Cover not available

In:Metaphor in Specialist Discourse:
Edited by J. Berenike Herrmann and Tony Berber Sardinha
[Metaphor in Language, Cognition, and Communication 4] 2015
► pp. 17–52

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

Register variation and metaphor use

A multi-dimensional perspective

ORCiD logo with link
Published online: 16 December 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/milcc.4.02ber
One of the consistent findings in the literature from a corpus-based perspective is that the incidence of metaphor varies across different registers. The goal of this chapter is to verify to what extent the variation in metaphor use is systematic in English, from a Multi-Dimensional perspective. The VU University Annotated Metaphor Corpus was used, comprising over 200,000 words in four registers. In total, 250 different features were included in the study. The main results show which dimensions underlie metaphor use in English, how metaphor relates to the dimensions of variation in English, how much variation can be accounted for by knowing register distinctions, and which are the metaphorbased text types in English.
References (36)
References
Berber Sardinha, T. (2008a). Metaphor probabilities in corpora. In M.S. Zanotto, L. Cameron, & M. Cavalcanti (Eds.), Confronting metaphor in use: An applied linguistic approach (pp. 127–148). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2008b). Telling one’s life stories with metaphors: A corpus-driven investigation. Paper presented at the International Conference on Researching and Applying Metaphor (RaAM 7), Cáceres, Spain.
. (2011a). Dimensions of variation in Brazilian Portuguese. Paper presented at the 10th AACL, American Association for Corpus Linguistics , Atlanta, GA.
. (2011b). Dimensions of variation in metaphor use. Paper presented at the Corpus Linguistics Conference , Birmingham, UK.
. (2012a). An assessment of metaphor retrieval methods. In F. MacArthur, J.L. Oncins Martínez, M. Sánchez García, & A.M. Piquer Píriz (Eds.), Metaphor in use: Context, culture, and communication (pp. 21–50). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2012b). Metaphors of the Brazilian economy from 1964–2010. In H. Herrera Soler & M. White (Eds.), Metaphors and mills (pp. 103–126). Berlin/Boston, MA: De Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berber Sardinha, T., Kauffmann, C., & Acunzo, C.M. (2014a). A multidimensional analysis of register variation in Brazilian Portuguese. Corpora, 9(2), 239–271. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2014b). Dimensions of register variation in Brazilian Portuguese. In T. Berber Sardinha, & M. Veirano Pinto (Eds.), Multi-Dimensional Analysis, 25 years on: A Tribute to Douglas Biber (pp. 35–80). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biber, D. (1988). Variation across speech and writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1995). Dimensions of register variation – A cross-linguistic comparison. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2004). Conversation text types: A multi-dimensional analysis. In G. Purnelle, C. Fairon, & A. Dister (Eds.), Le poids des mots: Proceedings of the 7th international conference on the statistical analysis of textual data (pp. 15–34). Louvain: Presses Universitaires de Louvain.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biber, D., Conrad, S., & Cortes, V. (2004). If you look at…: Lexical bundles in university teaching and textbooks. Applied Linguistics, 25(3), 371–405. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biber, D., Davies, M., Jones, J.K., & Tracy-Ventura, N. (2006). Spoken and written register variation in Spanish: A multi-dimensional analysis. Corpora, 1(1), 1–37. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E. (1999). The Longman grammar of spoken and written English. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bick, E. (2009). Introducing probabilistic information in Constraint Grammar parsing. Proceedings of Corpus Linguistics 2009 , Liverpool, UK.
Cameron, L. (2003). Metaphor in educational discourse. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2008). Metaphor shifting in the dynamics of talk. In M. Zanotto, L. Cameron, & M. Cavalcanti (Eds.), Confronting metaphor in use: An applied linguistic approach (pp. 45–62). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cameron, L., & Maslen, R. (2010). Metaphor analysis: Research practice in applied linguistics, social sciences and the humanities. London: Equinox.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cameron, L., & Stelma, J.H. (2004). Metaphor clusters in discourse. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(2), 7–36. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dorst, A.G. (2011). Metaphor in fiction: Language, thought and communication. Oisterwijk: Box Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gibbs, R.W. (2008). Metaphor and thought. In R.W. Gibbs (Ed.), The Cambridge handbook of metaphor and thought (pp. 3–13). New York: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hardie, A., Koller, V., Rayson, P., & Semino, E. (2007). Exploiting a Semantic Annotation Tool for Metaphor Analysis. Corpus Linguistics Conference (CL2007), University of Birmingham, UK.
Herrmann, J.B. (2013). Metaphor in academic discourse: Linguistic forms, conceptual structures, communicative functions and cognitive representations. Utrecht: LOT dissertation series.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaal, A.A. (2012). Metaphor in conversation. Oisterwijk: Box Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krennmayr, T. (2011). Metaphors in newspapers. Utrecht: LOT dissertation series.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McEntee-Atalianis, L.J. (2013). Stance and metaphor: Mapping changing representations of (organizational) identity. Discourse and Communication, 7(3), 319–340. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parodi, G. (2007). Variation across registers in Spanish: Exploring the El-Grial PUCV Corpus. In G. Parodi (Ed.), Working with Spanish corpora (pp. 11–53). London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pasma, T. (2011). Metaphor and register variation: The personalization of Dutch news discourse. Oisterwijk: Box Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Piquer-Piriz, A. (2008). Young learners’ understanding of figurative language. In M. Zanotto, L. Cameron, & M. Cavalcanti (Eds.), Confronting metaphor in use: An applied linguistic approach (pp. 183–198). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rey, J. (2001). Changing gender roles in popular culture: Dialogue in Star Trek episodes from 1966 to 1993. In S. Conrad & D. Biber (Eds.), Variation in English: Multi-dimensional studies (pp. 138–156). Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Semino, E. (2008). Metaphor in discourse. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steen, G., Dorst, A.G., Herrmann, J.B., Kaal, A.A., Krennmayr, T., & Pasma, T. (2010). A method for linguistic metaphor identification: From MIP to MIPVU. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zanotto, M., & Vesaro Palma, D. (2008). Opening Pandora’s box: Multiple readings of ‘a metaphor’. In M. Zanotto, L. Cameron, & M. Cavalcanti (Eds.), Confronting metaphor in use: An applied linguistic approach (pp. 11–44). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhao, N. (2009). The minimum sample size in factor analysis. Retrieved from [URL], on April 1, 2012.
Cited by (5)

Cited by five other publications

Musolff, Andreas
2025. Divergent conceptualizations of the COVID-19 pandemic and its management as a war in Britain and Germany. In COVID-19 [Metaphor in Language, Cognition, and Communication, 11], ► pp. 170 ff. DOI logo
Chen, Joanna Zhuoan, Kathleen Ahrens & Dennis Tay
2024. ‘Luxurious’ metaphors in luxury hotel websites in Singapore and Hong Kong: A mixed-methods study. Applied Corpus Linguistics 4:2 ► pp. 100090 ff. DOI logo
Alejo-González, Rafael
2022. Metaphor in the Academic Mentoring of International Undergraduate Students: The Erasmus Experience. Metaphor and Symbol 37:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Biber, Douglas & Susan Conrad
2019. Register, Genre, and Style, DOI logo
Krennmayr, Tina & Gerard Steen
2017. VU Amsterdam Metaphor Corpus. In Handbook of Linguistic Annotation, ► pp. 1053 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue