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Dissemination of Knowledge During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Conceptual Metaphor Analysis of Research and Popular Articles

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Digital Scientific Communication

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Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, research in medical science gained much importance as people had serious concerns about their lives. Latest scientific publications were expected not only by scientists and doctors but also by laypeople. A huge number of Research Articles (RAs) were published on the topic, accompanied by Popular Articles (PAs) reproducing almost the same content, but targeting laypeople. This chapter aims to study these two genres from a conceptual metaphor perspective, mainly that the pandemic has been conceptualised differently in the media. A corpus of PAs and their corresponding RAs has been collected and metaphorical expressions have been extracted. The purpose is to study the metaphors used and the function they perform in the two genres, following Halliday and Matthiessen’s (An introduction to functional grammar. Routledge, 2014) three metafunctions (textual, ideational, and interpersonal). The results reveal that although almost the same metaphors are used in both sub-corpora, the functions of the metaphors are rather genre-driven. Metaphors in RAs help build a cohesive text, perform theory-constitutive and pedagogical functions, and help build the researcher’s persona. In PAs, authors rely on the metaphors used in the RAs and expand on them for more clarity, explanations, and persuasion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LAD, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia

    Fatma Benelhadj

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  1. Fatma Benelhadj
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Correspondence to Fatma Benelhadj .

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  1. Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    Ramón Plo-Alastrué

  2. Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

    Isabel Corona

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Benelhadj, F. (2023). Dissemination of Knowledge During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Conceptual Metaphor Analysis of Research and Popular Articles. In: Plo-Alastrué, R., Corona, I. (eds) Digital Scientific Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38207-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-38207-9_4

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-38206-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-38207-9

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