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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 1:2 (2003) ► pp.199–220

The semiotics of metaphor

The conduit metaphor in Singapore’s language policy

| National University of Singapore

This article investigates the role of metaphor in the production and reproduction of language ideologies. It does this by focusing on official discourses concerning the language policy of Singapore, where recurrent appeal is made to the conduit metaphor (Reddy 1993) in articulating various claims and beliefs about language and its relation to questions of identity and values.

The analytic framework adopted here treats language ideologies in terms of three semiotic processes: iconization, recursion, and erasure (Gal and Irvine 1995). By tracking a single metaphor through a variety of discourses, the article illustrates how these semiotic processes come together when metaphor is used in the service of ideology. The article also suggests the introduction of a fourth semiotic process, performativity, which draws attention to the various lexical realizations of the conduit metaphor.

Keywords: metaphor, political discourse, semiotics, Singapore, language ideologies
Published online: 10 July 2003
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.1.2.03wee
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Cited by 2 other publications

Park, Joseph Sung-Yul & Lionel Wee
2008. Appropriating the language of the other: Performativity in autonomous and unified markets. Language & Communication 28:3 ► pp. 242 ff. DOI logo
Wee, Lionel
2006. The semiotics of language ideologies in Singapore1. Journal of Sociolinguistics 10:3 ► pp. 344 ff. DOI logo

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