Metaphors to describe sanctions against Iran in American and Iranian newspapers
Since Iran’s 1979 revolution, Sanctions Against Iran (SAI) has been one of the most crucial issues concerning Iran and the US’ relationships, and both parties employ different metaphors to depict the situation in line with their own ideologies. This study explored the conceptual metaphors (CM) concerning the sanctions against Iran in two corpora of the editorials and news extracted from an international American newspaper (New York Times) and a local Iranian English press (Iran Daily). Following Charteris-Black’s (2004Charteris-Black, Jonathan 2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Charteris-Black, Jonathan 2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ) framework for Critical Metaphor Analysis, sixty editorial news texts (thirty for each), since 2013 until 2021, were scrutinized for the CMs in the two corpora. The findings revealed that although both newspapers took advantage of the metaphors in description of the sanctions against Iran, there were significant differences between them in the employment of the CMs. The American newspaper enjoyed more frequent and diverse metaphors to represent the sanctions compared to the Iranian newspaper, and “SAI is a pain/illness” (22.7%) was the most frequent conceptual metaphor in the New York Times whereas “SAI is a human” (32.4%) and “SAI is a journey” (18.9%) were the common metaphors in Iran Daily. The results suggest how language could be manipulated to serve different purposes.
Publication history
1.Introduction
Over the years, sanctions have had a serious impact on Iran’s economy and people. Since 1979, especially in the last decade, the United States has used sanctions against Iran to make changes in Iran’s behavior and policies, including Iran’s nuclear program, which Western governments claim is going to be used for nuclear weapons. Iran, on the other hand, counters these accusations and states that its nuclear program is for civilian purposes, such as medical purposes and generating energy. Therefore, both parties make use of discursive devices such as metaphors to describe the sanctions based on their own ideology.
Metaphor is among many other linguistic devices like lexical and syntactic choices (e.g., passive/active structures, speech acts, and implicatures) that are used with persuasive and manipulative purposes in political discourse (Yu et al. 2017Yu, Ning, Lu Yu, and Yue Christine Lee 2017 “Primary Metaphors: Importance as Size and Weight in a Comparative Perspective”. Metaphor and Symbol 32 (4): 231–249. Yu, Ning, Lu Yu, and Yue Christine Lee 2017 “Primary Metaphors: Importance as Size and Weight in a Comparative Perspective”. Metaphor and Symbol 32 (4): 231–249. ). Thus, implementing a specific metaphor to transmit a certain idea is a strong way of persuasion. It is widely believed that metaphors are able to change people’s viewpoints, strengthen their already-existing opinions on some political matters, and represent reality in a wrong way.
From a pedagogical standpoint, it is apparent that metaphor’s pervasiveness in language learning and instruction has received a great deal of attention. The importance and pervasiveness of metaphors, resulting from the outcomes of many research investigations, can be applied to teaching and learning metaphors to help improve the quality of teaching and learning.
Even though Iran-US relations and ongoing controversial issues such as sanctions against Iran could be a favorable context in which conceptual metaphors happen frequently, there appears to be very little literature on conceptual metaphors (CMs) dealing with Iran’s foreign policy in general and the sanctions against Iran in particular. In other words, there has not been enough research on how Iranian media portrays the sanctions as opposed to American media. The present study was conducted as an attempt to fill these gaps in the literature by conducting corpus-based research to investigate and compare the conceptual metaphors concerning the sanctions against Iran in two corpora of the editorials and news extracted from an international English newspaper (i.e., New York Times) and a local Iranian English press (Iran Daily).
2.Literature review
Metaphor, as a basic and widely-used figure of speech, is usually used to make implied comparison (Ruiz de Mendoza 2020Ruiz de Mendoza, Francisco 2020 “Understanding Figures of Speech: Dependency Relations and Organizational Patterns”. Language and Communication 71: 16–38. Ruiz de Mendoza, Francisco 2020 “Understanding Figures of Speech: Dependency Relations and Organizational Patterns”. Language and Communication 711: 16–38. ). Traditionally, metaphor has been considered a linguistic matter and has been investigated in rhetorical, philosophical, and literary works. However, metaphors have recently found their way into other areas such as cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics, and the social sciences. Contrary to traditional linguistics, in cognitive linguistics, metaphor goes beyond language itself and deals with thought and the cognition of people. In their seminal work, Lakoff and Johnson (1980)Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson 1980 Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson 1980 Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. described metaphor as “a cognitive phenomenon in which people understand abstract target domains in relation to concrete source domains” (Lakoff and Johnson 1980Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson 1980 Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson 1980 Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press., 8). Metaphors, according to Kövecses (2021) 2021 “Standard and Extended Conceptual Theory Revisited: Some Definitional and Taxonomic Issues”. In The Routledge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by Wen Xu, and John R. Taylor, 191–204. New York, NY: Routledge. 2021 “Standard and Extended Conceptual Theory Revisited: Some Definitional and Taxonomic Issues”. In The Routledge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by Wen Xu, and John R. Taylor, 191–204. New York, NY: Routledge. , are contextual-and-cultural-bound phenomena, and in their interpretations, contextual information and factors such as situational context, discourse context, conceptual-cognitive context, and bodily context should be taken into account. Charteris-Black (2004)Charteris-Black, Jonathan 2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Charteris-Black, Jonathan 2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. stated that metaphors are central to the field of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), since it is about making a coherent perspective of the world, but it has been largely ignored in the CDA mainstream. Today, the combination of cognitive linguistics and metaphor studies has led to Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA), particularly in political discourse.
2.1Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT)
Drawing upon Michael Reddy’s (1979)Reddy, Michael 1979 “The Conduit Metaphor”. Metaphor and Thought 2: 285–324.Reddy, Michael 1979 “The Conduit Metaphor”. Metaphor and Thought 21: 285–324. contributions, Lakoff and Johnson (1980)Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson 1980 Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson 1980 Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press., in their famous book entitled Metaphors We Live By, initially hypothesized Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), which was then expanded upon by a number of theorists (Kövecses 2020 2020 Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory. London: Cambridge University Press. 2020 Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory. London: Cambridge University Press. ; Lakoff 1993Lakoff, George 1993 “The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor”. In Metaphor and Thought, ed. by Andrew Ortony, 202–251. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lakoff, George 1993 “The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor”. In Metaphor and Thought, ed. by Andrew Ortony, 202–251. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ; Lakoff and Johnson 1999 1999 Philosophy in the Flesh. New York, NY: Basic Books. 1999 Philosophy in the Flesh. New York, NY: Basic Books.). They highlighted the significance of metaphors in our lives and asserted that metaphors have the power to shape our understanding and view of reality (Kövecses 2021 2021 “Standard and Extended Conceptual Theory Revisited: Some Definitional and Taxonomic Issues”. In The Routledge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by Wen Xu, and John R. Taylor, 191–204. New York, NY: Routledge. 2021 “Standard and Extended Conceptual Theory Revisited: Some Definitional and Taxonomic Issues”. In The Routledge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by Wen Xu, and John R. Taylor, 191–204. New York, NY: Routledge. ). In their new book Philosophy in the Flesh, Lakoff and Johnson (1999) 1999 Philosophy in the Flesh. New York, NY: Basic Books. 1999 Philosophy in the Flesh. New York, NY: Basic Books. expanded their previous ideas on CMT and suggested that metaphorical thought forms much of the philosophy, primary metaphor enjoys a key position in CMT, and metaphor-based experientialism should be considered in CMT.
Since then, the cultural dimension of metaphors, the neuroscientific approach to metaphors, the issue of methodology of metaphors, and the role of context in metaphorical conceptualization have been the major developments in the history of CMT (Kövecses 2021 2021 “Standard and Extended Conceptual Theory Revisited: Some Definitional and Taxonomic Issues”. In The Routledge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by Wen Xu, and John R. Taylor, 191–204. New York, NY: Routledge. 2021 “Standard and Extended Conceptual Theory Revisited: Some Definitional and Taxonomic Issues”. In The Routledge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by Wen Xu, and John R. Taylor, 191–204. New York, NY: Routledge. ).
2.2Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA)
Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA) is defined as an analytical investigation and exploration of covert purposes of a speaker. CMA has been developed based on the tenets of both Critical Discourse Analysis and CMT (Charteris-Black 2005 2005 Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphor. London: Palgrave MacMillan. 2005 Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphor. London: Palgrave MacMillan. ). To have an adequate account and a full appreciation of metaphor analysis, linguistic, cognitive, and pragmatic aspects of the metaphor should be taken into account (Zibin 2020Zibin, Aseel 2020 “A Corpus-Based Study of Metaphors Used to Describe Syrian Refugees in Jordanian Politico-Economic Discourse: A Critical Metaphor Analysis Approach”. Pragmatics and Society 11 (4): 640–663. Zibin, Aseel 2020 “A Corpus-Based Study of Metaphors Used to Describe Syrian Refugees in Jordanian Politico-Economic Discourse: A Critical Metaphor Analysis Approach”. Pragmatics and Society 11 (4): 640–663. ).
Charteris-Black (2004)Charteris-Black, Jonathan 2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Charteris-Black, Jonathan 2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. suggested identification, interpretation and explanation as three stages of conducting CMA. In the first stage, that is, metaphor identification, the researcher reads a sample of the corpus and extracts candidate metaphors from the sample. Then, the words that are metaphorically used are listed and can be generalized to the whole corpus. So, one can measure the frequency of these metaphorical keywords in the corpus. In the second stage, metaphor interpretation, the researcher decides whether the keywords have been used metaphorically or literally. When the contextual meaning of the words differs from their literal meaning, they are used metaphorically. Identifying metaphors implies combining metaphors and the cognitive and pragmatic aspects that govern them (Charteris-Black 2014 2014 Analyzing Political Speeches: Rhetoric, Discourse and Metaphor. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 2014 Analyzing Political Speeches: Rhetoric, Discourse and Metaphor. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ). Inferring conceptual metaphors from superficial linguistic ones could help the researcher recognize and understand the relationship between metaphors and their meanings. The explanation of metaphors is the third stage of CMA. In this stage, the sociological and ideological purposes of using certain metaphors are investigated.
2.3Studies on conceptual metaphor in political discourse
Political discourse has been heavily influenced by metaphors. Different researchers have looked into this area from various angles. Various studies have highlighted how metaphors are used in different cultures to conceptualize politics differently.
In some cross-cultural studies, the study of metaphors has revealed both universal common points and significant variations between the two cultures. These studies show how metaphors are used to convey political concepts across different languages and provide valuable insights into the cognitive processes involved in political communication (Bratoz 2012Bratoz, Silva 2012 “Slovenian and US Elections in Metaphors: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective”. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines 5 (2): 120–136.Bratoz, Silva 2012 “Slovenian and US Elections in Metaphors: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective”. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines 5 (2): 120–136.). In some other studies, the contrasting representations of the same events highlight how metaphors can shape public perception and influence discourse. This fact underscores the importance of analyzing metaphoric language in political communication to understand how different narratives are constructed (Fallah and Raouf Moini 2016Fallah, Nahid, and Mohammad Raouf Moini 2016 “A Critical Metaphor Analysis of Arab Uprisings in The Washington Post and Keyhan Editorials”. Metaphor and the Social World 6 (1): 79–102. Fallah, Nahid, and Mohammad Raouf Moini 2016 “A Critical Metaphor Analysis of Arab Uprisings in The Washington Post and Keyhan Editorials”. Metaphor and the Social World 6 (1): 79–102. ). The way metaphors could be used by politicians to support their ideas or persuade their audience has been the focus of some other studies. These studies show that metaphoric language plays a crucial role in political rhetoric and influencing public opinion (Nartey 2018Nartey, Mark 2018 “Football in Computer-Mediated Discourse: A Move Analysis of Match Reviews”. Linguistik Online 89 (2): 37–49. Nartey, Mark 2018 “Football in Computer-Mediated Discourse: A Move Analysis of Match Reviews”. Linguistik Online 89 (2): 37–49. ; Zibin 2020Zibin, Aseel 2020 “A Corpus-Based Study of Metaphors Used to Describe Syrian Refugees in Jordanian Politico-Economic Discourse: A Critical Metaphor Analysis Approach”. Pragmatics and Society 11 (4): 640–663. Zibin, Aseel 2020 “A Corpus-Based Study of Metaphors Used to Describe Syrian Refugees in Jordanian Politico-Economic Discourse: A Critical Metaphor Analysis Approach”. Pragmatics and Society 11 (4): 640–663. ). The significant use of metaphors in some specific contexts related to some issues such as power relations, manipulation, deception, authority, judgment and appreciation provides valuable insights into how metaphoric language is employed strategically to shape discursive strategies and attitudes towards specific issues (Farahani and Adeli Jam 2019Farahani, Ali Akbar, and Zohreh Adeli Jam 2019 “The Role of Metaphorical Language in the Critical Discourse Analysis of Western Political Texts”. Journal of Language and Translation 9 (1): 17–31.Farahani, Ali Akbar, and Zohreh Adeli Jam 2019 “The Role of Metaphorical Language in the Critical Discourse Analysis of Western Political Texts”. Journal of Language and Translation 9 (1): 17–31.).
Overall, these studies contribute significantly to our understanding of how metaphors permeate political discourse across different cultures. They provide insights into cognitive processes involved in conceptualizing politics through metaphorical language, shed light on discursive strategies employed by politicians, and reveal how metaphoric language shapes public perception.
While CDA and CMA have gained a lot of interest in political discourse in recent years, it seems that the majority of studies on metaphors in the context of politics have targeted Western culture. Even though Iran and the United States’ relations and ongoing controversial issues such as sanctions against Iran could be a favorable context in which conceptual metaphors happen frequently, there appears to be very little literature on CMA dealing with Iran’s foreign policy in general and the sanctions against Iran in particular. Therefore, the present study was conducted primarily with the aim of determining the occurrence of CMs in the description of the sanctions against Iran in the American (New York Times) and Iranian (Iran Daily) newspapers. Further, it was intended to draw a comparison between the two newspapers in terms of the implementation of CMs and identify the potential differences and similarities in this respect. Therefore, this study tries to fill this gap by answering the following questions:
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What is the frequency of metaphorical expressions implemented in the New York Times and Iran Daily with regard to the sanctions against Iran?
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What are the similarities and differences between the conceptual metaphors (CMs) in the New York Times and Iran Daily editorials concerning the sanctions against Iran?
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Why do American/Iranian newspapers use certain metaphors but not others? And how do these metaphors reflect the ideologies of the writers?
3.Method
3.1Corpus
In this research, regarding the intended objectives, an American newspaper (New York Times) and an Iranian newspaper (Iran Daily) were selected due to their high readership and influence on their respective countries. These newspapers enjoy high popularity in the United States and Iran and cover a wide range of political issues. Iran Daily is written in English and is published every day in Iran. From the politics sections of each selected newspaper in the related websites, thirty editorial articles or news texts published from July 2013 to July 2021 were extracted. It is necessary to mention that only relevant articles were gathered: the ones that the terms “sanctions”, “Iran sanctions” or “embargo” were frequently used in their text or headlines. The reason behind selecting the corpus from this timeframe was that during these years, Iran sanctions became more debatable due to some major incidents such as the nuclear talks, the JCPOA, and Trump’s “Maximum Pressure”. Since the major duty of newspapers is “the expression and persuasive communication of opinions” (Van Dijk 1995Van Dijk, Teun A. 1995 “Opinions and Ideologies in Editorials”. In 4th International Symposium of Critical Discourse Analysis, Language, Social Life and Critical Thought, Athens, 14–16.Van Dijk, Teun A. 1995 “Opinions and Ideologies in Editorials”. In 4th International Symposium of Critical Discourse Analysis, Language, Social Life and Critical Thought, Athens, 14–16., 13), they serve as an appropriate context to investigate the ideology and hidden viewpoints.
3.2Instruments
3.2.1Charteris-Black’s framework for CMA
In order to examine the newspapers, Charteris-Black’s framework (2004)Charteris-Black, Jonathan 2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Charteris-Black, Jonathan 2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. for Critical Metaphor Analysis was applied. His framework consists of three levels of analysis: metaphor identification, metaphor interpretation and metaphor explanation. The first level deals with identifying and extracting metaphors from the corpus. Next, the identified metaphoric words (candidate metaphors) are classified based on their source domains and it is showed how a conceptual metaphor can be used to support a specific viewpoint. Ultimately, the socio-cultural and ideological aspects are taken into account to explain and clarify the conceptual metaphors.
3.2.2Metaphor identification procedure (Pragglejaz Group method)
In order to take care of the first level of Charteris-Black’s framework, which is metaphor identification, the Pragglejaz Group (2007)Pragglejaz Group 2007 “MIP: A Method for Identifying Metaphorically Used Words in Discourse”. Metaphor and Symbol 22 (1): 1–39. Pragglejaz Group 2007 “MIP: A Method for Identifying Metaphorically Used Words in Discourse”. Metaphor and Symbol 22 (1): 1–39. method was applied. The Pragglejaz Group method or MIP (Metaphor Identification Procedure) was used to classify the metaphors. MIP necessitates a detailed reading of the whole corpus to grasp the meaning of each lexical item and decide how it relates to a thing, relation, or trait. A lexical item is defined as a conceptual metaphor if its meaning in a specific context varies from its dictionary meaning or the meaning that is used in other texts (Pragglejaz Group 2007Pragglejaz Group 2007 “MIP: A Method for Identifying Metaphorically Used Words in Discourse”. Metaphor and Symbol 22 (1): 1–39. Pragglejaz Group 2007 “MIP: A Method for Identifying Metaphorically Used Words in Discourse”. Metaphor and Symbol 22 (1): 1–39. ). For example, in the following sentence, the word “quagmire” does not literally refer to an area of soft wet muddy ground. Rather, it refers to an unpleasant and complex situation (the sanctions) from which getting away is difficult. So according to the Pragglegaz Group (2007)Pragglejaz Group 2007 “MIP: A Method for Identifying Metaphorically Used Words in Discourse”. Metaphor and Symbol 22 (1): 1–39. Pragglejaz Group 2007 “MIP: A Method for Identifying Metaphorically Used Words in Discourse”. Metaphor and Symbol 22 (1): 1–39. method, when the contextual meaning of a word varies from its literal meaning, we consider it a candidate metaphor.
They are making it difficult both for Iran and for Biden to get out of this quagmire .(New York Times, 30 November, 2020)
3.2.3Dictionaries
To help the researchers determine if a word is metaphorically used, both Macmillan English Dictionary Macmillan English Dictionary 2009 New Delhi: Macmillan Education LimitedMacmillan English Dictionary 2009 New Delhi: Macmillan Education Limited and Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (6th ed.) 2014 Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (6th ed.) 2014 Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. were utilized. Macmillan English Dictionary was initially published in 2002 by Macmillan Education. In 2007, its second edition was published and finally in 2009 its online version was launched (Macmillan Dictionary website). Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English’s sixth edition, which was published in 2014 by Pearson Education, is the newest edition of this famous dictionary (Chi 2016Chi, Amy 2016 “A Review of Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English”. Lexicography 2 (2): 179–186. Chi, Amy 2016 “A Review of Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English”. Lexicography 2 (2): 179–186. ). Both are prestigious dictionaries that offer online access freely.
3.3Procedure
In the first phase of the study, the corpus consisted of sixty editorial articles and news texts about the sanctions against Iran. This corpus was extracted from the politics sections of the two newspapers: An international English newspaper published in the United States, the New York Times, and a local English newspaper published in Iran, Iran Daily. From each of the intended newspapers, thirty news texts were extracted. The selected articles were published from July 2013 to July 2021. The corpus from the New York Times consisted of 47,421 tokens and 11,852 types, and that of Iran Daily comprised 42,119 tokens and 9,596 types.
In the main phase of this study, the selected corpus was carefully reviewed. The units were analyzed and the metaphorical meanings of the linguistic units were identified by following the Charteris-Black’s (2004)Charteris-Black, Jonathan 2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Charteris-Black, Jonathan 2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. framework for Critical Metaphor Analysis consisting of three levels of analysis: metaphor identification, metaphor interpretation, and metaphor explanation. In order to take care of the first level, metaphor identification, the Pragglejaz Group method was applied. The Pragglegaz Group (2007)Pragglejaz Group 2007 “MIP: A Method for Identifying Metaphorically Used Words in Discourse”. Metaphor and Symbol 22 (1): 1–39. Pragglejaz Group 2007 “MIP: A Method for Identifying Metaphorically Used Words in Discourse”. Metaphor and Symbol 22 (1): 1–39. proposed a suitable method for recognition of metaphors in a certain context which is called Metaphor Identification Procedure (or MIP). Following many researchers like Ansah (2014)Ansah, Gladys Nyarko 2014 “Culture in Embodied Cognition: Metaphorical/Metonymic Conceptualizations of FEAR in Akan and English”. Metaphor and Symbol 29 (1): 44–58. Ansah, Gladys Nyarko 2014 “Culture in Embodied Cognition: Metaphorical/Metonymic Conceptualizations of FEAR in Akan and English”. Metaphor and Symbol 29 (1): 44–58. and Zibin (2020)Zibin, Aseel 2020 “A Corpus-Based Study of Metaphors Used to Describe Syrian Refugees in Jordanian Politico-Economic Discourse: A Critical Metaphor Analysis Approach”. Pragmatics and Society 11 (4): 640–663. Zibin, Aseel 2020 “A Corpus-Based Study of Metaphors Used to Describe Syrian Refugees in Jordanian Politico-Economic Discourse: A Critical Metaphor Analysis Approach”. Pragmatics and Society 11 (4): 640–663. who have preferred MIP over a modified version of it, MIPVU, in their research, this study also drew upon MIP for identifying metaphorical expressions. MIPVU lends itself well for the identification of directly-expressed metaphorical expressions like similes. However, the main purpose, in the current study, was to adopt a bottom-up and explicit procedure with the minimum potential bias to identify indirectly-expressed metaphorical expressions in discourse. At the next level, which was interpretation, the candidate metaphors, regarding the target domain of Sanctions Against Iran, were classified and listed based on their supposed source domain. Kövecses’ (2010)Kövecses, Zoltan 2010 Metaphor: A Practical Introduction (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Kövecses, Zoltan 2010 Metaphor: A Practical Introduction (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. taxonomy of source domains was used to recognize the type of conceptual metaphors. His taxonomy involves the following source domains: the human body, buildings and construction, health and illness, machines and tools, plants, animals, games and sport, movement and direction, money and economic transactions, forces, cooking and food, light and darkness, heat and cold. The source domains of religion and ethics, war and conflict, and creation and destruction were added, as they have been frequently seen in related studies (Fallah and Raouf Moini 2016Fallah, Nahid, and Mohammad Raouf Moini 2016 “A Critical Metaphor Analysis of Arab Uprisings in The Washington Post and Keyhan Editorials”. Metaphor and the Social World 6 (1): 79–102. Fallah, Nahid, and Mohammad Raouf Moini 2016 “A Critical Metaphor Analysis of Arab Uprisings in The Washington Post and Keyhan Editorials”. Metaphor and the Social World 6 (1): 79–102. ; Zibin 2020Zibin, Aseel 2020 “A Corpus-Based Study of Metaphors Used to Describe Syrian Refugees in Jordanian Politico-Economic Discourse: A Critical Metaphor Analysis Approach”. Pragmatics and Society 11 (4): 640–663. Zibin, Aseel 2020 “A Corpus-Based Study of Metaphors Used to Describe Syrian Refugees in Jordanian Politico-Economic Discourse: A Critical Metaphor Analysis Approach”. Pragmatics and Society 11 (4): 640–663. ) and proved to be pervasive in political discourse.
After identification of the metaphorical expressions, they were classified based on the source domains that they referred to. The frequency of the CMs in the two intended corpora were determined and compared thoroughly. Lastly, at the third level, the socio-cultural and ideological aspects were taken into account to explain and clarify the conceptual metaphors and their potential persuasive purposes. To systemize extracting conceptual metaphors from linguistic metaphors, the researchers of this study adopted the following bottom-up and five-step approach by Steen (2007Steen, Gerard 2007 “Finding Metaphor in Discourse: Pragglejaz and Beyond”. Culture, Language, and Representation 5: 9–25.Steen, Gerard 2007 “Finding Metaphor in Discourse: Pragglejaz and Beyond”. Culture, Language, and Representation 51: 9–25., 16):
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Find the metaphorical focus
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Find the metaphorical proposition
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Find the metaphorical comparison
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Find the metaphorical analogy
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Find the metaphorical mapping
The following examples from the corpora illustrate how the analyses have been conducted.
“as banks in the city grappled with the implications of the sanctions” (Iran Daily, Feb 6, 2020)
Source Domain: Conflict
Conceptual Metaphor: SAI as conflict
The first step, in Example (1), according to Steen (2007)Steen, Gerard 2007 “Finding Metaphor in Discourse: Pragglejaz and Beyond”. Culture, Language, and Representation 5: 9–25.Steen, Gerard 2007 “Finding Metaphor in Discourse: Pragglejaz and Beyond”. Culture, Language, and Representation 51: 9–25., is to employ MIP to identify words that have been used metaphorically. The metaphorical focus here is “banks in the city grappled with the implications of the sanctions”. This suggests that the banks are in a challenging situation due to the consequences of the sanctions. The second stage deals with metaphorical proposition in the sentence that proposes the banks are “grappling” with the implications. This implies that the banks are struggling or trying to deal with the negative effects or challenges posed by the sanctions. In the third step, the metaphorical comparison lies between the banks’ situation and the concept of physical conflict or grappling. It compares the difficulties faced by the banks to a physical fight or struggle. The possible attributes or characteristics shared between the source and target domains can highlight the metaphorical analogy in the fourth step. In this sentence, it could be understood that the analogy lies between the physical act of grappling and the banks’ efforts to navigate or cope with the implications of the sanctions. Both involve a struggle or attempt to overcome obstacles. In the last step, the metaphorical mapping refers to the mappings between the source (physical grappling) and the target (banks’ situation) domains. In this sentence, the mapping could involve attributes such as conflict and challenge. The banks are metaphorically envisioned as engaging in an intense conflict similar to physical grappling.
Therefore, in this example, the implications of sanctions against Iran have been linked to a conflict and war. Mainly, metaphors of war or conflict are employed by politicians in order to divide the society into two groups (Chilton 2004Chilton, Paul 2004 Analyzing Political Discourse: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge. Chilton, Paul 2004 Analyzing Political Discourse: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge. ). This is what Van Dijk (1998 1998 Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Approach. London: Sage. 1998 Ideology: A Multidisciplinary Approach. London: Sage., 57) refers to as “out-group” and “in-group” dichotomy. In this case, using the word “grappled” implies that sanctions act as an engagement in a close fight or struggle between two sides, one as the dominant side which has imposed the sanctions and the other one as the agent which is under the pressure of the imposed sanctions.
“Iranian bank hit with sanctions ” (New York Times, April 29, 2014)
Source Domain: Destruction
Conceptual Metaphor: SAI is destruction
Employing MIP, according to Steen (2007)Steen, Gerard 2007 “Finding Metaphor in Discourse: Pragglejaz and Beyond”. Culture, Language, and Representation 5: 9–25.Steen, Gerard 2007 “Finding Metaphor in Discourse: Pragglejaz and Beyond”. Culture, Language, and Representation 51: 9–25., is the first step to identify words that have been used metaphorically in Example (2). The metaphorical focus in Example (2) is “Iranian banks hit with sanctions”. This indicates that the banks are being negatively impacted or affected by the sanctions imposed on them. The second step deals with the metaphorical proposition in the sentence which is the Iranian banks are “hit” with sanctions. This suggests that the imposition of sanctions is seen as an act of force or a destructive force on the banks. In the third stage, the metaphorical comparison lies between the act of being “hit” and the impact of the sanctions. It compares the consequences of the sanctions to a physical strike or destructive attack on the banks. The metaphorical analogy can be understood by considering the possible attributes or characteristics shared between the source and target domains. In this example, it can be inferred that the analogy lies between a physical strike or a destructive attack and the impact of the sanctions on the banks. Both involve a negative and destructive force affecting the target. Finally, in the fifth step, the metaphorical mapping refers to the specific connections between the source (destructive strike or attack) and the target (sanctions’ impact) domains. In this sentence, the mapping could involve attributes such as harm, destruction, damage, or vulnerability. The sanctions are metaphorically envisioned as causing destruction or damage to the Iranian banks.
As a result, this sentence simply indicates that Iranian bank is likely to be demolished with the help of sanctions. Here, sanctions are portrayed as a destructive element causing destruction for Iran bank. In addition, the act of hitting is usually done with a specific purpose. For example, Humans normally hit their enemies as a kind of strike, when they try to beat them. Also, they may hit their kids with something when they want to punish them for doing something wrong. So, the phrase “hit somebody with something” is smartly used to imply this message that Iran is a defiant kid or a dangerous enemy.
“American sanctions announced on Thursday said they could have a chilling effect on investment in Iran” (New York Times, June 3, 2013)
Source Domain: Destruction
Conceptual Metaphor: SAI is destruction
To identify words that have been used metaphorically in Example (3), MIP, according to Steen (2007)Steen, Gerard 2007 “Finding Metaphor in Discourse: Pragglejaz and Beyond”. Culture, Language, and Representation 5: 9–25.Steen, Gerard 2007 “Finding Metaphor in Discourse: Pragglejaz and Beyond”. Culture, Language, and Representation 51: 9–25., is used as a first step. The phrase “chilling effect on investment in Iran” is the metaphorical focus in this sentence. This sentence suggests that the American sanctions are expected to negatively impact or discourage investment activities in Iran. The second step in Steen’s (2007)Steen, Gerard 2007 “Finding Metaphor in Discourse: Pragglejaz and Beyond”. Culture, Language, and Representation 5: 9–25.Steen, Gerard 2007 “Finding Metaphor in Discourse: Pragglejaz and Beyond”. Culture, Language, and Representation 51: 9–25. procedure highlights that the metaphorical proposition in this example is that the American sanctions “could have a chilling effect” on investment in Iran. This implies that the imposition of sanctions is seen as something that has the potential to create a chilling or destructive effect on investment. The idea of a “chilling effect” and the impact of the sanctions on investment forms the metaphorical comparison in this example. It metaphorically suggests the influence of the sanctions to a situation where the temperature is lowered, causing a chilling or destructive effect on investment activities. The common attributes and features between the source and target domains refer to the analogy between the concept of a chilling effect and the impact of the sanctions on investment. Both involve a negative and destructive influence that discourage or reduce activity. The last step in Steen’s (2007)Steen, Gerard 2007 “Finding Metaphor in Discourse: Pragglejaz and Beyond”. Culture, Language, and Representation 5: 9–25.Steen, Gerard 2007 “Finding Metaphor in Discourse: Pragglejaz and Beyond”. Culture, Language, and Representation 51: 9–25. procedure refers to the metaphorical mappings between the source (chilling effect) and the target (sanctions’ impact on investment). In Example (3), the mapping could involve attributes such as discouragement, inhibition, or destruction. The sanctions are metaphorically represented as having a chilling or destructive effect on investment.
Therefore, in this sentence, it is predicted that the sanction imposed by the US can be an obstacle which prevent the foreign investor from investing in Iran. In order to highlight the preventive and destructive nature of the sanctions in terms of stopping foreigner investment, the word “chilling” has been used. In this case, sanctions have been considered a freezing machine such as a refrigerator which makes the people and organizations that are going to invest in Iran being held at a fixed level or in a fixed state without any straightforward movement toward making any economical transactions and investment.
In order to ensure that the identified metaphorical expressions were reliable, the researchers asked another rater working in the realm of TEFL to randomly review twenty editorial articles of the selected corpus once again and determine the employed metaphorical expressions. Then, the inter-rater reliability was conducted to make sure that the obtained data are satisfactorily similar. The inter-rater index was found to be 90%, which was indicator of high grade of consistency between the independent raters. Finally, discrepancies were settled down through discussion.
4.Results
The findings of the study revealed that Iranian newspaper had employed concepts such as conflict, human, object, journey, game, illness and machine to metaphorize the sanctions against Iran. In the editorials and news of the New York Times, on the other hand, sanctions against Iran had been described and metaphorized by connecting this construct with concepts such as conflict, human, obstacle, construction, destruction, illness, object, natural phenomenon, journey, machine and game.
4.1Frequency of the metaphorical expressions
Determining the frequencies of the metaphorical expressions about sanctions against Iran (SAI) used in the editorials and news of the American and Iranian newspapers was one of the main purposes of this study.
The corpus of editorials and news extracted from the New York Times was investigated based on the three levels of analysis: identification, interpretation and explanation proposed by Charteris-Black (2004)Charteris-Black, Jonathan 2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Charteris-Black, Jonathan 2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. . Applying this framework, eleven conceptual metaphors concerning the sanctions against Iran were recognized. These metaphors and their frequencies and percentages are shown in Table 1.
| Conceptual metaphor | Frequency | Percentage (%) |
|---|---|---|
| SAI is an illness/pain | 28 | 22.7 |
| SAI is a human | 23 | 18.7 |
| SAI is an object | 14 | 11.4 |
| SAI is a building/construction | 10 | 8.1 |
| SAI is a journey | 9 | 7.3 |
| SAI is a destruction | 8 | 6.5 |
| SAI is a conflict | 7 | 5.7 |
| SAI is a machine/tool | 7 | 5.7 |
| SAI is a game | 6 | 4.8 |
| SAI is an obstacle | 6 | 4.8 |
| SAI is a natural phenomenon | 5 | 4 |
| Total | 123 | 100 |
As Table 1 indicates, “SAI is an illness/pain” was found to be the most frequent conceptual metaphor in editorials and news sections of the New York Times, constituting 23% of the identified SAI metaphors in this sub corpus. The second most frequent metaphor was “SAI is a human” (19%).
In addition, in the Iranian newspaper, Iran Daily, seven conceptual metaphors were identified. Their frequency and percentage are also demonstrated in Table 2 below.
| Conceptual metaphor | Frequency | Percentage (%) |
|---|---|---|
| SAI is a human | 24 | 32.4 |
| SAI is a journey | 14 | 18.9 |
| SAI is a conflict | 12 | 16.2 |
| SAI is an object | 8 | 10.8 |
| SAI is an illness/pain | 7 | 9.4 |
| SAI is a game | 5 | 6.7 |
| SAI is a machine/tool | 4 | 5.4 |
| Total | 74 | 100 |
As it is illustrated in Table 2, SAI as a human was shown to be the most frequent conceptual metaphor in editorials and news sections of Iran Daily, constituting 33% of the identified SAI metaphors in this sub corpus. The second most frequent metaphor (17.5%) was SAI as a journey.
4.2Similarities and differences
This study intended to investigate the differences and similarities between the two newspapers (i.e., New York Times and Iran Daily) concerning conceptual metaphors used in them to conceptualize the sanctions against Iran.
The comparison of the conceptual metaphors concerning the sanctions against Iran used in the two newspapers New York Times and Iran Daily, as an international and local English newspaper, has been illustrated in Table 3.
| New York Times | Iran Daily | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Conceptual metaphor | Percent (%) | Percent (%) | Conceptual metaphor |
| SAI is a conflict | 5.7 | 16.2 | SAI is a conflict |
| SAI is a human | 18.7 | 32.4 | SAI is a human |
| SAI is an object | 11.4 | 10.8 | SAI is an object |
| SAI is a game | 4.8 | 6.7 | SAI is a game |
| SAI is an illness/pain | 22.7 | 9.4 | SAI is an illness/pain |
| SAI is a journey | 7.3 | 18.9 | SAI is a journey |
| SAI is a machine/tool | 5.7 | 5.4 | SAI is a machine/tool |
| SAI is an obstacle | 4.8 | 0 | SAI is an obstacle |
| SAI is a destruction | 6.5 | 0 | SAI is a destruction |
| SAI is a natural phenomenon | 4 | 0 | SAI is a natural phenomenon |
| SAI is a building/construction | 8.1 | 0 | SAI is a building/construction |
With regards to the nature of the data, i.e., frequency counts, the Chi-square (crosstabs) was used to analyze the data. Due to the categorical nature of the data, Chi-square test was deemed appropriate to see if there was a relationship between the two newspapers in terms of using CMs to portray sanctions against Iran. Before discussing the results, it should be noted that four of the CMs were dropped out, due to the fact that, their frequencies were zero in Iran Daily; i.e., SAI is destruction, obstacle, natural phenomenon and building/construction.
An analysis of Chi-square (crosstabs) was run to compare the frequencies of the CMs in the New York Times and Iran Daily editorials concerning the sanctions against Iran. Table 4 displays the frequencies, percentages and standardized residuals (Std. Residual) for the CMs in the New York Times and Iran Daily newspapers. It should be noted that any Std. Residual higher than +/− 1.96 indicates that the frequency is significant beyond/below what was expected.
The results showed that Iran Daily used the following source domains in their editorial more than the New York Times: conflict 16.2% vs. 7.4%, human 32.4% vs. 24.5%, game 6.8% vs. 6.4%, and journey 18.9% vs. 9.6%. On the other hand, the New York Times used the following source domains in their editorial more than Iran Daily: object 14.9% vs. 10.8%, illness/pain 29.8% vs. 9.5% and machine/tools 7.4% vs. 5.4%.
Despite the above-mentioned differences, as shown in Table 4 below, there was only a single significant difference between the two newspapers’ use of Conceptual Metaphors in their editorials. Iran Daily used pain/illness significantly below what was expected (Std. Residual = −2.1 > −1.96).
| Conceptual metaphors | Total | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conflict | Human | Object | Game | Pain | Journey | Tool | |||
| New York Times | Count | 7 | 23 | 14 | 6 | 28 | 9 | 7 | 94 |
| % | 7.4% | 24.5% | 14.9% | 6.4% | 29.8% | 9.6% | 7.4% | 100.0% | |
| Std. Residual | −1.1 | −.6 | .5 | −.1 | 1.9 | −1.1 | .3 | ||
| Iran Daily | Count | 12 | 24 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 4 | 74 |
| % | 16.2% | 32.4% | 10.8% | 6.8% | 9.5% | 18.9% | 5.4% | 100.0% | |
| Std. Residual | 1.3 | .7 | −.5 | .1 | −2.1 | 1.2 | −.4 | ||
| Total | Count | 19 | 47 | 22 | 11 | 35 | 23 | 11 | 168 |
| % | 11.3% | 28.0% | 13.1% | 6.5% | 20.8% | 13.7% | 6.5% | 100.0% | |
Table 5 below displays the results of the analysis of Chi-square. The results (χ 2 (6) = 15.45, p < .05) indicated that there were significant differences between the Iran Daily and New York Times newspapers in the use of CMs in their English editorials. The effect size for the Chi-square was .303 which represented a moderate effect size (Cramer’s V = .303 representing a moderate effect size)11.Cramer’s V = square root of chi-square / total frequency; i.e., square root of 15.45 / 168 = .303. Cramer’s V “may be interpreted in a manner similar to a correlation” (George and Mallery 2019George, Darren, and Paul Mallery 2019 IBM SPSS Statistics 26 Step by Step: A Simple Guide and Reference. New York: Routledge. George, Darren, and Paul Mallery 2019 IBM SPSS Statistics 26 Step by Step: A Simple Guide and Reference. New York: Routledge. , 372). That is to say: .10 = Weak, .30 = Moderate and .50 = Large. (Gray and Kinnear 2012Gray, Colin, and Paul Kinnear 2012 IBM SPSS Statistics 19 Made Simple. Aberdeen: Psychology Press. Gray, Colin, and Paul Kinnear 2012 IBM SPSS Statistics 19 Made Simple. Aberdeen: Psychology Press. ). Thus, it can be concluded that there are significant differences between these two newspapers in terms of the metaphor use.
| Value | df | Asymptotic significance (2-sided) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pearson Chi-Square | 15.407a | 6 | .017 |
| Likelihood Ratio | 16.131 | 6 | .013 |
| Linear-by-Linear Association | 2.520 | 1 | .112 |
| N of Valid Cases | 168 | ||
| Cramer’s V | .303 | .017 |
5.Discussion
This corpus-based research was carried out to investigate and compare the conceptual metaphors conceptualizing the sanctions against Iran in two corpora of the editorials and news extracted from an international English newspaper (i.e., New York Times) and a local Iranian English press (Iran Daily). To achieve the purpose of the present study, sixty editorial news texts (thirty for each newspaper) were collected from the websites of the intended newspapers. Then, based on Charteris-Black’s (2004)Charteris-Black, Jonathan 2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Charteris-Black, Jonathan 2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. framework for Critical Metaphor Analysis, the conceptual metaphors were explored in the two corpora.
The findings of the corpus analysis indicated that both newspapers took widely advantage of the metaphors in description and demonstration of the sanctions against Iran. The results showed that in the American newspaper (New York Times), the sanctions were metaphorized and linked to more than ten different concepts such as conflict, game, journey, human, object, machine, obstacle, destruction etc. Further, in the Iranian newspaper also the concept of sanctions as source domain had been linked to seven concepts such as conflict, game, journey, human, object, machine and illness. Also, analysis of the Chi-square test indicated that there are significant differences between the two newspapers in terms of using metaphors to describe sanctions against Iran. As it is apparent from the findings, using metaphor as a figure of speech in the political contexts seems to be a dominant and popular strategy to convey the intended messages much more technically and skillfully. Therefore, persuasiveness of metaphors appears to be the main reason of their frequent occurrence in political discourse. It is because they can activate “both conscious and unconscious resources to influence our rational, moral and emotional response, both directly – through describing and analyzing political issues – and indirectly by influencing how we feel about things” (Charteris-Black 2011 2011 Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphor (2nd ed.). London: Palgrave Macmillan. 2011 Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphor (2nd ed.). London: Palgrave Macmillan. , 50–51). According to the obtained results, the most frequent conceptual metaphor of the sanctions utilized in the American newspaper was SAI as illness/pain (F = 28) followed by SAI as an object (F = 23). In the Iranian newspaper, the most frequently occurred conceptual metaphors for sanctions was SAI as human (F = 24) followed by SAI as a journey (F = 14).
It seems that the frequent metaphorization and realization of the sanctions against Iran as an illness or a pain in the American newspaper was a normal, predictable and probable tendency of this media toward focusing on the destructive and negative impressions of the sanctions. As Charteris-Black (2004Charteris-Black, Jonathan 2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Charteris-Black, Jonathan 2004 Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London: Palgrave Macmillan. , 149–150) suggests, “Metaphors of health and illness are very common ways through which to communicate positive and negative evaluations in discourse” and “extreme ill-health is a common way of offering a very strong negative evaluation”. Moreover, illness is related to the human body and human body is the closest and the most tangible thing that people are in contact with. Therefore, the audience might understand it better than other source domains (Farrokhi et al. 2019Farrokhi, Farahman, Ali Akbar Ansarin, and Somayeh Ashrafi 2019 “A Comparative Study of Conceptual Metaphors in English and Persian Newspapers”. International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies 7 (3): 80–92.Farrokhi, Farahman, Ali Akbar Ansarin, and Somayeh Ashrafi 2019 “A Comparative Study of Conceptual Metaphors in English and Persian Newspapers”. International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies 7 (3): 80–92.). In this newspaper, the authors and editors intelligently do their best to suggest all countries, in general and Iranian officials, in particular that the imposed sanctions like a disease (illness) can stifle and hinder the daily affairs of the country and, if left untreated, lead to gradual disorder of the structure, destruction, and finally death. Accordingly, the Iranian officials have to adopt the required and logical strategies to ease and relieve the destructive effects of this so-called disease. In other words, it seems that in the New York Times and other media with similar tendencies, there is an attempt to create a scary, frightening and insecure condition by realizing a horrid and disagreeable image of the sanction. This strategy is a highly clever and completely conscious effort to persuade the public thoughts that the sanctioned countries have to either surrender and give up their ideologies or be crushed under the destructive and sickening pressure of sanctions.
Further, the frequent metaphorization of the sanctions against Iran as a human in the Iranian newspaper can be explained by the fact that the authors of editorials and news texts of the Iranian newspapers are often non-natives for whom the personification seems to be one of the most convenient and easy strategies to convey the intended meaning. Personification refers to a situation that something is portrayed as a human, mainly in literature or art, as a humanoid metaphor. It promotes humans to take a new look at their surroundings (Nordquist 2018Nordquist, Richard 2018 “What Is Personification?” ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-personification-1691766 (accessed December 6, 2023).Nordquist, Richard 2018 “What Is Personification?” ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-personification-1691766 (accessed December 6, 2023).). As mentioned earlier, human body is the closest and the most tangible thing that people face with (Farrokhi et al. 2019Farrokhi, Farahman, Ali Akbar Ansarin, and Somayeh Ashrafi 2019 “A Comparative Study of Conceptual Metaphors in English and Persian Newspapers”. International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies 7 (3): 80–92.Farrokhi, Farahman, Ali Akbar Ansarin, and Somayeh Ashrafi 2019 “A Comparative Study of Conceptual Metaphors in English and Persian Newspapers”. International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies 7 (3): 80–92.). In the Iranian newspaper, the tendency toward the personification of sanctions as a human being might result from the fact that the authors intended to persuade the Iranian audience that sanctions possessed some characteristics of a human being like mortality, weakness, fatigue, and aging. Therefore, they do the best to suggest Iranian audience the idea that sanctions against Iran will be gradually weakened, reduced, and finally eliminated over time, just like a human being which become weak, inactive, and inefficient as a result of aging.
Another finding of this study which concerns the comparison of the two newspapers in terms of implemented conceptual metaphors for sanctions, suggested that the American newspaper contains much more frequent and diverse employment of the metaphor to demonstrate and represent the sanctions compared to Iranian newspaper. The diversity and frequency of using metaphor in the New York Times seems to be simply predictable and expected due to the cultural familiarity that the native speakers enjoy. Metaphors are profoundly rooted in a culture’s language and thought processes. Native speakers, having grown up in a particular culture, are more likely to have a natural understanding and usage of metaphors that are common within that culture. He and Yang (2018)He, Qingshun, and Bingjun Yang 2018 “A Corpus-Based Study of the Correlation between Text Technicality and Ideational Metaphor in English”. Lingua 203: 51–65. He, Qingshun, and Bingjun Yang 2018 “A Corpus-Based Study of the Correlation between Text Technicality and Ideational Metaphor in English”. Lingua 2031: 51–65. showed that native writers of English tend to write English more technically – in terms of using metaphors – than EFL Chinese users.
More specifically, the results of this study demonstrated that the two newspapers had some conceptual metaphors in common. In both American and Iranian newspapers, the sanctions had been viewed as a journey, conflict, game, human, object, illness, and machine. In other words, the editorials and news texts of the New York Times and Iran Daily were relatively identical and had some similarities in terms of using these seven conceptual metaphors. This may be due to the universality of these metaphors. It means they are concepts that are largely understood by the public in almost every culture as they are related to human experience (Farrokhi et al. 2019Farrokhi, Farahman, Ali Akbar Ansarin, and Somayeh Ashrafi 2019 “A Comparative Study of Conceptual Metaphors in English and Persian Newspapers”. International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies 7 (3): 80–92.Farrokhi, Farahman, Ali Akbar Ansarin, and Somayeh Ashrafi 2019 “A Comparative Study of Conceptual Metaphors in English and Persian Newspapers”. International Journal of English Language and Translation Studies 7 (3): 80–92.). Thus, it is not very surprising to see both newspapers share these conceptual metaphors. However, there were differences in discourse goals regarding some of these conceptual metaphors. For instance, in terms of the game metaphor, Iran Daily mostly described sanctions as a game in which Iran is the winning side, but the New York Times suggested an opposite ideology, conveying the massage that the game leads to Iran’s defeat. Furthermore, as the findings suggest, the American newspaper contained four distinct categories of conceptual metaphor which was not implemented in the Iranian newspaper. In this media, the sanctions were also represented as an obstacle, destruction, building and natural phenomenon. This was somehow expected, as Suarez-Campos et al. (2019)Suárez-Campos, Laura, Alberto Hijazo-Gascón, and Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano 2019 “Metaphor and Spanish as a Foreign Language”. In Metaphor in Foreign Language Instruction, ed. by Ana Piquer-Píriz, and Rafael Alejo-González, 79–98. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. Suárez-Campos, Laura, Alberto Hijazo-Gascón, and Iraide Ibarretxe-Antuñano 2019 “Metaphor and Spanish as a Foreign Language”. In Metaphor in Foreign Language Instruction, ed. by Ana Piquer-Píriz, and Rafael Alejo-González, 79–98. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. also confirm that native speakers utilize more frequent metaphors than non-native speakers. Another reason might come from the fact that Iranian news writers basically do their best to place emphasis on sanctions’ ineffectiveness. Thus, source domains like obstacle and destruction which imply sanctions’ harmful and damaging effects are not likely to be found in the Iranian newspaper. Besides, it is apparent that this study is a small-scale one. So, these conceptual metaphors may happen to exist in a larger Iranian corpus.
6.Conclusion and implications
This research was an attempt to explore the conceptual metaphors about the sanctions against Iran in two corpora of the editorials and news extracted from the New York Times and Iran Daily newspapers. It was found that in both of the selected newspapers, the editors and other related authors do their best to take maximum advantage of the metaphor to refer to the sanctions. In the American newspaper, the concept of sanction as a source domain were connected to the concepts such as conflict, game, journey, human, object, machine, obstacle and destruction as the target domain. On the other hand, in the Iranian newspaper, the same construct was linked to such concepts as conflict, game, journey, human, object, machine and illness. The most frequent CM in the US newspaper was SAI as illness/pain, followed by SAI as object. In the Iranian newspaper, the most frequent CM for sanctions was SAI as a person, followed by the SAI as a journey. Another result of this study, which refers to the comparison of the two newspapers, suggests that the American newspaper uses the metaphors to demonstrate and represent the sanction in a much more frequent and diverse way compared with Iranian newspapers. Also, the results of the Chi-square analysis showed that there are significant differences between the two newspapers in terms of using metaphors to describe sanctions against Iran.
Studies on CMT imply that human beings as intelligent creatures are inherently conceptualizing beings and that this conceptualization process is mainly metaphorical (Kövecses 2021 2021 “Standard and Extended Conceptual Theory Revisited: Some Definitional and Taxonomic Issues”. In The Routledge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by Wen Xu, and John R. Taylor, 191–204. New York, NY: Routledge. 2021 “Standard and Extended Conceptual Theory Revisited: Some Definitional and Taxonomic Issues”. In The Routledge Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, ed. by Wen Xu, and John R. Taylor, 191–204. New York, NY: Routledge. ). Drawing upon our bodily experiences and sensorimotor systems, CMT calls the traditional views that regard abstract thought as purely symbolic into question and suggests that our understanding of abstract concepts could be related to our concrete and straightforward bodily experiences. Moreover, CMT highlights the fact that metaphorical thinking is a basic feature of human cognition, and it is a universal asset of human being that transcends specific languages and cultures. In spite of this universality, metaphors are deeply rooted in our daily conversations and can manifest cultural and linguistic conventions and variations across different languages and can shape and influence our cognitive processes, judgements, thinking and reasoning.
Clearly, this study is a small-scale one. Thus, the reliability of the results is limited. Future studies on a larger corpus are likely to have more reliable results. Another limitation of this study might be the fact that we did not take into account the newspapers’ political orientations. Further studies in this area could extend the investigation of metaphors with different orientations in their respective countries. Finally, there is a kind of relative subjectivity in choosing conceptual metaphors. This means that some metaphors can match with more than one source domain (Cameron 2007Cameron, Lynne 2007 “Patterns of Metaphor Use in Reconciliation Talk”. Discourse and Society 18 (2): 197–222. Cameron, Lynne 2007 “Patterns of Metaphor Use in Reconciliation Talk”. Discourse and Society 18 (2): 197–222. ). To minimize the effect of subjectivity of interpretation, future studies in the area of CMA should be done with the help of a group of expert raters to determine the source domains.