Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis

Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis

Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis Jonathan Charteris-Black

Jonathan Charteris-Black, 2004 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2004 978-1-4039-3292-1 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2004 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-51630-8 ISBN 978-0-230-00061-2 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230000612 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Charteris-Black, Jonathan, 1955 Corpus approaches to critical metaphor analysis / Jonathan Charteris-Black. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Metaphor Data Processing. 2. Discourse analysis Data processing. I. Title. P301.5.M48C485 2004 306.44 dc22 2003066182 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04

Contents List of figures List of tables Preface Acknowledgements Style conventions ix x xii xiv xv Introduction 1 Part I Metaphor Background and Theory 5 1 Metaphor and Thought 7 1.1 Metaphor, ideology and thought 7 1.2 Metaphor and pragmatics 10 1.3 Cognitive semantics and conceptual metaphor 13 1.4 Conventional and creative metaphor 17 1.5 Defining metaphor 19 1.6 Metaphor and theory construction 22 1.7 Summary 23 2 Critical Approaches to Metaphor 25 2.1 Introduction 25 2.2 Critical Discourse Analysis 28 2.3 Corpus linguistics 30 2.4 A critical approach to researching metaphors 34 2.4.1 Metaphor identification 35 2.4.2 Metaphor interpretation 37 2.4.3 Metaphor explanation 39 2.5 Summary 41 Part II Metaphor in Political Discourse 45 3 The Metaphors of New Labour 47 3.1 Introduction 47 3.2 Metaphor and Europe 48 v

vi Contents 3.3 Metaphor in New Labour manifestos 52 3.3.1 Introduction 52 3.3.2 Analysis of the 1997 New Labour manifesto 54 3.4 Metaphor in New Labour speeches 58 3.5 Summary 63 4 Metaphor in British Party Political Manifestos 65 4.1 Introduction 65 4.2 Researching political manifestos 67 4.3 Metaphor in Labour and Conservative manifestos 68 4.3.1 Overview 68 4.3.2 Conflict metaphors 69 4.3.3 Building metaphors 70 4.3.4 Journey metaphors 74 4.3.5 Plant metaphors 77 4.3.6 Religious metaphors 79 4.4 Diachronic metaphor shifts 79 4.5 Summary 84 5 Metaphor in American Presidential Speeches 87 5.1 Introduction 87 5.2 Researching American political discourse 88 5.3 Metaphor in the US Inaugural Corpus 89 5.4 Conflict metaphors 91 5.5 Journey metaphors 93 5.6 Building metaphors 95 5.7 Light and fire metaphors 100 5.8 Physical environment metaphors 102 5.9 Religious metaphors 103 5.10 Body part metaphors 105 5.11 Comparison of British Manifesto and US Inaugural Corpora 105 5.12 Summary 109 Part III Metaphor in Press Reporting 111 6 Metaphor in Sports Reporting 113 6.1 Introduction 113 6.2 Sports metaphors in war reporting 114 6.3 Researching sports metaphors in the British press 116

Contents vii 6.4 Qualitative analysis of metaphors of conflict in press sports reporting 121 6.4.1 Metaphors of war 122 6.4.2 Analysis of metaphors of survival in press sports reporting 126 6.5 Summary 132 7 Metaphor in Financial Reporting 135 7.1 Introduction 135 7.2 The evolution of biological and mechanistic metaphor in economics 136 7.3 Researching financial reporting 138 7.4 Overview of findings 140 7.4.1 The economy is human 140 7.4.1.1 Market trading is physical conflict 142 7.4.1.2 Market trading is a state of mental health 146 7.4.1.3 The state of market trading is a state of physical health 149 7.4.2 Economic problems are natural disasters 151 7.4.2.1 Downward market changes are disasters 152 7.4.2.2 A very bad market is a nuclear disaster 154 7.4.2.3 A bad market is an earthquake 155 7.4.2.4 The behaviour of the market is the behaviour of gas 156 7.4.3 Market changes are physical movements 158 7.4.3.1 Market changes are ways of moving on the ground 159 7.4.3.2 Market changes are ways of moving in the water or nautical conditions 162 7.4.3.3 Market changes are ways of moving in air 165 7.5 Summary 167 Part IV Metaphor in Religious Discourse 171 8 Metaphor in the Bible 173 8.1 Introduction: metaphor and religion 173 8.2 Researching metaphor in the Bible 177 8.3 Biblical metaphors 181 8.3.1 Overview 181 8.3.2 Animal metaphors in the Old and New Testaments 182

viii Contents 8.3.3 Light metaphors in the Old and New Testaments 185 8.3.4 Plant metaphors in the Old and New Testaments 190 8.3.4.1 Evaluation of plant metaphors 195 8.3.5 Food and drink metaphors in the Old and New Testaments 199 8.4 Summary 200 9 Metaphor in the Old Testament 202 9.1 Introduction 202 9.2 Building metaphors in the Old Testament 202 9.3 Journey metaphors in the Old Testament 204 9.4 Conflict metaphors in the Old Testament 207 9.5 Weather metaphors in the Old Testament 209 9.6 Fire metaphors in the Old Testament 214 9.7 Summary 217 10 Metaphor in the Koran 218 10.1 Introduction: socio-cultural context of the Koran 218 10.2 Researching metaphor in the Koran 220 10.3 Overview of findings 220 10.4 Productive sources of metaphor in the Koran 222 10.4.1 Journey metaphors in the Koran 224 10.4.2 Weather metaphors in the Koran 228 10.4.3 Light and fire metaphors in the Koran 230 10.4.4 Plant metaphors in the Koran 233 10.5 Unproductive metaphor source domains in the Koran 234 10.5.1 Food and drink metaphors in the Koran 235 10.5.2 Animal metaphors in the Koran 237 10.6 Summary 238 Part V A Discourse Theory of Metaphor 241 11 Critical Metaphor Analysis 243 11.1 Introduction 243 11.2 Cognitive semantics and Critical Metaphor Analysis 243 11.3 Metaphor and subliminal meaning 249 11.4 Critical Metaphor Analysis and personal empowerment 251 Bibliography 254 Index 259 Index of Conceptual Metaphors and Conceptual Keys 262

List of Figures 2.1 Conceptual metaphor and ideology: contrasting rhetorical conceptualisations of terrorism 40 6.1 Conceptual map for metaphors of conflict and survival 129 7.1 Conceptual metaphors and conceptual keys for financial reporting 142 8.1 Inheritance hierarchy for biblical light metaphors 189 8.2 Inheritance hierarchy for biblical darkness metaphors 190 8.3 Conceptual map for HUMANS ARE PLANTS/SPIRITUAL IS NATURAL 192 8.4 Inheritance hierarchy for biblical plant metaphors 195 9.1 Conceptual metaphors for building in the Bible 204 9.2 Conceptual metaphors for journeys in the Bible 208 11.1 A hierarchical cognitive model of metaphor 245 11.2 A discourse model for metaphor 248 ix

List of Tables 3.1 Distribution of metaphors in New Labour s 1997 manifesto 55 3.2 Metaphor in the first section of the 1997 Labour manifesto 56 3.3 The discourse of Blair s 2001 Labour Party conference speech 59 3.4 Ethical discourse in Gordon Brown s Civic Society in Modern Britain speech, July 2000 62 4.1 Metaphor source domains in early and recent post-war manifestos 81 4.2 Summary of conceptual metaphors in British party political manifestos 84 5.1 Summary of source domains and resonance in the US Inaugural Corpus 90 5.2 Comparison of metaphor types in British party political manifestos and American presidential inaugural speeches 106 5.3 Fire and light metaphors in American English sections of the Bank of English 108 5.4 Summary of conceptual metaphors in the US Inaugural Corpus 110 6.1 Conflict lexicon in the Bank of English 118 6.2 Use of conflict lexicon in sports contexts in the first 100 lines of the Bank of English sub-corpora for The Times and The Sun 119 6.3 The conflict lexicon in The Times 120 6.4 Frequency of conflict lexicon in sports sections of The Times and The Sun 121 7.1 Overview of conceptual metaphors of financial reporting 141 7.2 7.12 Conceptual motivation of metaphor in financial reporting 169 8.1 Metaphor source domains in the Bible sample 181 8.2 Metaphors of dark and light in the gospels 188 8.3 Distribution of dark and light metaphors in the gospel of John 188 x

List of Tables xi 8.4 Biblical tree metaphors and positive evaluation 197 8.5 Biblical plant metaphors and negative evaluation 198 8.6 Summary of conceptual keys and conceptual metaphors in the Bible sample 201 10.1 Productive metaphor source domains in the Koran 223 10.2 Unproductive metaphor source domains in the Koran 235 10.3 Summary of conceptual keys and conceptual metaphors in the Koran 239

Preface This book has been written at a turbulent time of international affairs. On the one hand certain processes such as the movement of people about the globe, access to technology and the growth of the world wide web seem to be bringing people closer together, while on the other there are forces driving people further apart. There are advocates of modernity who see technology and the free movement of capital and people leading to a better, wealthier world, while there are others who resist what they see as the corrupting influences of modernity because it divides people into winners and losers. This is leading to a world in which violence whether by non-governmental or governmental agents seems to be on the increase. This is also a time when because more and more people have access to more and more information, the media seem to have an increasing influence on our beliefs about this world. It is this growth of information and media that enables acts of violence to become acts of terrorism in the first place, because we can only be afraid of what the media have brought to our attention. So there is a symbiosis between the forces that are bringing the world closer together the world wide web, the growth of cable television, mobile phones, etc. and those that are pulling it apart: fear and the manipulation of fear. What I have aimed to do in this book is to try to explain how a better understanding of the relationship between language and thought can help us to be more in control of the apparently overwhelming forces of modernity. I have tried to demonstrate that a critical approach to the language of those who hold power in society politicians, media barons and theocrats will show us what sort of factors influence their choice of emotive words and phrases. Metaphors are usually influential because they persuade us of certain ways of viewing the world. I hold the belief that a better understanding of language is the basis of creating a better society. The stance that I argue is a critical one in which people are educated so that they are able to analyse and evaluate the ideas offered to them by those who aspire to positions of power; without this there can be no democracy because there is no choice. It is not a new approach to the analysis of language and was traditionally known as the study of rhetoric: however, at no time has it been a more crucial area of investigation than today. xii

Preface xiii I describe this approach as Critical Metaphor Analysis; readers will find out that this is a perspective that aims to bring together perspectives from critical discourse analysis, corpus analysis, pragmatics and cognitive linguistics. It is my belief that the tendency for separate subschools of linguistics to emerge has more to do with the exigencies of career building and a drawing of boundaries of academic territory than any real inconsistency between these approaches. Nor do I see linguistic analysis as separate from other social sciences such as political science, sociology, media studies and history because when powerful opinion makers make particular linguistic selections this is with the specific purpose of being persuasive. I see an approach that integrates linguistic analysis with cognitive understanding and social insight as valuable in explaining why a metaphor rather than some alternative mode of expression was chosen in a particular type of discourse. Finally, though, since the start of modern metaphor studies, there has been an awareness that metaphor has both linguistic and cognitive aspects it concerns both words and thoughts however, I don t think it is productive to give primacy to either one of these perspectives. Metaphor is always going be about both thought and about language forms it is therefore primarily about meaning (the relationship between the world, linguistic forms and underlying mental representations); therefore understanding more about metaphor can only assist us in understanding more about what we mean by meaning. I would like to thank colleagues at the conferences on Researching and Applying Metaphor and Cognitive Linguistics whose limitless passion for language has given me the enthusiasm to write this book. I would also like to thank those who have allowed me the time to write while providing the inspiration to do so: Fadila, Sara and Tanya. Jonathan Charteris-Black, July 2003

Acknowledgements The author would like to express his thanks to Cobuild for access to the Bank of English and to anonymous Palgrave-Macmillan reviewers for their suggestions for improvements to earlier drafts of this work. He would also like to thank the following who have produced web sites which were valuable in providing sources of data for use in this book: George Lakoff (Conceptual Metaphor page); the University of Keele; the University of Berkeley; The Times newspaper; The Sun newspaper; and The Economist. (Web site addresses are given at the end of the Bibliography.) xiv

Style Conventions As has become accepted practice in cognitive linguistic approaches, upper case is reserved to represent the abstract thoughts underlying metaphors (usually known as conceptual metaphors). Words or phrases that are selected for the focus of discussion are placed in single speech marks; once they are definitively classified as metaphors they are either shown in italics or, in some cases, in bold for special emphasis. In some places italics are also used for the written equivalent of when a word or phrase is stressed in the spoken language. Any lack of consistency in applying these conventions is entirely the fault of the author rather than that of the publisher or printer. xv