Overview
- Examines familiar metaphors including the virus as a war, as an allegory, as an alien invader, and as a fire
- Draws on moral foundations theory to understand why different metaphors are used, as well as their effects
- Looks in-depth at how science is communicated to the public in light of a major global pandemic
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About this book
This book explores the metaphors used in public and media communication to ask how language shapes our moral reasoning about the global coronavirus crisis. The author offers insights into the metaphors, metonyms, allegories and symbols of the global crisis and examines how they have contributed to policy formation and communication. Combining metaphor theory with moral foundations theory, he places metaphors in their historical contexts, and then critically questions why certain tropes might be used in particular situations to persuade and convince an audience. The book takes an integrated approach, involving ideas from cognitive linguistics, history, social psychology and literature to produce a multi-layered and thematically rich interpretation of the language of the pandemic and its social and political consequences. It will be relevant to readers with a background in these areas, as well as anyone with a general interest in the language used to make sense of this global event.
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Keywords
Table of contents (10 chapters)
Reviews
"This is a highly engaging, personal and lucid analysis of the figurative language used in the COVID-19 pandemic to 'make sense' of its threat to society and of the chances to counter it. Using both corpus-based and experimental survey methods, Charteris-Black expertly analyses key metaphors, metonymies and allegories about the virus, its worldwide spread and its medical management and relates them to fundamental parameters of moral judgement, leading to fascinating new insights."
-Andreas Musolff, Professor of Intercultural Communication, University of East Anglia, UK
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Jonathan Charteris-Black is Professor of Linguistics at the University of the West of England, UK. His research interests include metaphor, rhetoric and political discourse.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Metaphors of Coronavirus
Book Subtitle: Invisible Enemy or Zombie Apocalypse?
Authors: Jonathan Charteris-Black
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85106-4
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-85105-7Published: 13 November 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-85106-4Published: 12 November 2021
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVI, 301
Number of Illustrations: 10 illustrations in colour
Topics: Applied Linguistics, Linguistic Anthropology, Science and Technology Studies, Media and Communication, Personality and Social Psychology