Cover not available

In:The Rhetorical Mind: Current issues
Edited by Maria Clotilde Almeida, Rodrigo Furtado and Olga Blanco-Carrión
[Figurative Thought and Language 20] 2025
► pp. 77–93

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

How the use of frames and figurative language hampers understanding of science by lay people in IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report

 | University of Lisbon
Published online: 2 September 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ftl.20.06lej
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Information deficit model and media framing theory
  • 3.Mental models
  • 4.IPCC’s communication problem
  • 5.Frame semantics
  • 6.Understanding of frames in the IPCC reports
    • 6.1Grammatical meta­phor
    • 6.2Recovery of the balance schema from meta­phorical terms
    • 6.3Frame metonymy
    • 6.4Process agency
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
References (54)
Bibliography
Amelung, Dorothee, Fischer, Helen, Kruse, Lenelis & Sauerborn, Rainer. (2016). Defogging climate change communication: How cognitive research can promote more effective climate communication. Frontiers in Psychology. [URL] (retrieved on 26/01/2018).
Bak, Hee-Jee (2001). Education and public attitudes toward science: Implications for the ‘deficit model’ of education and support for science and technology. Social Science Quarterly 82(4): 779–95. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barkemeyer, Ralf, Dessai, Suraje, Monge-Sanz, Renzi, Barbara Gabriella & Napolitano, Giulio (2015). Linguistic analysis of IPCC summaries for policymakers and associated coverage. Nature Climate Change, 311–316. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bateson, Gregory, Jackson, Don D., Haley, Jay & Weakland, John (1956). Towards a theory of schizophrenia. Behavioural Science 1: 251–264. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Black, Richard (2015). No more summaries for wonks. Nature Climate Change 5, 282–284. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bostrom, Ann, Morgan, M. Granger, Fischhoff, Baruch & Read, Daniel (1994). What do people know about global climate change? Part 1: Mental models. Risk Analysis 14, 959–970. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dahan, Amy & Aykut, Stefan (2013). After Copenhagen, Revisiting both the scientific and political framings of the climate change regime. In J-B. Saulnier & M. Varella (Eds.), Global Change, Energy Issues and Regulation Policies. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dancygier, B. & Sweetser, E. (2014). Figurative language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dorst, Aletta G. (2011). Personification in discourse: linguistic forms, conceptual structures and communicative functions. Language and Literature 20 (2), 113–135. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dorst, Aletta G., Steen, Gerard J. & Mulder, Gerben (2011). Recognition of personifications in fiction by non-expert readers. Metaphor and the Social World 1 (2), 174–201. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dupuy, Jean-Pierre (2010). Pour un catastrophisme éclairé. In J-Ph. Touffut (Ed.), Changement de Climat, changement d’économie (pp. 85–100). Paris, France: Albin Michel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fillmore, Charles J. (1982). Frame semantics. In The Linguistic Society of Korea (Eds.), Linguistics in the Morning Calm (pp. 111–137). Seoul, South Korea: Hanshin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2007). Frame semantics. In Vyvyan Evans, Benjamin K. Bergen & Jörg Zinken (Eds.), The Cognitive Linguistics Reader (pp. 239–262). Sheffield, UK: Equinox. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fillmore, Charles J. & Baker, Collin (2010). A Frames Approach to Semantic Analysis. In B. Heine & N. Heiko (Eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Linguistic Analysis (pp. 313–339). New York, USA: The Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, E. (1974/1986). Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. Boston, USA: Northeastern University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gonzalez, Cleotilde & Wong, Hau-yu (2012). Understanding stocks and flows through analogy. System Dynamics Review 28 (1), 3–27. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grady, Joseph (2017). Using meta­phor to influence public perceptions and policy: how meta­phors can save the world. In Elena Semino & Zsófia Demjén (Eds.): The Routledge Handbook of Metaphor and Language (pp. 443–454). London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Guy, Sophie, Kashima, Yoshihisa, Walker, Iain. & O’Neill, Saffron (2013). Comparing the atmosphere to a bathtub: effectiveness of analogy for reasoning about accumulation. Climatic Change 121, 579–594. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. (2004). The language of science. London, UK: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2014). Introduction to functional grammar. 4th Ed. Oxon, UK: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A. K. & Matthiessen, Christian M. I. M. (1999). Construing Experience through Meaning. London, UK: Cassell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hassol, Susan Joy (2008). Improving how scientists communicate about climate change. EOS Transactions American Geophysical Union 89 (11), 106–107. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2016). Advance Paper on Communication in the U.S. National Climate Assessment (2014). In Jonathan Lynn et al. (Eds.), Meeting Report of the IPCC Expert Meeting on Communication, Oslo, 9–10 February 2016 (pp. 111–181).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hulme, Mike & Mahony, Martin (2010). Climate change: what do we know about the IPCC? Progress in Physical Geography 34 (5), 705–718. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
IPCC (2013). Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kövecses, Zoltán (2017). Conceptual meta­phor Theory. In Elena Semino & Zsófia Demjén (Eds.): The Routledge Handbook of Metaphor and Language (pp. 13–27). London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koteyko, Nelya, Thelwall, Mike & Nerlich, Brigitte (2012). From carbon markets to carbon morality: creative compounds as framing devices in online discourses on climate change mitigation. Science Communication 32 (1), 25–54. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, George (2010). Why it matters how we frame the environment. Environmental Communication, 4(1): 70–81. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, George & Johnson, Mark (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago, USA: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. and Turner, M. (1989). More Than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor. Chicago, USA & London, UK: University of Chicago Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lakoff, George & Johnson, Mike (1999). Philosophy in the flesh. The embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought. New York, USA: Basic Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
L’Homme, Marie-Claude (2012). Adding syntactico-semantic information to specialized dictionaries: an application of the FrameNet methodology. In R. Gouws et al. (Eds.), Lexicographica 28, 233–252. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lynn, Jonathan et al. (Eds.) (2016). Meeting Report of the IPCC Expert Meeting on Communication, Oslo, 9–10 February 2016. Retrieved from [URL] on 29/01/2018.
Mastrandrea, M. D., Field, C. B., Stocker, T. F., Edenhofer, O., Ebi, K. L., Frame, D. J. & Zwiers, F. W. (2010). Guidance Note for Lead Authors of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report on Consistent Treatment of Uncertainties. International Panel on Climate Change. Retrieved from [URL]
Moser, Susanne C. & Dilling, Lisa (2010). Communicating Climate Change: Closing the Science-Action Gap. In Richard Norgaard, David Schlosberg & John Dryzek (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society, 161–174.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nerlich, Brigitte, Koteyko, Nelya & Brown, Brian (2010). Theory and language of climate change communication. Wiley Interdisciplinary Review: Climate Change 1, 97–110. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Niebert, Kai & Gropengießer, Harald (2011): ‘It is not the CO2 itself, it’s the imbalance!’ Conceptual reconstruction of the carbon cycle in global warming. In Anat Yarden (Ed.), Proceedings of the 8th ERIDOB Conference (pp. 339–351). Braga: CIEC, Universidade do Minho.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2013). Understanding and communicating climate change in meta­phors. Environmental Education Research, 19(3), 282–302. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nisbet, Matthew C. (2009). Communicating Climate Change: Why Frames Matter for Public Engagement. Environment 51 (2), 12–23. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Painter, James (2016). The effectiveness of the IPCC communication: a survey of (mainly) UK-based users. In Jonathan Lynn et al. (Eds.), Meeting Report of the IPCC Expert Meeting on Communication, Oslo, 9–10 February 2016 (pp. 111–181).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Patt, Anthony & Dessai, Suraje (2005). Communicating uncertainty: lessons learned and suggestions for climate change assessment. Comptes Rendus Géoscience 337 (4), 425–441. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Read, Daniel, Bostrom, Ann, Morgan, M. Granger, Fischhoff, Baruch & Smuts, Tom (1994). What do people know about global climate change? Part 2: Survey studies of educated laypeople. Risk Analysis 14, 971–982. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reynolds, Travis William, Bostrom, Ann, Read, Daniel & Morgan, M. Granger (2010). Now What Do People Know About Global Climate Change? Survey Studies of Educated Laypeople. Risk Analysis 30 (10), 1520–1538. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ruppenhofer, Joseph, Ellsworth, Michael, Petruck Miriam, R. L., Johnson, Christopher R. & Scheffczyk, Jan (2000). Halliday’s Grammatical meta­phor, conceptualization and linguistic construal. Epos 16, 2000, 497–512.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scheffczyk, Jan (2006). FrameNet II: Extended Theory and Practice. Berkeley, USA: International Computer Science Institute. Retrieved from [URL]
Schenk, Niels J. & Lensink, Sander M. (2007). Communicating uncertainty in the IPCC’s greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. Climatic Change 82, 293–308. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scheufele, Dietram A. (1999). Framing as a Theory of Media Effects. Journal of Communication 49 (1) 103–22. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Somerville, Richard C. J. & Hassol, Susan Joy (2011). Communicating the science of climate change. Physics Today 64 (10), 48–53. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sterman, John D. & Sweeney, Linda Booth (2007a). Understanding Public Complacency About Climate Change: Adults’ Mental Models of Climate Change Violate Conservation of Matter. Climatic Change 80 (3–4), 213–238. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2007b): Understanding Public Complacency about Climate Change. In Rotman Magazine, Spring 2007, 60–63.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Swart, Rob, Bernstein, Lenny, Ha-Duong, Minh & Petersen, Arthur (2009). Agreeing to disagree: uncertainty management in assessing climate change, impacts and responses by the IPCC. Climatic Change 92, 1–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tankard, James (2001). The empirical approach to the study of media framing. In S. D. Reese et al. (Eds.), Framing public life: Perspectives on media and our understanding of the social world. Mahwah, USA: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Taverniers, M. (2004). Grammatical meta­phors in English. Moderna Sprák, 98(1), 17–26.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Ypersele, Jean-Pascal & Gaino, Bruna (2012). Comment le GIEC gère-t-il les incertitudes scientifiques? In E. Zaccai, F. Gemenne & J.-M. Decroly (Eds.), Controverses Climatiques, sciences et politique (pp. 77–96). Paris: Presse de Sciences Po. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue