The gulf of mexico oil spill a corpus based study of metaphors in british and american media discourse 3 3

It is vital to note that this diagrammatic classification is ultimately a mental model or an “abstract inference from linguistic evidence” (CharterisBlack, 2004, p.244). However, this hierarchical organisation enables us to identify interrelationships between metaphors and assists in accounting for coherence in the discourse under analysis. This diagrammatic representation also enables us to see connections in an otherwise unrelated complex of sprawling metaphors. Hence, the IICM proposes a systematic and unique amalgamation of frameworks and methods in order to improve the inductive and empirical aspect of the formulation of conceptual metaphors from linguistic metaphors. The deliberate reliance on empirical suggestion by two leading integrated concordancing software platforms coupled with the systematic mapping from linguistic evidence to conceptual categories through the judicious use of corpus-based dictionaries attempt to add a modicum of empirical reliability and inductiveness in the intertwined processes of conceptual metaphor identification, formulation and interpretation. . 3.5.4. Phase Three – Analysis and Generalisation (Critical Metaphor Analysis) 3.5.4.1. Image schemas and entailments Lakoff & Johnson (1980) define ontological metaphors as metaphors that transpose abstract concepts, events and ideas onto physical entities or substances. These metaphors serve a heuristic function in developing our understanding about complex interrelationships between language, thought 119 and social context. Chilton (1996) has also identified four specific image schemas that have been predominantly used in the discourse of media and politics. These include the CONTAINER schema (in reference to defending and shielding from negative external forces), the PATH/JOURNEY schema (in reference to the concept of a mission and its accompanying obstacles), the FORCE schema (which encompasses notions of offence and defence) as well as the LINK schema (with direct references to relationships between state entities). Inherent within these four image schemas is the idea of metaphorical entailment where the characteristics and motivations of the source domain are transposed onto the more abstract target domain (Chilton, 1996, p.56). This notion of entailment will be taken in tandem with the sociocultural contexts to form the basis for the analysis and evaluation of the associated British and American metaphors in this thesis. 3.5.4.2. A holistic diagrammatic depiction: The interaction of metaphor categories for ‘Substances and materials: Liquid (NYT_1_‘OIL’) – Table 3.4 & Fig. 3.16 This adaptation of Grady, Taub & Morgan’s diagrammatic representations potentially accounts for the phenomenon of metaphor crossclassification and showcases the interaction between the various metaphor categories. The four categories of metaphor are Structural Metaphors, Ontological Metaphors, Orientational/Spatial Metaphors and Image/Analogybased Metaphors (See Section 3.3.4). The overall distribution of the metaphor categories and the associated metaphors are captured in Table 3.4. 120 Table 3.4. Metaphor and Token Distribution in NYT for the node word – ‘Oil’ Conceptual Key Metaphor (Scenario) THE OIL IS A THREAT (DANGER) *Structural/Ontological (Personification) /Analogy 35 instances THE OIL IS AN ESCAPING ANIMAL *Personification Total (Types) Total (Tokens) 35 19 15 THE OIL IS A THREAT TO BE CURTAILED (FIRE/SICKNESS) *Analogy THE OIL IS A THREAT TO BE OVERCOME (DANGER) *Analogy THE OIL IS A POWERFUL FORCE (ADVERSARY) *Personification THE OIL IS THE ENEMY *Personification CLEANING THE OIL SPILL IS A WAR *Structural Metaphor THE OIL SPILL IS A WARNING FROM HELL *Analogy THE OIL IS A SICKNESS (HEALTH AND DISEASE) *Structural/ Analogy instances THE OIL SPILL IS A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE *Analogy THE ENVIRONMENT IS A BODY *Analogy THE OIL WELL IS A BODY PART (ARTERY) *Analogy THE OIL IS A THREAT (DISEASE/POISON) *Analogy THE OIL IS A LIVING ENTITY * Ontological (Personification) 19 instances THE OIL IS AN ESCAPING ENTITY *Personification THE OIL WELL IS A LIVING ENTITY (PERSONIFICATION: HEALTH AND DISEASE) *Ontological (Personification) /Analogy 15 instances THE OIL WELL IS A BLEEDING PERSON *Personification THE OIL IS A POWERFUL ENTITY TO BE SUBDUED *Personification THE OIL WELL IS A BODY PART (RUPTURED ARTERY) *Analogy THE OIL WELL IS A PATIENT *Personification THE OIL WELL IS A HANDICAPPED PERSON (CRIPPLED PERSON) *Personification THE OIL WELL IS A SPEWING PATIENT *Personification THE ENVIRONMENT IS A LIVING ENTITY (PERSONIFICATION: HEALTH AND DISEASE) *Analogicall Metaphor instances THE OIL IS POISON *Analogy THE OIL IS A SICKNESS *Analogy 121 THE PLAN IS A LIVING ENTITY (BODY POLITIC) *Ontological (Personification) /Analogy instances THE PLAN IS A LIVING ENTITY (BODY POLITIC) BP IS A PERSON (PERSONIFICATION: CRIME/ INCOMPETENCE) *Ontological (Personification) 31 instances BP IS AN UNREPENTANT PERSON *Personification 18 *Ontological Metaphor/Analogy BP IS A CRIMINAL (LIAR) *Personification BP IS AN INCOMPETENT PERSON (FAILURE) *Personification BP IS AN UNTRUSTWORTHY PERSON *Personification THE OIL WELL IS AN UNCONTROLLABLE ENTITY **Personification THE MMS IS A PERSON (PERSONIFICATION: INCOMPETENCE) *Ontological (Personification) instance THE MMS IS AN INCOMPETENT LAW ENFORCER *Personification CAPPING THE SPILL IS A JOURNEY (PATHMOVEMENT) * Structural/ Spatial/ Orientational Metaphor instances GOOD IS FORWARD *Spatial/Orientational Metaphor BAD IS BIG (SCALE) *Orientational Metaphor 17 instances BAD IS BIG *Orientational Metaphor 17 29 127 Orientational/Spatial Metaphors Grand Total Table 3.4 provides an empirical overview of the metaphorical categories and their overall distribution for the node word ‘oil’. It is clear that the Conceptual Keys - often represented by Structural Metaphors (encapsulated by the scenarios of DANGER and HEALTH AND DISEASE) and Ontological Metaphors (mainly personified by the scenarios of CRIME and INCOMPETENCE) - provide the reader with heuristic scaffolding required to grasp the potentially abstract concepts involved in the entire disaster. Ontological Metaphors and Analogy-based Metaphors form the majority of the pre-identified metaphor categories. Ontological Metaphors comprise 16 out of a possible 29 metaphor types whilst Analogy-based Metaphors take up 122 10 out of 29 metaphor types. Orientational/Spatial Metaphors take up of the remaining tokens. In terms of raw frequency counts embodied by the number of tokens, it is interesting to note that the predominant scenarios tend to be those of DANGER (35 out of 127 tokens), CRIME (29 out of 127) and HEALTH & SICKNESS (18 out of 127) respectively. A deeper analysis of this preliminary statistic seems to imply that the overarching categorisation of the oil as a THREAT (WAR/ HEALTH & SICKNESS) intertwines largely with the PERSONIFICATION of the various entities in the discourse e.g. BP, the oil, the oil well, the environment and the US Government. This seems to imply that the overriding theme inherent in the discourse is a narrative of conflict between various entities. Figure 3.16 is an ambitious attempt to demonstrate how the complete range of Structural Metaphors and Ontological Metaphors relate to the Orientational/Spatial and Analogy-based metaphors in one coherent complex. The Conceptual Key category divides the overarching source domain of the oil as a THREAT systematically and coherently into the WAR, CRIME WAR and the HEALTH & DISEASE subsets. This can be seen in the way the and CRIME scenarios overlap with the JOURNEY scenario of capping the oil spill. This is captured by the powerful experiential concept of the oil being seen as a “POWERFUL ADVERSARY” or “THREAT TO BE CURTAILED (FIRE/SICKNESS)” as well as the way measures are being “pursued” in order to overcome “setbacks” and “obstacles” (Orientational/Spatial Metaphors). As JOURNEY metaphors highlight the idea of progress and a single-minded sense of purpose, it is often utilised by politicians who have to be concerned with “goal oriented social activities” for positive self-depiction (Charteris-Black, 123 2004, p.74). Thus, the concept of PROGRESS in this preliminary examination of the NYT corpus is embodied by the concept of “moving ahead” in the right direction. Furthermore, the Ontological Metaphors personifying the agencies and government organisations involved serve to give a complete characterisation of the perceptions endorsed by the NYT editorial team. The portrayal of BP as a CRIMINAL and as an INCOMPETENT or UNTRUSTWORTHY person, the highlighting of the role of the government as an INCOMPETENT LAW ENFORCER ORGANISM as well as the portrayal of the environment as a LIVING “poisoned” and afflicted by the “plague” of oil, gives an insight into the roles and agencies of the relevant parties. These ontological metaphors provide a heuristic function in aiding the reader to make connections and integrate complex sequences of events. Furthermore, the conceptualisation of the plan to cap the oil spill as a living entity with a “heart” highlights a different aspect of the Ontological Metaphors i.e. “the heart” of the industry’s plan, the “heart” of the response and the “heart” of the engineering problem. A separate search for the lemma “heart” was carried out with Sketch Engine. The word sketch and the screenshot of the relevant concordance can be seen in Figures 3.17 and 3.18 respectively. 124 Fig. 3.17. A word sketch of the lemma ‘Heart’ in Sketch Engine Fig. 3.18. A concordance of generated of the lemma ‘Heart’ in Sketch Engine (All 17 instances) Figures 3.17 and 3.18 show how the BODY POLITIC metaphor is utilised in the NYT corpus. It is interesting to note how the HEALTH & DISEASE domain is intertwined seamlessly with the BODY POLITIC metaphor in Fig. 3.18 where 12 out of 17 instances of the lemma “heart” are made in reference to it. This is clearly illustrated in the modifiers to the noun where the operation to halt the leak is described as a “heart surgery under 5000 feet of water” and where the 125 oil industry is described as the vital “heart” of the economy that results in “organ failure” if it stops functioning. Furthermore, the significance of the oil spill in the Gulf is further emphasised when it is described as a near-fatal blow to an individual i.e. as a “heart attack in New York City”. The further conflation of the BODY POLITIC metaphor with that of a THREAT (CRIME) is clearly illustrated when BP was accused of being a serial murderer that has “ripped the heart out of yet another hard-working local community”. Thus, it is vital to note that metaphor groupings such as WAR, CRIME, JOURNEY and DISEASE influence and constrain the public’s political imagination by imposing these relevant concepts onto social and political realities. This underscores the importance of identifying and unravelling the relevant conceptual metaphors from a critical perspective. This is because those in positions of power and control are able to constrain public perceptions through the selective use of metaphor systems in the communication of these representations. 3.5.4.3. A holistic diagrammatic depiction: Scenario interaction for ‘Substances and materials: Liquid (NYT_1_‘OIL’) – Fig 3.16 It is well known that in media discourse, the domain of war is employed as a metaphorical representation for all types of human struggle and conflict. Politicians often utilise WAR metaphors in an effort to galvanise the electorate against a common perceived threat, in the process foregrounding the personal sacrifice that is needed in order to achieve the greater good. Hence, in this case, BP and the oil spill are conceptualised as THREATS or as ENEMIES in 126 order to provide a common cathartic target for the masses. This is clearly illustrated in the use of military references where there is a need to “deploy” a new system to “contain” the threat posed by the oil and the need to “stop” and “capture” the CRIMINAL (OIL) in order prevent further havoc from being wreaked on the ecosystem. However, it is interesting to note that for this NYT corpus, the scenario of WAR is mainly conflated with two accompanying scenarios – namely the scenario of THREAT, and that of HEALTH & DISEASE. This is clearly seen in in Fig. 3.16. A quick overview shows that the scenario of WAR and the personification of the entities involved (e.g. BP, the oil, the government and the environment) seem to indicate that criminal acts of aggression have taken place amongst these parties. The CRIME scenario entails the shrewd use of tactics as well as retaliatory responses by the US government in order to regain a measure of justice. This is clearly seen by the resultant depiction of BP as a CRIMINAL, AGRRESSOR and as a POWERFUL ENTITY TO BE SUBDUED in order to be brought to justice so as to ensure the re- attainment of social equilibrium. The conflation of the WAR and CRIME scenarios also entails a degree of aggression by the oil industry (specifically by BP) on the ‘ecologically fragile environment’ that has been “poisoned” by the spilt oil. Such irresponsible acts have thus resulted in a “stricken” and “crippled” victim who requires emergency aid in order to “stanch” the resultant bleeding. The conflation of both the CRIME and HEALTH & DISEASE scenarios also serve to implicate the government’s incompetence, negligence and the inability to enact change in a severe situation. Hence, it is clear that the WAR scenario is used to sustain cohesion virtually throughout the NYT corpus, albeit across discrete articles and writers. A good reason in accounting 127 for such a metaphorical confluence in the depiction of a single issue can be attributed to the shared characteristics between capping the BP oil spill and fighting a war. The specific overlaps include the “us against them” mentality, the need for justice to be served, the need for sacrifice by all the parties involved in order to ensure victory and the use of resources and technology in order to achieve the relevant definitions of success. A closer examination of the conflation of these three scenarios foregrounds the embodiment of the affected parties as individual persons (victims and patients). Firstly, the WAR scenario depicts the oil as an ENEMY and personifies it as an ENTITY ESCAPING JUSTICE or a POWERFUL AGGRESSOR. This serves to galvanise the readers to respond as a unit to rise up and bring BP the CRIMINAL to justice in order to provide recompense to the victims. However, a closer reading of the expanded contexts in Texts 3.1 and 3.2 show a double-edged quality in the depiction of these metaphors. Text 3.1 A context expansion in Sketch Engine ‘Spill’ in Word Sketch - Obj of Text 3.2 A context expansion in Sketch Engine ‘Stop’ in Word Sketch - Obj of The pro-government response serves to depict the Obama Administration and the US legal machinery as competent and key functioning 128 units relentlessly fighting against the odds in the interests of its citizenry. Text 3.1 clearly depicts the Obama Administration and the government as a competent legal prosecutor utilising a range of “aggressive” strategies to bring BP the criminal to justice. This seems to demonstrate that the US government is taking concrete actions to address the grievances of the electorate. However, Text 3.2 highlights the toothlessness and ignorance of the “joint government and industry task force” in halting the path of destruction carved out by the unpredictable and significant threat posed by the significant amounts of oil leaking from the oil well. Hence, the divergent political affiliations of individual writers within the same broadsheet can be identified through a context expansion of the selected node words. This provides the analyst with the capacity to either analyse individual occurrences with an in-depth look at the specific context of the node word or to take a step back and quantify the number of concordances either chastising or commending the efforts of the administration. Thus, this provides an empirical justification for the perceived overarching political leanings endorsed by the broadsheets selected for analysis. A possible area for further analysis would be to cross-reference the collocates of the same target node word in an overtly conservative broadsheet like the Washington Post so as to lay bare the underlying ideologies and affiliations. Secondly, the foregrounding of the HEALTH AND DISEASE scenario portrays the environment as a living organism that requires constant care and protection. HEALTH AND DISEASE metaphors are commonly used as evaluative markers in discourse as they are universally accessible scenarios for all. The personification of the environment as a chronic patient requiring “long-term 129 restoration” as a result of being “plagued” or “poisoned” by the oil illustrates this metaphor of sickness. The vilification of the parties involved in this disaster is rendered complete when the oil well is described as a “stricken” patient or “bleeding victim” that is “spewing black poison” into the Gulf as the result of criminal negligence by those in positions of power. The personification of the environment and the ruptured oil well as VICTIMS/ PATIENTS provides a legitimate account of the complex of metaphors i.e. with the scenario of the oil as a THREAT – namely under the overarching scenario of HEALTH & DISEASE (POISON/CONTAGIOUS DISEASE). Thus, this adaptation of Grady et al.’s (1996) concept of metaphorical compounds and primitives serves to adequately address the issue of metaphor cross-classification. In this case, the resultant metaphorical compound accounts for the conflation of the WAR, CRIME and SICKNESS scenarios. The power of such a diagrammatic organisation of the conceptual keys (scenarios)/metaphors also provides the analyst with a birds’ eye view of the complete range of metaphors and their inter-relationships in a large and representative stretch of discourse. The key advantage of this diagrammatical approach lies in the way the analyst has to take into account the holistic socio-political and cultural contexts in order to account for the resultant metaphorical entailments. This avoids the interpretative myopia that comes about with an overt focus on concordance lines and the narrow expanded contexts. 3.6. Summary This section demonstrates the potential utility of the WMatrix and 130 Sketch Engine software in the empirical and objective generation of semantic domains as well as the empirical suggestion of the relevant lexical items for further metaphorical analysis. This empirical objectivity is underlined by the fact that these domains and lexical items are “suggested” for analysis by these integrated online concordancing platforms in terms of the empirical frequency of overuse embodied by the Log-Likelihood values. Coupled with the procedures proposed by the IICM (to be improved with additional refinements and subsequent iterations), a systematic analysis of the range of conceptual metaphors and their relevant interconnections can be obtained. A deeper analysis of the relevant contexts and ideas can be achieved through an expansion of the surrounding contexts of the node words for an in-depth critical analysis that takes the historical, social and contextual details into account. Hence, by marrying qualitative analysis with quantitative salience, we are able to analyse the subtle cross-cultural differences in a comparative approach. This method also seeks to find the adequate balance between semiautomatic and manual analysis that is productive, empirical and most importantly repeatable for inter-rater reliability. This entire section thus showcases the potential inherent in combining the computational capacities of WMatrix and Sketch Engine with the IICM for the systematic mining and inductive cross-cultural comparison of metaphors. The incorporation of the diagrammatic representations adapted from Grady, Taub & Morgan’s (1996) Metaphorical Compounds potentially unites the micro and macro perspectives of the discourse for a critical approach that is representative and avoids the charge of analytical myopia. The remaining sections of this thesis will focus on an in-depth 131 methodological demonstration of the IICM in identifying and formulating the metaphors embodied in British and American media discourse arising from the BP fallout in the Gulf of Mexico. This will be done by applying the IICM for selected empirically-salient semantic domains and lexical items for a preliminary comparative analysis. The key advantage of this approach is that it provides a common springboard for academic disagreements due to the systematic steps inherent within the IICM. This is because the explicit commitment to empirical evidence from these online concordancing programmes will enable other researchers to base their disagreements on the same platform with respect to the same set of evidence, thus facilitating subsequent academic discussions pertaining to the target discourse. 132 [...]... demonstration of the IICM in identifying and formulating the metaphors embodied in British and American media discourse arising from the BP fallout in the Gulf of Mexico This will be done by applying the IICM for selected empirically-salient semantic domains and lexical items for a preliminary comparative analysis The key advantage of this approach is that it provides a common springboard for academic disagreements... (scenarios) /metaphors also provides the analyst with a birds’ eye view of the complete range of metaphors and their inter-relationships in a large and representative stretch of discourse The key advantage of this diagrammatical approach lies in the way the analyst has to take into account the holistic socio-political and cultural contexts in order to account for the resultant metaphorical entailments This avoids... cross-cultural differences in a comparative approach This method also seeks to find the adequate balance between semiautomatic and manual analysis that is productive, empirical and most importantly repeatable for inter-rater reliability This entire section thus showcases the potential inherent in combining the computational capacities of WMatrix and Sketch Engine with the IICM for the systematic mining and inductive... cross-cultural comparison of metaphors The incorporation of the diagrammatic representations adapted from Grady, Taub & Morgan’s (1996) Metaphorical Compounds potentially unites the micro and macro perspectives of the discourse for a critical approach that is representative and avoids the charge of analytical myopia The remaining sections of this thesis will focus on an in- depth 131 methodological demonstration... metaphors and their relevant interconnections can be obtained A deeper analysis of the relevant contexts and ideas can be achieved through an expansion of the surrounding contexts of the node words for an in- depth critical analysis that takes the historical, social and contextual details into account Hence, by marrying qualitative analysis with quantitative salience, we are able to analyse the subtle... avoids the interpretative myopia that comes about with an overt focus on concordance lines and the narrow expanded contexts 3. 6 Summary This section demonstrates the potential utility of the WMatrix and 130 Sketch Engine software in the empirical and objective generation of semantic domains as well as the empirical suggestion of the relevant lexical items for further metaphorical analysis This empirical... A possible area for further analysis would be to cross-reference the collocates of the same target node word in an overtly conservative broadsheet like the Washington Post so as to lay bare the underlying ideologies and affiliations Secondly, the foregrounding of the HEALTH AND DISEASE scenario portrays the environment as a living organism that requires constant care and protection HEALTH AND DISEASE... described as a “stricken” patient or “bleeding victim” that is “spewing black poison” into the Gulf as the result of criminal negligence by those in positions of power The personification of the environment and the ruptured oil well as VICTIMS/ PATIENTS provides a legitimate account of the complex of metaphors i.e with the scenario of the oil as a THREAT – namely under the overarching scenario of HEALTH... DISEASE (POISON/CONTAGIOUS DISEASE) Thus, this adaptation of Grady et al.’s (1996) concept of metaphorical compounds and primitives serves to adequately address the issue of metaphor cross-classification In this case, the resultant metaphorical compound accounts for the conflation of the WAR, CRIME and SICKNESS scenarios The power of such a diagrammatic organisation of the conceptual keys (scenarios) /metaphors. .. and ignorance of the “joint government and industry task force” in halting the path of destruction carved out by the unpredictable and significant threat posed by the significant amounts of oil leaking from the oil well Hence, the divergent political affiliations of individual writers within the same broadsheet can be identified through a context expansion of the selected node words This provides the . Orientational/Spatial Metaphors and Image/Analogy- based Metaphors (See Section 3. 3.4). The overall distribution of the metaphor categories and the associated metaphors are captured in Table 3. 4 the basis for the analysis and evaluation of the associated British and American metaphors in this thesis. 3. 5.4.2. A holistic diagrammatic depiction: The interaction of metaphor categories. Orientational/Spatial and Analogy -based metaphors in one coherent complex. The Conceptual Key category divides the overarching source domain of the oil as a THREAT systematically and coherently into