Chapter published in:
Producing Figurative Expression: Theoretical, experimental and practical perspectives
Edited by John Barnden and Andrew Gargett
[Figurative Thought and Language 10] 2020
► pp. 389–418

The production of time-related metaphors by people who have experienced pregnancy loss

| Coventry University
| University of Birmingham
| University of Alberta
| University of Cambridge
| University of Bristol
In this chapter we focus on the ways in which people who have experienced pregnancy loss use metaphor to describe the experience, with a particular focus on time-related metaphor. The data come from an ESRC-funded study that investigates the ways in which people who have experienced bereavement following pregnancy loss communicate their experiences. We use these data to explore the ways in which the bereaved (and those who support them) use time-related metaphors to talk about their experiences and suggest ways in which such an analysis can be used to provide insight into the experiences of the bereaved. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for friends, colleagues and relatives.
Keywords: metaphor, time, emotion, grief, bereavement, pregnancy loss
Published online: 17 December 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.10.14tur
References

References

Beder, J.
(2004) Voices of bereavement: A casebook for grief counselors. New York: Brunner-Routledge.Google Scholar
Bonanno, G. A.
(2009) The other side of sadness: What the new science of bereavement tells us about life after loss. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Boroditsky, L., Ramscar, M., & Frank, M. C.
(2002) The roles of body and mind in abstract thought. Psychological Science, 13, 185–189. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bowlby, J.
(1961) Processes of mourning. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 42: 317–339.Google Scholar
Brown corpus
(1964, 1971, 1979) A standard corpus of present-day edited American English, for use with digital computers. Compiled by W. N. Francis, & H. Kučera. Providence, Rhode Island: Brown University.Google Scholar
Cameron, L.
(2003) Metaphor in educational discourse. London: Continuum Press.Google Scholar
Chan, W. C. H., & Chan, C.
(2011) Acceptance of spousal death: the factor of time in bereaved older adults’ search for meaning. Death Studies, 35(2), 147–162. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Charteris-Black, J.
(2016) The “dull roar” and the “burning barbed wire pantyhose”: Complex metaphor in accounts of chronic pain. In R. Gibbs (Ed.), Mixing metaphor (pp. 155–176). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Crespo-Fernandez, E.
(2013) Euphemistic metaphors in English and Spanish epitaphs: A comparative study. Atlantis: Journal of the Spanish Association for Anglo-American Studies, 35(2), 99–118.Google Scholar
Fainsilber, L., & Ortony, A.
(1987) Metaphorical uses of language in the experience of emotions. Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, 2, 239–250. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Farren, J., Jalmbrant, M., Ameye, L., Joash, K., Mitchell-Jones, N., Tapp, S., Timmerman, D., & Bourne, T.
(2016) Post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression following miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy: A prospective cohort study. BMJ Open, 6(11), 1–9. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fedden, S., & Boroditsky, L.
(2012) Spatialization of time in Mian. Frontiers of Psychology, 3(485), 1–10.Google Scholar
Fainsilber, L., & Ortony, A.
(1987) Metaphorical uses of language in the experience of emotions. Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, 2, 239–250. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fraisse, P.
(1984) Perception and estimation of time. Annual Review of Psychology, 35, 1–36. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Fuhrman, O., McCormick, K., Chen, E., Jiang, H., Shu, D., Mao, S., & Boroditsky, L. (2011) How linguistic and cultural forces shape conceptions of time: English and Mandarin time in 3D. Cognitive Science, 35, 1305–28. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gell, A.
(1992) The anthropology of time: Cultural constructions of temporal maps and images. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Gibbs, R. W.
(1994) The poetics of mind: Figurative thought, language, and understanding. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gibbs, R. W., Franks, H.
(2002) Embodied metaphor in women’s narratives about their experiences with cancer. Health Communication, 14 (2): 139–165. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, R. W.
(Ed.) (2016) Mixing metaphor. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Irving, A.
(2005) Life made strange: An essay on the re-inhabitation of bodies and landscapes. In W. James, & D. Mills (Eds.), The qualities of time: Anthropological approaches (pp. 317–333). New York, Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
James, W., & Mills, D.
(2005) Introduction: From representation to action in the flow of time. In W. James, & D. Mills (Eds.), The qualities of time: Anthropological approaches (pp. 1–15). New York, Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Lempert, H., & Kinsbourne, M.
(1982) Effect of laterality of orientation on verbal memory, Neurophysiologia, 20, 211–214.Google Scholar
Levine, P. A. (2015) Trauma and memory: Brain and body in a search for the living past: A practical guide for understanding and working with traumatic memory. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books.Google Scholar
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
(n.d.) Harlow: Longman. Available at https://​www​.ldoceonline​.com/Google Scholar
McGuinness, S., & Kuberska, K.
(2017) Report to the human tissue authority on disposal of pregnancy remains (less than 24 weeks’ gestational stage). Available at https://​deathbeforebirthproject​.org​/research​/htareport2017/
Miles, L. K., Betkra, E., Pendry, L., & Macrae, C. N.
(2010a) Rapid communication mapping temporal constructs: Actions reveal that time is a place. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63(11), 2113–2119. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Miles, L. K., Nind, L. K., & Macrae, C. N.
(2010b) Moving through time. Psychological Science, 21, 222–223. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Moore, K. E.
(2014) The spatial language and time: Metaphor, metonymy and frames of reference. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
NHS
(2014) Improving quality. Available at http://​www​.nhsiq​.nhs​.uk/
Ornstein, R. E.
(1969) On the experience of time. New York: Penguin.Google Scholar
Peel, E., & Cain, R.
(2012) Silent miscarriage and deafening heteronormativity: A British experiential and critical feminist account. In S. Earle, C. Komaromy, & L. L. Layne (Eds.), Understanding reproductive loss: Perspectives on life, death and fertility (pp. 79–92). Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Pragglejaz Group
(2007) MIP: A method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 22(1), 1–39. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Princeton University
(2010) About Wordnet. WordNet. Available at https://​wordnet​.princeton​.edu.Google Scholar
Rayson, P.
(2009) Wmatrix: A web-based corpus processing environment. Computing Department, Lancaster University. Available at http://​ucrel​.lancs​.ac​.uk​/wmatrix/Google Scholar
Robinson, M. D., & Fetterman, A. K. (2015) The embodiment of success and failure as forward versus backward movements. PloS One, 10(2), 1–11. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Schacter, D. L.
(1997) Searching for memory: The brain, the mind, and the past. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
(2002) The seven sins of memory: How the mind forgets and remembers. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Semino, E.
(2011) Metaphor, creativity, and the experience of pain across genres. In J. Swann, R. Carter, & R. Pope (Eds.). Creativity, language, literature: The state of the art (pp. 83–102). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Tay, D.
(2013) Metaphor in psychotherapy: A descriptive and prescriptive analysis. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
The British National Corpus
, version 3 (BNC XML Edition) (2007) Distributed by Bodleian Libraries. University of Oxford, on behalf of the BNC Consortium. Available at http://​www​.natcorp​.ox​.ac​.uk/Google Scholar
Williams-Whitney, D., Mio, J. S., & Whitney, P.
(1992) Metaphor production in creative writing, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 21, 497–509.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. P., & Lindy, J. D.
(2013) Trauma, culture, and metaphor: Pathways of transformation and integration (Vol. 47). New York: Routledge. CrossrefGoogle Scholar