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Article published In: Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 11:4 (2020) ► pp.640–663

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A corpus-based study of metaphors used to describe Syrian refugees in Jordanian politico-economic discourse

A critical metaphor analysis approach

 | University of Jordan
Published online: 20 November 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.17037.zib
Abstract
This study aims to examine the metaphors used to describe Syrian refugees in Jordanian politico-economic discourse, adopting a Critical Metaphor Analysis Approach for data analysis. I compiled a specialised corpus containing political and economic articles from two daily Jordanian newspapers. The data was analysed using WordSmith Tools (. 2012. WordSmith Tools Version 6. Stroud, U.K.: Lexical Analysis Software.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar), which is compatible with Arabic data. The data analysis reveals that several metaphors are used to describe Syrian refugees in Jordanian politico-economic discourse. The majority of metaphors employed have negative connotations in the contexts in which they are used, especially in the years 2015 and 2016 compared with 2012. The metaphors used reflect the internal struggle of Jordanians in relation to whether Syrian refugees should stay or leave. The struggle stems from deeply-entrenched Arab traditions, which make receiving guests perceived as a duty on the one hand, and the economic struggle of Jordanians living in a fragile economy, on the other.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Data collection
    • 3.2The preliminary study
    • 3.3Data analysis
  • 4.Results
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1The conceptual metaphors used to describe Syrian refugees
      • Jordanians and Syrians are one unit
      • Syrian refugees are water
      • Jordan/Syrian refugees is/are an organism
      • Jordan is a container
      • Syrian refugees are objects
      • Syrian refugees are a natural disaster
      • Syrian refugees are an invasion
    • 5.2Explanation of the choice of metaphors used
  • 6.Conclusion and recommendations
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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