Tracing social change through metaphor: A diachronic corpus-assisted analysis

Abstract

This paper examines how conceptualizations of ‘election’ have changed in post-colonial Hong Kong. Drawing on Burgers’ (2016) approach to model how metaphors change their focus on social topics over time, we study the uses of ELECTION metaphors in speeches by government leaders. These changes are classified as either fundamental changes (the use of metaphorical terms from a different domain) or incremental changes (changes in mapping principles within the same domain). We found a reliance on JOURNEY metaphors in framing ELECTION issues. Incremental changes within the ELECTION IS A JOURNEY metaphor highlight a change between the first (1997-2007) and second decades (2008-2017) after the handover from Britain to China. Our study shows that analysing changes in metaphorical frames in discourse is a practical approach to reflect the conceptualizations of social change.