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Article published In:
Review of Cognitive Linguistics
Vol. 21:2 (2023) ► pp.411–443

economy is human

A corpus-based comparative study in English and Chinese economic media discourse

| Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
| Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
| Guangdong University of Foreign Studies

Utilizing the framework of Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory (ECMT), this paper presents a corpus-based multi-level comparative study of the economy is human metaphor in English and Chinese economic media discourse. While the results indicate a considerable sharing of their respective conceptual structures of “human body”, “human condition” and “human relationship”, they do reveal some differences in terms of their preference and the associated metaphorical expressions. The similarities detected can possibly be attributed to the similar body, physiological function and social attributes all human beings share, which then work as the source for drawing inferences about the economy. The differences however are also likely to be derived from the different saliences of human experience which characterize the English and Chinese social-cultural contexts. Another possible explanation for these differing culturally-sourced linguistic metaphors may well be media language and its idiosyncratic stylistic features.

Keywords: corpora, economic media discourse, multi-level comparative study, Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical framework
  • 3.Research design
    • 3.1Research questions
    • 3.2Corpus data
    • 3.3Research procedure
      • A.Metaphor identification and annotation
      • B.Metaphor categorization and calculation
    • 3.4Reliability
  • 4.Results and analysis
    • 4.1Conceptual frames within human domain
    • 4.2Inference pattern
      • 4.2.1Frame HUMAN BODY
      • 4.2.2Frame human condition
      • 4.2.3Frame human relationship
    • 4.3Linguistic level
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 24 February 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00140.xu
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