A Critical Metaphor Analysis of Anti-telefraud Public Legal Education Discourse

Abstract

Nowadays, news media provides an important platform for knowledge dissemination of public legal education (PLE) and combating fraud is one of the most important topics in PLE news reports. WAR, ANIMAL and CONTAINER metaphors are three important metaphors that frequently appear in anti-telefraud PLE discourse. The present paper analyzes the role of the three metaphors in English and Chinese anti-telefraud PLE discourse based on the framework of critical metaphor analysis. Specifically speaking, the paper focuses on two research questions: 1) How WAR, ANIMAL and CONTAINER metaphors are used in PLE discourse that serves for anti-fraud activity. 2) Whether, if so, how do the metaphors achieve the function of evaluation and persuasion in PLE discourse. Our analysis shows that WAR, ANIMAL and CONTAINER metaphors construct different metaphor scenarios in anti-telefraud PLE discourse, highlighting different aspects of telecom fraud. Moreover, WAR, ANIMAL, and CONTAINER metaphors, as a very powerful tool for framing reality of telecom fraud and anti-telefraud topic, play an important role in simplifying and facilitating the understanding of telecom fraud and anti-telefraud process; they also enhance the effects of persuasion by its role of expressing “evaluative stances” on the perceived reality.