Corpus Analysis Of War Metaphor To World Health Organisation COVID-19 Press Briefing Transcripts
Keywords:
Conceptual Metaphor, Covid-19, War Metaphor, Corpus Linguistics
Abstract
Since Covid-19 Pandemic, World Health Organization (WHO) conducts regular press briefs to provide the development of various aspects of the pandemic. During the press brief, the use of war terms is pervasive, both in literal context and in metaphorical use. This study investigates the use of war terms metaphor in the press briefing of WHO on Covid-19 development from February 4 2020 to August 31, 2020. The aim is to identify the peak of its use and what it implied in comparison with the context of case development. Corpus analysis is conducted to seventy-eight transcripts of WHO press briefing and the data concordance is conducted using Antconc concordance software. The Conceptual Metaphor Theory of Lakoff and Johnson is used as the theoretical framework. The result shows that the peak of the war metaphor usage is in March 2020. Even though the case is increasing after March but the use of war metaphor keeps declining in the following months which suggests the shifting of the focus of communication as more has been known about the virus. Furthermore, the data shows that WHO is not only fighting the virus of Covid-19 itself, but also the infodemic and fake news at the early stage of the spread.
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References
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Lakoff, G and Johnson, M. (2003). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
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Rosenberg, C. E. (1989). What is an epidemic? AIDS in historical perspective. Daedalus, 118(2), 1–17.
Samsi, Y. S., Lukmana, I., & Sudana, D. (2021). Language Evaluation of Covid-19 Vaccination News: Corpus of Indonesian Newspaper and Appraisal Insights. Ethical Lingua: Journal of Language Teaching and Literature, 8(1), 18–27. Retrieved from https://ethicallingua.org/25409190/article/view/271%0A
Sardinha, T. B. (2007). Metaphor in corpora: a corpus-driven analysis of Applied Linguistics dissertations. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada, 7(1), 11–35. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1984-63982007000100002
Sardinha, T. B. (2011). Metaphor and Corpus Linguistics. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada, 11(2), 329–360.
Semino, E. (2020, July 1). ‘‘A fire raging’: Why fire metaphors work well for Covid-19. Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science, Lancaster University. Retrieved from http://cass.lancs.ac.uk/a-fire-raging-why-fire-metaphors-work-well-for-covid-19/
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Silvestre-López, A. J. (2020). Conceptual metaphor in meditation discourse: An analysis of the spiritual perspective. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 20(1), 35–53. https://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2020-2001-03
Stefanowitsch, A. (2006). Corpus-based Approaches to Metaphor and Metonymy. In A. Stefanowitsch & S. T. GRIES (Eds.), Corpus-based Approaches to Metaphor and Metonymy. Berlin;New York: M. de Gruyter.
Stefanowitsch, A. (2009). Words and their metaphors: A corpus-based approach. 1–58. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110199895.63
Strong, P. (1990). Philip Strong Epidemic psychology : a model. Society of Health and Illness, 12(3), 249–259.
Trčková, D. (2015). Representations of Ebola and its victims in liberal American newspapers. Topics in Linguistics, 16(1), 29–41. https://doi.org/10.2478/topling-2015-0009
Ventriglio, A., Watson, C., & Bhugra, D. (2020). Pandemics, panic and prevention: Stages in the life of COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Social Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764020924449
Wilkinson, A. (2020, April 15). Pandemics are not wars. Vox. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/4/15/21193679/coronavirus-pandemic-war-metaphor-ecology-microbiome
Anthony, L. (2019). AntConc (Version 3.5.8) (Computer Software). Retrieved from https://www.laurenceanthony.net/software
Baker, P. (2006). Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum.
Biber, D., Conrad, S., & Reppen, R. (1998). Corpus Linguistics, Investigating Language Stucture and Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cameron, L., & Deignan, A. (2006). The emergence of metaphor in discourse. Applied Linguistics, 27(4), 671–690. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/aml032
Charteris-Black, J. (2004). Corpus approaches to critical metaphor analysis. In Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230000612
Craig, D. (2020). Pandemic and its metaphors: Sontag revisited in the COVID-19 era. European Journal of Cultural Studies, (1991). https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549420938403
Fariza, N., Nor, M., & Zulcafli, A. S. (2020). Corpus Driven Analysis of News Reports about Covid-19 in a Malaysian Online Newspaper. 20(August), 199–220.
Flusberg, S. J., Matlock, T., & Thibodeau, P. H. (2018). War metaphors in public discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 33(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2018.1407992
Hagstrom, J. (2020, April 20). Stop calling covid-19 a war. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/04/20/stop-calling-covid-19-war/
Hart, C. (2010). Critical discourse analysis and cognitive science: New perspective on immigration discourse. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Joharry, S. A., Alam, S., Turiman, S., & Alam, S. (2020). Examining Malaysian Public Letters to Editor on COVID-19 Pandemic : A Corpus-assisted Discourse Analysis. 20(August).
Kovecses, Z. (2010). Metaphor - A Practical Introduction. London: Oxford University Press.
Lakoff, G and Johnson, M. (2003). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Leo, A. R., & David, M. K. (2020). A Critical Metaphor Analysis on Malaysia’s Gazetted Metaphors amid the Movement Control Order: A COVID-19 Episode Angela. Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Research, 2, 193–204. https://doi.org/10.37534/bp.jhssr.2020.v2.nS.id1049.p193
MacMillan Dictionary. (n.d.). Infodemic. Retrieved December 10, 2020, from MacMillan Dictionary website: https://www.macmillandictionary.com/buzzword/entries/infodemic.html
Marron, J. M., Dizon, D. S., Symington, B., Thompson, M. A., & Rosenberg, A. R. (2020). Waging War on War Metaphors in Cancer and COVID-19. JCO Oncology Practice, OP.20.00542. https://doi.org/10.1200/op.20.00542
McEnery, A., & Wilson, A. (1996). Corpus Linguistics. Edinburgh: Edinburg University Press.
Musu, C. (2020, April 8). War metaphors used for COVID-19 are compelling but also dangerous. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/war-metaphors-used-for-covid-19-are-compelling-but-also-dangerous-135406
Nguyen, L., & McCallum, K. (2015). Critical Metaphor Analysis from a Communication Perspective: A Case Study of Australian News Media Discourse on Immigration and Asylum Seekers. In Paterno, Bourk, & Matheson (Eds.), ANZCA 2015 Rethinking Communication, Space and Identity (pp. 1–11). Australia and New Zealand: ANZCA.
Nie, J.-B., Gilberston, A. L., de Roubaix, M., Staunton, C., Van Niekerk, A., Tucker, J. D., & Rennie, S. (2016). Healing Without Waging War: Beyond Military Metaphors in Medicine and HIV Cure Research. Am J Bioeth, 16(3), 3–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2016.1214305
Olimat, S. N. (2020). COVID-19 Pandemic : Euphemism and Dysphemism in Jordanian Arabic. 20(August), 268–290.
Ozamiz-Etxebarria, N., Dosil-Santamaria, M., Picaza-Gorrochategui, M., & Idoiaga-Mondragon, N. (2020). Stress, anxiety, and depression levels in the initial stage of the COVID-19 outbreak in a population sample in the northern Spain. Cadernos de Saude Publica, 36(4), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1590/0102-311X00054020
Pérez-Sobrino, P. (2016). Multimodal Metaphor and Metonymy in Advertising: A Corpus-Based Account. Metaphor and Symbol, 31(2). https://doi.org/10.1080/10926488.2016.1150759
Petsko, G. (2001). The rosetta stone. Genome Biology, 2(5), 1–2.
Pfrimer, M. H., & Barbosa Jr, R. (2020). Analyzing Jair Bolsonaro ’ s COVID-19 War Metaphors. E-International Relations, (1998), 1–5. Retrieved from https://www.e-ir.info/2020/06/02/analyzing-jair-bolsonaros-covid-19-war-metaphors/%0AMATHEUS
Rafi, M. S. (2020). Language of COVID-19: Discourse of Fear and Sinophobia. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3603922
Rahman, S. Y. (2020). ‘Social distancing’ during COVID-19: the metaphors and politics of pandemic response in India. Health Sociology Review, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/14461242.2020.1790404
Rajandran, K. (2020). ‘ A Long Battle Ahead ’ : Malaysian and Singaporean Prime Ministers Employ War Metaphors for COVID-19. 20(August), 261–267.
Ranjan, P. (2020, April 15). OPINION: Why using the ‘war’ metaphor for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic is dangerous. The Week. Retrieved from https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2020/04/15/opinion-why-using-the-war-metaphor-for-fighting-the-covid-19-pandemic-is-dangerous.html
Rosenberg, C. E. (1989). What is an epidemic? AIDS in historical perspective. Daedalus, 118(2), 1–17.
Samsi, Y. S., Lukmana, I., & Sudana, D. (2021). Language Evaluation of Covid-19 Vaccination News: Corpus of Indonesian Newspaper and Appraisal Insights. Ethical Lingua: Journal of Language Teaching and Literature, 8(1), 18–27. Retrieved from https://ethicallingua.org/25409190/article/view/271%0A
Sardinha, T. B. (2007). Metaphor in corpora: a corpus-driven analysis of Applied Linguistics dissertations. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada, 7(1), 11–35. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1984-63982007000100002
Sardinha, T. B. (2011). Metaphor and Corpus Linguistics. Revista Brasileira de Linguística Aplicada, 11(2), 329–360.
Semino, E. (2020, July 1). ‘‘A fire raging’: Why fire metaphors work well for Covid-19. Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science, Lancaster University. Retrieved from http://cass.lancs.ac.uk/a-fire-raging-why-fire-metaphors-work-well-for-covid-19/
Serhan, Y. (2020, March 31). The Case Against Waging ‘War’ on the Coronavirus. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/03/war-metaphor-coronavirus/609049/
Silvestre-López, A. J. (2020). Conceptual metaphor in meditation discourse: An analysis of the spiritual perspective. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 20(1), 35–53. https://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2020-2001-03
Stefanowitsch, A. (2006). Corpus-based Approaches to Metaphor and Metonymy. In A. Stefanowitsch & S. T. GRIES (Eds.), Corpus-based Approaches to Metaphor and Metonymy. Berlin;New York: M. de Gruyter.
Stefanowitsch, A. (2009). Words and their metaphors: A corpus-based approach. 1–58. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110199895.63
Strong, P. (1990). Philip Strong Epidemic psychology : a model. Society of Health and Illness, 12(3), 249–259.
Trčková, D. (2015). Representations of Ebola and its victims in liberal American newspapers. Topics in Linguistics, 16(1), 29–41. https://doi.org/10.2478/topling-2015-0009
Ventriglio, A., Watson, C., & Bhugra, D. (2020). Pandemics, panic and prevention: Stages in the life of COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Social Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020764020924449
Wilkinson, A. (2020, April 15). Pandemics are not wars. Vox. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/4/15/21193679/coronavirus-pandemic-war-metaphor-ecology-microbiome
Published
22-11-2021
How to Cite
Adam, M. (2021). Corpus Analysis Of War Metaphor To World Health Organisation COVID-19 Press Briefing Transcripts. Ethical Lingua: Journal of Language Teaching and Literature, 8(2), 319-332. https://doi.org/10.30605/25409190.285
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