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Part of
Producing Figurative Expression: Theoretical, experimental and practical perspectives
Edited by John Barnden and Andrew Gargett
[Figurative Thought and Language 10] 2020
► pp. 363–388

Figurative production in a computer-mediated discussion forum

Metaphors about relationship abuse

| Inland Norway University of Applied Science

When people undergo traumatic events, they frequently turn to metaphor in an attempt to make what might initially seem indescribable into something comprehensible to others, and/or to help themselves reach a clearer understanding of what has happened to them. This investigation explores such metaphorical language produced in computer-mediated discourse by survivors of relationship abuse to communicate about various aspects of their experience, thus shedding light on a traditionally “taboo” subject that many people find difficult to broach. The analysis first explores the ways survivors “frame” their experience through a particular source domain, and then looks at the various source domain “scenarios” that are drawn upon to elaborate particular salient details of the abuse. The chapter thus builds upon established theories about metaphorical frames and scenarios to explore what we may learn about a particular group (i.e. relationship abuse survivors) through analyzing their production of metaphor. In this way, it demonstrates why the theory of metaphor and the field of figurative language production matter in the real world.

Keywords: metaphorical analogies, relationship abuse, computer-mediated discourse, frames, scenarios
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background: Metaphor, frames and scenarios
  • 3.Material and methods
    • 3.1Primary data
    • 3.2Identification and analytical procedures
  • 4.Findings
    • 4.1 Frames
    • 4.2Selected scenarios
    • 4.3Negotiation among posters
  • 5. Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 17 December 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.10.13nac
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Nacey, Susan
2023. Systematic Metaphors in Norwegian Doctoral Dissertation Acknowledgements. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 67:5 ► pp. 679 ff. DOI logo
Sánchez-Moya, Alfonso
2021. From the uncertainty of violence to life after abuse: Discursive transitions among female survivors of Intimate Partner Violence in online contexts. Research in Corpus Linguistics 9:2 ► pp. 152 ff. DOI logo

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