In this book, Chiara Nasti analyses the distribution of metaphor scenarios and patterns in the public discourse on the European Lisbon Treaty. Her study on a specialized corpus reveals differences and/or similarities in the argumentation and attitudes of the main UK broadsheet and tabloid newspapers. She summarizes the main theories and identification procedures for metaphor investigation, commenting on some developments in the field of metaphor studies. Following Charteris-Black’s Critical Metaphor Analysis, she starts from the premise that metaphors need to be explored in the context where they occur. Her analysis in fact reveals that context investigation is useful to better understand the complexity of metaphors – their pragmatic and cognitive function – and their role in the political debate. Moreover, the analysis reveals as well that metaphors are useful tools for identifying stereotyped roles of the participants in the ratification process; and they are also functional, used to explore both political and journalistic attitudes towards the debate on the Lisbon Treaty. Her book addresses readers from various academic backgrounds who are interested in linguistics, cognitive linguistics and, in particular, the application of corpus linguistics to metaphor investigation. It will also be of interest to academic students dealing with the debate over the Lisbon Treaty.
Europeanness is challenged by the multiple crises and debates happening across the continent. There is long-standing disagreement over Europe’s boundaries, and politicians and citizens continually reflect on the EU’s past, present and future. This book analyses such reflections and political struggles in a variety of national and local contexts.
The Languages of Politics/La politique et ses langages provides a multifaceted view of major approaches to the study of political discourse from an interdisciplinary perspective. To date, most contributions to the analysis of political discourse have come from the fields of rhetoric, (critical) discourse analysis, cognitive linguistics, pragmatics, lexicology, lexicography, and, more recently, multimodal discourse analysis. The papers in this volume build their investigations on these perspectives, and provide new and diversified insights into this vast area of research. Besides considering multiple approaches, the book also adds to the current debate on the languages of politics by combining a range of theoretical and methodological considerations, and by featuring contributions in both English and French.
The chapters provide comprehensive surveys of the major subfields of Cognitive Linguistics. Apart from phonology, construction grammar and lexical semantics, the areas of language use, language acquisition and literary discourse are comprehensively presented.
Studying Scientific Metaphor in Translation presents a multilingual examination of the translation of metaphors. Mark Shuttleworth explores this facet of translation and develops a theoretically nuanced description of the procedures that translators have recourse to when translating metaphorical language. Drawing on a core corpus consisting of six Scientific American articles in the fields of neurobiology and biotechnology dating from 2004, along with their translations into Chinese, French, German, Italian, Polish and Russian, Shuttleworth provides a data-driven and theoretically informed picture of the processes that underpin metaphor translation. The book builds interdisciplinary bridges between translation scholars and metaphor researchers, proposes a new set of procedures for metaphor translation conceived within the context of descriptive translation studies, and puts forward a possible resolution to the debate on metaphor translatability.
Cognitive Linguistics is an approach to language study based on the assumptions that our linguistic abilities are firmly rooted in our cognitive abilities, that meaning is essentially conceptualization, and that grammar is shaped by usage. The Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics provides state-of-the-art overviews of the numerous subfields of cognitive linguistics written by leading international experts which will be useful for established researchers and novices alike. It is an interdisciplinary project with contributions from linguists, psycholinguists, psychologists, and computer scientists which will emphasise the most recent developments in the field, in particular, the shift towards more empirically-based research. In this way, it will, we hope, help to shape the field, encouraging methodologically more rigorous research which incorporates insights from all the cognitive sciences. Editor Ewa Dąbrowska was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship 2018.
Discourses of Brexit provides a kaleidoscope of insights into how discourse influenced the outcome of the EU referendum and what discourses have sprung up as a result of it. Working with a wide variety of data, from political speeches to Twitter, and a wide range of methods, Discourses of Brexit presents the most thorough examination of the discourses around the British EU referendum and related events. It provides a comprehensive understanding of the discursive treatment of Brexit, while also providing detailed investigations of how Brexit has been negotiated in different contexts. Discourses of Brexit is key reading for all students and researchers in language and politics, discourse analysis and related areas, as well as anyone interested in developing their understanding of the referendum.
This anthology of papers, written by Christina Schäffner, brings together a selection of articles on the theme of translation and politics. Written from the perspective of translation studies and critical discourse analysis, it provides an overview of the textual and ideological factors that determine processes of translation within the arena of international politics. The selected articles afford a fascinating insight into the dynamics of intercultural exchange against the backdrop of European politics from the fall of the Berlin Wall to debates on EU enlargement. By taking a context-sensitive approach to linguistic description, this book will be of interest to scholars in various adjacent fields of research, such as (applied) linguistics, (intercultural) communication studies, media studies, political science and the sociology of globalisation, as well as to relevant higher education programmes around the world. The discipline of translation studies has made its mark by conceptualising translation as a form of cross-cultural communication that transcends asymmetrical relations of power, foregrounding issues such as (colonial) domination, (cultural) hegemony, and ideology. To date, however, there has been no compelling evidence of the linguistic implications of transnational political communication, and little research has been done to help us to understand how political discourse at the international level presupposes translation. Featuring a wealth of examples from political text and talk, each article here links contextual features to the linguistic choices of political actors. By moving beyond national and cultural boundaries, these analyses help the reader to get to grips with the discursive implications of power politics, and to open up a new debate for a novel area of studies that might be termed cross-cultural political discourse analysis.
Brexit will have significant consequences for the country, for Europe, and for global order. And yet much discussion of Brexit in the UK has focused on the causes of the vote and on its consequences for the future of British politics. This volume examines the consequences of Brexit for the future of Europe and the European Union, adopting an explicitly regional and future-oriented perspective missing from many existing analyses. Drawing on the expertise of 28 leading scholars from a range of disciplines, Brexit and Beyond offers various different perspectives on the future of Europe, charting the likely effects of Brexit across a range of areas, including institutional relations, political economy, law and justice, foreign affairs, democratic governance, and the idea of Europe itself. Whilst the contributors offer divergent predictions for the future of Europe after Brexit, they share the same conviction that careful scholarly analysis is in need – now more than ever – if we are to understand what lies ahead for the EU. Praise for Brexit and Beyond 'a wide-ranging and thought-provoking tour through the vagaries of British exit, with the question of Europe’s fate never far from sight...Brexit is a wake-up call for the EU. How it responds is an open question—but respond it must. To better understand its options going forward you should turn to this book, which has also been made free online.' Prospect Magazine 'This book explores wonderfully well the bombshell of Brexit: is it a uniquely British phenomenon or part of a wider, existential crisis for the EU? As the tensions and complexities of the Brexit negotiations come to the fore, the collection of essays by leading scholars will prove a very valuable reference for their depth of analysis, their lucidity, and their outlining of future options.' - Kevin Featherstone, Head of the LSE European Institute, London School of Economics 'Brexit and Beyond is a must read. It moves the ongoing debate about what Brexit actually means to a whole new level. While many scholars to date have examined the reasons for the British decision to leave, the crucial question of what Brexit will mean for the future of the European project is often overlooked. No longer. Brexit and Beyond bundles the perspectives of leading scholars of European integration. By doing so, it provides a much needed scholarly guidepost for our understanding of the significance of Brexit, not only for the United Kingdom, but also for the future of the European continent.' - Catherine E. De Vries, Professor in the department of Government, University of Essex and Professor in the department of Political Science and Public Administration Free University Amsterdam 'Brexit and Beyond provides a fascinating (and comprehensive) analysis on the how and why the UK has found itself on the path to exiting the European Union. The talented cast of academic contributors is drawn from a wide variety of disciplines and areas of expertise and this provides a breadth and depth to the analysis of Brexit that is unrivalled. The volume also provides large amounts of expert-informed speculation on the future of both the EU and UK and which is both stimulating and anxiety-inducing.' -Professor Richard Whitman, Head of School, Professor of Politics and International Relations, Director of the Global Europe Centre, University of Kent
This study patterns national identity over a number of important historical milestones and brings the debates over Europe up-to-date with an analysis of recent happenings including the referendum on Scottish independence, the global economic crisis and the current crisis in Syria.
