The gulf of mexico oil spill a corpus based study of metaphors in british and american media discourse 3 1

CHAPTER THE INTEGRATED APPROACH TO THE IDENTIFICATION OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS (IICM) 3.1. Introduction This chapter aims to amalgamate existing theories and findings pertaining to CMT from major contemporary perspectives into a suggested unified framework for metaphorical analysis. This thesis proposes the combination of two integrated online concordancing platforms to be utilised in tandem with a structured methodological framework for the identification of conceptual metaphors in media discourse. The two software platforms are WMatrix (Rayson, 2008) and the Sketch Engine (Kilgarriff et al., 2004) respectively. The strength of such an approach lies in two inter-connected areas. Firstly, the inductive nature of this proposed conceptual metaphor formulating process marks a departure from existing discourse-metaphor studies. Secondly, this proposed method harbours the potential for an exhaustive analysis of metaphors in a large swath of representative texts if deemed necessary by the researcher. It should also be made clear that the approach adopted in this chapter to Conceptual Metaphor Analysis is a critical one - in the tradition of Charteris-Black’s (2004) Critical Metaphor Analysis. This means that there will be a significant emphasis on the socio-cultural, political and situational context of the entire discourse in the resulting analysis. The interpretation of 69 this critical aspect will be facilitated by the adaptation of Grady, Taub & Morgan’s (1996) metaphorical primitives and compounds. A detailed account of the proposed metaphor identification procedures will be expounded in the subsequent sections. It is important to clarify that a definitive statement on a newspaper’s stance cannot be made from a single study – due to the inherent limitations in the scope and corpus. Thus, further research needs to be done in order to extend these claims and to triangulate these findings over a range of issues for statistical validity. However, for this thesis, all statements and claims are true within the scope of these specific corpora. 3.2. An Overview: WMatrix (Rayson, 2005) & Sketch Engine (Kilgarriff et al., 2004) Now, I will proceed with a quick overview of the two proposed online concordancing platforms. WMatrix (Rayson, 2005), a web-based interface for corpus analysis with in-built semantic and lexical annotation capabilities, will be used as a springboard for analysis. WMatrix also includes an in-built selection of reference corpora obtained from sub-sections of the British National Corpus (BNC) to provide standard frequency information with reference to the corpus under analysis. Such a comparison can be done either at a lexical or semantic level. The use of the semantic domains in WMatrix as a springboard for subsequent metaphorical analysis ensures that the starting point for the entire conceptual metaphor formulation process is empirically based on Log-Likelihood values and is hence, both inductive and objective. 70 This is due to the fact that only the semantic domains and the corresponding lexical items with a Log-Likelihood value of more than 6.63 corresponding to 99% significance will be chosen for metaphorical analysis. At this juncture, it is important to note that Krennmayr (2011) identifies two separate methodologies pertaining to the use of WMatrix as a tool for metaphorical analysis. She divides these two methods neatly into a “top-down” approach and a “bottom-up” approach. I would like to clarify that there is a key difference for the terms of reference used in this paper. What Krennmayr labels a “top-down approach” (p.194) is seen in this paper as a “bottom-up approach”. Krennmayr labels her method as “top-down” as there is the assumption that a conceptual mapping pre-exists within selected semantic fields before linguistic evidence for metaphoricity is sought. While Krennmayr has a valid point, this approach can also be seen as an inductive, “bottom-up” approach. This is because the USAS domains merely provide an indication of the semantic categories that stand out from the reference text. The conceptual metaphors will only be formulated from a detailed analysis of the relevant lexical units and their respective concordances. This point is best captured by Deignan (1999) who states that “there is no automatic way of discovering the linguistic realisations of any conceptual metaphor, because a computer cannot tell the researcher anything about speaker meaning. Concordances will show the researcher words in their context, but he or she has to process this information” (p.180). Thus, it is undeniable that the need for informed researcher intuition remains necessary for metaphor analysis. However, the USAS domains serve as an empirical springboard for further analysis in an inductive approach that does not depend on pre-determined 71 search strings. It is important to note that this treatment of the WMatrix USAS semantic domains for metaphorical analysis is unique and differs from Hardie et al.’s (2007) approach. This novel treatment is predicated on the aim of this thesis to devise a point of entry to the analysis of data in a large swath of texts that is empirical and inductive. It is important to note that the need for researcher intuition is not being discounted. It is undeniable that informed researcher intuition is an integral part of all discourse-analytical corpus research past and present – and the entire range of early metaphor studies that use the intensive manual analysis of representative data have resulted in significant strides forward in the field of metaphor studies. However, the main aim of this thesis lies in the formulation of a proposed method that exploits the major computational advancements in existing concordancing software and strikes an adequate balance between semi-automated and manual analysis. Secondly, the use of “word sketches” in Sketch Engine (Kilgarriff et al., 2004) adds another dimension of refinement. This is because the actual formulation of the conceptual metaphors from linguistic evidence will be based on the node word’s grammatical and collocational behaviour. This simply means that the concordances examined will be further parsed according to the grammatical relation of the node word, resulting in a more refined approach to the formulation of conceptual metaphors from linguistic evidence. Hence, the additional part-of-speech annotation afforded by word sketch refines the metaphorical analysis because “collocates may differ considerably between nouns and verbs of the same lemma” (Oster, 2010, p.735). This is a significant departure from the previous practice of merely examining the “arbitrary window of text around the headword” for the first pre-designated 72 number of lines (p.3). Thus, the additional implementation of the word sketch function in Sketch Engine adds on to the arsenal of “corpus interrogation strategies” by further refining the generated concordances in accordance to the node word’s grammatical category (Kilgarriff et al., 2004, p.3). This provides an added dimension of systematicity to the metaphorical analysis of the concordances. It is important to note that both WMatrix and Sketch Engine advocate a lexical approach as the springboard for the analysis for conceptual metaphors. This method is justified by Kovecses (1990, 2008) who states that “language and its lexicon is a reflection of our conceptual system” (p.41). Thus, the analysis and formulation of the associated conceptual metaphors in this thesis is based on the collective amalgamation of linguistic expressions such as “metaphors, metonymies, idioms, proverbs and collocations” (p.43). This forms the backdrop for this bottom-up corpus-based study of conceptual metaphors from empirical linguistic evidence. The key departure from Kovecses’ method is that the data used for analysis in this research is based on corpus data or found data rather than elicited data. Oster (2010) also justifies the use of the lexical unit as a springboard for the analysis in a large representative corpus. He states that by exploring the span of the node word, we are able to “find evidence of conceptual metaphor and metonymy that structure the (target) concept” and “enrich” the description of the concept with information with a “pragmatic viewpoint from a series of dimensions” (p.727). This justifies the corpus approach and the use of semantic domains, the lexical unit and the accompanying co-texts as a springboard for analysis. 73 Hence, it is proposed that this framework for metaphorical analysis based on integrated online concordancing platforms like WMatrix (and its corresponding USAS and “broad-sweep” functions) and Sketch Engine (and the resulting word sketches) reduces the reliance on researcher intuition as the starting point of corpus research and results in findings that are inductive, potentially comprehensive, empirically-based and repeatable. Furthermore, with subsequent iterations, it can potentially serve as an alternative inductive framework that triangulates the findings of the corresponding deductive methodologies based on intensive manual analysis of representative corpora, providing an element of robustness that complements the integral function of informed researcher intuition. 3.3. Theoretical Framework: A Unified Analysis of Conceptual Metaphors It is undeniable that the news is both, a primary determinant and an indicator of public perceptions. This is because of its reach and the fact that it provides the masses with information within an “authoritative” framework for interpretation and/or disagreement. While it is over-simplistic to attribute the news with the power to straitjacket the masses’ perceptions, particular aspects of reality can become impossible to challenge when they become shared beliefs or represent “commonsense” through strategic media representations. Graber, McQuail & Norris (2008) claim that the demand for information becomes heightened especially in situations of international conflict and political crisis. This climate of unrest has become pre-eminent since the 9-11 74 attacks in 2001, exacerbated by the current climate of political uncertainty and economic malaise in the US and in the Euro-zone. Apart from adapting to this climate of unrest, the news also needs to acclimatise to the highly fragmented, quasi-regulated nature of social media which has intensified media competition and “destabilised established media structures and relationships” (p.273). In the case of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the inextricable nature of the relationship among journalism, politics, society and the inelastic nature of the embedded socio-historical and cultural factors necessitate a critical tradition in the analysis of metaphors. Hence, critical metaphor analysis plays a major role in uncovering the underlying competing ideologies between the stakeholders. This is especially intriguing as this crisis has dimensions of an international conflict between America and Britain (as BP has distinctly British origins), and thus, nationalistic sentiments will undoubtedly be brought to the forefront on both sides. On the other hand, this crisis also contains elements of a national domestic crisis in terms of the resulting environmental destruction and the widespread public discontent arising from the lack of an enforcement body that protects and regulates national interests. Hence, this interaction between the global and the national fronts is of significant interest as we enter the post-9-11 timeframe, widely recognised as a period of international unrest and increased military intervention by the state due to the “newly perceived threats to the established international order and its value system” (p.270). However, before a validated metaphor analysis of the target discourse can take place, there is an urgent need to ensure a well-structured and comprehensively documented metaphor identification and formulation procedure that is 75 theoretically sound and repeatable. The key concern is thus to formulate coherent methodological criteria that are well delineated at every step such that the formulation of conceptual metaphors from linguistic evidence can be repeatable and exhaustive (Oster, 2010, p.731). The next segments will expound on the three major theoretical underpinnings underlying the proposed Integrated-approach to the Identification of Conceptual Metaphors (henceforth IICM): 1. Extracting metaphors from corpora by searching for target domain vocabulary (Stefanowitsch, 2006) (Section 3.3.1) 2. An adaptation of Grady, Taub & Morgan’s (1996) Metaphorical Primitives and Compounds (Section 3.3.2) 3. The Major Metaphorical Categories used in this analysis (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980; Lakoff, 1992; Gibbs, 1999; Kovecses, 2002) (Section 3.3.3) 3.3.1. Extracting metaphors from corpora by searching for target domain vocabulary (Stefanowitsch, 2006) In Stefanowitsch’s (2006) insightful overview of the methodological problems and possible solutions to corpus-based research in the field of metaphor, he expounds on the methodological possibility of searching for conceptual mappings by identifying the relevant target domains (p.3). The key pre-requisite for this endeavour would be the existence of a large, representative and “monothematic” corpus dealing with target domains (e.g. 76 ECONOMICS, SPORTS, POLITICS). In this thesis, the corpus essentially focuses on the target domains comprising the BP Oil Spill and the relevant entities encapsulated within the narrative (such as BP itself, the British and American Governments, the spilt oil as an entity, the notions of POLITICS and INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS in general etc.). The next step would involve identifying the conceptual metaphors occurring within the vicinity of the selected node word that embodies the target domain. It is important to note that Stefanowitsch expresses two main reservations with this methodology – due mainly in part to the technological limitations at the time of writing (p.34): 1. It will “only identify a subset of metaphorical expressions (that) contain target domain vocabulary”. 2. It will not identify metaphorical expressions “exhaustively or systematically” as it will only identify the source domains that are associated with statistically-salient lexical items within the corpus. However, both these concerns are alleviated to a certain extent with the recent developments in concordancing technology. As WMatrix provides comprehensive lexical and semantic corpus annotation, exhaustive lists of semantic domains and lexical items are fully available for the metaphor analyst. This simply means that the metaphor analyst is free to systematically analyse the complete range of semantic domains for metaphoricity if the need arises. Thus, the efficient annotation of large corpora has enabled the complete and practical realisation of Stefanowitsch’s proposed methodology. 77 However, the key shortcoming that remains with this approach would be the need for manual post-editing of the corpora due to a number of “false hits”. This is the result of the shortcomings with the semantic tagger where its accuracy remains in doubt - especially with respect to new lexical additions and culture-specific semantic shifts to the lexicon. At this juncture, it is important to note that the specific exploitation of WMatrix for metaphorical analysis within this thesis is unique and is a departure from existing methodologies in the tradition of Hardie et al. (2007) and Koller et al. (2008). Thus, the framework for formulating conceptual metaphors advocated in this thesis is an inductive approach that uses empirically-based linguistic evidence generated from concordances to formulate the “reconstructed conceptual structures” in a systematic manner that can be potentially exhaustive (Steen et al., 2010, p.760). 3.3.2. Metaphorical Primitives & Compounds (Grady, Taub & Morgan, 1996) There is an urgent need to formulate a systematic model that streamlines the sprawling metaphorical complexes that often arise from largescale discourse studies. This is simply due to the resultant range of metaphors that seem to lack a coherent hierarchical structure. Hence, an adaptation of Grady, Taub & Morgan’s (1996) proposed diagrammatic representations of metaphors will enable the analyst to have a pictorial grasp of the overarching entailments and the range of conceptual metaphors employed in the analysis of the discourse. The diagrammatic representation of these metaphorical 78 Fig. 3.11. Partial ‘Word Sketch’ Screenshot for ‘Oil’ (NYT Corpus) Incorporating the Word Sketch function in the Sketch Engine, Fig. 3.11 shows a partial screenshot for the word sketch – “Oil” (noun). The word sketch essentially provides two parsing functions: 1. Firstly, it showcases all lemmatical forms of the identified collocations and sorts them in descending order of frequency. This enables the analyst to have an immediate overview of the range of collocations associated with a particular lemma e.g. all lemmatical variations of “Leak” found in the corpus are showcased in the concordances with the node word “oil” – i.e. “leaking”, “leaked” (see Fig. 3.13 below). Furthermore, these collocates are sorted in accordance to empirical salience – with the most frequently occurring 102 collocates placed on top of the list – thus facilitating the empirical selection of the lexical items for further metaphorical analysis. 2. Secondly, it divides the collocations into sequence-based grammatical relations i.e. subjects, objects, modifiers, prepositions and conjunctions. This refines the metaphorical analysis as it allows the analyst to understand the link between the grammatical context of the collocations and the range of metaphors generated. A preliminary analysis of the node word “oil” (noun) in word-sketch shows a one-page list of accompanying collocates (Fig 3.12). As mentioned earlier, all lemmatical forms of these collocates are neatly classified into sequence-based grammatical relations in the order of empirical salience. For purposes of this methodology demonstration – we will look at a selection of the top-5 collocates for the node word “oil” under the “object of” and “subject of” category. The choice of categories is simply because the metaphorical analysis in this thesis will focus mainly on the “lexical” or “content” words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) and not on grammatical or function words (prepositions, conjunctions and auxiliary verbs etc). Going by the inductive principle of empirical suggestion propagated by the IICM – a partial screenshot of the list of collocations that will be used for subsequent analysis in Step Two is shown in Fig. 3.12. 103 Fig. 3.12. Partial Word Sketch Screenshot of the collocates for ‘Oil’ (NYT Corpus) to be analysed in Step Two Thus, with the identification of the collocates/lexical items for metaphorical analysis objectively identified as viable options via the USAS Broad-List function (WMatrix) and the Word Sketch function (Sketch Engine), we can move on with the formulation of the associated conceptual metaphors in Step Two. 3.5.3.2 Step Two - The identification of Conceptual Keys/Scenarios (Charteris-Black, 2004; Musolff, 2004) With the aim of formulating a methodology for the preliminary metaphorical analysis for a large swath of representative texts in mind, the context and co-text of the target node word (in the Firthian tradition) takes precedence for the metaphorical analysis using this framework. With this Firthian tradition in mind, a closer examination of the collocations generated by Sketch Engine in Fig. 3.12 is needed. 104 Step Two essentially entails that the lexical units gleaned from the span of one sentence before and after the node word will be placed in a table and grouped in accordance to their “Conceptual Keys”, “Scenarios” and their “Attitudinal Dispositions” for subsequent detailed analysis (see Tables 3.13.8). The proposed table is divided into four separate columns: 1. Any lexical item or multi-word unit of analysis (e.g. associated verbs, adjectives, adverbs, nouns and multi-word units) within the designated span of one sentence before and after the node word that provides for a shift in conceptual domains will be included for metaphorical analysis. The expanded contexts for further analysis are captured in italics. These are all captured under the Span (Occurrences) column. This is essentially an adaptation of Oster’s (2010) methodology of “qualitative context-based filtering” where he scans the list of collocates for possible candidates that might be part of a metaphorical expression before retrieving the contexts accordingly (p.738). However, for the IICM in this thesis, the relevant clauses are analysed as a whole, focusing on the cognitive structuring provided by the conceptual metaphors and their resultant entailments rather than on the identification of the linguistic metaphors per se based on the individual lexical unit. 2. In line with the adaptation of the Firthian tradition for the metaphor identification process, the immediate co-texts will be used to determine the attitudinal meaning of the unit of analysis. This evaluative segment is captured under the column captioned “Attitudinal Disposition”. 105 The decisions about the contextual meanings and basic meaning relations of the significant collocates are based on the definitions of the two contemporary corpus-based dictionaries and the informed intuitions of the researcher with the aid of the co-text and sociocultural, political and situational contexts. 3. Finally, the proposed “Conceptual Keys” (Charteris-Black, 2004, p.246) are listed in the right-most column. Conceptual Keys essentially communicate the “fundamental outlook” that characterises the target discourse under analysis. Charteris-Black sees this as a “superordinate conceptual relation” that unifies the potentially sprawling metaphorical complexes. Conversely, Musolff (2004) conceptualises the conceptual metaphor hierarchy in terms of “Scenarios” that are composed of conceptual clusters and conceptual elements (p.17). In Musolff’s framework, these “scenarios” function like a “set of standard assumptions made by competent members of a discourse community about the prototypical content aspects (participants, roles, dramatic story-lines) and the social/ethical evaluations concerning elements of conceptual domains”. In other words, the “scenarios” provide the plotlines and points-of-view along which the conceptual metaphors are formulated. These two concepts complement each other and provide a coherent hierarchical complex that organises the entire range of conceptual metaphors mined from the discourse. As is the usual convention in metaphor studies, the Conceptual Keys and Conceptual Metaphors will be represented in upper-case whilst the Scenarios will 106 also be presented in upper-case enclosed in corresponding brackets e.g. THE OIL IS A THREAT (WAR). Figs. 3.13-3.15 showcase a partial snapshot of the selection of the top5 collocates empirically suggested by the word sketch in Fig. 3.12. These figures will be juxtaposed by the analysis in the accompanying metaphor-key formulating tables (Tables 3.1-3.2). Fig. 3.13. Collocates for ‘Oil’ (NYT Corpus) – ‘Leak’ in Word Sketch (All 27 instances – Obj of) 107 Table 3.1. Identifying the attitudinal disposition/ conceptual keys for ‘Substances and materials: Liquid (NYT_1_‘OIL’: Collocate: Leak) Collocate/ Lemma (Occurrences) Leak (27: Obj of) Span (Occurrences) succeeds in capturing most of the leaking oil/ effort to contain the leaking oil continued/ use a containment dome to capture the leaking oil/unsuccessful engineering efforts to seal the well or contain the leaking oil/deploying a containment dome to capture some of the leaking oil/ The structures would contain the leaking oil and route it to the surface (7) the latest setback in the effort to shut off the leaking oil (1) Attitudinal Disposition (MacMillan Online Dictionary Reference: Main Collocates) The oil is seen as a progressive threat with a negative impact to be neutralised OR managed (by capture/ containment). “Capture” – to catch a prisoner or an animal. BP intends to challenge official government estimates of how much oil leaked from its runaway well/demanded an accurate analysis of the flow of leaking oil, given doubts about BP's initial estimates/amid continuing questions about how much of the leaking oil was being captured by BP's latest containment effort/ he said his company's sampling of water had suggested that all the leaking oil was coming to the surface, despite several reports from independent researchers/ THE OIL IS A DANGEROUS ENTITY (DANGER) *Personification “Contain” – to prevent something harmful from spreading to other people or places. The progress of capping an oil spill is a journey “Setback” –a problem that delays or stops progress or makes a situation worse. 267,000 gallons of oil leaked from BP's network of pipelines (1) Conceptual Key (Scenario) CAPPING THE SPILL IS A JOURNEY (PROGRESS) *Structural The spilt oil is characterised as being large in volume, out of control and dangerous. BAD IS BIG (SCALE) BP is characterised as being an incompetent and untrustworthy entity – as intending to hide the facts of the case in order to minimise payouts. This means that BP is portrayed as mercenary, unrepentant and blindly driven by the profit motive. *Orientational/ Spatial BP IS A PERSON (PERSONIFICATI ON) *Personification “Challenge” – an action or idea that challenges whether something is true, accurate or legal. “Demand” – the things that need to be done in a particular situation. BP's latest failure to plug the leaking oil well/ While BP tries various short-term efforts to plug a leaking oil well (8) BP’s failure to plug the well and the reliance on “short-term measures” or stop-gap methods also emphasise the notion of incompetence. “Failure” – a lack of success in doing something. “Short-term” – lasting for a *While this proposed personification of “BP” as an entity can be taken to stand metonymically for “the people in charge of the company” – the present study is interested in the ideological/political implications of these repeated representations on a macro-scale. Hence, the full range of these representations of “BP” will be classified as metaphorical personification. 108 short moment in time e.g. “short term solutions”. Fig. 3.14. Collocates for ‘Oil’ (NYT Corpus) – ‘Spill’ in Word Sketch (All 20 instances – Obj of) Fig. 3.15. Collocates for ‘Oil’ (NYT Corpus) – ‘Spill’ in Word Sketch (All 12 instances – Subj of) Table 3.2. Identifying the attitudinal disposition/conceptual keys for ‘Substances and materials: Liquid (NYT_1_‘OIL’: Collocate: Spill) Collocate/ Lemma (Occurrences) Spill (20: Obj of + 12: Subj of) Span (Occurrences) to be able to fully contain the oil spilled within weeks/ a temporary dome to capture most of the spilled oil until it can drill two relief wells/include efforts to contain the spilling crude oil/create a rapid-response system to deal with deepwater oil spills/amount of chemicals 109 Attitudinal Disposition (MacMillan Online Dictionary Reference: Main Collocates)_ The oil is seen as a progressive threat with a negative impact to be neutralised (by capture/ containment/control/ carefully planned strategies). “Capture” – to catch a prisoner or an animal. Conceptual Key (Scenario) THE OIL IS A DANGEROUS ENTITY (DANGER) *Personification applied to control the oil spilling/ (5) “Contain” – to prevent something harmful from spreading to other people or places. “Deal with” – to take action, to something, especially to solve a problem. plagued by serious leaks and spills. ''More oil is spilled from the delta's network of terminals, pipes, pumping stations. (1) this event could eclipse the amount of oil spilled during the Exxon Valdez accident in 1989/ Millions of gallons of crude oil spilled before the well was capped in July/estimated 210,000 gallons of oil spilling from the Deepwater Horizon site every day -- for a total of some 3.3 million gallons, so far/armchair engineers brainstormed for ways to stop the torrent of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico/ thousands of barrels of oil spilling into the gulf each day (6) Spilled oil behaves in many ways, but here, based on sad experience/ scientific research about the fate of spilled oil (2) “Control” – the ability to solve a problem. An oil spill is seen as a disease/plague. “Plague” – any serious disease that spreads quickly to a lot of people and usually ends in death. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is portrayed as being significant and dangerous in comparison to previous disasters. *Analogybased Metaphors BAD IS BIG (SCALE) *Orientational/ Spatial “Eclipse” – to make something less important by becoming more important. “Torrent” – fast and powerful flow of liquid OR a large amount of something unpleasant. The oil is characterised as an entity with behavioural traits and a foreseeable future. “Fate” – the things that happen to someone, especially unpleasant things. BP has not offered its own estimates of how much oil spilled/ No one thinks BP, Transocean or Halliburton intended to spill oil into the gulf. But given good evidence, the government could argue that the companies cut corners or deviated so much from standard industry practice (2) THE OIL IS A SICKNESS (HEALTH AND DISEASE) The oil industry is portrayed as negligent and driven blindly by the profit-motive. Indicates the intention to be dishonest and to hide the truth in order to mitigate the resultant blame from the blow out. THE OIL IS A LIVING ENTITY (PERSONIFIC ATION) BP IS A PERSON (PERSONIFIC ATION : CRIME) *Personification “Cut corners” – to not a job as thoroughly as you should , especially because you want to finish it quickly or save some money. There is a need to set some delimitations for this analysis. For the purpose of identifying conceptual metaphors systematically in large 110 representative texts, this analysis will incorporate the following considerations: • The focus will be placed on “lexical” or “content” words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs). • Multi-word units will be taken into account. These will be distinguished by semantic decomposability (Baldwin & Su, 2010; Pragglejaz Group, 2007, p.26). This includes fixed collocations (“short circuit”, “committing suicide”, and “suffering a blow”) and classical idioms (“kick the bucket”, “out of the blue”). In other words, the idiomaticity or the deviation in terms of basic properties from the component lexemes will be taken into account. • Grammatical words or function words will not be analysed individually. These include prepositions; auxiliary verbs (do, be, have) or delexicalised verbs (make, get, go, give, have); conjunctions and grammatical articles or particles. 3.5.3.3 Step Three – The identification of possible conceptual categories and analogical structures In order to ensure that this process is systematic and transparent, all the proposed conceptual domains and the possible analogical structures must be based on identified lexical units just like those identified in Tables 3.1-3.2. The adaptation of Oster’s (2010) “qualitative context-based filtering” also includes the use of corpus-based dictionaries to disambiguate the potential 111 analogical structures of the formulated conceptual metaphors. Table 3.3 given below shows a partial summary of the possible findings based on a detailed concordance analysis as proposed by the IICM. Table 3.3. Identifying possible conceptual categories and analogical structures for ‘Substances and materials: Liquid (NYT_1_‘OIL’) Conceptual Key (Scenario) Grouped Lexical Units/Attitudinal Disposition (Based on MacMillan Online Dictionary References to Main Collocates)_ THE OIL IS A THREAT (DANGER/ SICKNESS) *Personification/Analogy ‘Capture’ (‘trap’, ‘stop from escaping’) succeeds in capturing most of the leaking oil/ use a containment dome to capture the leaking oil/ deploying a containment dome to capture some of the leaking oil/ a temporary dome to capture most of the spilled oil until it can drill two relief wells/ containment dome to trap the spewing oil/ and stop oil from escaping at that point/ to permanently stop the oil/ stop oil from escaping at that point, though it did not change the overall amount flowing out/ (8) 35 instances Conceptual Metaphors THE OIL IS AN ESCAPING ENTITY *Personification “Capture” – to catch a person or animal. “Trap” – a piece of equipment used to capture animals. “Escape” – to get away from a place you are not allowed to leave. ‘Contain’ effort to contain the leaking oil continued/ unsuccessful engineering efforts to seal the well or contain the leaking oil/ The structures would contain the leaking oil and route it to the surface/ to be able to fully contain the oil spilled within weeks/ include efforts to contain the spilling crude oil/ they should be in charge of containing the oil and addressing the long-term aftermath/And if efforts to contain the oil are even partly successful and the weather cooperates, the worst could be avoided/ (7) THE OIL IS A THREAT TO BE CURTAILED (FIRE/SICKNESS) *Analogy “Contain” – to prevent something harmful from spreading to other people or places. “Aftermath” – the effects or results of something bad or important. ‘Response’ (‘manage’, ‘deal with’) BP aims to set up a separate organization to manage the response once the well is no longer leaking oil /create a rapid-response system to deal with deepwater oil spills/ 112 THE OIL IS A THREAT TO BE OVERCOME (DANGER) *Analogy “Manage” – to organise and to control (the work of a company), to deal successfully with a problem. “Deal with” – to take action, to something, especially to solve a problem. ‘Gushing’ (to ‘counteract’, ‘overwhelm’, ‘still’, ‘stem’, ‘uncontrolled gusher’, ‘unable to stop’, ‘a desperate effort to stop’, ‘torrent’) to counteract the pressure of the gushing oil/ /the pressure of the oil rising from the well could be overwhelming, and the well could gush oil at a far higher rate/that is still gushing oil /succeeding in overcoming the pressure of the oil spewing out of the well/ the experimental procedure will help stem the flow of crude oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico/ the picture of an uncontrolled gusher of oil spewing destruction into the gulf/ A joint government and industry task force has been unable to stop crude oil from streaming out of a broken pipe/imploring the federal government and BP to build 80 miles of sand berms and plug holes in barrier islands in a desperate effort to stop oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill from destroying marshes, sounds and bayous/ armchair engineers brainstormed for ways to stop the torrent of oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico (9) THE OIL IS A POWERFUL FORCE (ADVERSARY) *Personification “Counteract” – to reduce the negative effect of something by doing something that has an opposite effect. “Overcome” – to succeed in dealing with a problem or to defeat someone or something. “Overwhelming” – much larger, stronger, more important than anything else in a situation. “Stem the tide (flow)” – to stop something from increasing or continuing. “Task force” – a group of people chosen to deal with a particular problem or situations/ a group of people from the armed forces chosen to deal with a particular military situation. ‘Deployed’/ ‘Task force’/ ‘Coast Guard/ Military Personnel’ new system is expected to be deployed within 24 hours of an offshore spill, and to be able to fully contain the oil spilled within weeks/ A joint government and industry task force has been unable to stop crude oil from streaming out of a broken pipe/ Who is in charge of stopping the oil that is already spilled from spreading and reaching the gulf shoreline? A. The Coast Guard, led by Adm. Thad W. Allen/ (3) 113 THE OIL IS THE ENEMY *Personification CLEANING THE OIL SPILL IS A WAR *Structural Metaphor “Deployed” – if a government deploys soldiers or armies, it uses them OR to use something. “Task force” – a group of people chosen to deal with a particular problem or situations/ a group of people from the armed forces chosen to deal with a particular military situation. we are now unable to defeat the Taliban, or rein in the likes of BP and the biggest banks, or stop the oil gushing furiously from the bowels of earth like a warning from Hades/(1) THE OIL SPILL IS A WARNING FROM HELL *Analogy “Hades” – hell. THE OIL IS A SICKNESS (HEALTH AND DISEASE) *Analogy ‘Plagued’ plagued by serious leaks and spills. ''More oil is spilled from the delta's network of terminals, pipes, pumping stations/ How can they stop the oil from spreading/ (2) THE OIL SPILL IS A CONTAGIOUS DISEASE *Analogy instances “Plague” – any serious disease that spreads quickly to a lot of people and usually ends in death. “Spread” – to gradually affect a larger area OR the spreading of a disease. ‘Long-Term Restoration’/‘Bowels’/ ‘Rupture’/ ‘Recovery’ the oil spill response had shifted from stopping oil to long-term restoration/ stop the oil gushing furiously from the bowels of earth like a warning from Hades/to capture oil leaking from a ruptured well/ a third of the oil was captured or mitigated by recovery efforts/ (5) THE ENVIRONMENT IS A BODY *Analogy THE OIL WELL IS A BODY PART (ARTERY) *Analogy “Restoration” – the act of restoring or the state of being restored as to a original condition/place. “Bowels (of the earth)” – the part of the body where solid waste is formed OR the deepest inner part of something. “Ruptured” – if an organ or object ruptures, it bursts or tears suddenly. “Recovery” – the process of becoming fit or healthy again after an illness or injury OR the act of getting something again that was lost. ‘Contain’/ ‘Killing’/ ‘Fouling’/ ‘Poison’/ ‘Untainted by’ Millions of gallons of oil have already escaped from the blown well, presenting an enormous challenge to contain it and keep it from killing ocean life and fouling Gulf Coast beaches and wetlands/ sending millions of gallons of oil gushing 114 THE OIL IS A THREAT (DISEASE/POISON) *Analogy from BP's Macondo well like so much black poison/ the marshes as yet untainted by the oil gushing from a BP well offshore / (3) “Contain” – to prevent something harmful from spreading to other people or places. “Fouling” – to make something very dirty. “Poison” – something that can kill you or make you ill if you eat, breathe, drink it. “Untainted” – not spoiled by a situation that could have caused damage OR not tarnished, contaminated or polluted. CAPPING THE SPILL IS A JOURNEY (PATHMOVEMENT) *Structural Metaphor instances ‘Setback’/ ‘Obstacle’/ ‘Moved ahead’/ ‘Finally’/ ‘Soon’/ ‘Over the weekend’/ ‘Measures are pursued’ the latest setback in the effort to shut off the leaking oil/ serious setback in the effort to stem the flow of oil gushing from a well a mile beneath/ reduce the flow of oil spewing from disabled well in the Gulf of Mexico met another obstacle/ BP and the government moved ahead on the latest plan, to contain the oil and gas / one that would not stop the leaks but would capture the oil and deliver it to the surface while permanent measures are pursued/ (5) GOOD IS FORWARD CAPPING THE OIL SPILL IS A JOURNEY *Spatial/ Orientational Metaphor “Setback” – a problem that delays or stops progress or makes a situation worse “Obstacle” – a difficulty or problem that prevents one from achieving something OR an object that must be removed in order to move forward. “Move ahead” – moving towards a place in front of you. “Pursuing Measures” – to follow a course of activity or to achieve something. 3.5.3.4 Step Four – The hierarchical representation of cross-domain mapping There are two key areas that require addressing in the formulation of conceptual metaphors from a discourse-analytical approach in current 115 literature: 1. There is a need to avoid metaphorical cross-classification in deciding which sets of correspondences are the most salient. This can be done by focusing on the discourse in context as well as the general considerations of meaning and knowledge found in cognitive linguistics or conceptual metaphor theory. This concern is solved in part by Grady, Taub & Morgan (1996) through the simple yet powerful delineation of primitive and compound metaphors. The crossclassification of metaphors can be accounted for by the overlaps between two or more primitive metaphors. Such delineation addresses the notion of cross-classification by placing the metaphors in a coherent visual representation. 2. There is also a need to avoid the formation of a sprawling metaphorical complex in the organisation of the metaphors found in the target discourse. In the case of this preliminary study, there are a total of 12 Conceptual Keys (Scenarios) and an accompanying 35 Conceptual Metaphors spread across metaphor categories. In other words, there is a need for a framework that organises the range of metaphors found in discourse into a coherent whole that is representative and encompassing. The adaptation of Grady, Taub & Morgan’s framework in tandem with the classification of conceptual metaphors into the four categories results in a pictorial representation of the range of metaphorical relations. The five categories of metaphor are Structural Metaphors (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), Ontological Metaphors 116 (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), Orientational/Spatial Metaphors (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) and Image/Analogy-based Metaphors (Lakoff, 1992; Gibbs, 1999). This categorisation was discussed in depth in section 3.3.4. The resultant diagrammatic representation is captured in Figure 3.16. All the conceptual metaphors formulated in Figure 3.16 are empirically based on the complete range of concordances that are represented by Table 3.3. 117 [...]... being used to triangulate the findings of traditional intensive manual analysis of representative data in order to augment the robustness of the associated study 3. 5 The IICM in action 3. 5 .1 Preliminary Procedures The next few segments will demonstrate the use of the IICM framework for metaphorical analysis Utilising the USAS semantic domains within WMatrix as the starting point of the analysis, an analysis... NYT -Corpus) A preliminary examination of the lexical item oil (Fig 3. 8) clearly shows that virtually all the top -30 instances in the concordance refer to either the size and scale of the oil spill (Lines 1, 7, 10 , 11 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 21) or make references to the salient need to contain its threat to the economy and the environment (Lines 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 , 13 , 14 , 18 , 19 , 25, 27) A closer look at... referencing and conceptual blending As a result, these diagrammatic depictions adequately capture the eclectic combination of the conventional, the contextual and the innovative Thus, the adaptation of Grady, Taub and Morgan’s representation of conceptual metaphors provides for a more complete representation of the resultant interactions between the conceptual metaphors in the target discourse 3. 3 .3 Key... potentially salient alternative mappings and inadvertently compromising on the potential metaphorical richness of the data 3. 4 The Integrated-Approach to the Identification of Conceptual Metaphors (IICM) The following segments will demonstrate and explicate the use of the proposed IICM for an in- depth metaphorical analysis of the BP oil spill in British and American newspapers This will be accomplished... classification of these inductively mined metaphors into four categories based on existing classifications by respected metaphor theorists (section 3. 3 .3) 83 3 An adaptation of Grady, Taub & Morgan’s (19 96) pictorial representation of metaphorical primitives and compounds in a diagrammatic arrangement (section 3. 3.2) 3. 4 .1 An overview of the IICM Framework Here are the steps for the proposed Integrated-Approach... immediate co-text” (p.2 53) Hence, this underscores the importance of examining the immediate co-text in determining the underlying attitudinal discourse function of the unit of meaning under analysis • Step Three – The identification of the range of conceptual metaphors through the macro-reclassification, comparison and analogical structures of the available socio-political and situational contextual... “milestones” and “moves in the right direction” are mooted as points of success An interesting health reference where the oil was viewed as the product of uncontrollable “spewing” was also 98 made in Lines 11 and 15 However, these observations are based arbitrarily on the first 30 concordance lines that are randomly generated in accordance to the order in which the texts are saved in the corpus This... between the grammatical context of the collocations and the range of metaphors generated A preliminary analysis of the node word oil (noun) in word-sketch shows a one-page list of accompanying collocates (Fig 3. 12 ) As mentioned earlier, all lemmatical forms of these collocates are neatly classified into sequence -based grammatical relations in the order of empirical salience For purposes of this methodology... structuring provided by the conceptual metaphors and their resultant entailments rather than on the derivation of the linguistic 86 metaphors per se This is based partially on Oster’s (2 010 ) “qualitative context -based filtering”, which is essentially an adaptation of the MIP as the analysis in this thesis deals with a “list of co-occurrences” rather than “linear textual analysis” (p. 738 ) This simply means... metaphor formulation and analysis loop, propagating a metaphor identification and analysis procedures that is based on empirical and inductive principles in a critical tradition Thus, this framework aims to use a combination of automatic semantic analysis, key word identification and domain techniques in order to develop a new methodology for the computer-assisted analysis of metaphorical patterns in . has become pre-eminent since the 9 -11 75 attacks in 20 01, exacerbated by the current climate of political uncertainty and economic malaise in the US and in the Euro-zone. Apart from adapting. CHAPTER 3 THE INTEGRATED APPROACH TO THE IDENTIFICATION OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS (IICM) 3. 1. Introduction This chapter aims to amalgamate existing theories and findings pertaining. Taub & Morgan’s (19 96) proposed diagrammatic representations of metaphors will enable the analyst to have a pictorial grasp of the overarching entailments and the range of conceptual metaphors