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Part of
Figurative Thought and Language in Action
Edited by Mario Brdar and Rita Brdar-Szabó
[Figurative Thought and Language 16] 2022
► pp. 259–284

Being in the same boat, in two ways

Conflict metaphors in health care

| ELTE, Budapest
| University of Geneva
| University of Washington, Seattle
| University of Szeged
In research on conflicts, the systematic study of metaphors is playing an increasingly prominent role. In the context of a U.S. – Swiss–Hungarian international collaboration investigating conflicts through interviews with healthcare professionals, the present chapter analyzes linguistic and conceptual metaphors in Hungarian interviews. The theoretical background for the analysis is provided by the cognitive theory of metaphor, while its methodology is based on MIPVU.
Moving away from linguistic representations, this study aims to analyze the role of metaphors in the conceptualization, interpretation, and management of conflicts. The chapter presents general, conventionalized orientational and ontological metaphors of conflict, also exploring the core metaphors of the metaphor families of competition and cooperation as well as correlations between conflicts and power structures.
Keywords: competition, cooperation, metaphor family, (re-)framing
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Conflicts and metaphors
  • 3.Data and method
  • 4.Conflict metaphors
    • 4.1conflict is a container, conflict is motion
    • 4.2conflict is an object
    • 4.3conflict is a process/event
    • 4.4Conflict metaphors – negative framing
      • 4.4.1conflict is war, fight
      • 4.4.2conflict is quarrelling
      • 4.4.3conflict is a game
      • 4.4.4conflict is poison
      • 4.4.5conflict is a disease/pain
      • 4.4.6conflict is fire
      • 4.4.7conflict is a mess (crease/ball of thread)
    • 4.5Conflict, power, metaphors
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 28 July 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.16.11kun
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