Article published In:
Review of Cognitive Linguistics: Online-First Articles

Conventional metaphors in English as a lingua franca

An analysis of speech metaphors in three academic seminars

ORCID logo | Universidad de Extremadura
In the present article, I study the language used in three English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) digital marketing seminars, in which the tutor and other participants gave feedback about the ‘pitches’, (i.e., short marketing speeches), presented by students in the same session. As this activity involved making reference to what students said in their ‘pitches’, the seminars provide ample evidence for the metaphorical construction of speech activity by the participants in the seminars. The analysis shows that these ELF speakers mostly adopted pre-existing and conventionalised metaphorical models used in English and that they do not attempt to incorporate other source domains, except for one, which I have labelled storytelling, as it associates pitch delivery with telling a story. However, at the level of linguistic metaphors used, greater use of unconventional metaphors can be found, although mostly adapted to and consistent with the conceptual models identified. In general terms, metaphor innovation in this English as a Lingua Franca context seems to be ‘norm following’ rather than ‘norm transcending’.
Keywords: Metaphor, English as a lingua franca, speech activity, English medium instruction
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Metaphor in ELF
  • 3. speech metaphors
  • 4.Methodology
    • Data and tools
    • Participants
  • 5.Results
    • 5.1Metaphorical vs non-metaphorical speech
      • a. Speech or pitch
      • b.Non-metaphorical speech
      • c.Metaphorical speech
    • 5.2Main metaphorical source domains used in speech representation
      • a.Source and path of motion: Thematic initiation and progression
      • b.Goal of motion: Successful pitch
      • c.Combining motion and containment: Amount of information in the pitch
      • d.Visual metaphors: Main ideas
      • e.Reification and physical construction: Speech planning
      • f.Transfer: The audience
      • g.Storytelling or drama: Enacting the pitch
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 14 December 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00168.ale
References (51)
References
Alejo-González, R., Piquer-Píriz, A. M., Castellano-Risco, I., Martín-Gilete, M., Fielden-Burns, L., MacArthur, F., Nacey, S., Philip, G., Krennmayr, T., Coelho, M., Littlemore, J., & Ädel, A. (2021). The MetCLIL corpus. v1. [URL]
Alejo-González, R. (2024). Metaphor and corpus linguistics: Building and investigating an English as a medium of instruction corpus. Routledge.
Belinsky, S., & Gogan, B. (2016). Throwing a change-up, pitching a strike: An autoethnography of frame acquisition, application, and fit in a pitch development and delivery experience. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 59(4), 323–341. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bolognesi, M. (2017). Using semantic feature norms to investigate how the visual and verbal modes afford metaphor construction and expression. Language and Cognition 9 (3), 525–552. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cameron, L. (2003). Metaphor in educational discourse. London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
(2008). Metaphor and talk. In R. W. Gibbs Jr. (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought (pp.197–211). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cogo, A. (2009). Accommodating difference in ELF Conversations: A study of pragmatic strategies. In A. Mauranen & E. Ranta, (Eds), English as a lingua franca: Studies and findings (pp. 254–273). Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press.Google Scholar
Daly, P., & Davy, D. (2016). Crafting the investor pitch using insights from rhetoric and linguistics. In G. M. Alessi & G. Jacobs (Eds.), The ins and outs of business and professional discourse research. Communicating in professions and organizations (pp. 182–203). London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Danesi, M. (1990). Thinking is seeing: Visual metaphors and the nature of abstract thought. Semiotica, 80 (3–4), 221–238. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Denning, P. J. & Dew, N. (2012). The myth of the elevator pitch. Communications of the ACM, 55(6), 38–40. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Franceschi, V. (2013). Figurative language and ELF: Idiomaticity in cross-cultural interaction in university settings. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, 2 (1), 75–99. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gibbs, R. W. (2017). Metaphor wars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Grady, J. (1997). theories are buildings revisited. Cognitive Linguistics, 8 (4), 267–290. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1998). The “Conduit” metaphor revisited: A reassessment of metaphors for communication. In J-P. Koenig (Ed.), Discourse and cognition: Bridging the gap (pp. 205–18). Stanford: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Hall, C. J. (2018). Cognitive perspectives on English as a lingua franca. In J. Jenkins, W. Baker & M. Dewey (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of English as a lingua franca (pp. 74–84). Oxford & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. (1994). An introduction to functional grammar (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hampe, B. (Ed.). (2017). Metaphor: Embodied cognition and discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Herrmann, J. B. (2013). Metaphor in academic discourse: Linguistic forms, conceptual structures, communicative functions and cognitive representations. Amsterdam, NL: LOT.Google Scholar
Johnson, M. (1987). The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination and reason. Chicago: Chicago University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Knudsen, S. (2003). Scientific metaphors going public. Journal of Pragmatics, 35 1, 1247–1263. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kövecses, Z. (2010). Metaphor: A practical introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kreutzer, K. (2022). On the discursive construction of social entrepreneurship in pitch situations: The intertextual reproduction of business and social discourse by presenters and their audience. Journal of Business Ethics, 179 1, 1071–1090. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Lakoff, G., & Turner, M. (1989). More than cool reason. A field guide to poetic metaphors. Chicago: Chicago University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2020). Rock bottoms, juggling balls and coalprints. In J. Barnden & A. Gargett (Eds.), Producing figurative expression: Theoretical, experimental and practical perspectives (pp. 331–361). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
MacArthur, F., & Littlemore, J. (2011). On the repetition of word with the potential for metaphoric extension in conversation between native and non-native speakers. Metaphor and the Social World, 1 (2), 201–239. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
MacArthur, F., Krennmayr, T., & Littlemore, J. (2015). How basic is “UNDERSTANDING IS SEEING” when reasoning about knowledge? Asymmetirc uses of sight hours in office hours consultations in English as academic lingua franca. Metaphor and Symbol, 30 (3), 184–217. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mauranen, A. (2012). Exploring ELF. Academic English shaped by non-native speakers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Morgan, W. R., & Wright, E. S. (2021). Ten simple rules for hitting a home run with your elevator pitch. PLoS Computational Biology, 17 (3). DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Müller, C. (2008). Metaphors dead and alive, sleeping and waking: A dynamic view. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nacey, S. (2013). Metaphor in learner English. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pitzl, M.-L. (2009). “We should not wake up any dogs”: Idiom and metaphor in ELF. In A. Mauranen & E. Ranta (Eds), English as a lingua franca: Studies and findings (pp. 299–322). Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
(2012). Creativity meets convention: idiom variation and re-metaphorization in ELF. Journal of English as a lingua franca, 1 (1), 27–55. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pitzl, M-L. (2018). Creativity in English as a lingua franca: Idiom and metaphor. Boston & Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Philip, G. (2017). Conventional and novel metaphors in language. In E. Semino & Z. Demjén (Eds.). The Routledge handbook of metaphor and language (pp. 237–250). Oxfrod & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Pragglejaz Group. (2007). MIP: A method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 22 (1), 1–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Prodromou, L. (2007). Kettles of fish: Or, does unilateral idiomaticity exist? English Today, 23 1, 34–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reddy, M. J. (1979). The conduit metaphor: A case of frame conflict in our language about language. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (2nd edition) (pp. 164–201). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sabaj, O., Cabezas, P., Varas, G., González-Vergara, C., & Pina-Stranger, A. (2020). Empirical literature on the business pitch: Classes, critiques and future trends. Journal of Technology Management & Innovation, 15 (1), 55–63. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schmid, H. J. (2020). The dynamics of the linguistic system: Usage, conventionalization, and entrenchment. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Seidlhofer, B. (2002). The shape of things to come? Some basic questions about English as a lingua franca. In K. Knapp & Ch. Meierkord (Eds.) Lingua franca communication (pp. 269–302). Frankfurt am Main, GE: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
(2011). Understanding English as a lingua franca. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Semino, E. (2005). The metaphorical construction of complex domains: the case of speech activity in English. Metaphor and Symbol, 20 1, 35–70. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2006). A corpus-based study of metaphors for speech activity in contemporary British English. In S. T. Gries & A. Stefanowitsch (Eds.), Corpus-based approaches to metaphor and metonymy (pp. 36–62). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Semino, E., Demjén, Z., Hardie, A., Payne, S., Rayson, P. (2018). Metaphor, cancer and the end of life: A corpus-based study. New York & London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Steen, G. J., Dorst, A. G., Herrmann, J. B., Kaal, A. A., Krennmayr, T., & Pasma, T. (2010). A method for linguistic metaphor identification: From MIP to MIPVU. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stampoulidis, G., & Bolognesi, M. (2019). Bringing metaphors back to the streets: A corpus-based study for the identification and interpretation of rhetorical figures in street art. Visual Communication, 18 (1), 9–32.Google Scholar
Sullivan, K. (2013). Frames and constructions in metaphoric language. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Swales, J. M. (2001). Metatalk in American academic talk: The cases of point and thing. Journal of English linguistics, 29 (1), 34–54. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sweetser, E. (1987). Metaphorical models of thought and speech: A comparison of historical directions and metaphorical mappings in the two domains. In J. Aske, N. Beery, L. Michaelis & H. Filip (Eds.), Proceedings of the thirteenth annual meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, (pp. 446–59). Berkeley, US: Berkeley Linguistics Society. DOI logoGoogle Scholar