Publications

Publication details [#5607]

Hart, Christopher. 2007. Review of 'Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis' by Charteris-Black, Jonathan. Basingstoke, U.K: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004. ISBN: 1403932921, 280 pages. Cognitive Linguistics 18 (1) : 100–110.

Abstract

The aim of this book is to demonstrate the importance of metaphor because of its role in the development of ideology in areas such as politics and religion where influencing judgements is a central discourse goal. (p. 8) Further, where Hodge and Kress (1993: 15) propose that ideology 'involves a systematically organised presentation of reality', Charteris-Black in the second chapter argues that metaphor is 'central to critical discourse analysis since it is concerned with forming a coherent view of reality' (p. 28). The notion of a 'discourse goal' leads us to the aspect of the book upon which I wish to focus most saliently in this review. It is this concept which is central to the particular approach developed by Charteris-Black, the approach he terms 'Critical Metaphor Analysis' (CMA). CMA is denned as the 'integration of cognitive semantic and pragmatic approaches that is based on corpus evidence' (p. 13). The theoretical development of CMA is perhaps the most important feature of the book for it offers a methodology for the study of metaphor in CDA which incorporates speaker1 intentions, an important dimension in the study of linguistic persuasion. In recognising this pragmatic element, Charteris-Black resolves the problem of 'metaphor motivation' perceived to be inherent in other critical Cognitive Linguistic analyses where the cognitive approach is isolated from the pramatic one. (Christopher Hart)