METAPHOR RESISTANCE WITHIN BUSINESS MEDIA DISCOURSE
Abstract
This paper has examined the instances of metaphor resistance that can be observed in business media discourse. It defines the term “metaphor resistance” and provides a detailed review of existing research on the topic, which includes the findings of leading linguists such as Raymond Gibbs. After analyzing the posts of the social network X (formerly Twitter), various cases of resistance were identified. It can be expressed both by users of the social network who consume the content of business media and media persons, and by business media outlets themselves. The paper has taken an in-depth look at different types of resistance (propositional, locutionary, personal and situational). The conducted analysis suggests that the propositional type of resistance is the most prevalent one in the given type of discourse, accounting for 45.45% of all cases. Consumers of media content, as well as business media themselves, may criticize metaphorical expressions due to them being illogical, irrelevant, or factually incorrect. The study also demonstrates that locutionary resistance can arise from possible attempts at market manipulation by using overly intense metaphors with such source domains as “NATURAL DISASTER”, “RELIGION”, etc. This type of metaphor resistance demonstrates the manipulative function of metaphor in business media discourse. Locutionary resistance is also observed when the verbalization of a metaphorical expression is tactless and unacceptable to some consumers of business media. Personal resistance to a metaphorical expression arises when the person using it is accused of hypocrisy, bias, etc. At the same time, situational resistance occurs when the metaphorical expression is insensitive to the sociocultural or sociopolitical context. For example, in the US, there may be resistance to “WEAPONS” source domain metaphors in relation to the gun violence crisis. The relevance of the research effort is determined by the fact that resistance has been studied for the first time within the framework of business media discourse. Before that, this linguistic phenomenon was studied in medical and political discourse.
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