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Article published In:
Chinese Language and Discourse
Vol. 12:2 (2021) ► pp.238–258

Power and gender

Metaphors in mergers and acquisitions texts in a Chinese financial newspaper

ORCID logo | Shandong University, China
| Shandong University, China
This study investigates metaphors used in mergers and acquisitions texts in a Chinese financial newspaper, The 21st Century Business Herald. Based on corpus data, we approach the rhetorical motive and persuasive power hidden behind metaphors from the perspective of rhetorical criticism. The study found four major metaphors: war, marriage, struggle and hunting, and game, in the financial texts about mergers and acquisitions. The war metaphor is the most common variety, followed by the marriage metaphor, suggesting the role of power perception and gender perception in the representation of financial affairs.
Keywords: metaphor, mergers and acquisitions texts, Chinese financial newspaper, rhetorical criticism
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data and methods
  • 3.Results and analysis
    • 3.1Results
    • 3.2Textual analysis
      • Metaphor of war
      • Metaphor of marriage
      • Metaphor of struggle and hunting
      • Metaphor of game
    • 3.3Features of four metaphors in M&As texts
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 22 January 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.19011.li
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