Introducing MSDIP: A Method for coding source domains in metaphor analysis

Organised by Department of English and Research Centre for Professional Communication in English, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Abstract

Conceptual metaphor analysis is an important part of many metaphor studies (e.g., Ahrens & Jiang, 2020; Dodge, Jisup, & Sitckles, 2015; Steen, 1999, 2011), because conceptual metaphors are considered to provide a window onto human thinking (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). Over the years, however, the analytical process of attributing source-domain to linguistic metaphors has received relatively limited attention (Deignan, 2016). In this talk, we introduce a systematic, reliable method for source-domain coding in metaphor analysis. This method is based on the assumption that metaphorical words can have multiple potential source domains that need to be identified.

The method is illustrated through various examples from the Corpus of Historical American English and the Corpus of Contemporary American English. We also report the results of a series of reliability tests to show that the method constitutes a reliable tool for source-domain identification. Finally, we illustrate situations in which the linguistic context or aspects related to genre or time of publication may restrict the range of potential source domains. In such cases, linguistic and/or contextual information thus serve to further specify the source domain..

About the Speaker

Dr Gudrun Reijnierse (PhD, University of Amsterdam, 2017) is Assistant Professor of Language use and persuasive communication at the Centre for Language Studies (Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands). She investigates the use and effects of metaphor across different genres and communicative settings, with a particular focus on science communication and science journalism. She also has a strong interest in methodological innovation in metaphor studies, and has published on metaphor identification methods for various languages and various types of metaphors (including deliberate metaphor).