Metaphor clusters in discourse
By Lynne Cameron, Juurd H. Stelma. 2007
104 citations recorded by the source corpus.
The phenomenon of clustering, where speakers or writers suddenly produce multiple metaphors, is widespread and intriguing. This paper presents an innovative visualisation methodology for identifying and exploring metaphor clusters, comparing it to existing methods that use cumulative frequency graphs and Poisson curve fitting, and addressing issues that arise from these. Identification of clusters from the visualisation is shown to be reliable and practical, while also offering in-depth exploration across a range of discourse parameters. Conversations aimed at conciliation between a perpetrator of violence and a victim (total 160 minutes) are analysed for clusters and their discourse functions. All techniques show clusters at two distinct time scales, of around one minute and of several seconds. Clusters in conciliation talk account for about 42 per cent of the total metaphors, and cover about 30 per cent of the discourse. Discourse work carried out in clusters includes explanation of a speaker’s perspective to the Other, appropriation of metaphors originally used by the Other, and exploration of alternative, negative, scenarios that had been possible choices for the speaker but had been rejected. The finding that metaphor clusters are sites of intensive work relating to the central discourse purpose supports cluster exploration as a heuristic tool for discourse analysis.
Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Language and Linguistics, Literature and Literary Theory
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/eb211dcf4b3d7fb3be5fd7fcae2c393e2659046f
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
In Language and Linguistics
- K. de Bot
- Almeida Jacqueline Toribio
- Z. Dörnyei
- Jean–Marc Dewaele
- David W. Green
- Li Wei
- Naoko Taguchi
- D. Véronique
In Literature and Literary Theory
Citations in the corpus
- Introduction: Second Language Development as a Dynamic Process (2008, methodology): “of language policies using the DST framework may be elucidating and present a picture of the developmental process that is more accurate than a linear approach to policy analysis as presented in Cooper’s (1989) framework for the analysis of language planning activities.”