Immigration metaphors in a corpus of legal English: an exploratory study of EAL learners' metaphorical production and awareness
Metaphor is central to human understanding and communication. It pervades our everyday language and also abounds in specialized discourse, with legal language not being an exception. This is particularly relevant since metaphors are powerful framing tools able to affect our worldview With the aim of...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2017 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya) |
| Repositorio: | Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:recercat.cat:2445/122144 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2445/122144 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Corpus (Lingüística) Metàfora Corpora (Linguistics) Metaphor |
| Sumario: | Metaphor is central to human understanding and communication. It pervades our everyday language and also abounds in specialized discourse, with legal language not being an exception. This is particularly relevant since metaphors are powerful framing tools able to affect our worldview With the aim of exploring the use that EAL law undergraduate students make of metaphorical expressions as well as their awareness of their connotations, a learner corpus was compiled and qualitatively analyzed. Results have shown that learners, like native speakers, rely on the use of conceptual metaphors such as MIGRATION IS A NATURAL FORCE, STATES ARE CONTAINERS or IMMIGRANTS ARE A THREAT to describe immigration issues. The study has also revealed that learners are not always conscious of the negative slant that metaphors may convey and that raising their awareness is key to enhance critical thinking. |
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