“Brexit means…”
UK vs. continental online-media users and English-language metaphoric conceptualizations
Brexit, i.e. the withdrawal of the uk from the eu, is an event, which, regardless of its course
and destination, has had a lasting impact on international politics. This paper offers a cognitive linguistic perspective on
Brexit and investigates its conceptual metaphorizations on the first days after the uk referendum. The paper compares
data from uk and non-uk eu media. The perspective adopted is that of Socio-Cognitive Studies in combination with
quantitative analysis. The findings suggest there are significant differences between uk source domains and continental
eu ones, e.g. overall metaphor use throughout the period is more pronounced in the uk sub-dataset; in the
uk sub-dataset, divorce metaphorizations characterize either a ‘break-up’ between ‘two Britains’ or an
uk-eu ‘break-up’; journey, disaster and war are more frequently used in the uk, while
mechanical failure is more prominent in the continental sub-dataset. Overall, a preference for inanimate source
domains characterizes both sub-datasets.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Political and media background
- 3.Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) background
- 4.Dataset
- 5.Analytical procedures
- 6.Data and discussion
- 7.Conclusion
-
References
-
Internet sources
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McCormick, Lisa
2020.
Marking time in lockdown: heroization and ritualization in the UK during the coronavirus pandemic.
American Journal of Cultural Sociology 8:3
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