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Metaphor and the Social World
Vol. 9:1 (2019) ► pp.1–31

Discursive metaphorical frames in newspaper texts on language change

Analyzing social meanings of metaphor in public discourse

 | University of Belgrade
The concept of ‘metaphorical framing’ is currently witnessing renewed interest in metaphor research, but for discourse-oriented work it remains a problematic analytical tool given the variety of senses it has been employed with. The present paper considers an approach to metaphorical frames in discourse, by proposing the notion of discursive metaphorical frames to capture the complex, systematic metaphorical representations prominent across discourse. The perspective follows the direction of recent integrated approaches to metaphor, frames and discourse (e.g., Burgers et al., 2016; Cameron et al., 2009; Semino et al., 2016) and is proposed as particularly suited to studying public discourses, as ideologically laden, multi-textual and multi-voiced. The approach is illustrated through an analysis of metaphorical representations of language in Serbian and British newspapers. The analysis reveals the deeper social ideologies underlying the newspaper discussions on language in Serbia and Great Britain, including similarities as well as notable differences, pointing to the diverse ideological processes shaping contemporary media metadiscourses. The results are also discussed in relation to the adopted approach, to frames of presentation, (sub)domain representations and the dynamics of metaphor use in public discourse.
Keywords: metaphor, framing, ideology, public discourse
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical framework: Frames, metaphors and discourse
    • 2.1The study of framing
    • 2.2Metaphorical frames in discourse
    • 2.3Discursive metaphorical frames in public discourse
  • 3.Context and data
  • 4.Discursive metaphorical frames of language and language change
    • 4.1Identifying metaphor-related words
    • 4.2Determining the dominant source domains
    • 4.3Domain representations: A look into the violence-war metaphors
    • 4.4Subdomain representations: Metaphorical scenarios within the violence-war domain
    • 4.5Inter-domain representations: Metaphor relations, metaphor rejection, corrective framing
  • 5.Discussion: The DMFs of language
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 20 May 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/msw.17013.bog
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