. 347 ff.

Patil, Gouri Shanker, R. Rangasayee & Geetha Mukundan

2014. Non-fluent aphasia in deaf user of Indian Sign Language. Cognitive Linguistic Studies 1:1 ► pp. 147 ff.

Pollaroli, Chiara & Andrea Rocci

2015. The argumentative relevance of pictorial and multimodal metaphor in advertising. Journal of Argumentation in Context 4:2 ► pp. 158 ff.

Rocci, Andrea, Sabrina Mazzali-Lurati & Chiara Pollaroli

2018. The argumentative and rhetorical function of multimodal metonymy. Semiotica 2018:220 ► pp. 123 ff.

Semino, Elena, Alice Deignan & Jeannette Littlemore

2013. Metaphor, Genre, and Recontextualization. Metaphor and Symbol 28:1 ► pp. 41 ff.

Zibin, Aseel & Abdel Rahman Mitib Salim Altakhaineh

2018. An analysis of Arabic metaphorical and/or metonymical compounds. Metaphor and the Social World 8:1 ► pp. 100 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 10 january 2021. 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.