Interdisciplinary research in persian Language and literature

The Study of Using War Metaphor in the Domestic and International News about Covid-19: Based on the Frame Semantics

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Saravan Higher Education Complex. Saravan. Iran.

2 PhD in Linguistics, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Zahedan, Iran

Abstract

Abstract
According to the outbreak of Covid-19, experts and politicians are working to inform people completely about the crisis in their country and around the world. In the meantime, the use of the metaphor of "war" as a linguistic instrument is very common. Therefore, the present study examines the metaphor of "war" in the domestic and international news statements and texts related to the Covid-19 disease based on The Frame Semantics theory. This research is a descriptive- analytic research. To this end, the metaphors of the domestic news statements related to COVID-19 were selected from 20:30 news and online news, ISNA and IRNA, and the metaphors of the international statements related to COVID-19 were gathered from Guardian news, New York Times news and the website of Twitter. 500 metaphors in these texts were extracted through “Metaphor Identification Procedure” pattern suggested by Pragglejaz. Then, the metaphors located in the “disease” semantic frame and their frame elements were identified. The findings demonstrated that to create metaphors, the core and non-core elements of the frame play a more tangible semantic role. For example, the core element patient in the “disease” frame enters the "war" frame and plays the semantic role of one of the parties as the core element. On the other hand, the core elements of the frame such as case and purpose and non-core elements including duration, tools, method, position, size, result, time and place of war can get a role in the frame of disease.

Keywords

  1. Introduction

Due to the spread of the Covid-19 disease (Covid-19), experts and politicians were trying to inform people about the crisis in their country and around the world. Meanwhile, the use of the "war" metaphor in the news was very visible. Therefore, the research decided to investigate the metaphor of "war" in domestic and foreign news statements and texts related to the Covid-19 disease, based on the perspective of Frame Semantics. Before this, the critical conditions of the society were showed by the use of the metaphor of "war". For example: In 1971, in a conference, the US president declared a civil war against drug. Richard Nixon, the president of the United States at the time, introduced drug addiction as the first enemy of the American people and announced that serious and aggressive action must be taken to fight and defeat this enemy.

As for the main goal of the current research, investigating the semantic frames and their elements in metaphor, the authors intend to discuss and analyse the concrete concepts that are used to express abstract concepts in the critical conditions of the Covid-19 disease in the world. Since, many researches have been conducted in the field of studying the semantic frames of lexical categories such as "noun", "verb" and "adjective" and none of them have investigated metaphor based on the theory of "Frame Semantics" and also, due to the importance of the spread of the virus Covid-19 all over the world and the concentration of the news on this matter, the current research aims to answer the following questions:

  1. Is it possible to find any connections between the semantic frame of “war” and “disease”?
  2. Can the element specifications of the semantic frames of “war” and “disease” be the reason for using the metaphor “war” universally to refer to the disease of Covid-19?
  3. Methodology

The research method is descriptive-analytical. For this purpose, metaphors related to the disease of Covid-19 were collected from the domestic news statements and texts ("20:30" news) and online news agencies ("ISNA" and "IRNA"), as well as foreign news statements and texts taken from The Guardian, New York Times and Twitter. Five hundred metaphors in these texts were extracted through the model proposed by Pragglejaz called "Metaphor Recognition Procedure". Then, the metaphors were placed in the semantic form of "disease"; and their elements were determined.

  1. Discussion and results

The use of the "war" metaphor requires the use of the core elements of the "war" frame such as "warring parties", "case" and "target", and non-core elements including "duration", "war", "tool", "war", " method", "war", "position of war", "scale of war", "result of war", "time and place of war". The findings obtained from news texts showed that in addition to the semantic frame, its elements can also play an important role in the construction of metaphor; Therefore, the findings are a proof that the metaphor, with the aim of putting the whole semantic frame, leads the mind of the audience to understand the disease and the resulting crisis. For example, "disease" is conceptualized in the mind as "war", which is a kind of experience of the external and objective world, and the risk of contact is highlighted for the audience. During such a goal, people try to apply their political goals to the people. In some cases, it was observed that politicians link their failure in running the affairs of the country to the Covid-19 disease crisis, and by referring to the metaphor of "war", they try to consider the situation of the country as a war condition, and in this way, the burden of their managerial failure place on the situation. For example, Trump has presented himself as a wartime president. The use of the metaphor of war in such a place can also indicate the social, political, economic and military crisis in America.

 

 

  1. Conclusion

The findings of the research showed that based on the theory of " Frame Semantics", the core and non-core elements of the frames are activated and take on a more concrete semantic role for making metaphors. For example, the core elements of "patient" in the semantic form of "disease" enters the form of "war" and plays the semantic role of "one of the parties" as the core element of this frame. On the other hand, the core element of the frame such as "case" and "target", and non-core elements including "duration of war", "tools of war", "method of war", "situation of war", "scale of war", "result of war" ", "time and place of war" are also included in the frame of disease.

  1. Keywords: Metaphor, Frame Semantics, Frame Elements, Cognitive Semantics

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Interdisciplinary research in persian Language and literature
Volume 1, Issue 2
September 2022
Pages 39-64
  • Receive Date: 15 October 2022
  • Revise Date: 28 August 2023
  • Accept Date: 02 March 2023