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Metaphors of democracy in the greater China English editorial corpus
Author(s)
Date Issued
2017
Citation
Ahrens, K., & Zeng, H. (2017 May 25). Metaphors of democracy in the greater China English editorial corpus. ICAME 38: Corpus et Orbis: Interpreting the World through Corpora, Prague, Czech Republic.
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
Conceptual metaphor research focuses on the conceptual patt erns that underlie everyday language use. Using linguistic examples, researchers hypothesize how abstract concepts (‘target’ domains) use concrete concepts (‘source’ domains) within a given language. Recent research has focused not only the underlying cognitive conceptualizations, but also the underlying ideology of the speaker and found that speakers
of the same language can use very diff erent metaphors when talking about the same concept (Ahrens & Lee, 2009; Ahrens, 2011; Ahrens, 2016a, b; Ahrens & Chan, 2016).
Th is paper, which is part of the research project on VARIETIES OF ENGLISH IN THE INDO-PACIFIC (VEIP), examines the diff erences in conceptual metaphor use related to the idea of ‘democracy’ in editorials in contemporary English language newspapers in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, with a particular focus on how metaphor use refl ects the ideology of the editorial columnists in the diff erent regions. We undertake this task by independently compiling an English corpus of editorials from two national newspapers in the People’s Republic of China (China Daily and Global Times) during the period of 2011 to 2016 (61,904 words), from three newspapers in Hong Kong (South China Morning Post, Th e Standard and Hong Kong Free Press) for the period of 2012-2016 (51,216 words), and from two newspapers in Taiwan (Th e China Post and Taipei Times) for the period of 1999-2016 (33,761 words).
Aft er compiling the corpus, key-word-in-context searches are run using WordSmith tools and downloaded into Excel fi les, aft er which the lexeme “democracy” (as well as all the lemmas associated with “democracy” such as “democratic”, “democratically”, “democrat”, “democratize” and “democratization”) are analyzed for both tokens andtypes. In this study, metaphorical uses were identifi ed based on Group (2007) guidelines and normalized ratios (NR)are calculated (number of metaphorical instances/corpus size multiplied by 100,000).
Findings to date (based on our analysis of the keyword “democracy” (and all the lemmas of ‘democracy’) show that PRC discusses this topic signifi cantly less (NR = 8.08) than in the Hong Kong (NR = 29.29) or Taiwan corpus (NR = 38.51). In addition, the Taiwan corpus has two source domains (building and patient) primarily associated with this target domain, refl ecting the writers’ concerns with the overall robustness of the democratic system in Taiwan, while the Hong Kong corpus has more occurrences of war and journey metaphors, indicating writers’ concerns with protecting democratic rights as well as questions about the how far Hong Kong can “go” in terms of democracy as a Special Administrative Region of China. We plan on adding to this analysis by looking at other keywords related to democracy, including words that relate to democratic practices such as elections, voting, balloting, and campaigning to gather a fuller picture of the viewpoints of the writers with relation to these concepts.
Given that each of these regions practices democracy to a greater or lesser degree, compiling and analyzing the data will allow bett er understanding of how opinion infl uencers in the media utilize conceptual metaphors to sway theirreaders. In addition, study has particular signifi cance with respect to Hong Kong as it navigates demands for an increase level of participation in democratic processes. By bett er understanding the way issues relating to democracy are conceptualized throughout greater China, the more likely it is the various stakeholders and concerned citizens can understand others’ viewpoints and communicate eff ectively.
Th is paper, which is part of the research project on VARIETIES OF ENGLISH IN THE INDO-PACIFIC (VEIP), examines the diff erences in conceptual metaphor use related to the idea of ‘democracy’ in editorials in contemporary English language newspapers in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, with a particular focus on how metaphor use refl ects the ideology of the editorial columnists in the diff erent regions. We undertake this task by independently compiling an English corpus of editorials from two national newspapers in the People’s Republic of China (China Daily and Global Times) during the period of 2011 to 2016 (61,904 words), from three newspapers in Hong Kong (South China Morning Post, Th e Standard and Hong Kong Free Press) for the period of 2012-2016 (51,216 words), and from two newspapers in Taiwan (Th e China Post and Taipei Times) for the period of 1999-2016 (33,761 words).
Aft er compiling the corpus, key-word-in-context searches are run using WordSmith tools and downloaded into Excel fi les, aft er which the lexeme “democracy” (as well as all the lemmas associated with “democracy” such as “democratic”, “democratically”, “democrat”, “democratize” and “democratization”) are analyzed for both tokens andtypes. In this study, metaphorical uses were identifi ed based on Group (2007) guidelines and normalized ratios (NR)are calculated (number of metaphorical instances/corpus size multiplied by 100,000).
Findings to date (based on our analysis of the keyword “democracy” (and all the lemmas of ‘democracy’) show that PRC discusses this topic signifi cantly less (NR = 8.08) than in the Hong Kong (NR = 29.29) or Taiwan corpus (NR = 38.51). In addition, the Taiwan corpus has two source domains (building and patient) primarily associated with this target domain, refl ecting the writers’ concerns with the overall robustness of the democratic system in Taiwan, while the Hong Kong corpus has more occurrences of war and journey metaphors, indicating writers’ concerns with protecting democratic rights as well as questions about the how far Hong Kong can “go” in terms of democracy as a Special Administrative Region of China. We plan on adding to this analysis by looking at other keywords related to democracy, including words that relate to democratic practices such as elections, voting, balloting, and campaigning to gather a fuller picture of the viewpoints of the writers with relation to these concepts.
Given that each of these regions practices democracy to a greater or lesser degree, compiling and analyzing the data will allow bett er understanding of how opinion infl uencers in the media utilize conceptual metaphors to sway theirreaders. In addition, study has particular signifi cance with respect to Hong Kong as it navigates demands for an increase level of participation in democratic processes. By bett er understanding the way issues relating to democracy are conceptualized throughout greater China, the more likely it is the various stakeholders and concerned citizens can understand others’ viewpoints and communicate eff ectively.
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