Metaphors in texts about climate change
This article discusses the use of metaphors and metonyms in texts about climate change in different registers, with a particular focus on the information given to young people, and what they understand about the topic. It begins by considering the role of metaphorical thinking and language in scienc...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Asociación Europea de Lenguas para Fines Específicos
2017
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://aelfe.org/documents/34_02_IBERICA.pdf https://doaj.org/article/d4dc65b19b5947bda7cb6636994710d7 |
id |
fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:d4dc65b19b5947bda7cb6636994710d7 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:oai:doaj.org/article:d4dc65b19b5947bda7cb6636994710d7 2023-05-15T13:45:56+02:00 Metaphors in texts about climate change Alice Deignan 2017-10-01 http://aelfe.org/documents/34_02_IBERICA.pdf https://doaj.org/article/d4dc65b19b5947bda7cb6636994710d7 en eng Asociación Europea de Lenguas para Fines Específicos 1139-7241 2340-2784 http://aelfe.org/documents/34_02_IBERICA.pdf https://doaj.org/article/d4dc65b19b5947bda7cb6636994710d7 undefined Ibérica, Vol 34, Pp 45-65 (2017) metaphor science climate change education schools lang litt Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2017 fttriple 2023-01-22T16:47:57Z This article discusses the use of metaphors and metonyms in texts about climate change in different registers, with a particular focus on the information given to young people, and what they understand about the topic. It begins by considering the role of metaphorical thinking and language in science, and reviews some of the work on scientific metaphor in expert and popular genres. The article analyses the different functions of metaphors in two texts about anthropogenic climate change from different genres, arguing that in the popular text analysed metaphors tend to have the function of entertaining and dramatizing, and introducing and concluding (interpersonal and textual), as opposed to their informational (ideational) function in the research article that was analysed. I then discuss a corpus and discourse analysis of young people’s talk about climate change. The young people’s use of figurative language is compared with that of researchers and educationalists. The analysis finds that, consistent with work on scientific popularisations, written texts for non-specialists tend to “open up” in Knudsen’s (2003) terms experts’ metaphors, extending them creatively. I found that on occasion this seems to lead to, or reflect, misunderstandings of the underlying science. Young people Arctic and Antarctic animals were also found to be symbols of the problem of climate change. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Climate change Unknown Antarctic Arctic |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Unknown |
op_collection_id |
fttriple |
language |
English |
topic |
metaphor science climate change education schools lang litt |
spellingShingle |
metaphor science climate change education schools lang litt Alice Deignan Metaphors in texts about climate change |
topic_facet |
metaphor science climate change education schools lang litt |
description |
This article discusses the use of metaphors and metonyms in texts about climate change in different registers, with a particular focus on the information given to young people, and what they understand about the topic. It begins by considering the role of metaphorical thinking and language in science, and reviews some of the work on scientific metaphor in expert and popular genres. The article analyses the different functions of metaphors in two texts about anthropogenic climate change from different genres, arguing that in the popular text analysed metaphors tend to have the function of entertaining and dramatizing, and introducing and concluding (interpersonal and textual), as opposed to their informational (ideational) function in the research article that was analysed. I then discuss a corpus and discourse analysis of young people’s talk about climate change. The young people’s use of figurative language is compared with that of researchers and educationalists. The analysis finds that, consistent with work on scientific popularisations, written texts for non-specialists tend to “open up” in Knudsen’s (2003) terms experts’ metaphors, extending them creatively. I found that on occasion this seems to lead to, or reflect, misunderstandings of the underlying science. Young people Arctic and Antarctic animals were also found to be symbols of the problem of climate change. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Alice Deignan |
author_facet |
Alice Deignan |
author_sort |
Alice Deignan |
title |
Metaphors in texts about climate change |
title_short |
Metaphors in texts about climate change |
title_full |
Metaphors in texts about climate change |
title_fullStr |
Metaphors in texts about climate change |
title_full_unstemmed |
Metaphors in texts about climate change |
title_sort |
metaphors in texts about climate change |
publisher |
Asociación Europea de Lenguas para Fines Específicos |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://aelfe.org/documents/34_02_IBERICA.pdf https://doaj.org/article/d4dc65b19b5947bda7cb6636994710d7 |
geographic |
Antarctic Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic Arctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Climate change |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Arctic Climate change |
op_source |
Ibérica, Vol 34, Pp 45-65 (2017) |
op_relation |
1139-7241 2340-2784 http://aelfe.org/documents/34_02_IBERICA.pdf https://doaj.org/article/d4dc65b19b5947bda7cb6636994710d7 |
op_rights |
undefined |
_version_ |
1766232852287979520 |