Evaluative Discourse Metaphor in Online Communities

This monograph introduces the Evaluative Discourse Metaphor model, which argues that participants in public and semi-public online discourse (re)use evaluative metaphors to construct and maintain communities. We explore how such metaphors trigger others with similar forms, though not necessarily the same evaluative targets, generating discourse spaces unified by a shared evaluative ethos. The model draws on a discourse-based view of metaphor, Hallidayan metafunctions, Du Bois’s stance triangle, and insights from computer-mediated communication, with a focus on affordances and community-building. We define or redefine key concepts including single evaluative metaphors, metaphorical complexes, triggers, bondicons, and chains. Rather than departing from existing literature, we integrate it into a framework valuable to scholars in metaphor studies, digital ethnography, discourse analysis, and online communication.