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Article published In: Pragmatics and Society
Vol. 14:1 (2023) ► pp.90–116

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Metaphor analysis of the COVID-19 public health emergency on Chinese national news media

 | Jilin University
 | Beijing Foreign Studies University
Published online: 14 March 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.20023.zha
Abstract
COVID-19 poses a threat to social stability globally, which requires efficacious governance and public cooperation. To handle the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese national news media have mobilized the public to identify and collaborate with the nation. This paper investigates how war, chess, and examination metaphors, nation personification, and metonymies (i.e. the part representing the whole) are utilized in news reports and editorials to achieve the purpose. We adhere to the theoretical framework of Critical Metaphor Analysis and analyze 156 articles that are sourced from Xinhua News Agency and People’s Daily from January 22, 2020 to February 13, 2020. Besides demonstrating the specific entailments of these metaphors and metonymies, we also involve scenarios such as the ‘Heroic Fight’ scenario and the ‘Harmonious Family’ scenario. Those framing devices function to evoke patriotism and reinforce national identity by activating collective, historical, and cultural memories and evaluating in-group members positively.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background information
    • 2.1COVID-19
    • 2.2News media and metaphor
  • 3.Theoretical framework
    • 3.1Conceptual Metaphor Theory
    • 3.2Critical Metaphor Analysis
  • 4.Data and methodology
  • 5.Findings and discussion
    • 5.1treating disease is war
    • 5.2nation is person
    • 5.3Novel metaphors
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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