A Corpus-Based Study on Conceptual Metaphors in the Finance & Economics Column of The Economist

Abstract

Traditional metaphor researches consider metaphors as a rhetoric device for ornamental study. In 1980, Lakoff and Johnson put forward the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, which marks the shift of metaphor study from rhetoric view to cognitive view. Since then, numerous studies at home and abroad on conceptual metaphors have emerged. Economic news has also become a research interest. However, few research concerns about The Economist, let alone Finance & Economics Column inside. Therefore, this study explores the conceptual metaphors in the Finance & Economics Column of the Economist with Conceptual Metaphor Theory as a theoretical foundation. In order to address the above questions, the paper selects articles from October 2019 to December 2019 in The Economist and employs both qualitative and quantitative approaches to analyze conceptual metaphors in the self-constructed corpus. The results show that: firstly, altogether 443 conceptual metaphors are identified in the corpus, covering structural metaphor, ontological metaphor and orientational metaphor. Due to space limitation, only JOURNNEY metaphor, HUMAN BEING metaphor and UP/DOWN metaphor with high frequency is selected to be analyzed in detail. And their frequency varies from each other. Secondly, these three metaphors are identified in the corpus function by mapping from the source domain to the target domain. Finally, the frequency of these three metaphors is different lies in the systematicity, cultural coherence of metaphors and characteristics of economic news. This study enlarges the scope of conceptual metaphor and helps enhance their metaphorical awareness in economic discourses.