Metaphor in Business English
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Keywords:
Business English Cognitive Linguistics Discourse Analysis Metaphor
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Abstract
Metaphor is an important tool for developing business theories and communicating ideas in a business context. Linguistic research investigates the metaphors used in business English from various perspectives. This paper problematizes previous studies in terms of their applications of metaphor theories, the data and the methodological issues associated with metaphor identification and retrieval. These issues have profound influence on the findings and our knowledge of metaphors. It is argued that some of the studies employ a superficial view of metaphor and a more critical analysis and dynamic theories of metaphor is required. Furthermore, metaphor in multimodal communication needs more investigation. In addition, data are mainly written texts and thus spoken data require more attention in metaphor in business English research. What is more, clear criteria essential for identifying metaphorical expressions and methods for retrieving metaphors from large data sets are discussed. Only with more sophisticated use of metaphor theories, a wider range of data under investigation and suitable use of metaphor retrieval methods can we grasp a more thorough understanding of metaphor in business English. This knowledge can then be applied to language teaching, language description and critical studies of language and ideology.
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References
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Musolff, A. (2006) Metaphor Scenarios in Public Discourse. Metaphor and Symbol 21(1): 23–38.
Musolff, A. and Zinken, J. (2009) Metaphor and Discourse. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Nesi, H. and Gardner, S. (2012) Genres across the Disciplines: Student Writing in Higher Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nicolae, A. O. (2010) Metaphor, Text and Context in CEOs” Letters. Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti Bulletin, Philology Series 62(1): 51–61.
Pragglejaz. (2007) MIP: A Method for Identifying Metaphorically Used Words in Discourse. Metaphor and Symbol 22(1): 1–39.
Rayson, P. (2008) From Key Words to Key Semantic Domains. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 13(4): 519–549.
Rindfleisch, A. (1996) Marketing as Warfare: Reassessing a Dominant Metaphor. Business Horizons 39(5): 3–10.
Semino, E. (2008) Metaphor in Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Skorczynska, H. and Deignan, A. (2006) Readership and Purpose in the Choice of Economics Metaphors. Metaphor and Symbol 21(2): 87–104.
Skorczynska Sznajder, H. (2010) A Corpus-Based Evaluation of Metaphors in a Business English Textbook. English for Specific Purposes 29(1): 30–42.
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Van Dijk, T. a. (1993) Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis. Discourse and Society 4(2): 249–283.
Van Dijk, T. a. (2006) Ideology and Discourse Analysis. Journal of Political Ideologies 11(2): 115–140.
Velasco-Sacristán, M. (2010) Metonymic Grounding of Ideological Metaphors: Evidence from Advertising Gender Metaphors.Journal of Pragmatics 42(1): 64–96.
White, M. (2003) Metaphor and Economics: the Case of Growth. English for Specific Purposes 22(2): 131–151.
Widdowson, H. (1995) Discourse analysis: A Critical Review. Language and Literature 4: 157–172.
Wodak, R. and Meyer, M. (2008) Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Routledge.
Zobl, H. (1982) A Direction for Contrastive Analysis: the Comparative Study of Developmental Sequences. TESOL Quarterly 16(2): 169–183.
Baldry, A. and Thibault, P. J. (2006) Multimodal Transcription and Text Analysis. London: Equinox.
Boers, F. (2000) Metaphor Awareness and Vocabulary Retention. Applied Linguistics 21(4): 553–571.
Bratož, S. (2004) A Comparative Study of Metaphor in English and Slovene Popular Economic Discourse. Managaing Global Transitions 2(2): 179–196.
Cameron, L. and Maslen, R. (2010) Metaphor Analysis: Research Practice in Applied Linguistics, Social Sciences and the Humanities. London: Equinox.
Charteris-Black, J. (2000) Metaphor and Vocabulary Teaching in ESP Economics. English for Specific Purposes 19(2): 149–165.
Charteris-Black, J. (2004) Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. Basingstoke: Palgrave-MacMillan.
Charteris-Black, J. and Ennis, T. (2001) A Comparative Study of Metaphor in Spanish and English Financial Reporting. English for Specific Purposes 20: 249–266.
Charteris-Black, J. and Musolff, A. (2003) “Battered Hero” or “Innocent Victim”? A Comparative Study of Metaphors for Euro Trading in British and German Financial Reporting. English for Specific Purposes 22(2): 153–176.
Chung, S. (2008) Cross-linguistic Comparisons of the MARKET Metaphors. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 4(2): 141–175.
Deignan, A. (2005) Metaphor and Corpus Linguistics (Vol. 6). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing.
Deignan, A., Gabryś, D. and Solska, A. (1997) Teaching English Metaphors Using Cross-Linguistic Awareness-Raising Activities. ELT Journal 51(4): 352–360.
Fairclough, N. (2010) Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language, 2nd ed., Harlow: Longman.
Forceville, C. and Urios-Aparisi, E. (2009) Multimodal Metaphor (Vol.11). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Fukuda, K. (2009) A Comparative Study of Metaphors Representing the US and Japanese Economies. Journal of Pragmatics 41(9): 1693–1702.
Gavioli, L. (2005). Exploring corpora for ESP learning. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Goatly, A. (1997) The Language of Metaphors. Abingdon, UK: Taylor and Francis.
Goatly, A. (2007) Washing the Brain: Metaphor and Hidden Ideology (Vol.23). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Co.
Grajewska, M. B. (2009) The Role of Metaphors in the Language of Investment Banking. Iberica 17: 139–155. [Online URL: http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=2965798] accessed on May 15, 2014.
Greco, S. (2009) Metaphorical Headlines in Business, Finance and Economic Magazines. Linguistica E Filologia 1: 193–212. [Online URL: http://aisberg.unibg.it/handle/10446/380] accessed on May 10, 2014.
Guo, S. (2013) Metaphor Studies from the Perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis: A Case Study of Business Acquisition. Theory and Practice in Language Studies 3(3): 475–481.
Halliday, M. A. and Matthiessen, C. M. (2004) An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Arnold Publishers.
Handford, M. (2010) The Language of Business Meetings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Henderson, W. (1986) Metaphor in Economics. In Talking about Texts (Discourse Monograph Vol. 3), edited by Malcolm Couthard, pp. 109–127. Birmingham: Birmingham English Language Research.
Henderson, W. (2000) Metaphor, Economics and ESP: Some Comments. English for Specific Purposes 19(2): 167–173.
Herrera, H. and White, M. (2000) Cognitive Linguistics and the Language Learning Process: a Case from Economics. Estudios Ingleses de La Universidad Complutense 8: 55–77. [Online URL: http://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=174465andorden=1andinfo=link] accessed on February 20, 2014.
Hunston, S. (2002) Corpora in Applied Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hunt, S. D. and Menon, A. (1995) Metaphors and Competitive Advantage: Evaluating the Use of Metaphors in Theories of Competitive Strategy. Journal of Business Research 90: 81–90.
Khalil, E. L. (1998) The Five Careers of the Biological Metaphor in Economic Theory. The Journal of Socio-Economics 27(1): 29–52.
Kheovichai, B. (2010). Metaphor in the Discourse of Business Sciences: Using Semantic Annotation to Investigate a Corpus of Business Research Articles. Unpublished master’s dissertation, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
Koller, V. (2004) Metaphor and Gender in Business Media Discourse: A Critical Cognitive Study. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Koller, V. (2009) Brand Images: Multimodal Metaphor in Corporate Branding Messages. In Multimodal metaphor (Vol. 11), edited by Charles Forceville and Eduardo Urios-Aparisi, p. 45-72. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Koller, V., Hardie, A., Rayson, P. and Semino, E. (2008) Using a Semantic Annotation Tool for the Analysis of Metaphor in Discourse. Metaphorike.de 15: 141–160.
Lakoff, G. (1996) Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know that Liberals Don’t. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (1980) Metaphors We Live by (Vol.111). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Littlemore, J. (2001) The Use of Metaphor in University Lectures and the Problems that it Causes for Overseas Students. Teaching in Higher Education 6(3): 333–349.
López, A. M. R. and Llopis, M. Á. O. (2010) Metaphorical Pattern Analysis in Financial Texts: Framing the Crisis in Positive or Negative Metaphorical Terms. Journal of Pragmatics 42(12): 3300–3313.
McCloskey, D. (1995) Metaphor Economists Live by. Social Research 62(2): 215–237.
Musolff, A. (2006) Metaphor Scenarios in Public Discourse. Metaphor and Symbol 21(1): 23–38.
Musolff, A. and Zinken, J. (2009) Metaphor and Discourse. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Nesi, H. and Gardner, S. (2012) Genres across the Disciplines: Student Writing in Higher Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nicolae, A. O. (2010) Metaphor, Text and Context in CEOs” Letters. Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti Bulletin, Philology Series 62(1): 51–61.
Pragglejaz. (2007) MIP: A Method for Identifying Metaphorically Used Words in Discourse. Metaphor and Symbol 22(1): 1–39.
Rayson, P. (2008) From Key Words to Key Semantic Domains. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 13(4): 519–549.
Rindfleisch, A. (1996) Marketing as Warfare: Reassessing a Dominant Metaphor. Business Horizons 39(5): 3–10.
Semino, E. (2008) Metaphor in Discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Silaški, N. and Durovic, T. (2010a) CATCHING INFLATION BY THE TAIL--Animal Metaphoric Imagery in the Conceptualisation of INFLATION in English. Ibérica 20: 57–80. [Online URL: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=trueandprofile=ehostandscope=siteandauthtype=crawlerandjrnl=11397241andAN=54462477andh=5MsCfvnyQAJ6z7njsTtcJI8outaLq9uvMCP8tlL6M%2BwuOJA4jAWpq9BgCQERB1vQ9ijEa4xMj64jbhzvDdI%2BgA%3D%3Dandcrl=c] accessed November 15, 2013.
Silaški, N. and Durovic, T. (2010b) The Conceptualization of the Global Financial Crisis via the Economy is a Person Metaphor: a Contrastive Study of English and Serbian. Facta Universitatis 8(2): 129–139. [Online URL: http://scindeks.ceon.rs/article.aspx?artid=0354-47021002129S] accessed February 10, 2014.
Skorczynska, H. (2014) Metaphor and Education: Reaching Business Training Goals through Multimodal Metaphor. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 116: 2344–2351.
Skorczynska, H. and Deignan, A. (2006) Readership and Purpose in the Choice of Economics Metaphors. Metaphor and Symbol 21(2): 87–104.
Skorczynska Sznajder, H. (2010) A Corpus-Based Evaluation of Metaphors in a Business English Textbook. English for Specific Purposes 29(1): 30–42.
Sun, Y. and Jiang, J. (2014) Metaphor Use in Chinese and US Corporate Mission Statements: a Cognitive Sociolinguistic Analysis. English for Specific Purposes 33: 4–14.
Van Dijk, T. a. (1993) Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis. Discourse and Society 4(2): 249–283.
Van Dijk, T. a. (2006) Ideology and Discourse Analysis. Journal of Political Ideologies 11(2): 115–140.
Velasco-Sacristán, M. (2010) Metonymic Grounding of Ideological Metaphors: Evidence from Advertising Gender Metaphors.Journal of Pragmatics 42(1): 64–96.
White, M. (2003) Metaphor and Economics: the Case of Growth. English for Specific Purposes 22(2): 131–151.
Widdowson, H. (1995) Discourse analysis: A Critical Review. Language and Literature 4: 157–172.
Wodak, R. and Meyer, M. (2008) Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Routledge.
Zobl, H. (1982) A Direction for Contrastive Analysis: the Comparative Study of Developmental Sequences. TESOL Quarterly 16(2): 169–183.