A Cross-Cultural Study of Commercial Media Discourses From the Perspective of Cognitive Semantics 9789811586163, 9789811586170, 9787030622348

Table of contents :
Preface
References
Contents
Abbreviations
1 Introduction
1.1 The Research Background of Commercial Media Discourses
1.2 The Motivation for Studying Media Discourse and Cognitive Construction
1.3 The Semantic Devices in Sino-American News Reports
1.4 The Main Contents of the Book
1.5 Summary
References
2 News Discourse and Cognitive Studies
2.1 News Discourse Studies in Society
2.2 Contrastive Analyses of News Discourses
2.3 Cognitive Linguistic Studies
2.4 Studies of Cognitive Semantics
2.4.1 Cognitive Metaphors
2.4.2 Cognitive Schema
2.4.3 Cognitive Stance
2.5 Summary
References
3 Research Design
3.1 Data Collection
3.1.1 Data 1
3.1.2 Data 2
3.1.3 Data 3
3.2 Research Methods
3.3 Cross-Cultural Analytical Procedures
3.4 Summary
References
4 The Cognitive Metaphorical Mapping in Commercial Media News Reports
4.1 Analysis of Conventional Metaphors
4.1.1 The HUMAN BEING Metaphor
4.1.2 The JOURNEY Metaphor
4.1.3 The GAME Metaphor
4.1.4 The WAR Metaphor
4.1.5 The MACHINE Metaphor
4.1.6 The FOOD Metaphor
4.2 Comparison of Conventional Metaphors in Chinese and American News Reports
4.3 Analysis of Novel Metaphors
4.3.1 Novel Metaphors Peculiar to the Chinese Discourse
4.3.2 Novel Metaphors Peculiar to the English Discourse
4.4 Comparison of Novel Metaphors in Chinese and American News Reports
4.5 Summary
References
5 The Image Schemas in Football Player Transfer News (FPTN)
5.1 Daily-life Image Schemas in FPTN
5.2 CONTAINER Schema in FPTN
5.3 PATH Schema in FPTN
5.4 CENTER-PERIPHERY Schema in FPTN
5.5 SCALE Schema in FPTN
5.6 Arithmetical Analysis of Image Schemas in FPTN
5.7 Summary
References
6 The Cognitive Stance in Corporate Statements on Commodities (CSC)
6.1 GSP in Chinese and English CSCs with Typical Lexico-Grammar
6.2 Identification of Stance Markers in Chinese CSC News Reports
6.3 Identification of Stance Markers in English CSCs
6.4 Cross-Cultural Comparison of Stance Markers in CSCs
6.4.1 OSM and LOSM
6.4.2 Comparison of Stance Markers in Parallel Moves
6.4.3 Lexical Preference
6.5 Summary
References
7 Cross-Cultural Comparison of Cognitive Semantics in Commercial Discourses
7.1 Cross-Cultural Contrast of Semantic Applications in Commercial Discourses
7.2 Cultural Perspective on Cognitive Semantics
7.3 Embodied Cognitive Actions and Thought in Different Languages
7.4 Summary
References
8 Conclusion

Citation preview

Wenhui Yang

A Cross-Cultural Study of Commercial Media Discourses From the Perspective of Cognitive Semantics

A Cross-Cultural Study of Commercial Media Discourses

Wenhui Yang

A Cross-Cultural Study of Commercial Media Discourses From the Perspective of Cognitive Semantics

Wenhui Yang Guangdong University of Foreign Studies Guangzhou, China

ISBN 978-981-15-8616-3 ISBN 978-981-15-8617-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8617-0 Jointly published with Science Press The print edition is not for sale in China (Mainland). Customers from China (Mainland) please order the print book from Science Press. ISBN of the Co-Publisher’s edition: 978-7-03-062234-8 © Science Press 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publishers, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publishers, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publishers nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publishers remain neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Preface

News discourse, far from being just mirroring the reality of news, is in fact employed to construct a codified definition of what should be regarded as reality. Being a practical genre of media discourses, news discourse has attracted great attention and discussion from linguists who have devoted efforts to the studies from different perspectives. For instance, content analysis, as commented by Van Dijk (1985), is a theoretical approach of mass communication study while genre analysis puts its focus on news structure, vocabulary, and sentence grammar, followed by two more dynamic approaches. One of them is Halliday’s (2000) systemic and lexical functional grammar which centers on ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunctions and functional syntax. The other one is critical discourse analysis which focuses on language application, multilinguistic and cultural issues, and ideology. In these studies, many researchers define news discourses because of their various recognitions based on their analyses in different contexts. Bennett (2007) interprets it from the point of journalism, claiming that “news is usually defined as information that is timely, relevant to the concerns of its audience, and presented in a form that is easy to grasp” (Applegate 2011: 47). Van Dijk (1998), however, defines it from the perspective of social context, illustrating news discourse as the main source of human knowledge, attitudes and ideologies. Sharing a similar concept and from the ideological perspective, Fowler (1991) describes news discourse as a social practice and product that reporters produce based on the news topics they choose to reflect their newsworthiness criteria. Thus, in the last decades, a great diversity of sociolinguistic and conceptual tools from various perspectives has been borrowed to illuminate the critiques related with studies of news discourses across different disciplines. As a burgeoning field of linguistics studies, cognitive linguistics has been witnessed with increasing popularity and prosperity among scholars of applied linguistics. Cognitive linguistics emerges and takes shape in the 1970s with great efforts made by researchers who commit to examination on the relation of language and mind. As a scientific school, cognitive linguistics covers multiple disciplines, including cognitive psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, anthropology, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, and so on, which all rest on the exploration of human cognitive activities and language production. In the midst of fruitful studies, a brand new cognitive linguistics diagram appears. With different research emphases v

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and methods, researchers summarize and display their study expansion path into two linguistic levels: semantic and textual. Linguists who devote to semantic research within the field of contrastive linguistics and lexis focus on the metaphorical and metonymical comparisons between different language systems, and integration or mapping systems while scholars who are engaged in textual analysis tend to touch upon the discoursal issues, like the discourse coherence and mechanism in different contexts. Conventionally, researchers prefer to separate two of them and present their findings either from the perspective of functional or formal linguistics. In this book, the author investigates cognitive semantic devices (e.g., conventional and novel metaphors, schematic images, and stance markers) employed in SinoAmerican news discourses issued by three entities regarding “selling” and “buying”, “trading”, and their business issues, namely the sales of HSR (high-speed rails), sports business (player transfer), and corporate statements (product quality and promotion). The three typologies of commercial news reports are normally written by media agents, public journalists, and staff of company propaganda, who may demonstrate various social, commercial, institutional and personal interests, goals, and experiences in their writings, which influence and even frame the public cognitions at different levels. Specifically by adopting cognitive semantic theories and discourse analysis, the author probes into the cognitive processes and sematic patterns of news writers and their impacts on newsreaders in Sino-American contexts, hoping to draw cognitive insights about how the chosen semantic devices contribute to the cognitive construction of Chinese business image in the world. The author sets out to make a contrastive study about similarities and differences of semantic devices employed in Chinese and English languages so as to further explore the cognitions behind the texts in this present study, targeting at sociocultural, crosscultural linguistic and cognitive phenomena exposed in commercial news. With the assistance of glossary extraction and searching engines (e.g., Google and Baidu), the author collects the needed glossaries of domain-relevant cognitive devices objectively, constituting the cognitive frames embedded with different cognitions and perceptions in news discourses. Understanding the cognitive processes and semantic patterns regarding the thinking and linguistic actions of the Chinese and Americans, including their lexical management together with the dealing of commercial and social issues, becomes an important step in maintaining an effective and efficient communication across the world. The book attributes an especially prominent role to the connections between cognitive actions, a discourse-oriented approach to language production, and their social impacts on the publics through the cross-cultural studies of commercial media discourses. In an interdisciplinary perspective, cognitive semantics (metaphor, schema, and stance marker) are seen as capable of creating discourse coherence through their particularly strong capacity to generate inferences. In this book, much importance has been attached to the bodily experientialism and embodiment advocated in cognitive linguistics, delving into the complicated yet quite thoughtprovoking correlation between overt language and covert cognition, highlighting the

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endeavors to decode and decipher the news discourses from the cognitive theoretical perspective, subsuming the semantic level based on the analyses of metaphorical mapping, image schemas, and discoursal stances. Given the trending topics on national economic development, the author extends her academic attention to the further exploitation on cognitive interpretations of business and commercial news reports themed on the hot issues related to the economic and business development in China, such as high-speed railway promotion, sports business, and corporate crisis in an attempt to let more people to realize the cognitive differences existing across cultures, and how they influence the direction and position of public propagandas. With an innovative combination of metaphorical expressions, image schemas and stance markers initiated by the author, this book unveils the vitality of empirical semantic study and thus enriches the diversity of cognitive linguistic studies. Meanwhile, it also endows practical meanings and implications to project the existence of cultural universality and variations, providing the best evidence people need in determining the nature and specific organization of linguistic systems. A Cross-Cultural Study of Commercial Media Discourses: From the Perspective of Cognitive Semantics is an attempt to prepare college students, scholars, and practitioners from all cultural backgrounds in communication, business, sociology, media studies, applied linguistics, and other disciplines to be knowledgeable of Chinese cognitive behaviors contrasting to English ones, and thus to learn to work constructively with the Chinese people. The author greatly appreciates Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, MOE research projects (No. 14JJD740011 and No. [2017]3059) for their sponsorship, and her research assistants, Ms. Danru Bai, Mr. Junpeng Zhao, Ms. Zhengyin Qian, and other research members for their involvement in this research. The author is indebted to the editorial staff at Sciences Press, Beijing, and Springer Publishing for their continued support and meaningful suggestions on the completion of this book. Guangzhou, China

Wenhui Yang

References Applegate, E. (2011). Journalism in the United States: Concepts and Issues. New York: Scarecrow Press. Bennett, W. L. (2007). News: The Politics of Illusion (7th Edn.). New York: Pearson. Fowler, R. (1991). Language in the News. London/New York: Routledge. Halliday, M. A. K. (2000). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Van Dijk, T. A. (1985). Discourse and Dialogue. Handbook of Discourse Analysis. London: Academic Press. Van Dijk, T. A. (1998). Handbook of Discourse Analysis. London: Academic Press.

Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 The Research Background of Commercial Media Discourses . . . . . 1.2 The Motivation for Studying Media Discourse and Cognitive Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 The Semantic Devices in Sino-American News Reports . . . . . . . . . . 1.4 The Main Contents of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 1 3 4 5 7 7

2 News Discourse and Cognitive Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 News Discourse Studies in Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Contrastive Analyses of News Discourses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Cognitive Linguistic Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Studies of Cognitive Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.1 Cognitive Metaphors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.2 Cognitive Schema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4.3 Cognitive Stance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9 9 12 14 15 17 30 38 43 44

3 Research Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 Data Collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.1 Data 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.2 Data 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1.3 Data 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Research Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 Cross-Cultural Analytical Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

51 51 53 53 54 55 56 57 57

4 The Cognitive Metaphorical Mapping in Commercial Media News Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 Analysis of Conventional Metaphors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

59 59 ix

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4.1.1 The HUMAN BEING Metaphor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.2 The JOURNEY Metaphor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.3 The GAME Metaphor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.4 The WAR Metaphor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.5 The MACHINE Metaphor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1.6 The FOOD Metaphor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Comparison of Conventional Metaphors in Chinese and American News Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3 Analysis of Novel Metaphors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.1 Novel Metaphors Peculiar to the Chinese Discourse . . . . . . . 4.3.2 Novel Metaphors Peculiar to the English Discourse . . . . . . . 4.4 Comparison of Novel Metaphors in Chinese and American News Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

87 88 89

5 The Image Schemas in Football Player Transfer News (FPTN) . . . . . . 5.1 Daily-life Image Schemas in FPTN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 CONTAINER Schema in FPTN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 PATH Schema in FPTN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4 CENTER-PERIPHERY Schema in FPTN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5 SCALE Schema in FPTN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.6 Arithmetical Analysis of Image Schemas in FPTN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

91 91 97 101 105 109 113 115 116

6 The Cognitive Stance in Corporate Statements on Commodities (CSC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.1 GSP in Chinese and English CSCs with Typical Lexico-Grammar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.2 Identification of Stance Markers in Chinese CSC News Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.3 Identification of Stance Markers in English CSCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4 Cross-Cultural Comparison of Stance Markers in CSCs . . . . . . . . . . 6.4.1 OSM and LOSM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.4.2 Comparison of Stance Markers in Parallel Moves . . . . . . . . . 6.4.3 Lexical Preference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

60 65 72 74 78 81 82 83 84 86

117 117 125 130 134 135 135 138 140 141

7 Cross-Cultural Comparison of Cognitive Semantics in Commercial Discourses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 7.1 Cross-Cultural Contrast of Semantic Applications in Commercial Discourses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 7.2 Cultural Perspective on Cognitive Semantics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

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7.3 Embodied Cognitive Actions and Thought in Different Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 7.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 8 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Abbreviations

B BT CBT CMT CSC CT DP E ED EE EG FPTN GSP H HSR ICM IM LOSM MP MV NLP Obl Opt OSM PCS PFI PR S SEB SM WOS

Boosters The blending theory Cognitive behavior therapy Conceptual metaphor theory Corporate statement on commodity Clarifying the truth Defining its position Evidentiality Eliminating doubts Expressing expectations Extending gratitude Football player transfer news Generic structure potential Hedges High-speed rail Idealized cognitive model Illustrating measures The least optional stance marker Making promises Move Natural language processing Obligatory Optional Obligatory stance marker Presenting current situation Providing further information Public relation Self-mention Stating event background Stance marker Way-of-seeing xiii

Chapter 1

Introduction

Abstract Current modern business is experiencing the best as well as the worst times. It is the age of overwhelming information explosion, rapid technology, advancement and ubiquitous business opportunities while it is also the epoch of fiercer wisdom competition, more open publicity, and heavier social responsibility presented through various types of media. Media discourse studies thus attract tremendous attention from academic fields cross-culturally. This book falls into the domain of cross-cultural discourse analysis and cognitive semantic studies, presenting a contrastive study between Chinese and English commercial discourses. In this chapter, a general description of the background information on commercial discourses, rationale, research objectives, and significance of the study will be described, serving as an introduction to this book. Keywords Commercial media discourse · Cognitive construction · Semantic devices

1.1 The Research Background of Commercial Media Discourses In the last two decades, there is no denying that constantly growing interest is directed toward discourse analysis. As a profound disciplinary field, news discourse has been probed into and analyzed from diverse perspectives, by divergent means, to a variety of ends. Discourse analysis is a perspective with regard to social life which contains not only methodological but also conceptual elements, which includes ways of thinking about discourse and ways of treating discourse as data. According to Potter and Wetherell (1987: 146), “Discourse analysis has an analytic commitment to studying discourse as texts and talks in social practices. That is, the focus is not on language as an abstract entity such as a lexicon and a set of grammatical rules, a system of differences, a set of rules for transforming statements. Instead, it is the medium for interaction; analysis of discourse becomes, then, analysis of what people do”. Within discourse analysis, basic discourse acts, including conversation and text, are composed of basic units of discourse conceptualized from the points of view of © Science Press 2020 W. Yang, A Cross-Cultural Study of Commercial Media Discourses, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8617-0_1

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discourse psychology. Steen (2005: 284) argues that in language production and comprehension, people engage in a multidimensional activity. Concepts require words and constructions for their formulation, words in constructions require sounds or written signs for their material realization, and the combination of concepts, words, and sounds or written signs functions as an important instrument for performing a communicative act directed at addressees. Hence, studying the linguistic units of discourse is an important tool for language users after they have broken up continuous text and talked into equivalent segments for cognitive processing. To achieve this, we need to combine the studies of internal structures and basic discourse acts as well as their links to each other in encompassing discourse structures. As an emerging theory, cognitive linguistics has attracted much attention from scholars like Lakoff (1987, 1990, 1993), Langacker (1987, 2000), Talmy (1988), Medoza and Baicchi (2007), and so on. In effect, cognitive linguistics is built on the philosophical basis of experiential realism, which stresses the significance of experience embedded in people’s cognition and languages. It agrees with Piaget’s (1976) interactionism, which claims that cognition comes from the interaction between the subjective and the objective. Besides, Zhao (2001) also argues that cognitive linguistics denies the view of “mind-as-machine”, but it upholds the view of “the mind in the body, the body in the mind”. With regard to its definition and research areas, Geeraerts (1995) points out that cognitive linguistics is an approach to the analysis of natural language that focuses on language as an instrument for organizing, processing, and conveying information. However, the discourse-relevant content of forms and constructions is not wellattended in discourse studies. Much attention has been devoted to discourse structures, cohesion and coherence, and speech acts in contexts, but lexical semantics and their conceptualizations, mapping systems related to human being’s cognitive patterns and thinking modes may also predicate information pertaining to discourse and human interaction, notably information on the agency of actors, interlocutors, writers, and readers in various typologies of communication. Meanwhile, “cultural (contrastive) linguistics approaches to discourse by following two principles: a. part of the meaning of every lexeme or construction is its habitually situated use in discourse; b. discourse is governed by scenarios of verbal and social interaction” (Palmer 2006: 17). As Palmer (1996: 40) and Langacker (2001) see it, the first principle refers that “any facet of the context (of a usage event) that consistently recurs across a set of usage events can be retained as a specification of the schema that emerges from them”. Furthermore, Palmer (2006) points out that the usage principle may seem obvious, but the implications for cognitive linguistics have not been clearly drawn. He claims that discourse follows culturally specific patterns and sequences, and most discourses consist partly of verbal particles, lexemes, and longer utterances whose predicational content is the discourse itself, including its participants, verbal events, and prosodic qualities. Since written discourses, especially media discourses are pervasive in human beings’ daily life, much of the lexicon and grammar of any language must be about discourse scenarios. Thus, the domain of terms and expressions that predicate discourse scenarios includes that of speech acts and lexical units.

1.1 The Research Background of Commercial Media Discourses

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In this book, the author concentrates on how the latter helps to construct the cognitive system in discourse by integrating the studies of discourse analysis and cognitive semantics.

1.2 The Motivation for Studying Media Discourse and Cognitive Construction The attempt to conduct the current research on commercial media discourse and its cognitive construction is motivated by the following considerations. Firstly, being a part of mass media, commercial media is one of the most accessible channels for the public to obtain information about a nation’s economic development. Therefore, news institutions have great power over newsreaders. If newsreaders are not aware of the knowledge of how linguistic choices influence their cognition, they are prone to be manipulated by news institutions. It is, thus, beneficial to decipher the relationship between language use and cognitive frame construction. Secondly, as China’s ascension to economic and political prominence continues, China is gradually becoming a great force on the world stage of globalization. Therefore, examining how China is portrayed in the Western media and China’s media would be of great interest, including “what cognitive differences exist among them? How different are they in commercial media discourses regarding linguistic usages and their projected cognitive differences?” Since business is at the center of this power struggle, the portrayal of China in Chinese and American business news will be worth investigating from cross-cultural perspectives. Thirdly, although the relationship between language and cognition is widely studied, the study of cognitive frame construction in the commercial media discourse is less abundant. Most of the research concerning the cognitive frame is conducted within the field of sociology (Entman 1993; Benford 1997). Among those studies that explore this topic from a cognitive linguistics point of view, most of them are carried out with the conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) (Cameron 2007; Frosh 2011). Although the adoption of CMT in the study of language cognition is rewarding, it cannot be used to analyze nonmetaphorical discourse elements. With conceptual metaphor being only one of the many conceptual systems, this study will benefit from the adoption of a different kind of conceptual system, i.e., cognitive frame construction, schema, and stance to study the non-metaphor discourse elements, in an effort to investigate the cross-cultural cognitive differences more thoroughly. Traditionally, the formal, generativist paradigm has provided cognitively oriented explanations rather than functional, discoursal taxonomies, and the formalist paradigm has consistently reinforced the view that the representation of language is best seen as involving basic, symbolic building blocks and rules, and has further argued that those building blocks are also autonomously processed, i.e., grammar is distinct from both the lexicon and semantics (Luchjenbroers 2006; Newmeyer 1986). Although cognitive linguistics agenda has a clear interdisciplinary concern,

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many recent interdisciplinary linguistic studies testify to the great tolerance of cognitive linguistics from internal variety to external interaction with major linguistic disciplines and subdisciplines. Internally, linguistic research opens up a broad variety of cognitive linguistic strands and the cognitive unity between convergent linguistic disciplines. Externally, the linguistic research provides a wide overview of the connections between cognition and social, psychological, pragmatic, and discourse-oriented dimensions of language (Luchjenbroers 2006), which becomes the research rationale and motivation for this study. In this book, I aim to make relevant connections between cognitive linguistics and discourse analysis in commercial media contexts at different levels, from which we wish to explore the paradigms of convergence between the two research strands, namely cognitive semantics and discourse studies and place emphasis on the lexical choices and the nature of possible developments in discourse studies if such connections are considered. Cognitive semantics serves as the research paradigm for this study. Previous studies (e.g. Lakoff 1987; Langacker 1987; Taylor 1995) on semantics offer detailed descriptions of different polysemous senses of specific lexical items, the relationship that is held among themselves, the conceptual motivation for such relations, and so on. Within the cognitive semantics model, by analyzing the semantic extensions that occur in perception verbs, Sweetser (1991) related the physical sense of touch to emotional feeling and to the general sense of perception and found that the extended meanings are not particular to English only, but cross-linguistic. Thus, by focusing on both Chinese and English metaphorical, schematic and stance lexical expressions, the author conducts contrastive analysis on two languages, English and Chinese, and wish to demonstrate the cross-cultural cognitive linguistic differences and their reflected cognitive process, because the study of the semantic and lexical devices has different meanings which are not whimsical, but motivated by communicators’ experience and understanding of the world. The different meanings are not randomly generated, but structured by means of cognitive devices, such as metaphors. Meanwhile, the author wishes that this book will lay some fundamental groundwork toward the promising project on cognitive discourse studies.

1.3 The Semantic Devices in Sino-American News Reports This book specifically aims to investigate semantic devices (e.g., metaphors, schematic expressions, and stance markers) employed in Chinese and American news reports on commercial and economic development from the perspectives of media agents, the public, and corporations. The author sets out to make a contrastive study about the similarities and differences of semantic devices employed in Chinese and English languages so as to further explore the reasons behind. Adopting cognitive theories, the author probes into the cognitive processes of news writers and their impacts on newsreaders in different cultural backgrounds, hoping to draw insights about how the chosen semantic devices contribute to the construction of Chinese business image.

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Based on the fruitful achievements of former scholars and the theories proposed by cognitive linguists such as Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 1999) and Fauconnier and Turner (1998, 2002), the author intends to address the following aims: to identify the similarities and differences in the application of semantic devices (metaphors, schemas, and stance markers) in Chinese and American news reports; to analyze the cognitive processes involved in the comprehension of the semantic devices; and to interpret the implicatures of the semantic devices both in Chinese and English. The contrastive analysis of Chinese and American media discourses rests on varied language use, metaphorical expressions, image schemas, and discoursal stances embedded, as well as different cognitive frames projected, targeting at cultural insights and linguistic phenomena exposed in commercial news reports in China and the U.S., to further identify the differences of language applications and their projected cognitive phenomena on commercial and economical issues in news discourses under different cultural contexts. Besides, the assistance of glossary extraction that can easily help the author to collect the needed glossaries of domain-relevant terms objectively, constituting the linguistic surface manifestation of domain concepts and linguistic expressions embedded with different cognition and perceptions. Besides, the book attributes an especially prominent role to the connections between cognitive model theory (with special emphasis on cognitive semantics) and discourse-oriented approach to language. In this interdisciplinary perspective, cognitive semantics (the semantic devices, such as metaphors, schemas, and stance markers) are seen as capable of creating discourse coherence through their strong capacity to generate inferences. This book also complementarily deals with discourse units in terms of their conceptual, schematic, and communicative properties.

1.4 The Main Contents of the Book This book has attached much importance to the bodily experientialism and embodiment advocated in cognitive linguistics, probing into the complicated yet quite thought-provoking correlation between overt language and covert cognition, highlighting the endeavors to decode and decipher the news discourse from a cognitive theoretical point, subsuming the semantic level based on metaphors, image schema and discoursal stances analysis. The innovative combination of metaphorical expressions, image schemas, and discourse stances are initiated by the author to conduct a feasible approach to unveil the profound cognitive semantic patterns in commercial news discourses in view of adding much vitality and enriching the diversity of cognitive linguistic studies. The adoption of analytical techniques of qualitative and quantitative analysis under the theories of cognitive semantics and cognitive grammar contributes to the authenticity and comprehensiveness entailed in this book. Given the trending topics on national economic development, the author extends the academic attention to the further exploitation on cognitive interpretation of commercial news

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reports on various hot issues, such as high-speed railway promotion, sports business, and corporate commodity in an attempt to draw some rewarding insights for the business promotion on the basis of cognitive discoursal studies, which endows practical meaning and implication with linguistics, particularly cognitive linguistics and discourse studies. From the perspective of practical implication, this book examines the cognitive semantics and their applications embodied in commercial news reports from cross-cultural perspectives. It represents different metaphorical expressions, image schematic features, and discoursal stance markers, displaying the dynamic exhibition of cognitive frames in discourse processing. Besides, this book conveys the commitments of the author in digging into the deeper layers of cognitive interpretation on social issues and business strategies in various cultural backgrounds and making a comparison between the two types of news discourses in order to learn the deficiency lying in course of commercial publicity. In doing that, this book is dedicated to drawing some helpful implications for the practical business promotion, the implementation of human resources transfer, and the dealing of company commodity problems where accurate wording together with down to earth attitudes in composing news is mainly considered, apart from the emphasis on the core notions of business development. On the ground of cross-cultural insights, similarity and disparity underlying the varied cognitive perceptions in commercial news on company development projects the existence of cultural universality and cultural variation as well. The gap in the cognitive understanding of business development between the Chinese and American mass media, namely the news reports, sheds light on the necessity in examining and exploring the cultural factors behind such phenomenon, especially from cognitive linguistics. The book contains eight chapters, which conducts a study of cognitive semantics on Sino-American commercial media discourses, involving metaphoric mapping, schematic image, and cognitive stance. Chapter 1 lays down the research background, objectives and contents. Chapter 2 reviews the key concepts and current research on news discourse studies, cognitive linguistics, and cognitive semantics. Chapter 3 reveals data collection procedures, the research methods, and analytical procedures. Then there are three chapters (Chaps. 4–6) dealing with the cognitive studies of metaphorical mapping system of commercial media news reports, image schemas in commercial sports reports, and cognitive stances in corporate reports, in which crosscultural differences are analyzed. Chapter 7 demystifies the cognitive constructions in news discourses, providing a comprehensive lens through which possible barriers to the process of media communicating with people from different cultural backgrounds become less opaque. Chapter 8 serves as the conclusion of the book.

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1.5 Summary Drawing from the rationale and significance of the research of this book, it is imperative to develop cultural awareness for a company to succeed and be recognized internationally. Thus, for high-speed rail (HSR) companies, sports clubs, and business companies to successfully enter the international markets, especially those in the developed countries, and win their recognition, they have to understand the cultural uniqueness of both language applications and cognitive differences. This helps to avoid misinterpretation of business behaviors since certain behaviors are determined by the culture of individuals. In addition, linguists focusing on language teaching always desire to draw pedagogical inspirations from linguistic theories. The expansive utilization of cognitive semantics in news reports provides insights into certain thinking patterns that help news consumers decode the articles written by journalists. This enlightenment not only limits to reports of the economic register but applies to all news reports. In light of this, the research on cognitive linguistics is very essential to language teachers and ESP (English for Specific Purposes) teachers as well. Taking the comparative approach, this book cognitively probes into semantic representations and devices in news reports on business development from Chinese and American media discourses and gives reasons for different cognitive semantic usage in reference to cultural universality and cultural relativity. Having a good knowledge of the frequently used cognitive semantic applications and grasping a reasonable number of lexical items accompanying the cognitive field is beneficial to foreign language learners since both of two linguistic proficiencies can enhance their understanding of descriptive sentences and raise their awareness of the corresponding underlying meanings.

References Benford, R. D. (1997). An insider’s critique of the social movement framing perspective. Sociological Inquiry, 67(4), 409–430. Cameron, L. (2007). Confrontation or complementarity?: Metaphor in language use and cognitive metaphor theory. Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 5(1), 107–135. Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Towards clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43, 51–58. Fauconnier, G., & Turner, M. (1998). Principles of conceptual integration. In J.-P. Koenig (Ed.), Discourse and cognition: Bridging the gap (pp. 41–54). Stanford: CSLI publications. Fauconnier, G., & Turner, M. (2002). The way we think: Conceptual blending and the mind’s hidden complexities. New York: Basic Books. Frosh, P. (2011). Framing pictures, picturing frames: Visual metaphors in political communications research. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 35(2), 91–114. Geeraerts, D. (1995). Representational formats in cognitive semantics. Folia Linguistica, 39, 21–41. Lakoff, G. (1987). Women, fire, and dangerous things: What categories reveal about the mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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Lakoff, G. (1990). The invariance hypothesis: Is abstract reason based on image-schemas. Cognitive Linguistics, 1, 39–74. Lakoff, G. (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (pp. 202–251). New York: Cambridge University Press. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the flesh. New York: Basic Books. Langacker, R. W. (1987). Foundations of cognitive grammar (Vol. 1). Stanford: Stanford University Press. Langacker, R. W. (2000). Why mind is necessary. In L. Albertazzi (Ed.), Meaning and cognition: A multidisciplinary approach (pp. 25–38). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Langacker, R. W. (2001). Discourse in cognitive grammar. Cognitive Linguistics, 12(2), 143–188. Luchjenbroers, J. (2006). Cognitive linguistics investigations. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Medoza, F. J., & Baicchi, A. (2007). Illocutionary constructions: Cognitive motivation and linguistic realization. In I. Kecskes & L. R. Horn (Eds.), Explorations in pragmatics—Linguistic, cognitive and intercultural aspect (pp. 95–128). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Newmeyer, F. J. (1986). Linguistic theory in America: The first quarter-century of transformational generative grammar. New York: Academic Press. Palmer, G. (1996). Toward a theory of cultural linguistics. Austin: University of Texas Press. Palmer, G. (2006). When does cognitive linguistics become cultural? In J. Luchjenbroers (Ed.), Cognitive linguistic investigations (pp. 13–43). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Piaget, J. (1976). The grasp of consciousness: Action and concept in the young child. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Potter, J., & Wetherell, M. (1987). Discourse and social psychology. London: Sage. Steen, G. (2005). Basic discourse acts: Towards a psychological theory of discourse segmentation. In F. J. R. De Mendoza Ibáñez & M. S. Peña Cervel (Eds.), Cognitive linguistics—Internal dynamics and interdisciplinary interaction (pp. 283–321). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Sweetser, E. (1991). From etymology to pragmatics: Metaphorical and cultural aspects of semantic structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Talmy, L. (1988). Force dynamics in language and cognition. Cognitive Science, 12(1), 49–100. Taylor, J. (1995). Linguistic categorization. Oxford: Clarendon. Zhao, Y. F. (2001). An introduction to cognitive linguistics. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

Chapter 2

News Discourse and Cognitive Studies

Abstract Being a practical genre of media discourse, news discourse has attracted great attention and discussion from scholars both at home and abroad, who have devoted various definitions, arguments, and findings over news discourse. This chapter concentrates on the general review of relevant studies. The remarkable academic achievements of news discourse will be reviewed first, followed by the cognitive contrastive linguistics and cognitive semantics, then specifically on previous studies on metaphors, image schemas, and stance markers. Keywords News discourse · Cognitive linguistics · Cognitive semantics · Metaphor · Schema · Stance

2.1 News Discourse Studies in Society Being a practical genre of media discourse, news discourse has attracted great attention and discussion of academia from home and abroad, devoting various definitions on news discourse. Bennett (2007) explains the concept from the point of journalism, claiming that “news is usually defined as information that is timely, relevant to the concerns of its audience, and presented in a form that is easy to grasp” (Applegate 2011: 47–50). Van Dijk (1985, 1988, 1998), however, defines it from the perspective of social context, illustrating news discourse as the main source of human knowledge, attitudes, and ideologies. Sharing the same concept, Fowler (1991) in his work Language in News: Discourse and Ideology in the Press describes news discourse as a social practice and product discourse reporters produce that are often based on the news topics they choose to reflect their newsworthiness criteria. The definition of news discourse is imperative in the quest to comprehend what it means. According to Van Dijk (1988: 4), the notion of media news implies the following concepts: A. New information about events, things or persons. B. A (TV or radio) program type in which news items are presented. C. A news item or news report, i.e., a text or discourse on radio, on TV or in the newspapers, in which new information is given about recent events.

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For a protracted time, the incorporation of specific generic elements and social value has made news discourse an area of interest for many linguists. Content analysis, as one of the essential research approaches to news analysis, employs an approach that is systematic, objective, and qualitative. Although originally rooted in religion, content analysis gradually shifts its target from church to newspapers at the end of the nineteenth century, laying firm foundations for subsequent content analysis within the scope of mass media. As a useful research tool in detecting the occurrence frequency of certain words or phrases in texts, content analysis focuses on analyzing the actual content and internal features of written mass media, which explains its vital role in communication studies. According to Krippendorff (2004), one of the leading figures in content analysis, the scope of its application extends from religious and news texts to all kinds of texts, particularly in media. It thus has long been utilized to examine how the news of mass media discloses the social and cultural issues, values, beliefs, perceptions, cognition, and so on. The approach is traced back to World War II with the ultimate goal to understand the ideology guiding the development of news reports by mass media. The approach of content analysis employed in news discourse has reached its peak period during the 1930s and the 1960s. As Van Dijk (1985) sees it, content analysis is multidisciplinary in nature given that it provides analysis for the language employed in news discourse from a theoretical as well as a practical perspective one. Nonetheless, content analysis has certain limitations such as its restriction to qualitative analysis and omission to the quantitative. It offers more descriptive facts, which can hardly touch upon the research questions like “why” and “how”, leaving the obscure problems unsolved. By means of transforming nonquantitative information, such as words, images, and other communicative messages, into quantitative information, content analysis obtains tendency or other arithmetical figures so as to reveal attitudes of both individuals and society toward certain issues. However, instead of demonstrating its explanatory power, and due to its demerits in qualitative operation and negligence on contextual interpretation, its academic popularity gradually fades out among linguists, and so does its practical employment in current linguistics studies. In light of these issues, the popularity of content analysis has diminished over time as more focus is placed on understanding the historical expansion of discourse analysis and especially so since the 1970s. Considering the limitations of content analysis, linguistics scholars begin to direct their attention to a much broader scope: discourse analysis, shifting from text to context (e.g., Bednarek and Caple 2014; Godler and Reich 2017; Hess 2017; Olausson 2013). Discourse analysis is a general term for different approaches by which discourse may be analyzed. Unlike content analysis, which is usually conducted on the basis of quantitative data, discourse analysis rests on the analysis of qualitative data. It dynamically analyzes texts and seeks for the hidden drives behind them, which includes certain kind of encyclopedic knowledge, social cognition, cultural variation, and so on. Bell (1991) explores the aspect of news discourse from a sociolinguistic perspective and defines that news is a product drawn from both sociolinguistics and linguistics. From this vein, Bell (1991) focuses on the association between the linguistic elements in news articles and the sociocultural context within which the language employed in research is used. There are merits

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and demerits in adopting the sociolinguistic study approach. The advantage is that it pays regards to the concern of language as well as the social and interactive aspects of news discourse, which is not considered in content analysis. Accordingly, it assists in providing an explanation as to why different social settings exhibit different utilization of language styles. The disadvantage of this approach is that it takes a rather narrow perspective on the social facets of news discourse and thus fails to exemplify the systematic association between social settings and the language used. In the early 1990s, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) emerged as another approach to news discourse analysis. This approach seeks to explore the syntactic structures of news discourse by attempting to reveal the power and fundamental ideologies therein. Fowler (1991) utilized CDA in a study that sought to investigate the use of language in news discourse. The study concentrated on the manner and ideological power which is hidden behind particular grammatical forms with the intention of making the readers/audience appreciate the function of language in moderating reality as opposed to mirroring the external world directly. According to van Dijk (2008), the popularity of CDA has engulfed the areas of linguistics and social science with numerous research fruits. Scholars of CDA are committed to investigating how social relations are built up and realized through news discourse. Also, they argue that when discourse tries to construct social realities, it is through individuals’ minds that it exerts influence on people and then shapes their actions (Liu 2012). Fairclough (1989), one of the most distinguished linguists in CDA, proposes a three-dimensional framework in his masterpiece: Language and Power. The framework, composed of text, discursive practice, and social practice, has been welcomed with fiery enthusiasm ever since its initially published version came out. Inside the three-dimensional framework, all these three major elements are interrelated. Text is the product of discursive practice during the processes of production, distribution, and consumption, all together resulting from certain social practices. This framework offers a comprehensive look into critical discourse analysis to explore the power relations or ideologies under social, cultural or even economic contexts. In China, Xin (2007) also makes a great contribution to the development of CDA, who argues that CDA is not an approach solely built on systematic functional linguistics (SFL), but also on cognitive linguistics. Xin claims that CDA draws inspirations from cognitive linguistics theories, such as the image-grounding, trajectory, and landmark, assisting in revealing the holding stances, and interactive goals of speakers. Moreover, the salience in cognitive linguistics could be applied to explain sentences, information structure of discourse, thematic structure, nominalization, passivation, and so on. His efforts in driving CDA toward cognitive linguistics spur CDA to a new height, encouraging scholars to endlessly work on exploiting new paths. Different classifying standards will lead to various kinds of news discourse. For instance, in terms of the topics covered, we have political news, military news, economic/business news, sports news, entertainment news, science and technology news, etc. Based on the territorial boundary/location where a certain event/news takes place, we have international news, national news, provincial news, and local news. Additionally, the styles for journalism display a wide range of variety, such as news reports, features, editorials, etc.

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2.2 Contrastive Analyses of News Discourses A contrastive analysis of news discourses in English and Chinese newspaper launched by Scollon (2000), observes and conducts research on the different ways of employing quotations, which embarks on the development of cross-cultural contrastive discourse analysis (e.g., Hauser and Luginbuhl 2012; He and Zhou 2015; Yang et al. 2018). Grounding on the news data sourced from the Washington Post and the Daily Times of Nigeria, Chaudhary (2001) investigates the significance of cultural variability in selecting international news. To be specific, Chaudhary (2001) examines the possibility whether news focuses on reports about individuals or groups, and whether such emphasis is equipped with positive or negative colors, in individualistic cultureoriented America, and in the collectivism-driven country Nigeria. By contrasting the news reports from the U.S. and Nigeria, the author gets a preliminary assertion that collective needs, values, and goals foreshadow the individual needs, values, and goals, which provides a brand-new perspective into contrastive analysis on cross-culture. With regard to cross-cultural political news discourse analysis, Guan (2006), with collected sample discourses from the official websites of People’s Daily and the Guardian, conducts a comparative analysis of the Chinese and British international political news report discourses from angles of systemic functional analysis and critical discourse analysis, and demonstrates the similarities and differences in aspects of classification, transformation, the transitivity system, intertextuality, modality, thematic structures, cohesion and rhetorical devices between the Chinese and British international political news reports. Research on cross-cultural scientific news should not be neglected as well. Gao (2008) conducts a statistical analysis of the five types of nominalization proposed by Halliday (2000) within the framework of systemic functional linguistics, in the hope of confirming the frequency of nominalization, finding out the realization patterns of nominalization, and identifying the linguistic characteristics as well as functions of nominalization in Chinese and English scientific news discourses. The findings are as follows: the nominalizations of process and quality are dominating in both languages, and the nominalizations of verbs and adjectives are at the lexical level. Nominalization abounds in both English and Chinese scientific news discourses, but the English ones display higher frequencies than the Chinese ones, which is attributed to the differences in language inner systems. Moreover, a noticeable pattern of transformation is identified regarding the six processes in the formation of nominalization: mental-verbal-behavioral-relational-existential-material, which can be interpreted by the linguistic features of scientific news discourses based on Halliday’s (2000) definitions of the six processes in transitivity system. The analysis also reveals the functions that different nominalizations fulfill: density, conciseness, objectivity, formality, thematic connection, and pragmatic presupposition, and indicates that there are obvious manifestation forms of nominalization at the morphological level in English but not in Chinese. By making detailed comparisons of military commentaries collected from mainstream media of Philippine, America, and China, under the framework of Martin

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and White’s (2005) appraisal theory and Bloom’s proposal for target, Su (2015) endeavors to reveal the distribution features of attitudinal and graduation resources, and the relationship between attitude and target in English and Chinese military commentaries. By means of sentiment analysis of the attitudinal, graduation, and target resources employed, she attempts to bring to light the similarities and differences in the realization forms of attitude and graduation in English and Chinese military commentaries, and the distribution features of three attitudinal subsystems under different types of targets. As for commercial entertainment news, it has been a consistently intriguing area for academic studies (e.g., Li 2009; Yang et al. 2018; Zhu 1995). Li (2009) develops a cross-cultural comparative research into the similarities and differences in thematic structure between Chinese and English entertainment news, based upon Halliday’s (2000) thematic theory and Zhu’s (1995) thematic progression pattern theory. The research finds out that a simple theme is employed at a higher frequency in both Chinese and English entertainment news. In the English ones, the multiple theme occupies a secondary position, while in Chinese ones, the clausal theme ranks the second. In addition, some Chinese clauses can stand alone without a theme, but in English, there are no such cases. In English entertainment news reports, the concentrated progression pattern and linear progression pattern are more commonly observed than other patterns; whereas in the Chinese counterparts, the parallel progression pattern emerges more frequently than other patterns, and the crossing progression pattern is not used very often. The similarities and dissimilarities of thematic structures in both languages arise from the particular features of entertainment news reports and different thinking patterns. It is not hard to spot from the previous studies on contrastive analysis that contrastive analysis is often applied in cross-cultural research to draw inspiring conclusions about different cultures for participants to better communicate in multicultural settings. That is, the contrastive research devoted by former scholars falls within the scope of comparing cultural differences, or answering the question of “what is different”, while as for questions like “what leads to cultural differences” and “how those differences are formed”, few studies have yet been found. Therefore, it is of great necessity for this book to touch upon the complicated ideological and cognitive issues in driving such cross-cultural variations from the point of contrastive analysis. Overall, the three analytical methods in news discourse mentioned above, subsuming content analysis, discourse analysis, and contrastive analysis, do shed light on the efficient comprehension of news discourse for discourse consumers, or newsreaders. However, those studies are mainly constrained in the categories of lexicology, semantics, pragmatics, and common linguistic, paying less attention to the cognitive level and failing to dig into the closer relation between overt language and covert cognition, especially under the context of different cultures. Considering this, the book aims to make a contrastive study of Chinese and American commercial media news reports based on three cognitive semantic approaches, including metaphors, image schema, and stance markers. By doing this, the author analyzes Chinese and American news from both semantic and discourse perspectives to reveal

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different thinking patterns intertwined with cognitive and cultural factors between the Chinese and Americans.

2.3 Cognitive Linguistic Studies Being a burgeoning field of linguistics studies, cognitive linguistics has witnessed increasing popularity and prosperity among academic scholars such as Anna-Lena (2016), Chongwon and Bridget (2017), Maia (2017) and Vladimir (2015), and so on. As a newly emerging theory, cognitive linguistics, being developed in the 1970s with strenuous efforts made by researchers who have devoted themselves to the relation of language to mind, has become one of the centers of linguistic research focus. It concerns multiple disciplines, including cognitive psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and anthropology, all of which hinge on the exploration of human cognitive activities. Developing over the past two to three decades, cognitive linguistics has a representation of conceptual structure in language as its central concern (Talmy 2000). Cognitive linguistics is characterized by the adherence to three central positions. First, it denies the existence of an autonomous linguistic faculty in the mind; second, it understands grammar in terms of conceptualization; and third, it contends that knowledge of language arises out of language use (Croft and Cruse 2004). Currently, numerous cognitive linguists have set foot on the exploitation and application of cognitive linguistics all over the world. The masterpieces, Metaphors We Live By by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), Women, Fire and Dangerous Things by Lakoff (1987), The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason by Johnson, Foundations of Cognitive Grammar by Langacker (1987), and Force Dynamics in Language and Cognition by Talmy (1988), have laid a solid foundation for related cognitive linguistic studies. Following their paces, cognitive linguists have actively participated in the noble cause of blazing new areas for further studies of cognitive linguistics. For instance, in cognitive science, cognitive linguistics focuses on the school of linguistics that views language as being based in evolutionarily-developed faculties, and seeks explanations that advance or fit well into the current understandings of the human mind. Generally speaking, cognitive linguistics is divided into two main areas of study. One is cognitive semantics, dealing mainly with lexical semantics (e.g., metaphor, metonymy, and polysemy), while the other is cognitive approaches of grammar, dealing mainly with syntax, morphology, and other traditionally more grammar-oriented areas, since cognition and our basic human conceptual system are highly involved in lexical and grammatical change. Aspects of cognition that are of interest to cognitive linguists also include conceptual metaphor theory, conceptual blending (CB) and force dynamics, etc. Generally, the philosophy of experientialism advocated by cognitive linguists centers on the bodily experience and spatial experience during human activities under certain cultural contexts, which explains the close relationship between cognitive linguistics and culture.

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Further efforts have been made in connecting cross-cultural studies and cognitive linguistics, especially the introduction of empathy in Social Involvement by Bell (1991) and Langacker (2000). Bell stresses the significant role of cognition as one of the three compositions in empathy, together with affective component and communicative component (Fu and Chen 2010). Langacker (2000: 376) argues that “Articulating the dynamic nature of conceptual and grammatical structure leads us inexorably to the dynamics of discourse and social interaction”. Cultural issues are brought into cognitive linguistics. Following the tenet of the cognitive component in cross-cultural studies, the attention on cross-cultural cognitive linguistics thus reaps a harvest of academic responses in cognitive linguistic research. The most outstanding contribution made to crosscultural cognitive linguistics lies in metaphorical studies. Plentiful contrastive studies on metaphors have been carried out from different cultures. Research targeting the metaphorical expressions of anger initiated by Yu (1998) focuses on the comparison between Chinese and English metonymy and metaphors in the area of emotionanger. By means of comparing English and Chinese emotional expressions of anger, Yu (1998) concludes that anger expressions in Chinese appear to be more related with HOT GAS metaphor, and the cause of heat, namely fire, being closely linked to internal organs, while the English notion of anger is usually expressed as HEAT and HOT FLUID (Dirven et al. 2007). In Yu’s (1998) research and findings, Yu testifies the existence of various culture-specific realizations of conceptual metaphor in cognitive linguistics, which has embarked on the cross-cultural cognitive linguistic studies. Echoed with Yu’s emotional metaphor study, A Contrastive Study on Basic Emotion Conceptual Metaphors in English and Persian Literary Texts by Mashak et al. (2012), attempts to explore the universal and unique metaphorical conceptualization pattern in English and Persian, mainly around happiness, anger, sadness, fear, and love. Through categorizing and comparing 782 emotive metaphorical expressions, the author strongly supports the concept of universality in the conceptualization of the two cultures, though some cultural and linguistic differences should be acknowledged to identify the cognitive gaps between cultures and languages.

2.4 Studies of Cognitive Semantics Cognitive Semantics, as a major branch of Cognitive Linguistics, is firstly proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980, 1999), Jackendoff (1983), Sweetser (1991), Talmy (2000), etc. Similar to other types of semantics studies, cognitive semantics puts the meaning of language in the center of its studies. As Taylor (1995) points out that, the study of cognitive semantics is within the framework of “cognitive grammar”, as developed above all by Langacker (1987, 1991). The work of Lakoff (1987), Talmy (1988), and many others is broadly compatible with Langacker’s approach. For lexical historical semantics within the cognitive grammar framework, one of the important studies is the work of Geeraerts (1985, 1997, 1999) whose research contributes largely to diachronic prototype semantics. For instance, Levinson (2003)

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claims that even in a core cognitive domain, such as spatial thinking, language influences how people think, memorize, and reason about spatial relations and directions. After outlining a typology of spatial coordinate systems in language and cognition, it is shown that not all languages use all types, and that non-linguistic cognition mirrors the systems available in the language. Geeraerts (1999) argues that there is a crucial distinction between a descriptive and an explanatory approach with regard to the use of prototypicality in diachronic semantics. Prototypicality is basically a descriptive concept, but it also fits perfectly well into an explanatory model that links up with the “natural” models of lexicon represented by Natural Phonology and Natural Morphology, which is significant and meaningful in view of semasiological change and prototype theory, nevertheless, not the focus of the present study. What distinguishes cognitive semantics from other research branches of semantics is that cognitive semantics claims that meaning is a cognitive phenomenon, which needs to be understood and analyzed from the perspective of cognition (Langacker 1987). As Talmy (2000: 4) suggests, cognitive semantics research is the research on conceptual content and its organization in language, and on the nature of conceptual content and organization in general. Since then, cognitive semantics remains its great popularity and influence in the field of linguistics study. According to Shu (2008), the major topics that cognitive semantics concerns include categorization, conceptualization, metaphor, etc. The rich philosophical background of categorization can be traced back to the time of Aristotle (1954), which is viewed as the foundation of human beings’ understanding of the world (Langacker 1987, 2000; Lakoff and Johnson 1999; Taylor 2002). As a concept about how people understand the world and classify the world into different categories, categorization is not only a linguistic issue but also a philosophical and psychological one. Philosopher Wittgenstein (1953) proposes the concept of family resemblance. He uses the category of “game” as proof, suggesting that people tend to put a group of things with certain similarities into the same category. Psychologists Rosch and Mervis (1975) use the word “prototype” to refer to the typical representative among all the members in a category. Inspired by these works, categorization and prototype theory achieve huge development in linguistics. Lakoff (1987) summarizes the characteristics of different levels of category. Ungerer and Schmid (1996) analyze different levels of category in terms of parameters like their function, linguistic forms, and so on. Croft and Cruse (2004) provide a summary of the functions of conceptual categories. More scholars follow their path, and apply the theory of categorization to the studies concerning linguistic issues like phonological split (Aski 2001), conversational strategies (Schubert 2014), idiom semantics (Gogichev 2016), etc. Many scholars study the categorization from a cross-linguistic perspective, whose works reveal the similarities and differences in semantic categorization of certain events among different languages (Maaike 2012; Majid et al. 2007; Marlies et al. 2015; Wang and Gao 2016). Besides, a cross-disciplinary study of categorization also shows its vitality (Stibel 2006). While categorization has its rich philosophical and psychological background, conceptualization is also influenced by certain philosophical and psychological theories (e.g., Forker 2016; Pothos and Wills 2011; Roach and Lloyd 1978). According

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to Forker (2016), the prototype theory and classical theory greatly impact the categorization in linguistics. Since the former one has been stated above, the classical theory should also be described here. The classical theory goes back to the method used by Socrates in Platonic dialogues, which views concepts as sets of individually necessary and jointly sufficient conditions (Forker 2016). One of the basic opinions that cognitive linguistics holds is that meaning is conceptualization (Langacker 1987). One of the earliest attempts to connect linguistic meaning and human’s conceptual world is Fillmore’s (1975, 1985) frame semantics. In this theory, he connects linguistic semantics to the encyclopedic knowledge that one holds. Similarly, Lakoff (1987) elaborates on the “idealized cognitive model (ICM)” to illustrate the relationship between a semantic domain and some external background experience. In Langacker’s (1987) work Foundations of Cognitive Grammar, he proposes the concept of “Mental Imagery”, to which he refers as the way people use to construct certain perceived scenes in their brain (Langacker 1987: 7), and uses the term “construal” to express similar ideas (Langacker 2000). His elaboration on the implication of construal contributes a lot to conceptualization in linguistics. Talmy (2000) also devotes his study on the relationship between conceptualization and meaning itself, and observes how the semantics structure is affected by conceptualization. In his works, he introduces terms like schematic category, force dynamics, perspective point, and so on, which altogether form a crucial component of conceptualization in linguistics. Besides, the metaphor theory proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) can be seen as another way to conceptualize the world, which will be addressed separately in the next section. The study of conceptualization continues to yield a fruitful outcome. Relative research includes studies on image schema (Nesset 2004; Clausner and Croft 2006; Forceville and Jeulink 2011), force dynamic (Oakley 2005; Morera et al. 2010), etc. The studies of the conceptualization focus on almost every semantic domain in the world, ranging from spatial relations (Wilcox 2006; Kreitzer 2009; Sinha and Thorseng 2009) to human emotions (Yu 2002; Jing-Schmidt 2007).

2.4.1 Cognitive Metaphors Metaphor is arguably a significant lexical component in the cognitive linguistics studies. The researchers’ enthusiasm around metaphors in cognitive linguistics has generated fruitful academic achievements both in China and abroad recently (e.g., Falck 2018; Ng and Koller 2013; Wen and Yang 2016; Yu et al. 2017). In fact, metaphorical research could be traced back to ancient Greek, more precisely, to Aristotle (1954). Numerous scholars have sought to study metaphors from different aspects and put forward various influential theories from different perspectives. Richards (1936) starts to regard metaphor as a linguistic phenomenon, suggesting the derivative attribute of metaphor. Traditional linguistic studies strongly advocate such an idea and support the idea that metaphor is only rhetoric. Such linguistic tradition goes on until the 1980s; Lakoff and Johnson (1980) study the metaphor

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from the perspective of cognition, and refer the term “conceptual metaphor” as a tool for the human to understand the world. In addition, Lakoff (1987) proposes the “mapping theory” to explain the mechanism of metaphors. Later, the “mental space theory” and “blended space theory” put forward by Fauconnier (1994, 1997) become a supplement of the mapping theory. Many linguists combine the studies of metaphor with those of metonymy, and have greatly expanded the scope of metaphor studies (Lakoff 1987; Gibbs 1994; Köveceses 2002, 2005; Goatly 1997). Nowadays, the study of metaphor remains its popularity in cognitive linguistics research. Conceptual metaphor is studied under different contexts, including the teaching contexts (Knop 2015; Tao 2017), political contexts (Chen and Liu 2009; Musolff 2011), business contexts (Cacciaguidi-Fahy and Cunningham 2007; Handford and Koester 2010; Koller 2004), etc. Scholars of different linguistic backgrounds attempt to conduct metaphorical research on the use of metaphors in their own language or from various cross-cultural perspectives (Shen 2006; Tarvi 2013; Lai 2016). The studies of multimodal metaphors also draw much attention from recent metaphorical researches (Ning 2011; Zhang and Xu 2017), which focus not only on the metaphors in verbal discourses but also those in visual and aural discourses. In the following, traditional and contemporary views on metaphors are discussed. 1. Traditional Theory of Metaphor Metaphor, as a figurative construal, involves an interaction between two domains construed from two regions of purport. The content of the vehicle domain is an ingredient of the construed target through processes of correspondence and blending. As Croft and Cruse (2004: 193–194) see it, metaphors are not literally paraphrasable: they have a character that no literal expression has. At the same time, although metaphorical meaning has a special character that distinguishes it from any literal meaning, it shares the same range of basic functions as literal meaning. Many metaphorical expressions have a heavy load of expressive meaning, and so do many literal expressions. Meanwhile, metaphors, as conceptual structures, are not merely linguistic in nature, but normally realized linguistically. Traditionally, there are three main veins of metaphorical studies, namely the “comparison theory”, the “substitution theory”, and the “interaction theory”. (1) Comparison Theory The systematic study of metaphors is first traced back to Aristotle (1954) who is regarded as the founding father of metaphor studies. Aristotle’s (1954) Rhetoric and Poetics discusses metaphors beginning with the definition, mechanism of metaphors, and then delves into the functions of metaphors. The classical definition in the book is: “metaphor consists in giving the thing a name that belongs to something else, the transference being either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, or on ground of analogy” (Aristotle 1954: 6–9). Essentially, Aristotle’s (1954) ideology evolves over time and becomes the comparison theory, and subsequently exerts tremendous influence on the conventional studies of metaphors. Embedded from the comparison theory, a metaphor is

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defined as the contrast between the semantic features of two identical objects. For the purposes of comprehension, metaphor can be understood in the form of “A is B”, which is to be explained as A is like B as regarding C. See Example 1. Example 1 Sam is an eagle. (Hu 2004) In this example, “Sam” is a person while “eagle” is an animal species. From the semantic perspective, the two words are quite different. For one to understand why Sam is likened to an eagle, a positive comparison of traits is essential since an eagle is associated with power and strength. Therefore, the sentence actually means that Sam has the same traits as an eagle vis-à-vis a hero with strength and power. Aristotle’s (1954) research on metaphor undoubtedly has played a central but limited role in the linguistic field. For instance, there is the insinuation that a metaphor merely occurs at the lexical level whereby a metaphor replaces a lexicon through the relating or likening of concepts (Hu 2004). Later studies, however, reveal that metaphors also exist at discourse levels. Another limitation of Aristotle’s (1954) claim on metaphors is that they are only limited to noun forms, thus neglecting their existences in other forms in speeches, such as adjectives and verbs (Shu 2000). The third limitation is in regard to transference where metaphors are used to liken one term to another based on the preconceived similarities. Current knowledge, nevertheless, indicates that metaphors can also create new similarities. Fourth, the view that metaphor is a rhetoric device limits future research on other functions of metaphor, and therefore deprives the cognitive status of metaphors (Shu 2000). (2) Substitution Theory Drawing from the comparison theory developed from Quintilian, a Roman thinker, the “theory of substitution” appears. This concept indicates that the fundamental concept of a metaphor is the utilization of one word to replace another. More specifically, when A is presented as B with the use of a person, it means that A is C on the ground that B is replaced by C. “Replacement” is the principle concept of the substitution theory and articulates that the meaning of metaphor can be disclosed by replacing the literal term. Fundamentally, the substitution theory conceptualizes “metaphor” as a figurative speech that revolves around utilizing one word to substitute a different one. However, metaphor is in a whole sentence as opposed to merely a word. For example, “he is a fox” can be replaced by “he is clever”, as the rhetorical expression is replaced by a literal one. Consequently, drawing from the substitution theory, Black (1962: 32) argues that, “the focus of a metaphor, the word or expression having a distinctively metaphorical use within a literal frame, is used to communicate a meaning that might have been expressed literally” Black (1962) concludes that the comparison and substitution theory are more alike than different, and hence claiming the comparison theory as a special case of substitution theory. Both theories posit that a metaphor is hinged on the similarity preexisting in two things and therefore treat it as a rhetorical phenomenon or rather an essential ornament. The distinct differences in the two theories are all about the metaphorical perspectives, i.e., comparison theory concentrates on the formulation

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of a metaphor while the substitution theory focuses on the ways of formulating metaphors. (3) Interaction Theory The interaction theory is traced back to 1936 and was developed by Richards (1936). The theory is acknowledged as having introduced “tenor” and “vehicle”. The two terms serve as the basis for metaphor from an interaction perspective which is likened to the cognitive view of metaphor where there is the “target domain” and the “source domain”. The concept expressed by metaphor is the “tenor” while the embodiment of tenor is represented by the images of “vehicle”. Hence, the likeness between vehicle and tenor is the “ground”. Such the metaphorical meaning is established by the interaction between tenor and vehicle. Regarding “He is a lion”, the person “he” in the example is the tenor, while the “lion” which is a type of animal is the vehicle. The identical relationship between them is being brave. This goes beyond mere comparison or rather substitution of a word and considers the interaction of the two subjects—“he” and the “lion”. Thus, the understanding of the two subjects is dependent on one another with the thought of “he” being understood by the thought of “lion” and vice versa. The contribution of Richards (1936) in metaphorical studies is indeed fundamental; however, it fails to expound on the manner of interaction that happens in a metaphor. Black (1962) indicates that metaphor in certain cases creates similarities instead of simply resting on similarities that have been preconceived. To this end, Black (1962) proposes that there should be two subjects that are distinctive from each other, which are primary and secondary subjects. Essentially, those two subjects are deemed to be interrelated. The following exhibits the kind of interaction between them: A. The hearer is stimulated by the primary subject to choose partial elements of the secondary subject. B. The hearer is encouraged by the interaction to introduce a structure of an implicative complex that is vital to the primary subject. C. The interaction concurrently stimulates the change to the secondary subject. This ultimately means that the interaction between the primary and secondary structures perceived as structures of associated elements adds up to be a metaphor. This is in contrast to the use of predicate or isolated words as metaphors. Therefore, the comprehension of a metaphor is hinged on understanding the interaction between the primary and secondary subjects. See Example 2. Example 2 Man is a lion. In the above example, “a lion” forms the secondary subject and is related to traits such as braveness that in turn classifies the primary subject in the example “man”. As in the example of man-lion metaphor, “man” is considered as “lion-like”, simultaneously considering the “lion” “man-like” in respect to the trait of braveness (Black 1962: 41). Interaction theory is developed by Richards (1936) and Black (1962, 1993), which is groundbreaking in the study of metaphors. Both of them indicate that metaphors

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are “interactive”, producing a new way of seeing the terms, which can be a way of thinking rather than a form of language decoration. Their arguments somewhat contribute to the cognitive study of metaphors, serving as a stepping stone to future studies focusing on cognitive metaphor concepts. 2. Contemporary Theory of Metaphor The 1970s was marked by a strong wave of metaphor which is referred to as “the era of metaphormania” (Johnson 1987). The era is characterized by cross-subject, multi-level as well as multi-angle perspectives on metaphor studies. Essentially, such perspective is largely cognitive linguistic inspired by scholars such as Lakoff (1987, 1990, 1993), Gibbs (1992, 1994, 2003, 2006a, b), Johnson (1987, 1993), Köveceses (2002, 2003, 2005, 2015), Sweetser (1991), and Koller (2004). The emphasis made by the aforementioned scholars is that metaphor, besides being a way of language, is a way of thinking. Drawing from existent literature, the beginning of the study of metaphors from a cognitive vantage point is traced back to the publication of the popular book Metaphors We Live By (Lakoff and Johnson 1980). The book indicates that “metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action”. This means that an analysis of how we think and act in an ordinary daily life indicates a metaphorical way of life. Fundamentally, “our conceptual system is largely metaphorical, then the way we think, what we experience, and what we do every day is, to a larger extent, a matter of metaphor” (Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 3). The book introduces the conceptual metaphor theory that delineates a metaphor as the comprehension and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another (Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 26). Metaphor is also defined as understanding one conceptual domain (target domain) in terms of another conceptual domain (source domain) (Köveceses 2002: 4). Normally, an abstract concept is employed as the target domain (while the source domain is normally the more concrete domain) and is comprehended in reference to the source domain through what is referred to as cross-domain mapping. Besides, the definition, classification, and characteristics of a conceptual metaphor are expounded. (1) Classification of Conceptual Metaphors According to Lakoff and Johnson (1980), there are three major categories of metaphors that include ontological metaphors, orientational metaphors, and structural metaphors. Ontological metaphors provide abstract ideas, activities, feelings, and events as concrete things like entities, substances, and especially human bodies. “Our experiences with physical objects, especially our bodies provide the basis for all extraordinarily wide variety of ontological metaphors, that is, ways of viewing events, activities, emotions, ideas, etc., as entities and substances. Once we can identify our experiences as entities of substances, we can refer to them, categorize them, group them and quantify them, and, by this means, reason about them” (Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 25). As for “THEORIES ARE BUILDINGS”, the notion of the theory

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is comprehended through the aspect of a building which is a concrete object. Accordingly, such expressions are so common in people’s daily lives that people may not be aware of their metaphorical nature. Orientational metaphors on the other hand are used to classify a system of concepts with regard to spatial orientations like on–off, up-down among others. The usage of orientational metaphors is more common when people are expressing abstract concepts such as health, social status, and emotions. It is imperative to remember that metaphorical orientations are not random as they are hinged to cultural and physical experiences by human beings. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) stated that sadness and depression are often likened to a dropping posture while an erect posture is associated with a positive emotional state, thus the conceptual metaphor of sadness is down while the happy one is up. Essentially, the aforementioned orientational metaphors are used to express the abstract concepts of feelings and emotions. See Example 3. Example 3 I’m feeling down. My moods go up. Finally, structural metaphors are characterized by one concept being metaphorically structured through another. The concepts in structural metaphors have distinct traits with parallel and systematic relationships. For example, in the metaphor “ARGUMENT IS WAR”, argument is equated to war. Argument and war are considered to have similar traits of being valuable and precious. (2) Characteristics of Conceptual Metaphor Theory There is an intimate connection between culture and metaphor. Lakoff and Johnson (1980: 22) claim that “the most fundamental values in a culture will be coherent with the metaphorical structure of the most fundamental concepts in the culture”. This means that cultural values are conveyed by concepts that are metaphorical in nature. Irrespective of the fact that people live in distinct and diverse cultures, there are a lot of similarities when it comes to knowledge and experience. This explains why people from different cultures may share identical metaphorical expressions and recognize existing entities and concepts. Drawing from the Chinese and English languages, there are similar metaphors, such as “山脚 Shanjiao”—the foot of a mountain among others. Nonetheless, diversity in cultures more often than not produces a unique experience that makes metaphorical concepts and expressions different. To this end, people may describe a similar concept in varied cultures but with different conceptual metaphors. This may be exemplified by the metaphorical concept of love in which “爱是陪伴 (love is to accompany)” is often found in Chinese while in the English language it is represented as “Love is a journey” (Lakoff and Johnson 1980). Thus, there are some distinct cultural features that may be conveyed through such features. The above discussion demonstrates that metaphors are deeply rooted in the experience of human beings as opposed to being determined randomly. Therefore, there

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exists an “experiential” basis in each conceptual metaphor and each experience is consistent with several cultural presumptions. (3) The Ubiquity of Conceptual Metaphors The ubiquity of metaphors has been recognized by several linguists who argue that the pervasiveness of metaphors is evidenced in people’s daily actions, thoughts, and languages (Lakoff and Johnson 1980). According to Richards (1936), the eternal principle of language is the utilization of metaphors and mere observation can reveal that one cannot go through three sentences of a discourse without it. Normal correspondence between two individuals is often consciously or unconsciously consistent with metaphors, for instance, “we are at a crossroads”. This sentence is alluding to another conceptual metaphor of “LOVE IS A JOURNEY”, that is, in the journey of love one could express a hurdle in the relationship as a crossroads. The utilization of metaphors is popular in different subjects such as politics, science, aesthetics, ethnics, and psychology. Ideally, our thought processes are not only guided by intellect but also by conceptual metaphors. The daily routines and activities are also largely metaphorical given that what is perceived by an individual governs the manner in which we conceptualize the world as well as how we are associated with other individuals. As such, our everyday realities are heavily influenced by the conceptual system we ascribe to (Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 3). To conclude, it is evident that our daily life partially ascribes to the conceptual metaphors that identify our thought process. In light of this, metaphors are not a reserve for the gifted speakers in the society rather they are pervasive in both spoken and written language. It is however imperative to note that despite metaphors being ubiquitous in our daily life, their occurrence is not random but systematic and well organized. (4) Systematicity of Conceptual Metaphors The point of emphasis in the systematicity of conceptual metaphors is the language used by individuals in reference to particular concepts and aspects (Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 7). It can be comprehended from two aspects. Firstly, there are several varied metaphorical expressions in each conceptual metaphor within a coherent inner system. For instance, “THEORIES ARE BUILDINGS” is a conceptual metaphor that can generate many metaphorical expressions that are common in everyday life such as “The argument collapsed”. The metaphorical expressions in this conceptual metaphor “THEORIES ARE BUILDINGS” are hinged on the characteristics and qualities associated with building which are then mapped onto theories, and hence the close association of buildings and theories assists in developing a coherent inner system. Secondly, conceptual metaphors are systematically linked with each other to comprise a hierarchical and a parallel structure that evidences the presence of external systematicity among different conceptual metaphors. Essentially, it should be understood that dissimilar conceptual metaphors that detail a similar concept are systematically interconnected just like how an argument is perceived as a building, container

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or even a journey. Since the conceptual metaphors describe the different parts and aspects of the argument, they are closely linked with each other and help people to comprehend the concept “argument” in all aspects. There is a coherent system formed by all the different metaphorical expressions. In conclusion, this section has elaborated on the CMT. To better comprehend the theory, the author attempts to illustrate the significant aspects of the theory. Among the point of emphasis are the three categories of metaphors which are the ontological metaphors, structural metaphors, and orientational metaphors. Additionally, the prevalent and systematic features of metaphors and their intimate relations with culture are discussed. 3. Mapping Theory Metaphorical mappings have been the subject of study for many scholars such as Reddy (1979), Lakoff and Johnson (1980), Lakoff and Turner (1989), Gibbs (1994), Fauconnier (1997), etc. The purpose of metaphors is to enable the comprehension of certain things in the form of another. (1) Mapping between Two Domains Regarding metaphorical mapping processes Lakoff and Johnson (1980), developed terms such as target domain and source domain. The process of individuals attempting to comprehend abstract concepts is referred to as the target domain, while a concrete entity that is much easier for individuals to perceive is the source domain. Mapping is the resultant interaction between the two types of domains. Therefore, a metaphor consists of a source domain, a source-to-target mapping, as well as a target domain. During the mapping process, the particular attributes and properties of the source domain are mapped onto the target domain. The process of mapping conceptual metaphors is such that the knowledge acquired by the source domain, as well as the features, entity, and relationship of the target domain is mapped. The conceptual metaphors respectively map the attributes, the knowledge of the source domain, the relationship, and the entity onto those of the target domain. Johnson (1993) defined a metaphor as a conceptual mapping beginning from the source domain to the target domain with the ontological and epistemic connection. The ontological correspondences are those in which the entities in the source domain are mapped onto entities in the target domain, while the epistemic correspondences, on the other hand, are those in which the source domain is mapped onto the knowledge belonging to the target domain with the aim of developing patterns of inferences. In reference to “LOVE” and “JOURNEY”, Johnson (1993) articulates that their ontological correspondences are detailed as the following (as in Fig. 2.1). Therefore, the mapping theory of Johnson serves as an ideal complement and summary of Lakoff and Turner’s (1989) assertion. It is apparent that the metaphor “LOVE IS A JOURNEY” (Fig. 2.1) is a systematic mapping grounded on ontological correspondences. Subsequently, this results in several epistemic correspondences in nature, thus in the above metaphor “LOVE IS A JOURNEY”, the source domain knowledge is mapped onto the target domain knowledge of love. At the conceptual

2.4 Studies of Cognitive Semantics Fig. 2.1 Mapping process of “LOVE IS A JOURNEY”

25 JOURNEY (Source domain)

LOVE (Target domain)

Travelers Vehicles Diff iculties Destinations

Lovers Relationships Setbacks Goals

level, metaphorical mapping is a fixed set of ontological correspondences between entities in the source domain and those in the target domain. Activation of ontological correspondences can lead the mapping process to project the source domain through inference patterns to the target’s domain inference patterns, a result of correspondences. The correspondences are epistemic and essential. The epistemic correspondences between the source and target domains influence the inference drawn from a target domain. As such, the manner of conceptualization, talking about and reasoning about love, is influenced by correspondences that are epistemic in nature. (2) Features of Mapping According to Lakoff (1993), metaphorical mapping observes the hypothesis—the invariance principle. It states that “the cognitive typology, that is, the image-schema structure of the source domain is mapped onto the target domain in a way that is consistent with the inherent structure of the target domain” (Lakoff 1993: 215). The invariance principle guarantees that the correspondence between the source domain and target domain is fixed, and the image-schematic structure that is intrinsic to the target domain is preserved. For instance, in terms of container schemata, the interior of the source domain will be mapped onto the interior of the target domain, the exterior matches the exterior, and boundaries correspond to boundaries. A direct consequence of the invariance principle is the target domain overrides. This refers to the fact that the inherent schematic structure of the target domain cannot be violated. Therefore, the target domain overrides principle decides what kind of knowledge, features, relationships, etc. from the source domain can be mapped onto. Only the objects that exist in the inherent structure of the target domain can be mapped, and objects existing in the source domain but not in the target domain cannot be involved in the mapping process. A case in point is the metaphor “COMPANIES ARE DINOSAURS”. For this metaphor, what are mapped from “DINOSAURS” to the “COMPANIES” are the fate and structure of the dinosaur; however, other parts of dinosaurs including the appearance, the living environment, and the enemy of the dinosaur are not mapped since no corresponding objects can be found. Both the invariance principle and target domain overrides indicate that the mapping is from the source domain to the target domain and not the other way around. However, the indirectionality and fixed mapping pattern of Mapping Theory fails to interpret the elements that do not exist in the source domain.

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4. Blending Theory The blending theory (BT), also identified as the conceptual integration theory, was developed by Fauconnier and Turner (1998, 2002). BT posits that conceptual blending is a dynamic process that occurs during perception with a view to developing new meaning from the existing ways of thinking. The process of interpreting metaphors is guided by a multifaceted dynamic construction of meaning, as opposed to the traditional unidirectional cross-space mapping of conceptual metaphor theory. This theory is more favorable when dealing with complicated images, and strengthens comprehension of conceptual metaphors grounded on its distinct ongoing mechanisms in the development of meanings (e.g., Hedblom et al. 2016; Schneider and Hartner 2012). (1) Components of Blending Network It is imperative to have the concept of “Mental Spaces” introduced prior to illustrating the process of BT that was extensively discussed in the 1990s by Fauconnier (1994,1997, 1998, 1999). According to Fauconnier (1997: 11), mental spaces act as a partial and transitory representation structure developed by thinkers when taking or conceptualizing about a past, present, perceived, imagined or future circumstance. The definition of conceptual blending as networks of four mental spaces arrives after extensive research on the association and interaction of various mental spaces. The following is an illustration of the four mental spaces of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) (see Fig. 2.2). The model is a representation of the standard network model of the Conceptual Integration Network. Within the four mental spaces, there are two for input and a Generic Space

Input I1

Input I2

Blend

Fig. 2.2 Model of CBT space (Fauconnier 1998: 145)

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single one for generic space as well as the blended space. Circles are the shapes used to illustrate the mental spaces. There are matching solid lines that cross-space between input I1 and input I2. The icons or rather the points in the figure are used to represent elements while the connections between generic or the blended spaces are represented by the dotted lines. The emergent structure is represented by a rectangle or a solid square in the blended space (Fauconnier and Turner 2002). Input mental spaces contain elements and frames. Elements refer to discourse entities and frames indicate the relationship between these elements. In cognitive linguistics, frames refer to representational structures that can be used to represent a schematic and conventional organization of knowledge about a wide variety of objects, actions, and events. They are motivated by human experience, cultural practices, and social institutions. Ideally, the Conceptual Integration Network is consistent with at least two input mental spaces; nevertheless there are cases where this could increase to three or more (Fauconnier and Turner 2002). Consequently, there is the generic space that is comprised of an abstract structure shared by the two input mental spaces. In addition, it serves as the foundation of cross-space mapping in the case between input I1 and input I2 (Fauconnier and Turner 2002). It is important to note that the development of a network does not need the generic space in place. This means that the generic space is not a must when it comes to conceptual blending. The generic space is often developed and elaborated along with the connection to other spaces. Thus, the generic space only appears in people’s short memory. The blended space is the fourth mental space on the Conceptual Blending/Integrating Network. Partially projected to the blended space are input I1 and input I2 that afterwards yield to a structure that is not evident in the prior input spaces. There exists a correlation between the blended and the generic spaces. The blended space is consistent of a generic structure that is otherwise not captured in the space. Further, it is consistent of the particular structure that is not visible in input I1 and input I2. The resultant structure is referred to as emergent and generative as well. The blended mental space is developed based on dynamic simulation and instantaneous cross-space mapping. (2) Procedures of Conceptual Blending Conceptual blending is an essential mental operation in human minds, which is absolutely necessary even for the simplest kinds of thought. Moreover, “conceptual blending is categorized as an unconscious activity that is entrenched in all aspects of life” (Fauconnier and Turner 2002: 18). The functioning of all the mental spaces follows several procedures including cross-space mapping, selective projection as well as the three steps in the blended space. (1) Cross-Space Mapping The process of conceptual blending entails cross-space mappings between input space I1 and input space I2 that interconnect with each other. The uniqueness of the human cognitive faculty is the manner in which mappings across various domains

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with the aim of establishing relations between elements and features in frames, associations of identity, representation or transformation, and metaphoric associations so as to generate, convey and process meanings. (2) Selective Projection Projection is vital in conceptual blending as it is a general property of mental space construction. Regarding input I1 and input I2, they are projected to the blended space. According to Fauconnier and Turner (2002), projection always happens unconsciously in the process of meaning construction, and the final conceptual blending is only consistent with a few accepted ones. Nonetheless, there is also a chance that none of the features are projected. Under special situations, the counterparts of input I1 and input I2 may be fused in the blend. Sometimes, a counterpart in the inputs (input I1 and I2) without a counterpart in the other gets projected to the blend. Ultimately, associations and features in input I1 and I2 have a partial chance of being projected to blend. The two inputs not only have the potential of being projected to blend but also can receive projections back from the advanced blend. This back and forth projection can be utilized in the recruitment of inputs that further enhance the possibility of being projected to blend. (3) Three Steps in the Blended Space Composition, completion, and elaboration are the three steps integrated into the blended space. The initial step of blending is the composition of elements from the divided input spaces, which means that factors from each input space are projected into the blended space. Besides entailing the synthesis of factors from the two input spaces this step also provides a platform for creating relations between elements in separate input spaces that would otherwise not be associated if there is no blending (Fauconnier and Turner 1998: 48). The completion step, on the other hand, adds a different structure in the blend. It entails the forming of a pattern in the blend as the result of the projected structure from the input I1 and input I2, which aligns information to the long-term memory. Human beings’ familiar structure is recruited into the blend through this process with the reference of great ranges of background meaning. The integration of the blend often serves as a source of emergent content. The final step is elaboration which involves stimulation of mental performance upon blending and occurs indefinitely. This step is closely associated with the step of completion. Elaboration happens by treating the completion processes as simulations and subsequently running them imaginatively in accordance with the established operations and elements of the blend. Throughout the process, the links to input I1 and input I2 are regularly maintained in a bid to allow the simulated connections across spaces to automatically pop out and provide a flight of insight. The elements integrated into the blends are projected back to features of input I1and input I2. In the long run, the blend creates a new structure that is not consistent with input I1 and input I2 due to the process of integration. The resultant structure is what is called the emergent structure.

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Ultimately the processes of composition, completion, and elaboration yield an emergent structure that is not identical to the elements found in input I1 and input I2. 5. Comparative Studies of Metaphor in News Discourses After having reviewed studies about the metaphor, the author briefly retro-spects the previous research related to metaphors in news discourses. Howe (1988) carefully examines the metaphor related to contemporary American political discourse and draws a conclusion that politics is typically conceived as being either a rulebound contest (sports metaphors) or as an unpredictable exercise of power (war metaphors). Lule (2004) studies the news report on the war in Iraq 2003, in which he pays extra attention to the role of metaphor and news language in the conception and construction of war. In terms of the comparative studies of metaphors in news discourse, Charteris-Black and Ennis (2001) conduct a comparative study of linguistic metaphors and conceptual metaphors in Spanish and English financial reports published in newspapers. The author finds that much similarity exists in conceptual metaphors while subtle differences appear in linguistic expressions. Both languages depict economy in terms of “ORGANISM”, and conceptualize market movements as “NATURAL DISASTERS” and “PHYSICAL MOVEMENT”. The difference is that Spanish reporting prefers to take psychological mood and personality as its base, while the English counterparts go for nautical metaphors. Semino (2002) delivers a contrastive analysis of metaphorical patterns to describe the euro in Britain and Italian newspapers. Apart from identifying similar source domains including “JOURNEYS”, “CONTAINERS”, and “BIRTH” shared by English and Italian, differences especially particular metaphors unique to both languages are pointed out. Moreover, the book suggests that to back up different opinions of monetary union, novel metaphors are used as a rhetorical device by both languages. Charteris-Black and Musolff (2003) compare metaphors for euro trading in British and German financial reporting in which they classify metaphors into two categories which are semantically based metaphors and pragmatically motivated metaphors. Euro trading is conceptualized as “UP/DOWN MOVEMENT” and “HEALTH” in the reporting of both languages. Besides, differences exist as well. “COMBAT” metaphors are employed in English reporting while the German reporting describes the euro as a beneficiary of institutional agents. One of the most valuable findings of the study is that the pragmatic approach to metaphor has an impact on opinions because it emphasizes the ornamental function of metaphors. In the cross-linguistic comparisons of the MARKET metaphors, Chung (2008) lays out both “MARKET” metaphors and collocates of “MARKET” (in reference to grammatical roles) used by people of the three different languages. By discussing the similarities and differences, Chung reveals that varied source domains prefer diverse grammatical roles for “MARKET”. Furthermore, the conclusion that the choice of source domains varies among the three speech communities which may reflect the

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economy of corresponding countries has drawn. He suggests that in terms of “MARKET”, the perspectives of people speaking the same language can be inferred by conducting metaphor analysis, semantic analysis, and their relations with grammar. Kosei (2009) examines the function of metaphor in creating technical terms for different phases of a business cycle in Japanese and English. He discovers that metaphors change together with the phrase of a business cycle facing each economy. What’s more, empirical studies find that verbal, adjective, and adverbial terms only exist in U.S. mechanical metaphor and that the number of metaphorically used adjectives and adverbs in English is larger than those in Japanese, which provides guidance for second language learning and language applications in commerce. The comparative study of metaphor in English and Russian conducted by Wang et al. (2013) focuses on the comparison of conceptual metaphors and metaphor frequency analysis. The results show that much similarity exists when economic crisis is conceptualized since English and Russian share basic metaphor structures. While in terms of frequency of metaphors and the linguistic expression of corresponding metaphors, certain differences emerge. Specifically speaking, there are more metaphorical expressions in English passages. In addition, the research also interprets crisis metaphors from universal and cultural-specific perspectives. It points out that metaphors in Russian articles demonstrate more diversity and pragmatic force than those English ones. In conclusion, the comparative studies of metaphors between different languages have been popular, and scholars do the comparison study mainly within the frame of CMT. By comparing shared and distinguished metaphors in two or more languages, reasons behind are explored and the functions of metaphors are illuminated. However, as we can see, rare studies were conducted concerning two kinds of metaphors, namely the conventional metaphors and the novel ones by combining the mapping mechanism and the blending theory, which adequately suggests the necessity and uniqueness of this book.

2.4.2 Cognitive Schema Research on image schema in cognitive linguistics has often been closely related to metaphor research. However, the process of deriving image schema from the analysis of metaphors in language contradicts the action of justifying those image schemas through the later application of them in analyzing metaphors in linguistic data (Gibbs and Herbet 1995). Originally advanced in Conceptual Metaphor Theory by Lakoff and Johnson (1999), image schema is one of the most crucial concepts in cognitive semantics. Studies in cognitive linguistics have shown that much of ordinary human cognition is not represented in terms of propositional and sentential information but is grounded in and structured by various patterns of our perceptual interactions, bodily actions, and manipulations of objects (Johnson 1987, 1993; Lakoff 1987, 1990). These patterns are experiential gestalts called “image schemata”. Image schemata

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are neither images nor schemata in the familiar senses of each term as used in philosophy, cognitive psychology, or anthropology. According to Johnson (1987: 29), an image schema is “a recurring, dynamic pattern of our perceptual interactions and motor programs that gives coherence and structure to our experience”. He points out that these patterns “emerge as meaningful structures for us chiefly at the level of our bodily movements through space, our manipulations of objects, and our perceptual interactions”. That is to say, from his perspective, image schemata, also called by Lakoff (1987) as image schemas, are pre-conceptual abstract knowledge structures based on recurrent patterns of experience. They are gestalt structures, consisting of parts standing in relations and being organized into unified wholes, by means of which our experience manifests discernible order. Johnson (1987) illustrates image schemata from the perspectives of bodily experience, structural element, basic logic, and sample metaphor and sorts image schema into 27 categories, as is sketched in Table 2.1. Similarly, Lakoff (1987: 267) defines image schemas as “relatively simple structures that constantly recur in our everyday bodily experience: CONTAINERS, PATH, LINKS, FORCES, BALANCE, and in various orientations and relations: UPDOWN, FRONT-BACK, PART-WHOLE, CENTER-PERIPHERY, etc.”. He argues that the image-schematic structure is treated as one of the two pre-conceptual structures in our bodily experiences that gives rise to conceptual structure, the other one being basic-level categories which are characterized by gestalt perception, mental imagery, and movements. He maintains that a gestalt structure is a structure whose elements do not all exist, depending on the whole or whose overall meaning is not predictable from the meanings of its parts and the way those parts are put together. Recently, Evans and Green (2006) propose even richer properties of image schema which can be summarized as follows: A. Image schemata are pre-conceptual in origin. This means that image schemata like the CONTAINMENT schema are the first concepts to emerge in the human mind and are directly grounded in embodied experience. Table 2.1 List of image schemas proposed by Johnson CONTAINER

BALANCE

COMPULSION

BLOCKAGE

COUNTERFORCE

RESTRAINT-REMOVAL

ENABLEMENT

ATTRACTION

MASS-COUNT

PATH

LINK

CENTER-PERIPHERY

CYCLE

NEAR-FAR

SCALE

PART-WHOLE

MERGING

SPLITTING

FULL-EMPTY

MATCHING

SUPERIMPOSITION

IERATION

CONTACT

PROCESS

SURFACE

OBJECT

COLLECTION

Source Johnson (1987: 126)

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B. An image schema can give rise to more specific concepts. That is to say, an image schema can provide schematic meanings and can possess varying degrees of schematicity, where more specific image schemata arise from more fundamental or schematic ones. C. Image schemata derive from interaction with and observation of the world, which means that an image schema is bodily based. D. Image schemata are inherently meaningful. E. Image schemata are analogue representations. Analogue representation means image schemata take a form in the conceptual system that mirrors the sensory experience being represented. F. Image schemata can be internally complex. Image schemata are comprised of more complex aspects that can be analyzed separately, and that different components of an image schema can be referred to. G. Image schemata are not the same as mental images. Mental images result from an effortful and partly conscious cognitive process that involves recalling visual memory. Image schemata are schematic and therefore they are more abstract in nature, emerging from ongoing embodied experience. H. Image schemata are multi-modal. Image schemata are buried “deeper” within the cognitive system, being abstract patterns arising from a vast range of perceptual experiences and as such are not available to conscious introspection. I. Image schemata are subject to transformation. Because image schemata arise from embodied experience which is ongoing, and an image schema can undergo transformations from one into another. J. Image schemata can occur in clusters. Image schemata can occur in clusters or networks of related image schemata. Similarly, Talmy (1988) echoes the theory of image schema but further develops a few schema patterns, especially the force schema, putting forward the force dynamic patterns. In Talmy’s opinion, the modes adopted in force dynamic patterns, including basic steady-state dynamic pattern, shifting force dynamic pattern, and secondary steady-state dynamic pattern, are suggestive not only for physical force interaction but also for psychological and social force with the help of a metaphorical extension. Following the pace of Johnson, Croft and Cruse (2004) commit themselves to the application and improvement of image schema, and summarize seven sets of image schemas, aiming at supplying readers with a better understanding, which are shown in Table 2.2. More specifically, Hu (2011) devotes himself to the development and popularization of cognitive linguistics in China. He puts forward two characteristics possessed and shared by all image schematic structures: pre-conceptual schematic patterns

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Table 2.2 Seven groups of image schemas refined by Croft and Cruse Categories

Image schemas

Space

Up-down; front-back; left–right; near-far; center-periphery; contact

Grade

Path

Containment

Container; in–out; surface; empty-full; content

Force

Balance; counter-force; compulsion; blockage; enable; resistance; diversion; attraction

Multiplicity

Merging; collection; splitting; iteration; part-whole; count-mass; linkage

Identity

Matching; superimposition

Existence

Removal; bounded space; cycle; object; process

Source Croft and Cruse (2004)

originating from the bodily engagement of human beings with the outside world and perpetually operating and processing in mortal cognitive interaction, bodily movement in space, and physical control of objects. Thanks to his strenuous exploration on cognitive linguistics, especially on the theory of image schema, a rather brief and lucid explication for image schema categorization is launched and flooded with warm welcome among linguistic scholars and learners in China, which is presented in Table 2.3. Among the image schema categories listed above, five image-schematic structures are extensively used, namely, CENTER-PERIPHERY, SOURCE-PATH-GOAL, CONTAINMENT, PART-WHOLE, and LINK, which turns into the focus of related image schema studies and also the anchor point of this book. That is, these five patterns will be further discussed in this book as the main categories and research targets. Table 2.3 A simplified and optimized classification of image schemas Categorizations

Descriptions

Center-periphery

A physical or metaphorical center and edge; degree of distance from the center

Containment

A physical or metaphorical boundary, confined space

Cycle

Repetitive events or events series

Force

A physical or metaphorical relation of cause and effect

Link

A physical or metaphorical bond between two or more entities

Part-whole

A physical or metaphorical whole together with parts and an allocation of parts

Path

A physical or metaphorical movement in different places, subsuming a beginning point, a goal, and intermediate points

Scale

An augment or reduction of the physical or metaphorical amount

Verticality

A connection of Up and Down

Source Hu (2011)

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(1) CENTER-PERIPHERY CENTER-PERIPHERY image schema contains a physical or metaphorical center and margin, and degrees of distance from the center (Hu 2011) (see Fig. 2.3). (2) SOURCE-PATH-GOAL SOURCE-PATH-GOAL image schema refers to physical or metaphorical movements in different places, consisting of a beginning point, a goal, and a series of intermediate points. This can be instantiated by paths and trajectories (Hu 2011) (see Fig. 2.4). (3) CONTAINMENT CONTAINMENT image schema entails a physical or metaphorical edge, enclosed fields or space, or excluded fields or space. The image of CONTAINMENT consists of additional optional attributes, such as transitivity of enclosure, entities inside or outside the boundary, protection of the enclosed object, limitations of the closed internal force, and relatively fixed positions of the enclosed object (Hu 2011) (see Fig. 2.5). (4) PART-WHOLE PART-WHOLE image schema concerns physical or metaphorical ensembles together with their segments and a distribution and allocation of the segments (Hu 2011) (see Fig. 2.6). Fig. 2.3 The CENTER-PERIPHERY image schema

Fig. 2.4 The SOURCE-PATH-GOAL image schema

Source

Path

Space

Time

Goal

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Fig. 2.5 The CONTAINMENT image schema

Fig. 2.6 The PART-WHOLE image schema

Part

Whole

Fig. 2.7 The LINK image schema

Object A

Object B

(5) LINK LINK image schema is composed of two or more objects, linked physically or metaphorically, and the bond between them (Hu 2011) (See Fig. 2.7). From the above illustration, Hu provides an interesting and meaningful research orientation and frame for schematic analysis. Somewhat contrary to Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) traditional perspectives, in The Psychological Status of Image Schemas, Gibbs (2010) considers the matter of whether image schemas/schemata are enduring mental representtations in great details, or better understood as temporary linkages between sensory experience and short-lived conceptualizations of both concrete events and abstract ideas. He contends that image schemas are not “representational structures” that provide the causal basis for thought and language, but fleeting entities that are part of the embodied simulations used in online thought, including abstract reasoning. Gibbs (2010) argues that image-schematic reasoning is always being recreated by the body as people are continuously engaged in sensorimotor behaviors associated with BALANCE, RESISTANCE, SOURCE-PATH-GOAL, CONTAINMENT, etc. He highlights the phenomenology of the human body in action, insisting that bodily

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schemas do not just produce image schemas, but that image schemas including more static ones, are continually tied to embodied actions and simulations of experiences. Body schema is a concept applied in several disciplines, including psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, sports medicine, and robotics. Body schemas underlie how the body actively integrates its posture and position in the environment. Body schemas enable us to walk swiftly and avoid running into or tripping over things, to follow and locate objects, to perceive shape, distance, duration, and to accurately catch a ball. Head (1920), a neurologist, originally defines it as a postural model of the body that actively organizes and modifies “the impressions produced by incoming sensory impulses in such a way that the final sensation of (body) position, or of locality, rises into consciousness charged with a relation to something that has happened before”. As a postural model that keeps an account of limb position, it fulfills a critical role in regulating an action. It encompasses aspects of both central (brain processes) and peripheral (sensory, proprioceptive) systems. The body schema provides the continually updated, non-conceptual, non-conscious information about the body necessary for the carrying-out of both our gross motor programs and their fine-tuning. Various body schemas keep on their good work of invigorating and sustaining image schemas over the course of one’s lifetime. Image-schematic reasoning continues recruiting sensorimotor processes that are crucial to how we make sense of ourselves, other people, and the surrounding world. In this manner, image schemas appear as much created at the moment as they are retrieved from long-term memory. This viewpoint on image-schematic reasoning indicates that many aspects of perception, cognition, and linguistic usage are closely associated with both real and embodied bodily actions. Image-schematic reasoning may also be contingent on the embodied simulations created in different situations. Gibbs (2010) claims that image schemas are embodied simulations grounded upon the conception of an actual “simulator”. A simulator provides something closely approximate to what it actually feels like in a full-bodied manner to fly an aircraft, for example, in a flight simulator where one feels all the movements associated with flying a real plane. Image schemas, from this perspective, are simulators of actions that are based on real-life actions and potential actions that a person may engage in. It provides a kinesthetic feeling like the results of fullbodied experiences that have textures and a felt-sense of a three-dimensional depth, as contradictory to Johnson’s (1987) perceptions of image schemas as “fleshless skeletons”. For instance, when someone utters “Nothing down, nothing up”, he/she refers to both the presence of sadness and the prospect of happiness in human beings’ daily life, indicating the earthly inevitability of adverse situations or even hitting rock bottom, as well as the possible change of situations over the course of a lifetime. This remark is understood metaphorically in terms of the SCALE/UP-DOWN schema and how the terrible situation can sometimes render one devastated and desperate. We do not merely process this sort of utterance in an abstract manner, but implicitly understand it by imagining what it feels like to be involved in such circumstances, even by recalling personal experiences in the course of which we share similar feelings and empathy. Perceiving the image schema as “simulations of a bodily action”, one properly acknowledges how image schemas are “experiential gestalts”

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or “as-if body” loops (Damasio 1999, 2003) that are actively created on-the-fly in the course of different cognitive activity, but not encoded “structures in the head” that are passively activated as part of unconscious linguistic understanding processes. There is a large body of psycholinguistic research being consistent with the idea that message receivers normally engage in simulation processes for the purpose of recreating an embodied model of what is meant. Participants in one set of studies were shown sentences like “He hammered the nail into the wall” and “He hammered the nail into the floor” (Stanfield and Zwaan 2001). Afterwards, participants were presented with a picture involving the object mentioned in the sentence (e.g., the nail), showing the object either in a horizontal orientation or vertical orientation. In reality, comprehension responses prove significantly quicker when there’s a match between the implied orientation and the picture than when there’s a mismatch. Another set of studies extended findings to the representation of an object’s shape in sentence understanding (Zwaan et al. 2002). Participants were presented with sentences such as “The ranger saw the eagle in the sky” followed by a picture of an eagle with either folded or outstretched wings. It’s not surprising that people made faster recognition judgments to the eagle when there’s a match between the picture and the implied shape in the sentence. These studies substantiate the claim that people create imageschematic construal of events as part of their imaginative understanding of linguistic expressions. Findings are not merely confined to the immediate processing of nonfigurative language; image schemas play a critical role in structuring metaphorical concepts as well. One set of experiments investigated how people’s intuition of the bodily experience of containment, and several other image schemas, which function as the source domains for several important conceptual metaphors (e.g., “ANGER IS HEATED FLUID IN THE BODILY CONTAINER”), underlies speakers’ use and understanding of American idioms like “blow your stack”, and “flip your lid” (Gibbs 1992). Participants were instructed to imagine the embodied experience of a sealed container filled with fluid and then asked something about causation, intentionality, and manner of possible scenarios within this source domain. People’s responses to the questions were remarkably consistent, and they expressed agreement that the cause of a sealed container exploding its contents out is the internal pressure caused by the increase in the heat of the fluid inside the container, and that the explosion is unintentional and occurs in a violent manner. The findings demonstrated that people have specific metaphorical conceptions of many abstract ideas (e.g., emotions) that are shaped, to certain degree, by recurrent bodily experiences (e.g., their own bodies as containers), apart from their encounters with real-world scenes (e.g., observing the behavior of closed pots containing boiling water) (Gibbs 2006a, b). Traditionally, the generally acknowledged definition for image schemas has been “dynamic analog mental representations of spatial relations and movements in space”. Even though image schemas spring from perceptual and motor processes, they are not themselves sensorimotor processes (Johnson 1987). On the contrary, Gibbs (1994) expresses strong disapproval regarding this statement, deeming it unreasonable and inappropriate to characterize image-schematic meaning construction as activation within some network that is abstracted away from experience,

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laying enormous emphasis on the fact that our understanding comes into being owing to basic sensorimotor knowledge and experience. As for Gibbs (1994), imageschematic reasoning is always being recreated on-the-fly by the body as people continue to engage in sensorimotor behaviors. What we should pay attention to is that bodily schema does not simply produce image schemas but that image schemas are continually connected with embodied actions and simulations of experiences. To conclude, Gibbs’s (1992,1994, 2003, 2006a, b, 2010) argument has been articulately explicated that image schemas are created on-the-fly as part of people’s ongoing simulations of actions when they engage in cognitive tasks, such as understanding language. Image schemas are not divorced from their bodily origins, despite their emergence from recurring patterns of bodily experience, nor are they structured as pre-stored entities in long-term memory. Instead, image schemas are emergent properties of human self-organizing systems that are continually recreated and reexperienced during cognitive and perceptual activities or events (e.g., Besold et al. 2017). This perspective helps restore image schemas to their rightful status as “experiential gestalts” that are psychologically real, not because they are part of the mind, but because they are meaningful, stable states of embodied experience (Gibbs 2010). Owning to the schematic image studies focusing on a recurring, dynamic pattern of our perceptual interactions and motor programs that give coherence and structure to our experience, many interdisciplinary efforts to the cognitive schemas and its lexical manifestations, although significant in qualitative terms (e.g. Mandler and Cánovas 2014; Rohrer 2006), have been sparse. In this context, the book, in view of the experiential nature and origin of image schemas, will adopt Raymond Gibbs’s (1994, 2010) and Hu’s (2011) standpoints by applying cognitive linguistics and other approaches to language use, more specifically sociolinguistics, pragmatics, and discourse studies.

2.4.3 Cognitive Stance Stance concerns writer-oriented features of interaction and refers to the ways academics annotate their texts to comment on the possible accuracy or credibility of a claim, the extent they want to commit themselves to it, or the attitude they want to convey to an entity, a proposition, or the reader. In linguistics, stance is the way in which speakers position themselves in relation to the ongoing interaction, in terms of evaluation, intentionality, epistemology or social relations. Different writers have used the concept of stance to refer to the interpretive framework that is at play in an interaction, such as irony, or role-playing. Others have used the concept of authorial stance to describe the way in which they position themselves relative to their own texts, and another group has used the concept of interpersonal stance to describe the way in which the communicative goals of individual participants shape a communicative interaction. Others have drawn on Dennett’s (1996) concept of the intentional stance to describe the way in which humans tend to attribute intentions and mental states to those with whom they engage in communication.

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Stance markers (Biber and Conrad 1988) serve to indicate the attempts made by writers to create an interaction with their readers, reach their audience, and express their own truth-value judgments about the ongoing proposition. The more interpersonal the nature of the stance markers used in the text, the more the writer of the text intends to achieve these goals. According to Hyland (2005), a stance expresses a textual “voice” or community-recognized personality. It can be seen as an attitudinal dimension and includes features which refer to the ways writers present themselves and convey their judgment, opinions, and commitments. It is the way in which writers intrude to stamp their personal authority onto their arguments or step back and disguise their involvement. Stance is an area of enduring interest to linguists. In some ways, the concept of stance is the perfect linguistic construct: in looking at stance, we are investing the space in the language where literal, figurative, and functional meanings intersect. The challenge of operationalizing the construct of stance has been met by researchers in different ways. The construct of stance subsumes other categories that have been investigated jointly and separately, such as hedges (Hyland 2000; Salager-Meyer 1994), evidentiality (Chafe 1986; Nuyts 2001), vague language (Channell 1994), attitude (Hyland 1999; Vande Kopple 1985; Biber et al. 1999), affect (Martin et al. 2000; Biber et al. 1998, 1999), and modality (Palmer 1979; Hoye 1997). Despite the complexity and diversity reflected in the previous treatments of stance, the author will mainly summarize the findings of empirical studies by Biber et al. (1999), Hunston and Thompson (2000), and Hyland (2005). As is shown in Table 2.4, Biber et al. (1999) divide stance into three categories: epistemic stance, attitudinal stance, and style of speaking stance. (1) Epistemic stance indicates how certain the speaker or writer is or where the information comes from (e.g., “probably”, “according to”). It comments on Table 2.4 Framework of stance markers Stance

Functions

Epistemic stance

Certainty

Intensifying an illocutionary force Mitigating an illocutionary force

Hedging

Achieving politeness Exhibiting personal involvement

Evidentiality

Avoiding unnecessary risks Exhibiting personal involvement

Affect

Achieving politeness Exhibiting personal involvement

Evaluation

Avoiding unnecessary risks Shunning possible responsibility for propositions

Attitudinal stance

Style of speaking stance Mitigating an illocutionary force Intensifying an illocutionary force Source Biber et al. (1999: 971)

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the certainty (or doubt), reliability, or limitations of a proposition, including comments on the source of information. (2) Attitudinal stance indicates feelings or judgments about what is said or written (e.g., “surprisingly”, “unfortunately”). It conveys the speaker’s attitudes, feelings or value judgments. (3) Style of speaking stance indicates how something is said or written (e.g., “honestly”, “briefly”). It describes the manner in which the information is being presented. Hunston and Thompson (2000: 5) express distinctive insights with regard to stance, seeing stance as a “broad cover term for the expression of the speaker’s or writer’s attitude or stance towards, viewpoint on, or feelings about the entities or propositions that he or she is talking about”. They further point to four parameters of stance, which are outlined below with constructed examples: A. Good-bad: The film was tedious./The research was very beneficial. B. Level of certainty: Clearly, we have achieved our goals./I think that this is the least likely choice. C. Expectedness: It is likely to work if we follow the rules. D. Importance: More importantly, however, it is the fact that... The four parameters offered above point to the rhetorical effects of stance, such as evaluation, offering an opinion and revealing personal expectations. Based on the aforementioned perspectives, Hyland (2005) takes the three representations of stance in terms of four principal elements: A. B. C. D.

Hedges. Boosters. Attitude markers. Self-mentions.

Hedges are devices like “possible”, “might”, and “perhaps”, which indicate the writer’s decision to withhold complete commitment to a proposition, allowing information to be presented as an opinion rather than an accredited fact. Because all the statements are evaluated and interpreted through a prism of disciplinary assumptions, writers must calculate what weight should be given to an assertion, attesting to the degree of precision or reliability that they want it to carry, and perhaps also claiming protection in the event of its eventual overthrow (Hyland 1998). Hedges, therefore, imply that a statement is based on plausible reasoning rather than certain knowledge, indicating that the degree of confidence is prudent to attribute to it. Equally importantly, hedges also allow writers to open a discursive space for readers to dispute their interpretations. Claim-making is risky because it can contradict to the existing literature or challenge the research of one’s readers, which requires that arguments must accommodate readers’ expectations that they will be allowed to participate in a dialogue, and that their own views will be acknowledged in the discourse. By marking statements as provisional, hedges seek to involve readers as participants in their ratification, conveying deference, modesty, or respect for colleagues’ views (Hyland 1998).

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Boosters, on the other hand, are words like “clearly”, “obviously”, and “demonstrate”, which allow writers to express their certainty in what they say and to mark involvement with the topic and solidarity with their audience. They function to stress shared information, group membership, and engagement with readers (Hyland 1999). Like hedges, they often occur in clusters, underlining the writer’s conviction in his or her argument. Boosters can therefore help writers to present their work with assurance while effecting interpersonal solidarity, setting the caution and self-effacement suggested by hedges against assertion and involvement. Both boosters and hedges represent a writer’s response to the potential viewpoints of readers. They balance objective information, subjective evaluation, and interpersonal negotiation, and this can be a powerful factor in gaining acceptance for claims. Both strategies emphasize that statements communicate not only ideas but also the writer’s attitudes to them and the readers. Writers must weigh up the commitment they want to invest in their arguments based on its epistemic status and the effect this commitment might have on readers’ responses. Attitude markers indicate the writer’s affective, rather than epistemic, attitude to propositions, conveying surprise, agreement, importance, frustration, and so on, rather than commitment. While attitude is expressed throughout a text by the use of subordination, comparatives, progressive particles, punctuation, text location, and so on, it is most explicitly signaled by attitude verbs (e.g., “agree”, “prefer”), sentence adverbs (e.g., “unfortunately”, “hopefully”), and adjectives (e.g., “appropriate”, “logical”, “remarkable”). By signaling an assumption of shared attitudes, values, and reactions to the material, writers both express a position and pull readers into a conspiracy of an agreement so that it can often be difficult to dispute these judgments. Self-mentions refer to the use of first-person pronouns and possessive adjectives to present propositional, affective, and interpersonal information (Hyland 2001). Presenting a discoursal self is central to the writing process, and writers cannot avoid projecting an impression of themselves and their stance in relation to their arguments, their discipline, and their readers. The presence or absence of explicit author reference is generally a conscious choice by writers to adopt a particular stance and authorial identity. In academic studies, it is common for writers to downplay their personal role to highlight the phenomena under study, the replicability of research activities, and the generality of the findings, subordinating their own voice to that of the unmediated nature. Such a strategy subtly conveys an empiricist ideology, suggesting that research outcomes would be the same irrespective of the individual conducting it. In the humanities and social sciences, in contrast, the use of first person is closely related to the desire to both strongly identify oneself with a particular argument and gain credit for an individual perspective. A personal reference is a clear indication of the perspective from which a statement should be interpreted, enabling writers to emphasize their own contribution to the field and to seek agreement for it. Despite this plethora of research, the overall classification of stance cannot be found within one theory to date. Therefore, a model of stance framework that integrates comprehensive stance classifications is required. By comparing the respective three models of Biber et al. (1999), Hunston and Thompson (2000) as well as

42 Table 2.5 Comparison among three kinds of stance theory

2 News Discourse and Cognitive Studies Biber et al. (1999)

Hunston and Thompson (2000)

Hyland (2005)

Epistemic stance

Level of certainty

Hedges

Attitudinal stance

Good-bad

Attitudinal markers

Boosters Expectedness Importance Style stance

–

Self-mentions

Hyland (2005), the inner working mechanism of stance studies can be organized as the following in Table 2.5. In conclusion, Biber et al.’s (1999) theory on stance presents a panorama of the most typical realizations of stance in various contexts, while the theory of Hunston and Thompson (2000), as well as Hyland (2005) focuses more on the specifics, drawing a detailed picture of stance associated with particularly representative lexical items. From my perspective, there are some limitations to the theories of both Hunston and Thompson (2000) and Hyland (2005). Hunston and Thompson (2000) simply focus on three dimensions related to stance, which is not comprehensive enough to incorporate a wide range of stance practices. Hyland (2005) enumerates specific stance markers for researchers to better locate certain stance projections, yet in the course of the research, the author also detects stance projections that are not introduced by the stance markers proposed by Hyland (2005). Though these two approaches, both general and specific, are not perfectly standing on their own, they are complementary for the absence of an overall classification of stance within one theory remains to date. Therefore, the author would like to propose an integrated framework regarding the stance study based on the combination of the aforementioned theories. Eliminating possible overlaps contained in the abovementioned theories and adhering to the principle of “as specific as possible”, Fig. 2.8 is a presentation of the theoretical model for follow-up studies to be elaborated on stance in this book and the following key concepts are sequenced from general to specific. Based on Biber et al.’s (1999) stance theory, many researchers have turned their attention to the concept of three categories of stance and how they are realized in various texts. Consequently, a variety of linguistic resources such as hedges, reporting verbs, that-constructions, questions, personal pronouns, and directives have been examined for the roles they play. A remarkable example of this area is analyzed by Hyland (2005). A broad range of linguistic features have been identified as contributing to the writer’s projection of a stance to the material referenced by the text, and to a lesser extent, the strategies employed to presuppose the active role of an addressee. However, Hyland (2005) argues that there is no overall typology of the resources writers employ to express their positions and connect with readers. Based on an analysis of 240 published research articles from eight disciplines and insider informant

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Discourse stance

Epistemic stance

Hedges

Attitudinal stance

Style stance

Self-mention

Boosters

Good-bad

Expectedness

Importance

Fig. 2.8 The analytical model of discourse stance

interviews, Hyland (2005) further takes the three realizations of stance in terms of four main elements: Hedges, Attitude markers, Boosters, and Self-mentions. There are also obvious limitations with the kind of corpus approach Hyland (2005) has adopted. Unlike the detailed studies of part genre, such as Swales’ (1981, 1990) work on introductions, Brenton’s (1996) study of conference abstracts, or Brett’s (1994) analysis of results sections, a corpus study is unable to provide information about where these features are likely to cluster. As is shown, studies in relation to stance are from quite different perspectives, which further intensify a need to specifically analyze the linguistic realization and the use of stance markings within a particularized communicative context, such as news reporting discourses like FPTNs which this book will account. All these further justify the utmost necessity of this research topic in both Chinese and English contexts.

2.5 Summary This chapter sets the stage for the rest of the book in three significant ways. It provides a thorough review of cognitive semantics, relevant studies on metaphors, and metaphorical mapping and blending theories, and schematic and stance research, which forms the foundation of the empirical studies on commercial discourses at different institutional levels in this book. It also explores the gaps and potential research areas which should be addressed in this book and further research as well. The reasons for selecting these theories as the foundation for this study lie in the author’s belief that there is a significant innate component to general human cognitive abilities, and that some of those innate properties give rise to human linguistic abilities

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that no other species apparently has. However, the innateness of cognitive abilities and cultural issues in cognitive experience formation has not been a chief concern of cognitive linguists, who are more concerned with demonstrating the role of general cognitive abilities in the language. The author wishes the book will contribute to the research into the link between innate cognition and lexis in discourse and their differences in different cultural backgrounds on specific issues.

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Chapter 3

Research Design

Abstract In this chapter, issues concerning the process of data collection, adopted research methods, and research procedure are interpreted and elaborated, displaying the authenticity, logics, and dynamic linguistic attributes to the cognitive research so as to provide readers with a comprehensive academic standpoint or academic position of this research for proper apprehension. Keywords Data collection · Research method · Analytical procedure

3.1 Data Collection The data to be processed and analyzed in this book are retrieved from the authentic and trustworthy news database of LexisNexis Academic and Dow Jones Factiva and other public internet websites. Based on the objectives of this research on media news reports, the author searches the news corpus to find out three of the hottest issues regarding the “buying”, “selling”, “trading”, and their business issues. From thousands of commercial news reports, the author classifies three interesting typologies of hot business issues in China, the first one is the sales (promotion) of HSR, the second type is related to sports business regarding player transfer (buying and selling), and the third type is about our daily commodity and is related to product quality and promotion. The three typologies of commercial news reports are normally written by media agents, namely public journalists and company propaganda or public relation (PR) workers. The writers of the media discourse may demonstrate various social, commercial, institutional, and personal interests in their writings which certainly influence and even frame public cognition at different levels. The author’s core research interest in this book is to assess the impacts of the discourses and their embedded cognition on public issues. The author illustrates the data classification of news reports in Table 3.1. Based on this understanding of commercial media sorts, the author conducts the second round of research and acquires the commercial news reports. The data are obtained through multiple advanced search engines, by scouring key glossaries, such as “high-speed rail”, “sports player transfer”, and “corporate statement” on

© Science Press 2020 W. Yang, A Cross-Cultural Study of Commercial Media Discourses, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8617-0_3

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52

3 Research Design

Table 3.1 The data information in the book Data subject

Chinese commercial news reporter identities

English commercial news reporter identities

High-speed rail

Reporters of national media agents/professional researchers

Media journalists/professional researchers

Football player transfer

Media journalists

Media journalists

Corporate statement on commodity

Media journalists/company PR agents

Media journalists/company PR agents

commodity, together with the screening items “business” news and time restriction, dated from July 1, 2014 to June 30, 2016. Having classified the news reports, the author chooses 180 pieces of news respectively from American and Chinese newspapers and websites. The details can be seen in Tables 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4. Table 3.2 English and Chinese data source websites and the numbers of excerpts English data

Numbers of excerpts

Chinese data

Numbers of excerpts

Sources

NYT

7

Sources

Renmin Daily

9

USA

6

Guangming Daily

7

WSJ

6

Economic Daily

7

WP

5

Phoenix Weekly

7

BI

6

/

/

Total

30

Total

30

Note NYT = New York Times, USA = USA Today, WSJ = Wall Street Journal, WP = Washington Post, BI = Business Insider

Table 3.3 English and Chinese data source websites and the numbers of excerpts English data

Numbers of excerpts

Chinese data

Numbers of excerpts

Sources

http://www.sky sports.com/

10

Sources

http://sports.sina. com.cn

10

http://www.the guardian.com/

10

http://sports.qq. com

10

http://www.mir ror.co.uk/

10

http://sports.sohu. com

10

Total

30

Total

30

3.1 Data Collection

53

Table 3.4 English and Chinese data source websites and the numbers of excerpts English data Sources

Numbers of excerpts

Chinese data

Numbers of excerpts

Sources

http://business. sina.com.cn

5

http://www.new 6 yorktimes.com.us/

http://business. qq.com

5

http://www.ust aoday.com.us/

5

http://business. sohu.com

5

Company websites

10

Company websites

15

http://www.tecent. 9 com/

Total

30

Total

30

3.1.1 Data 1 Data 1 used in the book involve the online excerpts from American newspapers, such as The New York Times (NYT ), USA Today, Wall Street Journal (WSJ), and so on (for American); and excerpts from Chinese newspapers, such as People’s Daily, Economic Daily, Guangming Daily, etc. which report on the development of HSR. Considering the news reporters’ identities (see Table 3.1), all these newspapers are regarded as authoritative and main propaganda throats in the United States and China. Taking “HSR” and “高铁” as key glossaries for extraction respectively, all the texts are a careful selection concentrating on the content related to HSR promotion from all the online editions of news newspapers mentioned above. The source detail of data 1 is listed in Table 3.2. All the sixty pieces are posted during the period from January 1, 2015 to May 30, 2016. Since 2015, with the “the Belt and Road” Initiative proposed and implemented, Chinese HSR made a significant breakthrough on the international market—signing an HSR order with Indonesia, officially launching the Sino-Laos railway and SinoThai railway, and reaching an agreement with Russia about localizing the high-speed rail production. Therefore, news highlighting Chinese high-speed rail during that period often hits headlines.

3.1.2 Data 2 Among the news reports of sports player transfer, very often, the transfer of football players ranks the first. Hence, the subjects in data 2 are football-transferrelated discourses which feature the latest transfer information about football players (mostly), coaches, football clubs (ownership transfer), discussing the prospective and completed transfer events, generally loaded with the discourse writers’ epistemic and evaluative attitudes. The reason why we chose “football player transfer news” (FPTN)

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as the research targets is that football is growing increasingly popular compared to other sports and attracting substantial attention because of its tremendous economic and commercial value in the society. The data analyzed in this book have been collected from authoritative and professional sports news websites both at home and abroad, with the source links being clearly indicated in Table 3.3, from April 2015 to March 2016. The reason for this decision was that this period covered the summer and winter transfer windows in major European football leagues throughout the whole year, during which football player transfer news abounded. There were altogether 60 pieces of football transfer news with 30 in Chinese and 30 in English respectively. The source detail of data 2 is listed in Table 3.3. To be more specific, in the Chinese data, 23 discourses are concerned with football player transfer, 3 with coach transfer and 3 with club ownership transfer, and 1 with both player and coach transfer. In the English data, 14 pieces are related to player transfer, 6 to coach transfer and the rest include commentator criticism of club inactivity, player review of previous transfer rumor, conclusive review of transactions within five major European football leagues.

3.1.3 Data 3 Data 3 are basically related to commodity sale and promotion involving commodity quality issues dated from July 2014 to June 2015. The data are collected from websites including news websites, such as Sina and Tencent, the official websites of enterprises, and some special websites concerning public relations, company product promotion, and company announcement. In order to make sure that the possible conclusions and final findings are meaningful, instructive, and constructive, the process of selecting the corpus bears the basic criteria that the data are being released by the corporate public reports and having functioned positively for their commodity quality issues. As the author mentions in Table 3.1, the possible news writers are generally the corporate propagandists and media journalists as well, who may represent different agencies’ interests. The source detail of data 3 is listed in Table 3.4. There are altogether 60 pieces of “corporate statement of corporate (CSC)” on commodity statements with 30 in Chinese and 30 in English, respectively. Via observation, the author identifies that the majority of the data are related to product safety issue, such as food, vehicle, milk, medicines, daily chemical products, and children products. Since product safety and quality are usually the priorities for consumers, it is reasonable that enterprises emphasize these aspects and make proper and fast responses to it.

3.2 Research Methods

55

3.2 Research Methods The data are achieved by multiple advanced searching tools provided by the two databases: LexisNexis Academic and Dow Jones Factiva. LexisNexis Academic is a web-based database service, providing quick access to journals, full-text news, business, and legal publications, with a variety of flexible searching options. The area it covers includes finance, business, legislation, medical science, and politics, which enables readers to search for any kind of academic information. Dow Jones Factiva database furnishes news coverage in more than 200 countries and regions, 28 languages of newspapers, journals, and magazines. In addition, the database also supplies readers with full text of the Dow Jones news agency, Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and other Dow Jones publications, including full electronic versions of the world’s major economies, macroeconomic policies, foreign exchange market, stock market, commodity markets, and the latest news of the energy market. Given that the current study is an empirical one, mainly based on qualitative and quantitative analysis, commercial news reports are collected and filtrated carefully after being read through by the author. This study in this book adopts the qualitative and quantitative methods in a bid to guarantee the reliability of the research. Besides, a cross-cultural comparison approach is employed. Furthermore, the descriptive approach is utilized in the analysis of the cognitive process involved in metaphor comprehension. Qualitative research is used to explore a topic with inductively generating hypotheses and theories. It concerns finding answers to questions which begin with “In what way? How? Why?” According to Natasha et al. (2005), qualitative research is especially effective in obtaining culturally specific information about the values, opinions, behaviors, and social contexts of particular populations. In this study, the qualitative approach is utilized in the identification and categorization of cognitive semantic expressions in the gathered data. This is especially essential due to the multi-language factors. Meanwhile, Anthony and Jack (2009) suggest that quantitative research is a process of inquiry based on testing a theory composed of variables, measured with numbers, and analyzed with statistical techniques. It is more concerned with the deductive testing of hypotheses and theories and it is concerned with questions about “How much? How many? How often? To what extent?” Quantitative analysis in this study of the book is employed for the purpose of facilitating the measurement of frequency and percentages of the varied metaphors in the gathered data. For the aims of comparing metaphors, the comparative approach is taken to find out the similarities and differences between them, and an in-depth discussion will be made to probe into the causes of the similarities and differences. Using a descriptive approach, the author presents how the metaphors construct their meanings and convey information in detail. Although both qualitative and quantitative analytical methods are adopted in this research of the book, the roles they assume are fundamentally different, i.e., the

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3 Research Design

qualitative method plays a dominant role while the quantitative method is used to support and illuminate the qualitative method.

3.3 Cross-Cultural Analytical Procedures Hinging on the incorporation of the theoretical framework of cognitive semantics and discourse analysis, this book conducts a contrastive study through qualitative and quantitative analysis. As Pragglejaz (2007) suggests, the research procedures that determine whether a cognitive lexical unit qualifies to be called cognitive-linguistic devices, namely metaphors, image schemas and cognitive stance markers will be adhered to in this study of the book. The procedures are as follows: (1) Read the text-discourse in its entirety to form a general understanding of the meaning. (2) Single out the existent lexical units in the target discourse. (3) A. Establish the meaning of each lexical unit identified as well as figure out how it is relevant to an entity, relation or trait in the situation addressed by the text or rather the contextual meaning. This process should be undertaken with consideration of what comes prior to and after the lexical unit. B. For each lexis, check out whether it has a more contemporary semantic meaning in other contexts than the one in the given context. For purposes of this study in this book, the basic semantic meaning of the selected lexis should: a. have more concrete meaning. In other words, the lexical unit should evoke what is easier to see, hear, imagine, feel, smell, and taste. b. be associated with bodily actions. c. be more precise rather than vague. d. be historically older. C. When the lexical unit is noted to have a more basic current-contemporary meaning in a different context than the given context, decide whether the contextual meaning contrasts to the basic meaning but can be understood in comparison with it. (4) The lexical unit should be classified as cognitive semantic devices if the above conditions are met. The context is emphasized to play a significant role in the meaning of cognitive lexical units in this book. In a situation where the contextual meaning of a word shifts from its basic meaning and causes tension, it then qualifies to become a cognitive semantic device. Cognitive semantic representations in this book will be categorized in reference to the adopted sources upon identification of the pragmatic meaning. Cognitive semantic devices are generally split into several groups according to their functions and meanings in the discourse. When analyzing the meaning construction process, the author

3.3 Cross-Cultural Analytical Procedures

57

studies the semantic categories and their applications in the discoursal processes, which might depend on which kind of the specific cognitive semantic devices the news writers apply. Having identified, classified, and analyzed the different cognitive semantic devices qualitatively, the author conducts a cross-culturally quantitative analysis of both Chinese and American data to present the approximate proportion of cognitive semantic application differences in the commercial news discourses and to generate the preferences of both Chinese and American business journalists in their choice of cognitive devices. Then, the author summarizes and reveals the similarities and differences concerning the cognitive construction and frame together with the projected cognitive semantics in both languages. The comparison will lay the foundation for further analysis of reasons behind.

3.4 Summary In this chapter, the subjects, data collection processes, adopted research methods and research procedures of this academic research of the book are adequately introduced to present an overall picture of the analytical procedure and comprehensive research perspectives for readers. The research methods applied in this study of the book include both qualitative and quantitative methods. The quantitative method is engaged for the collection and calculation of the frequency of the semantic devices represented as metaphors, schemas, and stance markers, while the qualitative method is for the identification, interpretation, and explanation of the semantic applications. Last but not the least, a summarized comparison of Chinese and English commercial news reports on issues, such as HSR, sports players transfer, and commodity statements will be conducted and their represented cognitive patterns and systems will be also discussed, and cultural insights will be argued based on the findings.

References Anthony S., & Jack, S. (2009). Qualitative case study methodology in nursing research: An integrative review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65(6):1171–1181. Natasha, M., Cynthia, W., Kathleen, M. M., et al. (2005). Qualitative research methods: A data collector’s field guide. North Caroline: Family Health International. Pragglejaz, G. (2007). MIP: A method for Identifying metaphorically used words in discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 22(1), 1–39.

Chapter 4

The Cognitive Metaphorical Mapping in Commercial Media News Reports

Abstract This chapter conducts an analysis of metaphors in both American and Chinese news reports on the foundation of the mapping process as well as the dynamic meaning construction of the conventional metaphor and novel metaphor correspondingly. Other major aspects of this chapter that have been adequately analyzed are the terms of metaphorical expressions, features of the target and source domains, the manner of delivery for abstract concepts on concrete subjects, the features of the input spaces as well as the formation of the generic and blended spaces. From the gathered data, there are 298 Chinese and 248 English metaphorical expressions identified. Instances of metaphors in the Chinese corpus are interpreted and analyzed. Although (Goatly in The language of metaphors. Routledge, London, 1997) believes that metaphoricity is a matter of degree, and metaphors are divided into five categories, namely active, tired, sleeping, buried, and dead metaphors, the author follows (Lakoff and Johnson in Metaphors we live by. The University of Chicago Press, London, 2003) classification on metaphors in this study of the book. This chapter starts from the examination of the conventional and novel metaphors emerging in the news reports that illustrate news writers’ cognitive processes. In addition, similarities and differences between the two languages are detected and discussed. Keywords Metaphorical mapping · Conventional metaphors · Novel metaphors

4.1 Analysis of Conventional Metaphors Lakoff and Johnson (2003: 140) argue that conventional metaphors “structure the ordinary conceptual system of our culture, which is reflected in our everyday language”. Having combined the two proposals on conventional metaphors, the author conducts a thorough quantitative identification and calculation, which exists in both Chinese and English data. Initially, the author expatiates on those conventional metaphors and their mapping process.

© Science Press 2020 W. Yang, A Cross-Cultural Study of Commercial Media Discourses, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8617-0_4

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4 The Cognitive Metaphorical Mapping …

4.1.1 The HUMAN BEING Metaphor In Greek, the renowned philosopher Protagoras once put that “man is the measure of all things” (Wang 2007: 181). The thought signifies that humans tend to regard themselves as the center of the world. With this belief, people are more likely to perceive abstract and obscure objects in terms of human beings, especially, by applying the features of humans to those elements that are difficult to comprehend. Table 4.1 and Table 4.2 illustrate the conceptual elements that are sorted by basic mappings. Table 4.1 Metaphorical representations of the HUMAN BEING metaphor in Chinese news reports Conventional metaphor—The HUMAN BEING metaphor

Metaphorical representations

Numbers

PHYSICAL Being

动脉 main artery

13

INTELLIGENT Being

INTELLIGENT Being

肌理 texture

7

基因 gene

5

手脚 hands and feet/limbs

3

奋斗 struggle/strive for

3

经历 experience

3

坚持 persist in/insist on

2

打开 open

2

见证 witness/testimony

1

研制 research and produce

RATIONAL AGENT

Total

6

掌握 grasp/master

4

拥有 possess/hold

3

完成 finish/complete

3

成就 achievement

2

大有所为 give full play to one’s talent

1

做出贡献 make a contribution to

1

创造者 creator

2

佼佼者 the best

1

主动权 priority/initiative

1

集聚 gather/accumulate

1

影响 influence/impact on

4

梦 dream

3

带来 bring about

17

赋予 confer/give

8

/

10

37

11

创新 innovate

满足 satisfy

28

5 112

37

4.1 Analysis of Conventional Metaphors

61

Table 4.2 Metaphorical representations of the HUMAN BEING metaphor in American news reports Conventional Metaphor—The HUMAN BEING metaphor

Metaphorical representations

PHYSICAL AGENT

Toe

2

Sight

4

Artery

11

INTELLIGENT AGENT

INTELLIGENT AGENT

RATIONAL AGENT

Leg

6

Accrue

1

Ambition

5

Aspire

3

Achieve

5

Advance

3

Conjure

1

Change

1

Create

8

Prove

3

Aim to

2

Participate

2

Announce

1

Bring

8

Provide

3

Offer

1

Enable

2

Allow

5

Impact

1

Propose Total

Numbers

/

23

30

5

22

2 80

The most salient feature of human beings that distinguishes themselves from animals and plants is their intellectual dimensions. In news reports on HSR, the metaphor clusters of “HSR IS A HUMAN BEING” and “COMPANIES ARE HUMAN BEINGS” are widely employed by editors and analysts. Companies are described as intelligent and rational agents, who are able to carry out rational functions, such as perception, interpretation, evaluation, judgment, and decision making. See Fig. 4.1. 1. The BODY PART Metaphor Our basic experience is derived from our bodies: We look at others with our eyes, talk with our mouths, write with our hands, and walk with our feet. We interact with the outside world, which includes concrete and abstract objects. The way we

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4 The Cognitive Metaphorical Mapping …

Target Domain

Source Domain

Human being

BODY PART

Function

INTELLIGENT AGENT

Ability to learn, create

RATIONAL AGENT

Implication on economy

HSR

Fig. 4.1 Metaphorical mapping process of the HUMAN BEING metaphor

perceive them, imagine them, organize information about them, express them, and behave toward them is all through our bodies. The body-part terms are widely used in both American and Chinese news reports to conceptualize the function of HSR. The following are the metaphorical representations. 主动脉 (main artery), 是 Example 1 亚吉铁路的建成通车, 将成为两国的运输主 两国的 “黄金之路”. (新华网, 2016年10月7日) (The completion and open of Yaji Railway will become the main artery between Ethiopia and Djibouti and be the “golden road”.) (Xinhua Net, Oct. 7, 2016).1 Example 2 高铁正在以更迅捷的速度与更深刻的方式, 嵌入中国人的日常生 肌理 (mechanism). (高铁网, 2016年9月12日) 活以及中国经济发展的肌 (HSR has embedded in the daily life of Chinese people and the mechanism of China’s economic development in a more rapid speed and more profound way.) (Gaotie.cn, Sep. 12, 2016).2 Example 3 By erasing the vehicle-clogged arteries of our national highway system and those aging miles of transcontinental railroad track, commute times get slashed and fossil fuel gets saved (USA Today, June 20, 2016).3 Example 4 California high-speed rail’s first leg to connect Central and Silicon valleys (Reuters, Feb. 18, 2016).4 2. The INTELLIGENT AGENT Metaphor Based on the data gathered, the INTELLIGENT AGENT metaphor is common in both English and Chinese. Especially, HSR is described as a student. The challenges 1 https://www.gs.xinhuanet.com/lantie/2016-10/11/c_1119692525.htm. 2 https://wb.sznews.com/html/2016-09/12/content_3616944.htm. 3 https://search.proquest.com/usatoday/docview/1799959549/F20277AB97AC4185PQ/2?accoun

tid=11232. 4 https://www.businessinsider.com/r-california-high-speed-rails-first-leg-to-connect-central-and-

silicon-valleys-2016-2.

4.1 Analysis of Conventional Metaphors

63

that countries or companies being faced with in HSR construction are conceptualized as the difficulties that need to be resolved by the examinees “in education”. This can be illustrated in the following examples. As for a particular subject in education, there is a textbook that serves a standard measure for teaching and learning. This aspect is conceptualized as the vast experience accumulated by Chinese companies in HSR construction. “A school” is referred to as an institution that offers learning spaces or learning environments where students are directed and taught by teachers. When it comes to HSR construction, there are relatively standard lessons that lead to the accumulation of knowledge and experience over time “in schools”. Attendance of school may, however, be hampered by the lack of tuition fees which case projects the challenges in finance that may hamper the completion of the HSR project. Example 5 在此基础上, 铁路企业进一步寻求技术突破, 先后在世界上率先突 难题 (difficulties), 高铁技术更加成熟, 形成了 破高原、高寒等复杂条件下技术难 自己的中国标准动车组. 《经济日报》 ( , 2015年12月8日) (On this basis, further seeking technical breakthroughs, the railway enterprises have taken the lead in the world to break through the plateau, alpine and other complex technical difficulties, resulting in more mature HSR technology and CEMU.) (Economic Daily, Dec. 8, 2015).5 Example 6 在高铁的发展历程中, 最初不免需要借鉴和学 学习, 以不断吸 吸收外来 的先进技术与管理经验的方式来保证在发展初期尽量少走弯路, 多走捷径来 尽快接近世界先进水平. (人民网, 2016年3月23日) (In the course of the development of HSR, CHSR has to learn and absorb foreign advanced technology and management experiences to ensure that in the early stages of development, detours are avoided and more shortcuts are taken to get closer to the world advanced level as soon as possible.) (People’s network, March 23, 2016)6 Example 7 土耳其的高铁项目犹如一所学 学校 (school), 8年的磨炼其实是中国企 学费 (tuition fees). 《经济日报》 ( , 2016年1月11 业走入发达国家市场不得不付的学 日) (HSR project in Turkey is like a school. Eight years of tempering is actually the tuition fees Chinese enterprises have to pay in order to enter into the markets of developed countries.) (Economic Daily, Jan. 11, 2016)7 In the American discourses, the INTELLIGENT ANGET metaphor is evidenced by the metaphorical verbs “learn” in Example 9 or “study” in Example 10. They project the need for American companies to acquire the prerequisite knowledge and skills associated to rail route. Besides, “test” in Example 8 is mapped onto overseas projects to be finished by China to examine whether it is prepared to be a global power in HSR. 5 https://gs.people.com.cn/n/2015/1208/c360943-27270803.html. 6 https://nm.people.com.cn/n2/2016/0323/c196700-27995948.html. 7 https://paper.ce.cn/jjrb/html/2016-01/11/content_288944.htm.

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4 The Cognitive Metaphorical Mapping …

Example 8 The enormous twin-ocean railroad across Brazil and Peru, in particular, will be a crucial test of China’s mettle as a global power … (NYT, Oct. 3, 2015).8 Example 9 Some in Brazil argue that Chinese companies are learning from their successes and setbacks (NYT, Oct. 3, 2015).9 Example 10 Hyperloop One, based in Los Angeles, signed an agreement with the city of Moscow and Russian infrastructure company Summa Group to study a hyperloop route for passengers to connect with Moscow’s transportation network (WSJ, June 21, 2016).10 The INTELLIGENT AGENT metaphor is apparent in both American and Chinese media. The Chinese discourses focus on the challenges experienced by Chinese companies during HSR construction at home and abroad. The American discourses, on the other hand, focus on the learning process of American companies on the construction of HSR. This can be attributed to different stages of HSR development in the two countries. 3. The RATIONAL AGENT Metaphors Metaphors related to behaviors of human beings are referred to HSR development in both Chinese and English data, see Examples 11, 12, 13 and 14. The consequence of building HSR parallels the influence exerted by a rational human being. This makes the metaphor HSR IS A HUMAN BING more comprehensible, such as the action of human beings, “bring”, “raise”, and “improve” in Example 11 related to hands, and “confer”, “lead” in Example 12 and “allow” in Example 13 associated with rational decisions. With the construction of HSR, the transportation pressure is eased, and more commercial opportunities are offered, thus boosting the economy. 带来 (bring) 的不仅仅是GDP Example 11 伴随着中国高铁成功走出去, 为国家带 提高 (raise) 了中国的国际形象, 还会提 提高 (improve) 的增加, 更重要的是它极大提 中国的国际影响力和国际地位. (人民网, 2016年2月16日). (The success of China’s HSR on the international market not only brings the increase in the country’s GDP, but, more importantly, greatly raises China’s international image and improves China’s international influence and international status.) (People’s network, Feb. 16, 2016)11 Example 12 长期以来, 在制造业方面, 我们一直徘徊于产业链的末端, 但中国 带动 (lead) 高铁却如奇峰异出, 赋予 (confer) 中国制造更多的自信和尊严, 也带 更多产业实现品质飞跃. (高铁网, 2016年9月12日) 8 https://search.proquest.com/nytimes/docview/1718619326/D208BD4E64C543B2PQ/15?accoun

tid=11232. 9 https://search.proquest.com/nytimes/docview/1718619326/D208BD4E64C543B2PQ/15?accoun

tid=11232. 10 https://search.proquest.com/wallstreetjournal/docview/1798676939/701525840C024157PQ/6?

accountid=11232. 11 https://jx.people.com.cn/n2/2016/0216/c347922-27741199.html.

4.1 Analysis of Conventional Metaphors

65

(For a long time, in the manufacturing sector, China has been hovering at the end of the industrial chain, but China’s HSR is a stand-out, not only conferring more self-confidence and dignity to Chinese manufacture industry, but also leading more industries to achieve a qualitative leap.) (Gaotie.cn, Sep. 12, 2016).12 Example 13 The high-speed rail allows for ultra-quick travel, combined with punctuality in operation, relative … (BI, June 29, 2015).13 To summarize, since human understanding and reasoning are grounded in our embodied experience, and since basic bodily experience should be common among all human beings, there exist universal HUMAN BEING conceptual metaphors. The metaphorical mapping process of the HUMAN BEING metaphor has shown that the body parts, intelligent aspect, rational aspect of the source domain are projected onto those of the target domain HSR. Most of the metaphorical expressions have their counterparts in both American and Chinese news reports.

4.1.2 The JOURNEY Metaphor Metaphors of JOURNEY can be traced back to the PATH image schema that is grounded on the physical experience of motion in space. It is constituted by a point of beginning, a destination, a path linking the two places as well as the direction of movement. This image schema provides a platform for metaphorically developing goals as destinations, ways of attaining goals as forwarding movement, challenges as movement obstacles as well as success or failure as reaching or failing to reach the destination. This image schema provides a basic structure of the more complicated JOURNEY domain that comprises of richer and more culturally specific knowledge about travelers, means of travel, challenges in travel and much more (Semino 2002: 92). Similarly, the metaphor of JOURNEY has been used in the framing of more abstract and complex concepts such as love (Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 44) and life (Lakoff and Turner 1989). A journey in these cross-domain mapping is taken as the prototype for a purposeful activity that entails movement in physical space thus having a point of beginning and a point of destination. The JOURNEY metaphor is reformulated by Lakoff (1993) as PURPOSEFUL ACTIVITY IS TRAVELLING in this book ALONG A PATH TOWARDS A DESTINATION. However, with respect to this study in this book, this metaphor will be reformulated into HSR IS TRAVELLING ALONG A PATH TOWARDS A DESTINATION. Tables 4.3 and 4.4 list all words in the corpus that are borrowed from the journey domain. Consequently, the image schema in the journey domain can be mapped onto economic phenomenon and the activities related to HSR are like journeys along the path with a point of beginning and a point of destination. The participants in this image schema include countries, businessmen or companies that embody travelers 12 https://wb.sznews.com/html/2016-09/12/content_3616944.htm. 13 https://www.businessinsider.com/what-america-could-be-like-with-high-speed-rail-2015-6.

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4 The Cognitive Metaphorical Mapping …

Table 4.3 Metaphorical representations of the JOURNEY metaphor in Chinese news reports Metaphorical representations Conventional metaphor—The JOURNEY metaphor

捷径 shortcut

Numbers 1

弯路 detour

2

道路 road/path

2

路 road/path

6

走出去 go outside/abroad

58

23

奔跑 run

1

迈进 march into

1

穿越 pass through/cut across

1

稳步 steady pace

1

步伐 pace

1

出海 launch out to sea

3

起步 first step

2

起点 starting point

1

里程碑 milestone/milepost

2

阻碍 hinder/baffle

3

遇挫 encounter frustration

2

挫折 setback/frustration

2

让步 make concession/give in

1

磕碰 clash/collide with

1

遇阻 encounter obstacle

1

障碍 obstruct/obstacle

1

striving to reach a destination irrespective of the obstacles in their path. The mapping process of the JOURNEY metaphor in Fig. 4.2 shows us how the target domain HSR can be understood by the source domain. 1. The DEPARTURE Metaphor Prior to beginning a journey, the traveler makes some preparations for the journey and decides on a starting point. In reference to companies, the preparations would involve the exploration of new policies. Essentially, the departure of a journey serves as the commencement for economic activity in the economic field. 出海 (go Example 14 “一带一路” 为中国高铁提供了巨大的市场, 国家对 “高铁出 abroad)” 也给予系统性的政策支持, 这些都为高铁开 开拓 (explore) 市场创造了 天时、地利、人和. 《人民日报》 ( , 2016年3月21日) (“The Belt & Road Initiative” provides a huge market for Chinese high-speed railway and the state has also given systematic policy support for it to “go

4.1 Analysis of Conventional Metaphors

67

Table 4.4 Metaphorical representations of the JOURNEY metaphor in American news reports Conventional metaphor—The JOURNEY metaphor

Metaphorical representations

Numbers

Explore

4

Step

3

Shortcut

2

Deviate

1

Setback

5

Obstacle

6

Hurdle

5

Roadblock

2

Trouble

2

Barrier

3

Difficulty

5

Mire

3

Constraint

1

Challenge

6

Go forward

3

Move ahead

3

Move forward

3

Stride

1

Speed

2

Leap

2

Accelerate

2

Milestone

2

Landmark

2

Travel

1

Cut across

1

Bypass

1

Keep pace

1

72

abroad”, which created good opportunity and favorable geographical location for the exploration of HSR.) (People’s Daily, March 21, 2016).14 Example 15 亚吉铁路的起 起点 (starting point), 是素有 “非洲屋脊” 之称的埃塞 俄比亚首都亚的斯亚贝巴. (新华网, 2016年10月7日). (The starting point of Yaji Railway is the capital of Ethiopian—Addis Ababa known as “the roof of Africa”.) (Xinhua Net, Oct. 7, 2016).15 14 https://china.huanqiu.com/hot/2016-03/8739301.html. 15 https://www.gs.xinhuanet.com/lantie/2016-10/11/c_1119692525.htm.

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4 The Cognitive Metaphorical Mapping …

Source Domain

JOURNEY

Target Domain DEPARTURE

Commencement

PATH

Developmental tracks

FORWARD

Progress

OBSTACLE

Dif f iculty

HSR Development

Fig. 4.2 Metaphorical mapping process of the JOURNEY metaphor

Example 16 中国高铁发展起 起步 (the first step) 较晚. 《经济日报》 ( , 2015年12 月30日) (China’s high-speed rail development started late.) (Economic Daily, Dec. 30, 2015).16 Example 17 In March, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies signed an agreement with the Slovak government to explore building a hyperloop in the European country. (WSJ, May 11, 2016).17 Example 18 But it did represent a first step toward a fully-functioning model Hyperloop One wants to try out before year’s end. (WP, May 12, 2016).18 “出海” (go abroad) in Example 14 tells the identification of a route and subsequently preparations with a view to guarantying safety in addition to the convenience for the selected road. In reference to the above examples, preparation measures should be taken for HSR to enter international markets. The term “explore” in Example 17 implies that prior to selecting a path, there is a need to find out initially if it is blocked or not. “起点” (starting point) (in Example 15) or “起步” (the first step)(in Example 16) and “a first step” (in Example 18) refer to the starting point of a journey which can be translated into the beginning of an economic activity and policy. The initial stage of the rail program entails initiating the operation building plans after the company has sought consent from the state. 2. The PATH Metaphors It is imperative to select a path when one decides on a journey, and the same applies to the HSR development. As such, companies or countries should select their development courses in order to achieve the smooth development of HSR. This is important as there are various kinds of paths. 16 https://www.gs.xinhuanet.com/lantie/2016-10/11/c_1119692525.htm. 17 https://search.proquest.com/nytimes/docview/1787914259/51D639A706414910PQ/3?accoun

tid=11232. 18 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/05/12/we-have-the-technology-tobuild-the-hyperloop-it-still-wont-happen/.

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Example 19 而在此之前的2005年, 武广高铁和京津城际已相继开工, 京沪高铁 捷径” (shortcut). (新华网, 2016年1月11日) 的论证经验为它们提供了 “捷 (Prior to this, in 2005, Wuhan-Guangzhou HSR and Beijing-Tianjin intercity express trains have been started, the Beijing-Shanghai HSR demonstration experience provides a “shortcut” for them.) (Xinhua Net, Jan. 11, 2016).19 Example 20 在高铁的发展历程中, 最初不免需要借鉴和学习, 以不断吸收外来 弯路 (detour), 多走 的先进技术与管理经验的方式来保证在发展初期尽量少走弯 捷径 (shortcut) 来尽快接近世界先进水平. (人民网, 2016年3月23日) (In the course of the development of HSR, CHSR has to learn and absorb foreign advanced technology and management experiences to ensure that in the early stages of development, detours are avoided and more shortcuts are taken to get closer to the world advanced level as soon as possible.) (People’s network, March 23, 2016).20 Example 21 京沪高铁曾走过 “市场换技术”的道 道路 (road/path), 但有些人因此 而忽视了我国在高铁技术的自主创新. (新华网, 2016年1月11日). (Beijing-Shanghai HSR has gone through the road of “market for technology”, but some people ignored China’s HSR technology in independent innovation.) (Xinhua Net, Jan. 11, 2016).21 Example 22 A rail project that would pass through the mountains of northeast Myanmar to the coastal plains on the Indian Ocean would give China a shortcut to the Middle East and Europe. (NYT, Aug 8, 2014).22 Example 23 If so, the train would have to slow way down to make the turn, or else the turn would have to start incredibly early—potentially requiring the Hyperloop to deviate from its intended path, calling for even more land acquisition or adjacent permits. (WP, May 12, 2016).23 The middle phase of the journey has richer expressions. The Chinese media is prevalent of four lexical metaphors “道路” (road/path) (in Example 21), “捷径” (shortcut) (in Examples 19, 20 and 22), “弯路” (detour) (in Example 20) for the PATH scenario. Traditionally, “捷径” (shortcut) in Examples 19, 20, and 22 is a connotation for a swift way to achieve some purpose. The quoted discourses metaphorically reveal that experience could be drawn from the latter HSR projects. “弯路” (detour) constructs the opportunities missed and the time wasted when countries lack experience or vision in reference to HSR development. This turns into a case where 19 https://epaper.gmw.cn/gmrb/html/2016-01/11/nw.D110000gmrb_20160111_1-05.htm. 20 https://nm.people.com.cn/n2/2016/0323/c196700-27995948.html. 21 https://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2016-01/11/c_128613766.htm. 22 https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/world/asia/china-looks-to-high-speed-rail-to-expandreach.html. 23 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/05/12/we-have-the-technology-tobuild-the-hyperloop-it-still-wont-happen/.

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travelers select a torturous path that acts as the block in reaching their destination. Accordingly, “道路” (road/path) in Example 21 and “intended path” in Example 23 generally refer to the channel selected with a view to enabling China HSR to develop its state-of-the-art technology and promotion strategy. 3. The FORWARD MOVEMENT Metaphor This process is represented by multiple English and Chinese metaphorical expressions. The metaphorical expressions develop identical scenarios that illustrate the gradual movement of the agent toward the destination. China’s companies and HSR projects are depicted as agents. Correspondingly, the scenario of FORWARD MOVEMENT is proved to be concerned about the current status of American HSR projects and the internalization of China HSR in the future by means of the phrases “go forward” (in Example 24) and “走出去” (go abroad) (in Example 25), respectively. Example 24 Despite the setbacks, Dan Richard, Chair of the California High Speed Rail Authority, said the project will go forward. (USA Today, Jan. 3, 2014).24 Example 25 作为 “中国铁路 ‘走出去’的先锋队”, 中国铁建于20世纪60年代 走 末70年代初援建平壤地铁、坦赞铁路开始, 就走出国门, 走向海外, 是较早 “走 出去” (go abroad) 的央企之一. 《经济日报》 ( , 2016年1月11日) (As the “vanguard of China Railway ‘going out’”, in the late 1960s and early 1970s of last century by assisting in the reconstruction of the Pyongyang subway and Tanzania-Zambia Railway, China Railway Construction has begun to go abroad, being one of the central enterprises making efforts to go overseas.) (Economic Daily, Jan. 11, 2016).25 The external forces in the context of a journey facilitate the forward mobility in the context. The similar basic meaning for the concept of moving forward quickly is “accelerate” in the English language. They denote the efforts put in place to facilitate the construction of HSR infrastructure as depicted in Example 26. The metaphorical representation in Chinese is “迈进” (move into) in Example 27, depicting the efforts put by Chinese Companies in the goal of going global. Example 26 Hyperloop One Accelerates Toward Future With High-Speed Test and $80M Round. (WSJ, May 11, 2016).26 Example 27 近3年来, 中国铁建共有34种工业产品出口销售至全球28个国家 稳步 (steady) 朝着国际装备制造合作的方 或地区, 销售额7.1亿元人民币, 正在稳 迈进 (move into). 《经济日报》 ( , 2016年1月11日) 向迈

24 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/03/stateline-california-rail/4303177/. 25 https://paper.ce.cn/jjrb/html/2016-01/11/content_288944.htm. 26 https://search.proquest.com/nytimes/docview/1787914259/51D639A706414910PQ/3?accoun

tid=11232.

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(In the past three years, China Railway Construction has exported 34 kinds of industrial products to 28 countries or regions worldwide with sales of RMB710 million, and is steadily moving towards international cooperation in equipment manufacturing.) (Economic Daily, Jan. 11, 2016).27 4. The OBSTACLE Metaphor The obstacle metaphor (see Examples 28, 29, 30 and 31) speaks of the uncertainties of travel. In the course of a journey, there is a probability of experiencing stumbling blocks which might derail the advancements toward the destination. The OBSTACLE metaphors illustrate the obstruction or rather the physical barriers when there are intangible or abstract challenges involved in the HSR construction. Obstacle metaphors convey the deep-rooted problems associated with the implementation of HSR projects that had sparked intense debates across the United States. Some of the stumbling blocks include environmental concerns, public resistance, and related legal loopholes. While in the Chinese data, the setbacks of China’s HSR have to be overcome when going out is expressed vividly. Example 28 Legal setbacks for high-speed rail in California. (USA Today, Jan. 3, 2014).28 Example 29 Aside from the technological challenges, transportation experts say the futuristic, ambitious hyperloop projects face significant hurdles, from a $6 billion price tag for a proposed LA-SF route, to overcoming public resistance to high-speed rail projects. (USA Today, July 1, 2016).29 Example 30 报道称, 中国将其高铁推向全球的努力在委内瑞拉、墨西哥和泰 挫折 (setbacks), (凤凰网, 2016年6月28日) 国遭遇了挫 (It is reported that China suffered setbacks when promoting high-speed rail in Venezuela, Mexico and Thailand.) (Ifeng, June 28, 2016).30 Example 31 为尽量减少中国高铁走出过程中的磕 磕磕碰碰 (stumbles/troubles), 很重要的一点是, 不能再让项目合作国或意向合作国感到中方很 “着急”. (凤凰 网, 2016年1月11日) (In order to reduce troubles CHSR encounters when going global, it is important not to let the project partner or co-operative partner feel that China is eager to win the deal.) (Ifeng, June 11, 2016).31 The aforementioned examples are indications that the JOURNEY metaphor is well known and used in conceptualizing economic phenomena in both American 27 https://paper.ce.cn/jjrb/html/2016-01/11/content_288944.htm. 28 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/01/03/stateline-california-rail/4303177/. 29 https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/07/01/hyperloop-one-co-founder-bambrogan-

leaves-company/86611336/. 30 https://i.ifeng.com/ixinwen/newsclient/news?vt=2&aid=110589066&rt=1&p=2. 31 https://finance.ifeng.com/a/20160611/14476211_0.shtml.

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and Chinese news discourses on HSR. Because the metaphor of JOURNEY emerges from our physical experience, metaphorical expressions have their counterparts in the context of both Chinese and American discourses. The utilization of the journey metaphor in conceptualizing HSR related concepts ensures that new comprehension is made easier and more vivid to the readers.

4.1.3 The GAME Metaphor The metaphor “GAME” is more often associated with the word “compete”, which is highly common in economic discourses. As such, the features and properties of a game (source domain) are often mapped systematically on to business (target domain). This is indicated in Tables 4.5 and 4.6. How the GAME metaphor mapped onto HSR companies is illustrated in Fig. 4.3, and elements in each domain will be discussed in detail. 1. COMPETITORS or RIVALS in Games The essence of games is to eliminate the opponent besides winning the prize offered to the winners. Similarly, the essence of businesses is to win and have leverage over the opponents in the circles of business. Companies that produce the same products have the same market and hence have to compete to be the leader in the market. This is expanded in Examples 32 and 33. Table 4.5 Metaphorical representations of the GAME metaphor in Chinese news reports Conventional metaphor—The GAME metaphor

Metaphorical representations

Numbers

竞争者 competitors

4

超越 surpass/exceed

2

纪录 record

3

竞争 competition

3

竞标 bid/tender

2

突破 break through/surmount

2

竞争力 competitive capability/power

6

筹码 chip/counter

1

共赢 win–win

3

赢得 win

4

胜出 win/better than

2

更胜一筹 even better/superior to

2

34

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Table 4.6 Metaphorical representations of the GAME metaphor in American news reports Conventional metaphor—The GAME metaphor

Metaphorical representations

Numbers

Win

6

Gain

2

Record

2

Beat

2

Defeat

2

Compete

3

Competitive

4

Competitor

2

Rival

2

Puck

1

Card

1

Hockey table

1

Jockey

1

Race

2

Bet

1

Source Domain

32

Target Domain Companies

COMPETITOR GAME

win Market share

OUTCOME

HSR Companies

lose

Fig. 4.3 Metaphorical mapping process of the GAME metaphor

Example 32 The company on Tuesday changed its name from Hyperloop Technologies, to help distinguish it from its main rival. (WSJ, May 11, 2016)32 竞争者 Example 33 报道称, 中国和日本是全球高铁市场上两个最大的竞 (competitors). (凤凰网, 2016年6月28日). (It is reported that China and Japan are the world’s two largest competitors in the international HSR market.) (Ifeng, June 28, 2016).33 32 https://search.proquest.com/nytimes/docview/1787914259/51D639A706414910PQ/3?accoun

tid=11232. 33 https://i.ifeng.com/ixinwen/newsclient/news?vt=2&aid=110589066&rt=1&p=2.

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2. WINNERS or LOSERS of Games The winning or losing of a game is interpreted within the context of winning or losing the rail contract, in other words, the market share occupied by different companies. There is a risk involved in games, and hence there is a chance that one could either win or lose. To motivate the players in the game, there has to be something of value at stake. This is relevant in business as a risky proposition with a chance of having big gains or damaging losses which is demonstrated in Examples 34 and 35. Example 34 C.N.R. won the initial Boston contract by offering the lowest price among five competitors. (NYT, Sep. 4, 2015)34 Example 35 凭借自己丰富的管理经验和高效的施工速度, 中国高铁团队赢 赢 得 (win) 了在土耳其、泰国、委内瑞拉、印度、俄罗斯等许多国家铺轨修路 的工程… (东方财富网, 2014年11月5日). (With its rich management experience and efficient construction speed, China’s high-speed rail team won the construction of laying track in Turkey, Thailand, Venezuela, India, Russia and many other countries…) (Eastmoney, Nov. 5, 2014).35 However, the same economic scenario can be depicted with different metaphors. Competition in the context of HSR can be conceptualized as a game or as a warfare. As a warfare, the aspects of financial discipline as well as marketing techniques would be emphasized; while as a game, the significance of research and development (R&D) and innovation are emphasized (Boers 1997).

4.1.4 The WAR Metaphor Conflict metaphors are common across a range of concepts including love and argument which are part of human and animal interaction (Köveceses 2002: 74–75; Lakoff and Johnson 1980: 62). By using conflict metaphor, the antagonistic effects of the target are emphasized especially in aspects such as aggression, competitiveness, and being confrontational. Table 4.7 and 4.8 comprise of all the war-related words apparent in the English and Chinese discourses. The structural metaphor “HSR CONSTRUCTION IS WAR” maps concepts from the source domain war onto the target domain HSR development (Fig. 4.4). It systematically structures the relations between various aspects of the activity relevant to HSR development.

34 https://search.proquest.com/nytimes/docview/1709343739/D208BD4E64C543B2PQ/3?accoun

tid=11232. 35 https://jjsb.cet.com.cn/show_321723.html.

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Table 4.7 Metaphorical representations of the WAR metaphor in Chinese news reports Conventional metaphor—The WAR metaphor

Metaphorical representations

Numbers

商战 commercial war

1

战略 strategy

8

子弹头 bullet

2

联合舰队 combined fleet

1

战略联盟 strategic alliance

3

进军 march towards/advance

3

攻下 overcome

2

袭击 raid/strike/assault

2

打入 drive into

2

主力军 main force/major driving force

1

25

Table 4.8 Metaphorical representations of the WAR metaphor in American news reports Conventional metaphor—The WAR metaphor

Metaphorical representations

Numbers

Foothold

4

Beachhead

1

Bridgehead

1

Strategic

4

Threaten

3

Thwart

1

Foray

1

Bullet

2

Attack

2

War

1

Enemy

2

Source Domain

Target Domain FIGHT

WAR

22

ARMY BATTLEFIELD STRATEGIES

Competition Company/ Country Market Measures

Fig. 4.4 Metaphorical mapping process of the WAR metaphor

HSR Development

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1. The FIGHT Metaphor The FIGHT in war is used to describe the economic competition. Companies, organizations as well as national economies are conceptualized as entities involved in some kinds of fight from the HSR domain perspective. The metaphorical expressions, such 攻下” (overcome) in Example 39, are applied. as foray in Example 37 and “攻 Example 36 The hyperloop wars are on (USA Today, May 10, 2016).36 Example 37 “With all due respect, the African countries are a little bit more desperate,” said Kevin Gallagher, a scholar at Boston University who studies China’s forays into Latin America. (NYT, Oct. 3, 2015.)37 Example 38 作为奇迹的创造者, 中国铁建已经在国际商 商战 (commercial war) 中摸爬滚打了10多年. 《经济日报》 ( , 2016年1月11日). (As a miracle creator, China Railway Construction has been fought over 10 years in the international business war.) (Economic Daily, Jan. 11, 2016).38 攻下 (overcome) 投资保护 Example 39 美国是最大的发达国家, 中国高铁若能攻 最严厉的美国, 对中国高铁走向世界具有重要的标杆意义. (凤凰财经, 2016年6 月11日). (If China’s high-speed railway can enter the American market, the most developed market with the most stringent investment protection, it will be a milestone for China’s going global strategy in high-speed railway.) (Ifeng Finance, Jun. 11, 2016).39 2. The ARMY Metaphor The ARMY represents the company or country at war. The concept of the ARMY in the source domain is thus reflecting the organization, business or country in compe联合舰队” (combined fleet) (in Example 40) is one of the metaphorical tition. “联 expressions in Chinese. Example 40 在政府主导下, 以中车四方股份公司等10家核心企业为主体, 联 合我国相关领域优势高校、研究机构和国家级创新平台, 组成了世界规模最 联合舰队” (combined fleet). (中国经济新闻网, 大的中国高速列车技术创新 “联 June 16, 2016). (Under the guidance of the government, China has formed the world’s largest “combined fleet” of HSR technology innovation, taken CRRC and 10 other core enterprises as its main body and combined with universities, research institutes and national innovation platforms in related fields.) (CET, June 16, 2016).40 36 https://search.proquest.com/usatoday/docview/1787839702/F20277AB97AC4185PQ/7?accoun tid=11232. 37 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/world/americas/chinas-ambitious-rail-projects-crashinto-harsh-realities-in-latin-america.html. 38 https://paper.ce.cn/jjrb/html/2016-01/11/content_288944.htm. 39 https://finance.ifeng.com/a/20160611/14476211_0.shtml. 40 https://www.cet.com.cn/ycpd/sdyd/1776489.shtml.

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3. The BATTLEFIELD Metaphor The BATTLEFIELD in the HSR development domain is the market, thus, presenting with the war metaphorical expressions, such as “foothold” in English Example 42, and “打入” (drive into), “进军” (march towards) in Chinese Example 41. Example 41 如果 (中国高铁) 能够成功打 打入 (drive into) 美国市场, 那么中国企 进军 (march towards) 发达国家市场的通行证, 能够和国际高铁巨 业就取得了进 头德国西门子、加拿大庞巴迪、法国阿尔斯通、日本川崎重工同台竞争. (东 方财富网, 2014年11月5日) (If CHSR can enter the US market successfully, then the Chinese enterprises obtain permits to advance on markets in developed countries and are able to compete with international high-speed rail giants like Siemens of German, Bombardier of Canada, Alstom of France and Kawasaki Heavy of Japan.) (Eastmoney, Nov. 5, 2014).41 Example 42 The project has captured attention from international firms, financiers, and train manufacturers that view it as a foothold into a burgeoning high-speed rail market in the United States. (Reuters, Feb. 18, 2016).42 4. Measures taken are STRATEGIES used in the war If you want to win a war, you should have the right fighting skills, strategies, and proper weapons. In light of this, the measures taken by businessmen, organizations or countries are conceptualized as strategies in the war domain. There are some of the metaphorical expressions evidenced in the data in Examples 43, 44, 45 and 46. 战略 (strategic) 谋划, 明确战 战略 (strategic) 路 Example 43 加强高铁走出去的战 径. (高铁网, 2015年2月9日) (Strengthen HSR’s strategic planning of going out and set a clear strategic path.) (Gaotie.cn, Feb. 9, 2015)43 Example 44 2009年, 中国正式提出高铁“走出去”战 战略 (strategy), 初步设定三 战略 (strategic) 方向… (人民网, 2016年2月16日). 大战 (In 2009, China formally proposed the strategy of HSR “going out” and initially set three strategic directions…) (People’s network, Feb. 16, 2016).44 Example 45 For China, the strategic importance of the proposed line can barely be overstated. (NYT, Aug. 8, 2014).45 41 https://jjsb.cet.com.cn/show_321723.html. 42 https://www.businessinsider.com/r-california-high-speed-rails-first-leg-to-connect-central-andsilicon-valleys-2016-2. 43 https://theory.gmw.cn/2015-02/23/content_14899596.htm. 44 https://jx.people.com.cn/n2/2016/0216/c347922-27741199.html. 45 https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/09/world/asia/china-looks-to-high-speed-rail-to-expandreach.html.

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Table 4.9 Metaphorical representations of the MACHINE metaphor in Chinese news reports Conventional metaphor—The MACHINE metaphor

Metaphorical representations

Numbers

拉动 drag

7

推动 push

1

带动 lead

6

驱动 force

1

引擎 engine

1

动力 force

1

促进 promote

1

提升 raise

1

19

Example 46 Rail is one of China’s most strategic assets. (NYT, Aug. 8, 2014).46 In summary, the WAR metaphors were and are still a common phenomenon in the American and Chinese cultures. This explains that the understanding of different aspects of the target domain, including measures taken by companies and countries or the competitions they are involved in, can be facilitated by acknowledging entities, characters, knowledge, and qualities of the source domain war. The projection is considered as useful in enhancing the understanding of abstract concepts in the economic discourse as well.

4.1.5 The MACHINE Metaphor Machines took over men as the main labor force after the first and second industrial revolutions. This made the machine the development drivers across the world. This is evidenced today by the fact that almost all the daily routines involve the utilization of machine especially with regard to economic activities. This served as the transition from the economies driven by animals and manual labor by human beings to those driven by the use of machines. The increasing dependence on the machine has led to the rise in the familiarity of the machine by humans and thus the increased utilization of machines in the representation of abstract concepts. Journalists enhance this by using the machine as the source domain and applying it to facilitate the understanding of abstract economic concepts with no exception to the topic of HSR. Tables 4.9 and 4.10 show the metaphorical representations of MACHINE metaphor in Chinese and American news, respectively. For HSR ECONOMY IS A MACHINE metaphor, there are mainly two conceptual scenarios, namely, “MECHANICAL POWER” and “MECHANICAL SOURCE” (Zhang 2008). See metaphorical mapping process of the MACHINE metaphor in Fig. 4.5. 46 https://search.proquest.com/nytimes/docview/1709343739/D208BD4E64C543B2PQ/3?accoun tid=11232.

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Table 4.10 Metaphorical representations of the MACHINE metaphor in American news reports Conventional metaphor—The MACHINE metaphor

Metaphorical Representations

Numbers

Driver

5

Spur

5

Generate

3

Promote

2

Source Domain

15

Target Domain

Mechanical Power Economic Implications

MACHINE

HSR Development

Mechanical Source

Fig. 4.5 Metaphorical mapping process of the MACHINE metaphor

1. MECHANICAL POWER metaphor The verbs “拉动” (drag), “带动” (lead), and “驱动” (force), according to the gathered data, are used to construct the concept of MECHANICAL POWER and essentially convey a sense of mechanical drive. The aforementioned metaphoric verbs are used to refer to particular agents that have the potential to transfer their mechanical power to the recipients once the machine is started. Thus, the agents put the machine into a vibrant state. The concrete examples demonstrate that the agents are associated with the concepts of HSR development. Besides the instances referring to technology directly, like the agent in Example 47, the others include the internationalization of HSR as in Example 48, and the economic effect of the HSR, as in Example 49. 带动 (drive) 整个产业链的 “出口”. (高铁网, 2016年2 Example 47 用一条高铁带 月17日). (It is expected to drive the export of the whole industry chain with HSR.) (Gao tie.cn, Feb. 17, 2016)47 推动 (push) 集中国制造、 Example 48 中国高铁走向国际市场其本身就是在推 中国创造的同时, 拉动以中国制造业为核心的周边产品走向世界, 从而进一步 带动中国国内经济转型与产业升级. (高铁网, 2016年2月17日). 47 https://gs.people.com.cn/n2/2016/0216/c210563-27745059.html.

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(The internationalization of CHSR not only promotes China-made and Chinacreated but also drives the export of peripheral products which take Chinese manufacturing industry as the core, so as to further promote China’s domestic economic restructuring and industrial upgrading). (Gaotie.cn, Feb. 17, 2016).48 Example 49 Across the globe, high-speed and higher-speed trains are not only an essential mode of transportation in such corridors, but also a significant driver of local development and economic growth. (WP, June 4, 2015).49 2. MECHANICAL SOURCE Metaphor The MECHANICAL SOURCE scenario is used to construct the concept of the facilitating role HSR plays and its effect on the economy, which illustrates that the HSR identity and its concomitant economic activities are just like machines and there are certain parts that cannot be detached from the machines, given their roles in machine operation. In Example 50, the verbs “成为” (become/be) link the identified “高铁” (HSR) with identifiers that are referred as the metaphorical expressions of “ 发动机” (engine) with the basic sense of an engine. From this vein, the mechanical nature of HSR is self-evident. The concept of propelling mechanical sources is used to refer to the initiative role played by companies and local governments in HSR construction which is beneficial to local businesses. Example 50 高铁的开通还带动了区域经济贸易往来, 释放了经济活力, 成为 (become/be) 区域经济发展的发 发动机 (engine). 《中国经济时报》 ( , 2015年5月21 日). (The opening of HSR also led to regional economic trade, and released economic vitality, being the engine of regional economic development.) (China Economic Times, May 21, 2015).50 There are some examples where the MACHINE metaphor is used simultaneously with other metaphors to demonstrate the positive impacts of HSR on the economy. For instance, the positive impacts of HSR are reflected when the MECHANICAL SOURCE is used concurrently with the concept of FORWARD MOVEMENT, thus in reference to which the metaphor of JOURNEY is signified by the verb “拉动” (drag/stimulate) and “提高” (raise) (in Example 51) in HSR development representation to project the traditional schematic image of GOOD IS UP, highlighting the positive evaluation when it comes to construction of HSR. 拉动 (drag/stimulate) 经济增长, 提高 (raise) 劳 Example 51 铁路建设投资可以拉 动生产率水平及居民收入和消费的增长. (凤凰网, 2016年9月11日).

48 https://gs.people.com.cn/n2/2016/0216/c210563-27745059.html. 49 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2015/06/04/virginia-bets-on-higher-

speed-rail-by-2025/. 50 https://jjsb.cet.com.cn/show_416579.html.

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(Investment in railway construction can stimulate economic growth, raise the level of labor productivity and the growth of residents’ income and consumption.) (Ifeng, Sep. 11, 2016).51 Hence, the application of MACHINE metaphors is utilized by journalists to illuminate the vitality of construction and development of HSR, besides, highlighting its positive effects on the companies’ growth and economic development.

4.1.6 The FOOD Metaphor Eating occupies a quite important place in Chinese culture (Liu 2002: 64–71). Cooking and dining have become an artistic feat fueled by the Chinese worship of food thus making eating enjoyable, particularly in exceptional social functions. This explains why FOOD metaphors have been incorporated into the business world including in HSR development; whereby descriptions of overseas markets include terms like the pleasant taste and delicious food. These metaphorical expressions in the form of nouns and verbs are applied in Examples 52, 53, 54 and 55. Example 52 明确以传统优势国别市场、资源型国别市场、基础设施需求旺 撒胡椒面” 盛国别市场、 “一带一路” 沿线国别市场为主要着力方向, 防止 “撒 (sprinkle pepper), 防止平均使力. 《经济日报》 ( , 2016年1月11日). (It should be noted that (we) should consider national markets with traditional advantages, resource-based national markets, infrastructure-driven national markets, and national markets along the “one belt, one road” as (our) top priorities instead of treating every market equally.) (Economic Daily, Jan. 1, 2016).52 Example 53 中国高铁技术已被视为 “香 香饽饽” (tasty cakes), 堪称中国走出去 的 “实力担当”. (中国经济网, 2016年9月4日) (China’s high-speed rail technology has been regarded as “hot cakes” and it can work as the leader of China’s going abroad.) (China Economy, Sep. 4, 2016)53 Example 54 这么大的蛋 蛋糕 (cake), 中日两个曾经的 “战场宿敌”、如今的” 市场 对手”岂能放弃争抢? (东方财富网, 2015年9月3日) (With such a big cake, China and Japan, once two “battlefield enemies” and now the “market opponents”, won’t give up a scramble for the market.) (Eastmoney, Sep. 3, 2015).54 Example 55 面对 “高铁盛 盛宴 (feast)”, 资本市场一片狂欢, 券商也都一致看好南 北车合并. (中国经济网, 2015年1月4日). 51 https://news.ifeng.com/a/20160911/49950995_0.shtml. 52 https://paper.ce.cn/jjrb/html/2016-01/11/content_288944.htm. 53 https://www.ce.cn/macro/more/201609/14/t20160914_15902435.shtml. 54 https://jjsb.cet.com.cn/show_462391.html.

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Table 4.11 Source domains in conventional metaphors Source domain

Chinese data Numbers

HUMAN BEING

English data Percentage (%)

Numbers

Percentage (%)

112

44.3

80

36.2

JOURNEY

58

22.9

72

32.5

GAME

34

13.4

32

14.5

WAR

25

9.9

22

10.0

MACHINE

19

7.5

15

6.8

5

2.0

/

/

253

100.0

221

100.0

FOOD Total

(In the face of high-speed rail feast, the capital market is a carnival, brokers are also unanimously optimistic about the merger of North and South Car.) (China Economy, Jan. 4, 2015).55 The metaphor “撒胡椒面” (sprinkle pepper) in Example 52 with the basic sense of distributing funds and limited resources equally over a large area instead of focusing on one place, stands for the strategy that targets the markets of the countries along the “Belt and Road” and markets with strong demand should be taken priority to by China’s HSR when going abroad rather than treating every overseas market equally. There are two instances of “蛋糕” (cake) in the FOOD metaphors (in Example 54). They refer to the huge business opportunities and possible benefits in overseas markets which can be brought to the companies. The metaphor “盛宴” (feast) in Example 55 describes the prosperous business of CHSR as a luscious meal. It is compatible with another FOOD metaphor “香饽饽” (tasty cakes) in Example 53, which conveys the popularity of CHSR technology. In summary, the FOOD metaphors are used to convey aspects in regard to available markets and the probable economic benefits. In addition, the metaphors show that the adoption of efficient strategies by companies leads to adequate exploitation of the available business opportunities.

4.2 Comparison of Conventional Metaphors in Chinese and American News Reports Qualitative analysis shows how the news writers convey abstract concepts through conventional metaphors mapping the physical and concrete onto the nonphysical and obscure. However, quantitative analysis will demonstrate a whole picture which reveals writers’ preferences for certain kinds of source domains (Table 4.11) that

55 https://jjsb.cet.com.cn/show_336518.html.

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depict images related to HSR. After a statistical calculation of the identified conventional metaphors within the collected data, the author interprets the implicit values that underlie those conventional metaphors. As can be seen in Table 4.11, English and Chinese news reports share a different pattern in terms of the usage frequency of source domains. The total number of HUMAN BEING metaphors in Chinese data is greater than that in English, but the number of JOURNEY, GAME, WAR, and MACHINE in Chinese Data holds a small lead, respectively, compared to their counterparts in English. Besides, the FOOD metaphor is exclusive to the Chinese database. The author elaborates on the reasons from a cognitive and cultural perspective. (1) Basic Human Experience The similarities between English and Chinese discourses can be explained by basic human experience. This is because bodily experiences are utilized in the conceptual system of human beings. As such, metaphorical concepts are often developed by mapping concrete aspects to abstract concepts. Besides, the metaphorical mapping is not random but often based on the human experience. For instance, the goal of achieving a purpose necessitates moving from one place to another. Accordingly, PURPOSEFUL ACTIVITIES correspond to JOURNEY leading to a destination. From this vein, it is feasible to assume that conventional metaphors in English and Chinese share some similarities for the reason that the concepts of the varied cultures are rooted in a similar physiological basis. (2) Social Concerns and Interests An entire society may be characterized by certain concerns and interests. Americans, for example, are often said to be given to actions, as opposed to passivity. This trait may explain the heavy use of game metaphors by Americans. The author does not mean that the Americans only have the game metaphors in discourse, but that they have them for a more extensive range of target concepts than other nations, such as China. In other words, the reality (or maybe just the myth) of having a trait may give rise to a heavy reliance on a metaphorical source domain that is coherent with the trait.

4.3 Analysis of Novel Metaphors Besides conventional metaphors, novel metaphors surface in the news report as well. Since novel metaphors distinct from our habitual ways of thinking, the number of applications in discourse is extremely small compared with their conventional counterparts. Despite its small proportion, novel metaphors play significant roles in demonstrating people’s special way of thinking. Metaphors are closely correlated with culture. Thus, varied cultures and civilizations can produce specific experiences contributing to the diversification of

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metaphorical representations and concepts. In the following, the author will detect its applications in two languages.

4.3.1 Novel Metaphors Peculiar to the Chinese Discourse The peculiar metaphor in Chinese media is specifically drawn from the conceptual domain of KUNG FU. Example 56 shows us the linguistic realizations of the metaphors typically applied in the Chinese discourse. 杀手锏” (trump card)…殊 Example 56 成本优势曾是中国高铁走出去的一大 “杀 苦练内功 (work hard silently), 经过战略调 不知他们在这短短的一两年沉寂中苦 整, 中国高铁于2013年卷土重来, 高调出击 (launch in … in a high profile) 海 重出江湖 (re-enter the market) 的中国高铁被包装成一张靓丽的 外市场. 这次重 “中国名片”… (东方财富网, 2014年11月4日). (To enter an overseas market, cost advantage has been the “trump card” of Chinese HSR … Without knowing that they work hard silently in the past year, China’s HSR, after strategic adjustment, comes back in 2013 and launch in overseas markets in a high profile. Re-entering the market, China’s HSR is packaged into a beautiful “Chinese business card”…) (Eastmoney, Nov. 4, 2014).56 Some terms of Kung Fu are used in the Chinese reports on HSR. Chinese Kung Fu brings us the idea of extensive and profound Chinese culture. It is the crystallization of Chinese wisdom and the representation of Chinese traditional culture, i.e., the Chinese use the metaphors creatively. See the conceptual blending network of KUNG FU metaphor in Fig. 4.6. In Example 56, HSR companies are depicted as KUNG FU players. They have much work to do including improving internal strength, taking the initiative to attack, and playing their trump card. But how these actions to be taken by HSR companies is almost unintelligible to people, especially foreigners, who have a superficial knowledge or might know nothing about Chinese martial arts. This can be identified as novel metaphor, as it deviates from conventional concepts and semantic domains, and no analogy or correspondence can be readily established between “KUNG GU players” and “HSR companies”, as almost all KUNG FU players live in ancient China when martial arts are adored in society, and it certainly bears no resemblance to HSR construction in modern life. Thus, people have no idea about how “KUNG GU player” and “HSR companies” are matched up. In this novel metaphor, input I1 is the cognitive domain of “KUNG FU player”, whereas input I2 is in regard to the cognitive domain of “Chinese HSR companies”. The conceptual clashing between the two domains forces the passage consumer to carry out cognitive analysis on the two input mental spaces. After the analysis, we obtain the mental space of input I1 (the source domain) as “a KUNG FU player with winning advantage”, some of the elements encompassed in the space are “improve 56 https://jjsb.cet.com.cn/show_321723.html.

4.3 Analysis of Novel Metaphors

Generic Space

a: Improving internal strength b: Trump card c: Jianghu d: Attack

85 A B C D

A:act B:core competence C:circumstances D:strategy

: Technological innovation : Cost advantages : Market(domestic and abroad) : launch in overseas markets

a b c d

Input I1 Kung Fu practicer

Input I2 HSR companies

a b c d

The efforts taken to go overseas equals to the efforts needed to be a Kung Fu master. Blend

Fig. 4.6 Conceptual blending network of KUNG FU metaphor

internal strength”, “trump card”, “jianghu” (Jianghu, literally rivers and lakes, is a term which refers to the environment where the martial artists live) and “attack”. Correspondingly, the mental space attained in input I2 is “HSR companies work hard to launch in the overseas market”, and then corresponding elements are singled out subsequently: “technology innovation”, “cost advantage”, and “re-enter the market” and “launch in overseas market in a high profile”. Following the cross-space mapping is the extraction of shared conceptual structure, including “act”, “core competence”, “circumstances” and “strategies”. Then the shared abstract extraction from two input mental spaces is projected to the generic space as illustrated in the figure. The process of elements corresponding to their counterparts as well as being projected selectively into the blended space gives rise to the first step—composition in the blended space. Retrieving the long-term memory and stored knowledge, the conceptual structure is stimulated, though owning a decisive advantage, and the practice still has to keep practicing martial arts and take different fighting styles to be a Kung Fu master. The activation of the conceptual structure coupled with the matching relationship established during composition is brought into the blended space to accomplish the goal of completion. Then the underlying emergent logic operates on both the elements and structures to run the blend, which gives rise to the delivery of the emergent structure, completes the integration process, and reveals the implications underneath: The efforts taken to win recognition of overseas markets for HSR companies equal to the efforts needed to be a Kung Fu master. Besides great efforts, hard skills and irreplaceable advantages are also required. This highlights how arduous the work laying for Chinese HSR companies to win trust and becoming established in the international market, and simultaneously making it clear that they have a lot of work to do to achieve the goal of not being the default choice of HSR construction.

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4 The Cognitive Metaphorical Mapping … A: Agent B: Feature C: Goal

A B C

Generic Space

Input II

Input I a b c a: an undertaking b: cannot be achieved by one country c: create nuclear weapons

a b c

Blend

: a project : cannot be performed by an individual c : construct HSR

Fig. 4.7 Conceptual blending network of MANHATTAN PROJECT metaphor

4.3.2 Novel Metaphors Peculiar to the English Discourse In the American discourse, there is a novel metaphor, namely the Manhattan project metaphor. Manhattan project metaphor. Example 57 A smart but busy man, Mr. Musk announced that he wanted to make Hyperloop a sort of open-source Manhattan Project for high-speed transportation, since he didn’t have the time to pursue it himself. (NYT, May 19, 2016).57 This is a novel metaphor making a departure from deep-rooted semantic domains, especially in Chinese culture, as “Manhattan Project” in Example 57 is rarely compared to “a company”. Since no similarity or correspondence can be recognized, people from another culture are confused about how to relate the “Manhattan Project” to “an HSR company”. As for the metaphor applied in Example 57, input I in Fig. 4.7 is the cognitive domain of the “open-source Manhattan project”. The organizing frame is that a project cannot be fulfilled by one country. The elements contained in this frame are “a project”, “cannot be achieved by one country”, and “nuclear weapon development”. While input II in Fig. 4.7 is the cognitive domain of “high-speed transportation”, which structures the organizing frame of “a career cannot be built by an individual”, and contains elements of “HSR construction”, “cannot be pursued by a person”, “construct HSR”. The abstract organizing relations extracted from both domains are later on projected onto the generic mental space, which include “agent”, “feature”, and “goal”. After the projection of the extracted organizing structure, cross-space mapping is performed between corresponding elements as shown in Fig. 4.7. To this point, by cross-spacing mapping and selective projection, counterparts’ correspondence is executed and elements are recruited into the blend, furthermore, the compositional step is achieved. It is almost unintelligent for people to assume a 57 https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/opinion/can-a-700-mph-train-in-a-tube-be-for-real.html.

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87

nuclear weapon development program to have anything to do with the construction of the railroad in one country. By recalling the encyclopedic knowledge, the analogy between the two different events may be identified: the efforts taken to deliver the HSR project are similar to that to create nuclear weapons by one single country. Incorporating long-term knowledge and the newly-born composition, the completion is finished in the blend space. Against the background of World War II, it is impossible for the United States to bring nuclear weapons into existence since there are shortages of not only scientists who are masters of related knowledge but also elements essential to the weapon-uranium. After the last step in the blend, the emergent structure pops out: the construction of high-speed transportation in the U.S. cannot be accomplished by one single company just like the Manhattan Project, and the creation of nuclear weapons is impossible for one country alone.

4.4 Comparison of Novel Metaphors in Chinese and American News Reports The differences of novel metaphors in two languages are self-evident. However, what are the differences then? (1) Sociohistorical Background To understand the metaphor of the Manhattan Project, one must have a basic knowledge of history. Social history explains why many of the metaphors Americans use today reflect the past experiences in American social and cultural history. Köveceses (2002) claims that the westward expansion, frontier experiences, Indian and colonial contacts with the English-speaking settlers, and so on, all played a role in giving rise to many metaphors speakers of American English use today. (2) Traditions and Customs Different cultures are also expected to embody differences that can be explained by the varied national attributes. KUNG FU becomes one of the worldwide powerful elements which positively interpret Chinese culture. The image of China or rather the Chinese culture is mostly exhibited by KUNG FU. One of the most distinct cultures across the globe is “武术文化” (Wushu/KUNG FU Culture). Its ideological principles are integrated with techniques, nature, society, traditions together with individual mastery and accomplishment, which is a part of Chinese cultural foundations and traditions. (3) Religious Beliefs People’s religious beliefs have major effects on their culture and language, which in turn influence the understanding and perception of notions. Christianity has the greatest influence in English speaking countries compared with China. Bible is the

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standard foundation of western beliefs. The impacts of the Bible and actions in relation to the growth of Christianity have found their way into many domains in western civilization. In the English data, the religious war is exploited to convey the hardships for HSR initiators to promote speed transportation in the US. Therefore, to get a better understanding of the passage written by western writers, the differences of linguistic application related to cognition are necessary. Firstly, by calculating the frequency of metaphorical representations, the author finds that the most frequently used conventional metaphors in Chinese and English news reports are HUMAN BEING, JOURNEY, GAME, WAR, and MACHINE. Besides conventional metaphors in both languages, novel metaphors are identified, specifically, KUNG FU in Chinese and Manhattan project in English. Those similarities and differences attribute to cognitive and cultural factors. As a result of the similar human experience of cognition, the shared conventional metaphors in the two languages are similar in one way or another. The different FOOD, KUNG FU, and Manhattan project metaphors are representations of specific cultural phenomena. Those cultural variations are instantiated by religions, sociohistorical backgrounds, traditions, and customs. Metaphorical representations in the HSR news reports are characterized by both cognitive universality and cultural relativity. According to Köveceses (2002), the emergence of metaphors in a certain culture is due to some universal motivations. Motivation in this context refers to the experiential basis for metaphor. As such, the motivation behind the similar metaphorical expressions in English and Chinese discourses can be attributed to universal cognition patterns. Given that bodily experiences cannot be singled out from the particular cultural surroundings they take place, it is anticipated that there should be differences among the conceptual metaphorical systems in varied cultures. This book has attributed the causes of cultural variations in metaphors to traditions as well as sociocultural backgrounds.

4.5 Summary This chapter illustrates the applications of novel metaphors as well as conventional metaphors in business discourses identified in the corpus. Analysis of the metaphors reveals that though the Chinese and American people share some conventional metaphors, they still have metaphors that are culturally specific. To begin with, the majority of the conventional metaphors are applied in the new reports both in American and Chinese media. Concrete objects in the physical world are used to convey abstract concepts. Consequently, several source domains are employed to comprehend the target domain. Secondly, each conventional metaphor has an “experiential” basis and there is no random assigning of metaphors. Metaphors are grounded on experience and are developed within a cultural background of presuppositions. Thirdly, there are some cultural differences in metaphors in American and Chinese news reports. The differences were attributed to the aspects of history, traditions, and

4.5 Summary

89

religions. For the purposes of enhancing our ability of reading and translating news reports, there is a need to make good use of metaphors and bridge the gap.

References Boers, F. (1997). “No pain, No gain” in a free market rhetoric: A test for cognitive semantics? Metaphor and Symbol, 12(4), 231–241. Goatly, A. (1997). The language of metaphors. London: Routledge. Köveceses, Z. (2002). Metaphor: A practical introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Lakoff, G. (1993). The contemporary theory of metaphor. In A. Ortony (Ed.), Metaphor and thought (pp. 202–251). New York: Cambridge University Press. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (2003). Metaphors we live by. London: The University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G., & Turner, M. (1989). More than cool reason: A field guide to poetic metaphor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Liu, D. L. (2002). Metaphor, culture, and worldview: The case of American and the Chinese language. Lanham/New York/Oxford: University Press of America Inc. Semino, E. (2002). A sturdy baby or a derailing train? Metaphorical representations of the euro in British and Italian newspapers. Text, 22(1), 107–139. Wang, Y. (2007). Cognitive linguistics. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press. Zhang, L. (2008). Metaphorical representations of Olympic economy in Chinese and English popular business discourse (Ph.D. dissertation). Shandong University.

Chapter 5

The Image Schemas in Football Player Transfer News (FPTN)

Abstract In this chapter, the author will delicately select both English and Chinese samples to analyze the discourses from the perspectives of image schemas. Pieces of evidence stemming from cognitive science illustrated in Gibbs’s (2010) The Psychological Status of Image Schema demonstrate that many aspects of perception, cognition, and language use are closely related to both real and imagined bodily action when it comes to image-schematic reasoning. A significant part of how we understand the behaviors of others is accomplished through real and simulated body actions, sometimes described in terms of “as-if body” loops (Damasio 1999, 2003). Under this view, we come to understand the thoughts of others by imagining being in their “mental shoes” and by using our own mind/body as a model for the minds of others (Davis and Stone 1995). Hence, the author will interpret the brilliantly diversified and commonly observed scenes occurring in FPTN discourses, together with the readers, to have direct personal cognitive experiences and interactions with the participants in discourse contexts. The purposes are to catch a glimpse of the general cognitive mechanisms of discourse consumers, and have a better understanding of how FPTN writers build up the informative “mansion” with the raw material of information, their personal embodied life experience, and honed skills. Keywords Image schema · Daily-life image schemas · CONTAINER schema · PATH schema · CENTER-PERIPHERY schema · SCALE schema

5.1 Daily-life Image Schemas in FPTN On close examination, sports news discourses are abundant with a great variety of daily-life image schemas which are employed by sports news reporters who might share the same personal perceptions and understanding with other ordinary sports lovers, in order to construct a wide range of scenes or events that appear familiar, common, and preferably accessible to discourse consumers. As mentioned in the theoretical framework chapter, a body schema can be considered as the collection of processes that registers the posture of one’s body parts in space. The schema is updated in the course of body movement and used primarily for the spatial organization of actions, which takes place automatically, independent of our consciousness. © Science Press 2020 W. Yang, A Cross-Cultural Study of Commercial Media Discourses, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8617-0_5

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One important fact that should be clarified and kept in mind is that image schemas are not separated from the continuous operation of body schemas even when they have come into existence. Over the course of a lifetime, body schemas provide continuous support for the regular functioning of various image schemas. Therefore, it can be deduced that image-schematic meaning construction and interpretation constantly seek to employ sensorimotor processes which are critical to our understanding of ourselves, other people, and our physical surroundings. Example 1 Reports surfaced on Thursday night that the Tottenham striker, who has scored 30 goals in all competitions this season, could be the subject of a £45m bid. (Harry Kane “not on the radar” of Manchester United) (Sky sport, May 5, 2015).1 Life is filled with all kinds of physical objects which present us with a wealth of surfaces, for instance, a surface can refer to the top layer or the outside of something, as in “the earth’s surface, the road surface, the surface of the water”; it can also indicate a flat area on which you can work (a work surface), for example, the top of a table, desk or kitchen cupboard; with the passage of time, despite its probable origin from human perception of physical objects or outer appearance of a person, the notion of surface has extended semantically and obtained some degree of abstraction, and thus can be interpreted as something that can be easily seen rather than what is hidden or not explicitly noticeable, with regard to collocation with abstract concepts such as “the surface of a situation”. Additionally, “surface” can be used as a verb as in the above-mentioned expression. The claim that image schemas underlie linguistic meaning implies that we should carry out simulation processes in order to recreate an embodied model of what is meant. Encountering with the word “surface”, we might immediately summon all the relevant information at our disposal and personal experience to our mind. In this instance, people would highly and likely recall their swimming experience in summer: pulling down our extra clothing, jumping into the pleasant water, burying our heads under the water, getting rid of the burning heat inside our body, relieving our exhaustion, and finally coming up to the “surface” of the water for fresh air. Making an instant connection and creating embodied simulations between the word “surface” and a series of past experiences help form a vivid picture of the scene and enable us to comprehend the underlying meaning of “surface”, without having to actually perform such strings of actions. Further instances can be illustrated to demonstrate the influence image schemas may exert on people’s construal and understanding of events. Both Chinese and English sports news reporters display a strong tendency to link the operation of football transfer news to a critical and essential part of our daily life, namely cooking or food-making as in Example 2 and Example 3. Example 2 值得一提的是, 负责运作张琳芃的是上海某经纪公司, 该公司曾经 运作过上海籍球员赴欧洲留洋, 而该公司的股权结构与某媒体密切相关, 这也 1 https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9850888/harry-kane-not-on-the-radar-of-man

chester-united.

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是张琳芃转会一事被炒 炒得沸沸扬扬 (fry with bubbling) 的主要原因。(新浪网, 2015年8月30日). (Notably, it is a Shanghai brokerage firm that presides over the transfer of Zhang Linpeng, the same company which managed the transfer of a Shanghainese player to a European club and whose ownership structure is intimately related to a media company. These are the reasons why the transfer of Zhang Linpeng has provoked a great deal of discussion.) (Sina sports, Aug. 30, 2015).2 Example 3 关于切尔西“引进”张琳芃的一事近日持续发 发酵 (ferment)。(新浪网, 2015年8月30日)). (The rumor regarding Chelsea’s intention to bring in Zhang Linpeng has undergone continuous fermentation in the past few days.) (Sina sports, Aug. 30, 2015).3 The Chinese character “炒” literally means “frying”, referring to one of the most common cooking methods: the cooking of food in oil or another kind of fat. Therefore, when we are in a context, such as Example 2, it is highly likely that we would automatically establish a connection between the transfer event and the ordinary cooking scene in our daily life, recalling all the specific procedures involved in the actions of frying: starting the fire, pouring in some oil, heating up the pan, dropping in the raw materials, adding some sauces and condiments to improve the flavor, covering the pot, and ultimately waiting for the appropriate time to serve the dish. We simulate these series of actions in our mind without the necessity of actually performing them, as part of our imaginative understanding of this linguistic expression. To interpret this expression from a different perspective, we incline to treat the transfer events as substances or ingredients that can be delicately processed to our satisfaction, by different sports media (cook) within the realm of football industry (cooking equipment) which are analogous to a pot, a cooker or a piece of cooking equipment. Consequently, we can identify the POT/COOKER Schema underlying this linguistic expression, in which our meaning construal of the event is based. Physically speaking, from Examples 1 and 2, human beings are bounded and set off from the rest of the world by the surface of our skins, and we experience the rest of the world as it is outside us. Every single individual is an independent entity, with a bounding surface and an in-out orientation. People project this sort of in-out orientation onto other physical objects to help themselves understand the world around them. Semantically speaking, the meaning extension surrounding the concept “炒” (fry) is everywhere to be seen, such as “炒股” (to speculate in the stock market), “炒楼” (to speculate in the property market). Apparently, “炒” (fry) refers to the practice of engaging in risky financial transactions in an attempt to profit from fluctuations in the market value of tradable goods. Both abstract entities such as stock/shares and physical entities like properties are likely to be conceived as substances in a container that are manipulated by speculators. 2 http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2015-08-30/12577689763.shtml. 3 http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2015-08-30/12577689763.shtml.

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Likewise, the same explanation can be elicited in the case of “发酵”(ferment). Fermentation is a metabolic process that converts sugar into acids, gases or alcohol. It occurs in yeast and bacteria, and also in oxygen-starved muscle cells, such as in the case of lactic acid fermentation. Fermentation is also employed more broadly to denote the bulk growth of microorganisms on a growth medium, often with the aim of producing a specific chemical product. Fermentation is one of the earliest biochemical reactions created by human beings, which has already been widely applied to industries that are closely related to our everyday life, such as the food-making industry, biotech industry, and chemical industry. It makes perfect sense that even common people have no strangeness to such a concept and associate this biochemical process with things that happen around us. In Chinese, moreover, the verb “发 酵”(ferment) can also refer to the situation in which things undergo some sort of change or development due to the effects of external forces. Hence, in the above context, the chances are this particular word “发酵”(ferment) will evoke the simulation of an item (the transfer rumor) placed in a growth medium that is experiencing some changes in the presence of various external forces (like the surmises of different media, official statements of the clubs involved, comments of players and famous sports commentators). Hence, as every single minute passes by, some transformations will be completed within the item itself, and the item will probably take on a new look; in the event of football transfer news, some new elements will be added or generated and different story versions with respect to the same event will arise. Once again, people constantly create image-schematic construal of events underlying various linguistic expressions, grounded upon our embodied understandings. According to Richardson, Daniel, Spivey, Barsalou, and McRae (2003), image schemas are recruited in the immediate processing of verbs. Their normalized studies indicate that participants display remarkable consistency in pairing four different pictures that reflect various image schemas (e.g., a circle; a square; an arrow looking up, down, left, or right) with different concrete and abstract verbs (e.g., push, lift, argue, respect). Another normalized study requires participants to come up with their own image schemas for verbs in a computer-based drawing environment. Again, good consistency was shown in the spatial shapes participants thought best describing the meanings of the different verbs. These findings show that people have regular intuitions about the spatial representations underlying different verbs, even the abstract ones. The author attempts to test and verify these findings within the scope of football transfer news reports. Please note the following expressions in Examples 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Example 4 The France international played the entirety of City’s victory over Chelsea, a win which lifted them to the top of the early Premier League table. (Sky sports, Aug. 18, 2015).4

4 http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11679/9953108/city-close-in-on-otamendi.

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Example 5 However, the 27-year-old forward has taken to Twitter to quell the speculation, saying he is happy to remain in Spain. (Sky sport, Aug. 24, 2015).5 Example 6 事实上, 今年舜天为了留住孙可, 在方方面面也展现出了诚意, 主帅 提拔 (elevate/promote) 为场上队长。(新浪网, 2015年5月12 高洪波甚至将孙可提 日). (As a matter of fact, in order to retain Sun Ke, Shuntian has shown sincerity in every aspect and the coach Gao Hongbo even promoted him as captain on the battlefield.) (Sina sport, May 12, 2015).6 Example 7 I don’t think it’s positive for the brand we’re trying to build to have players leave in the middle of the season or come late because they are going out on loan. (Sky sport Sept. 9, 2015).7 Example 8 但过去6年来郜林在广州这座城市建 建立的个人品牌效应 (establish one’s own brand and its effects) 也会左右他的选择。在这里他是受球迷推崇和 珍惜的英雄。(新浪网, 2015年11月28日). (However, the personal brand effects Gao Lin has built up in Guangzhou in the past six years will influence his decision. In this city, he’s an admired and cherished hero for the fans.) (Sina sport, Nov. 28, 2015).8 Attention should be paid to the strings of the underlined linguistic units. On close examination, we can immediately sense the spatial representations underlying these verbs because they are so deeply imprinted that it is impossible to separate them apart, and mentioning of the verbs will inevitably trigger the spatial relationships they embody. In actuality, the triggered effects are also achieved through the mechanism of embodied mental simulation. In the case of “lifted them to the top” in Example 4, we would create a simulation in which we move something to an upward or higher position, and we can clearly sense the up-down orientation of the object’s movement through space and the resultant distance change. Even in Example 4, the Manchester City Football Club is hardly a concrete object, but its working mechanism is similar: readers can imagine the victory achieved through extraordinary teamwork and joint efforts as an agent with acting competence which put the team on a higher ranking. Noticeably, the spatial representation or image schema (UPDOWN Schema) is evidently reflected in the vertical axis along which the change of spatial positions takes place. In the cases of “quell the speculation” in Example 5 and “the brand we’re trying to build” in Example 7, kindred spatial representations can be identified: “quell” means to stop something such as violent behaviors or protests, or to stop or reduce strong/unpleasant feelings, like “quell the disturbances”, “quell your fears/doubt/excitement”, or just to make something disappear (into the ground, 5 http://www.skysports.com/transfer/news/12691/9964500/karim-benzema-calls-real-madrid-

home-in-twitter-statement. 6 http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2015-05-12/08367604746.shtml. 7 http://www.skysports.com/transfer/news/12691/9984817/steven-gerrard-unlikely-to-return-to-liv

erpool-says-mls-chief. 8 http://sports.sina.com.cn/china/j/2015-11-28/doc-ifxmazmy2207578.shtml.

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based on the general tradition that human beings are buried in the ground after death), which is a typical UP-DOWN representation. To “build” something is an extensive human experience, usually by locating a surface and setting up scaffolds, based on which we start the building process, normally from the bottom up. Apparently, an UP-DOWN schematic structure is embedded in Examples 5, 6, 7 and 8. “Exceeds the barrier” in Example 9 and “steering them to the brink of Euro 2016 qualification” in Example 11 will undoubtedly evoke our memory of driving experiences: we are behind the wheel controlling the vehicle, with a clear destination and a tight schedule in mind after having figured out the ideal routes; however, some barriers appear out of the blue, blocking up our driveway, such as a fallen tree, an unexpected roadblock, then we would be forced to make a little detour to bypass it. Once we have bypassed the obstacles, our temporarily interrupted mood and journey are back to normal. We step on the accelerator, pick up the speed to make up for the delay, “overtake other cars along the road” (Example 13), and head straight forward toward the destination. Sometimes, the path we have taken turns out to be a deadend or leads to “approach(ing) to the brink of (a cliff)” or “walk(ing) to the end of one class” (Example 12); under this circumstance, we may have to turn around the vehicle and start all over again. Once again, it is unnecessary for us to actually perform these actions, simply a mental simulation would facilitate our understanding of these linguistic expressions, and underlying image schemas play crucial roles in this process. We can notice the clear space movement and the FRONT-BACK position change of the subject. Notably, there’s a discrepancy between the English example (Example 9) and the Chinese example (Example 10) when it comes to the concept of “barrier”: the “barrier” in Example 9 refers to a particular number which is difficult to get past; while the “barrier” in Example 10 refers to a problem, rule or situation that prevents somebody from doing something, or that makes something impossible. Due to the different contexts, different image schematic structures are required to interpret this concept: the number barrier is usually interpreted along a horizontal orientation, and challengers have to move forward to bypass it; whereas the situation barrier is understood along the vertical orientation, which requires us to stride over it to continue the journey. Example 9 Benzema is a great player. And one of my ideas this year is that he exceeds the barrier of 20–25 goals. (Sky sport, Aug. 17, 2015).9 Example 10 真正要代表皇马出场, 张琳芃还 还有什么障碍要跨越 (what barriers to surmount), 我们不妨一个个数一下。(新浪网, 2015年9月23日). (We may as well list what barriers Zhang Linpeng still needs to surmount to play for Real Madrid.) (Sina sport, Sept. 23, 2015).10

9 http://www.skysports.com/transfer/news/12691/9953422/rafa-benitez-hints-arsenal-target-

karim-benzema-will-stay-at-real-madrid. 10 http://sports.sina.com.cn/china/j/2015-09-23/doc-ifxhzevf0970037.shtml.

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Example 11 Bale has continued to hit the headlines for Wales, steering them to the brink of Euro 2016 qualification. (Sky sport, Sept. 9, 2015).11 走到了下课的边缘 (walk to the end of Example 12 对于主帅库卡来说, 已然走 one’s class)。(新浪网, 2015年10月3日). (For coach Cuca, he’s already approached to the brink of losing his job.) (Sina sport, Oct. 3, 2015).12 Example 13 2013年世俱杯对阵拜仁时, 球迷YY穆里奇能完爆转身慢的范比 滕, 但人家的转身慢是在高节奏的欧洲联赛, 到了一对一单挑的时候, 则不会轻 超车 (overtake other cars along the road) 的机会。(新浪网, 2015年9 易让你有超 月23日). (Fans embraced the wishful thinking when GZ Evergrand played against Bayern Munich that Muriqui would bully Van Buyten who turned around slowly on the pitch. However, it turned out that Van Buyten only turned slowly because he played in a high-tempo European league and that he would not easily offer the chance of overtaking.) (Sina sport, Sept. 23, 2015).13

5.2 CONTAINER Schema in FPTN CONTAINER/CONTAINMENT has been an outstanding instance in existing imageschema literature because of the pervasiveness of containments and their boundaries in our daily activities. It seems to characterize a universally important semantic concept that is remarkably similar across languages and develops in a very early stage across languages. It is fundamentally important in metaphorical structuring and inferential reasoning. It is also grounded in a wide range of common basic experiences because containers are so frequently seen in our daily life. We have developed a keen consciousness of our bodies as three-dimensional containers that can take in certain things (food, water, air) and can give out certain things (food and water waste, air, blood, etc.). In our daily life, we experience a broad range of physical containment during our interaction with the outside world. When we wake up in the morning, we climb out of our pajamas and put on the clothes properly for school or work, move from the bedroom to the bathroom where we pick up a tube of toothpaste, and squeeze some out onto the toothbrush, then we put the toothbrush into our mouth and brush our teeth. As we can see in this case, we come across numerous containers on a daily basis, so frequently that we hardly notice them. When it comes to language expression and the understanding of abstract information and relationships among different things, we tend to establish 11 http://www.skysports.com/transfer/news/12691/9983555/real-madrids-gareth-bale-wont-return-

to-premier-league-agent. 12 http://sports.sina.com.cn/china/j/2015-10-03/doc-ifximrxn8182159.shtml. 13 http://sports.sina.com.cn/china/j/2015-09-23/doc-ifxhzevf0970037.shtml.

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INFLOW

Football Club/ Transfer Market

OUTFLOW

Fig. 5.1 CONTAINER/CONTAINMENT schema

certain temporary linkages or mappings based on our bodily experience of physical CONTAINER/CONTAINMENT (Fig. 5.1) to facilitate our communication. A wealth of examples on CONTAINER/CONTAINMENT Schema can be enumerated from FPTN discourses. Examples 14–16 have something in common: football clubs are conceptualized as giant CONTAINERs that accommodate plenty of substances (football players). We will imagine placing ourselves in different football clubs where our behaviors will be restricted by relevant rules and regulations just like the bounding surfaces of a container (the football club). Players’ every act has to conform to the requirements of the club: to meet with the squad at precisely the scheduled time, to attend training and pre-match warm-ups on time, to refrain from staying out late or drinking alcoholic the night before the upcoming match, and from involving any transfer negotiations with other clubs without the parent club’s consent. The club is utterly conceptualized as CONTAINER which has its boundaries, demands appropriate behaviors, and allows only legitimate entry and exit. Example 14 Then you go down to James Wilson, who may well be allowed out on loan next season. (Sky sport, May 15, 2015).14 Example 15 接受现代快报记者采访时, 孙可本人表达了希望留 留在舜天 (saty in Shuntian) 的愿望。(新浪网, 2015年5月12日). (When taking the interview with Modern Express, Sun Ke expressed his wish to stay in Shuntian.) (Sina sport, May 12, 2015).15 Example 16 但是到了其他球队, 一切又都需要重新开始, 新的球队, 新的管理 融入进去 (fit in), 这些因素都要想好。(新浪网, 层, 新的队友, 你是否能很快地融 2015年5月12日). (However, in the case of getting transferred to another team, everything will start all over again. With the new squad, new management, new teammates, you need to think in advance about whether you could fit in quickly.) (Sina sport, May 12, 2015).16 These phrases can be attributed as CONTAINER Schema for they enable us to recreate an embodied construal of transfer events taking place within a specific 14 http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9850888/harry-kane-not-on-the-radar-of-man

chester-united. 15 http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2015-05-12/08367604746.shtml. 16 http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2015-05-12/08367604746.shtml.

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containing environment where freedom of movement is constrained. If the contract is still effective, the player will be obliged to act accordingly with the regulations. Once the contract is expired or enters into a certain stage where negotiations are given a green light, the player will have the freedom to determine whether he would like to remain part of the original club or choose another club to work for. Example 16 will likely bring to our mind an entirely new and strange environment which is beyond the reach of our social network and in which we have to build social connections from scratch. Consequently, we have to do as the Romans do to break some new ground, so as to be accepted and included in the new community (another CONTAINER). Examples 17, 18 and 19 are also grounded upon the construal of football clubs as CONTAINERs and embodied simulation of placing oneself within such containers. At the moment, a state of emergency has occurred; the giant container suffers accidental physical contacts with outside forces/objects, which results in a loss of substances (capital or talents) or a leaking hole that requires refills or immediate repair treatments. In this event, additional materials (extra funding or new talents) will be called for to fill the vacuum caused by the accident. An alternative scenario is that the guardians (top executives of football clubs) decide to voluntarily change the content in the container. As a result, they choose to pour out or pick out some of the elements that they would like to discard and make room for fresh supplements. Example 17 The league leaders filled the void by taking Adnan Januzaj on loan from Man Utd on Monday night. (The Guardian, Sept. 1, 2015).17 Example 18 Smaller clubs, such as FC Augsburg, have meanwhile not pretended that they’re anything but delighted with the cash injection from the UK. (The Guardian, Sept. 1, 2015).18 Example 19 This has been a fast and furious summer in the Italian transfer market, with Serie A clubs splashing out more than £440m between them and bringing in around £348m through sales. (The Guardian, Sept. 1, 2015).19 Examples 20 and 21 will automatically establish connections with our buying and selling behaviors and experiences in our daily life, and readers will unconsciously recreate a simulation process of buying and selling in handling such a description. In this case, readers will create an image-schematic (CONTAINMENT) understanding of the event, in which the virtual footballer transfer market is conceptualized as a giant container filled with players who await prospective buyers of different levels available for business transactions. Purchasers appear in these markets with various intentions, mainly looking for ideal commodities to cater for their needs. Businessmen are allowed to negotiate over the details, especially the prices, as long as they behave themselves because this container has its borderlines (transfer regulations and limitations) which constrain relevant commercial behaviors. 17 http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/sep/01/transfer-window-spain-germany-france-italy. 18 http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/sep/01/transfer-window-spain-germany-france-italy. 19 http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/sep/01/transfer-window-spain-germany-france-italy.

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Example 20 Manchester United are expected to make more moves in the transfer market after the signing of Memphis Depay. (Sky sport, May 15, 2015).20 Example 21 任航由于仅剩一年工作合同, 早已是转会市场上的香饽饽, 这条大 鱼能否流到冬窗市场 (whether this big fish could flow into the winter transfer market), 舜天能否最终问鼎足协杯冠军或有决定性作用。(腾讯, 2015年11月26 日). (Since Ren Hang has only one year left in his contract, he has already become hot property in the transfer market; whether Shuntian will win the FA Cup may have a decisive role in determining whether this big fish could flow into the winter transfer market.) (qq sport, Nov. 26, 2015).21 The human body can be conceived as a CONTAINER, such as in Examples 22 and 23. Our mouths, like our bodies, are acknowledged as containers, such that when the container is open, a linguistic action is possible, and when closed, there is only silence. We may understand Example 23 through constructing a simulation of opening a container, then we can see what the inside looks like or what’s in this container (that’s to say, what ideas the person holds). Example 22 舜天高层表示:“孙可的合同问题目前正在谈, 俱乐部方面的态度 培养出来 (have cultivated) 的好球员, 肯定不希望他 就不用多说了, 我们自己培 去其他球队的”。(新浪网, 2015年5月12日). (Top executives of Shuntian indicate: “we are currently working on Sun Ke’s new contract; needless to mention the club’s attitude, we absolutely don’t want to see good players we cultivated transfer to other teams.”) (Sina sport, May 12 2015).22 Example 22 will probably evoke our sweet memory of nourishing a plant or raising a pet: we spend a great deal of time taking care of them, watch every baby step of their growth, and develop such a special bond that we would hate to watch them wither or grow old. Through recalling similar individual experiences by embodied simulation, we come to understand the typical situations of keeping talents confronting most football clubs. They tend to retain talented players that they have fostered and in whom they have invested a great deal of energy and time. Example 23 The 29-year-old also opens up about the 2006 World Cup, conceding that he was not fit enough after fracturing a metatarsal bone in his right foot six weeks before the tournament. (The Guardian, Sept. 29, 2015).23 In Metaphors We Live By, Lakoff and Johnson (1980) propose that ontological metaphors are employed to comprehend events, actions, activities and states. Moreover, our visual field is conceptualized as a container and what we see is conceptualized as being in it. Nevertheless, the author argues that human beings are capable of 20 http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9850888/harry-kane-not-on-the-radar-of-man chester-united. 21 http://sports.qq.com/a/20151126/024621.html. 22 http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2015-05-12/08367604746.shtml. 23 http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/sep/29/wayne-rooney-denies-wanting-leave-manche ster-united-2013-sir-alex-ferguson.

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using CONTAINER Schema to help create cognitive simulations of different states, events, and activities (Examples 24 and 25) so as to facilitate our understanding of the world. Example 24 此前一直陷 陷入转会传闻中 (involved in transfer rumors) 的富力球 员张远, 终于在辞旧迎新的这一天敲定了新赛季的东家—河北华夏幸福。(腾讯 网, 2015年12月31日). (R&F player Zhang Yuan, who was involved in transfer rumors for a long time, finally confirmed his new employer on the first day of the new year, Hebei Huaxia Xingfu.) (qq sport, Dec. 31, 2015).24 Example 25 高薪挖角遭遇阻碍后, 华夏幸福将目标锁定在了一些中下游俱乐 进入了华夏幸福的视野 (being 部的当打球员中, 而姜宁和张远正是在这个时候进 caught into Huaxia Xingfu’s eyes)。(腾讯网, 2015年12月31日). (After attempts to recruit talents with generous salaries had met with difficulties, Huaxia Xingfu targeted players on their best days from smaller clubs and that was when Jiang Ning and Zhang Yuan came into their view.) (qq sport, Dec. 31, 2015).25 From the above selected samples, we can identify multiple body-related CONTAINER schema representations in both Chinese and English FPTN discourses. When we encounter such linguistic expressions, we tend to turn to our life experience for help and establish connections with our physical experiences of CONTAINMENT, for the purposes of better processing and understanding metaphysical information embedded in such language structures. We do not simply comprehend these linguistic expressions in an abstract fashion, instead, we interpret it by imagining what the feeling would be like to be put in a similar situation, perhaps even by recalling personal circumstances.

5.3 PATH Schema in FPTN Our lives are filled with paths that connect up our spatial world (Johnson 1987). There is the path from the bedroom to the bathroom, from the kitchen to the living room, from the inner house to the garage, from the front door to the workplace, from the workplace to the supermarket, from Guangzhou to Shenzhen, and from the Earth to the Mars. Some of these paths involve traversing a physical surface, such as the path from the workplace to the supermarket, while some paths, to put it this way, are only imaginary or pass through a spatial trajectory bearing the mission of establishing connections, such as the path from the Earth to the Mars. All of these instances seem to be characterized by a single recurring image-schematic pattern with the following elements: a source, or starting location; a goal, or ending location; and a sequence of intermediate locations linking up the source with the goal. Paths are 24 http://sports.qq.com/a/20151231/046259.html. 25 http://sports.qq.com/a/20151231/046259.html.

102 Fig. 5.2 PATH schema

5 The Image Schemas in Football Player Transfer News (FPTN) Scenario 1: The smoothness of transfer negotiation

Football Club A

Football Club B

Scenario 2: Career development/Team building process Smooth path

Crooked path

thus routes for movement from location to location. In light of its constitution, such typical recurrent image-schematic patterns are hence named SOURCE-PATH-GOAL Schema (Fig. 5.2), or succinctly PATH Schema. According to Robert Dewell (2005), CONTAINMENT is defined as a location, and paths can then be structured to go into, out of or through that basic location. This remark establishes connections between CONTAINMENT Schema and PATH Schema as in Fig. 5.2, which is conducive to our analysis of FPTNs. Commercial transaction of players is common for professional football clubs because whether a player or a coach has a successful career in a certain club depends on lots of factors. If a player or coach is incapable of giving stunning performance equivalent to the price the club pays to bring him in for a long time, the club will lose confidence and patience in him out of the pressure from the fans and the board of directors, as poor performance of the team is likely to result in the decrease of the club’s share value, thus causing substantial financial losses. In that event, the player/coach will be dismissed or put into the market for sale, meanwhile, the club will target prospective replacement. On the other hand, the player sometimes will have the upper hand and take the initiative to submit a transfer event and seek an alternative path; possible causes may include dissatisfaction with the remuneration package, the coach’s tactic planning or the legitimate status in the squad. Under such circumstances, the club will be obliged to adopt forceful measures to keep the player or to start negotiations with the interested purchasers. The negotiation process will be arduous on account of the interest of different stakeholders, and hence can be conceptualized as the paths leading to various directions and destinations. In general, two sorts of simulated PATH can be identified in FPTN discourses: player and coach’s career development routes in a club, and the smoothness of the ongoing negotiation process. These are dynamic processes that typically involve an initial state and final state, with numerous intermediate actions in between. Gibbs (2003) has always advocated an embodied view of linguistic meaning and refused to conceive of meaning and human cognition as abstract and disembodied symbols. He seeks to acknowledge the importance of embodiment in accounting for a significant part of language use and meaning. We move from place to place on a daily basis

5.3 PATH Schema in FPTN

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and have established familiar mobile patterns (PATH Schema) during our embodied activities. When it comes to image-schematic reasoning in the comprehension of the aforementioned instances, the construction of embodied simulations is inevitable. We will adopt different perspectives and assume different roles in these simulations: in Example 26, we imagine going to the stadium on weekends, in the hope of witnessing some fantastic performances by top-quality players; however, the game turns out to be a disappointment; the team we support gets beaten. We feel frustrated and try to think about the causes of the defeat, and finally we lay the blame on the management staff, complaining about their limited investment in the transfer market. In Example 29, we take the perspective of Sun Ke, imagining having no alternatives but to leave the team, bringing his wife and child to a strange place, and laying all sorts of foundations all over again, which would be overwhelmingly frustrating and challenging. Our brains continuously engage in such imaginative construals of linguistic meaning, and we experience the related emotions as part of our simulation processes. Example 26 The whole idea of going to this big stadium that holds 60,000 people was to bring in top quality players. (Sky sport, Sept. 4, 2015).26 Example 27 Then, of course, you have Chicharito [Javier Hernandez] who may come back from loan. (Sky sport, May 15, 2015).27 Example 28 Spanish newspaper, AS, claimed on Sunday night that a £28m deal for Otamendi to join City had been agreed between the clubs, with Mangala moving in the opposite direction on loan. (Sky sport, Aug. 18, 2015).28 Example 29 孙可告诉记者: “没有人想带着老婆孩子去 去陌生的地方闯荡 (venture in an unfamiliar place)。” (新浪网, 2015年5月12日). (Sun Ke told the reporter: “nobody would want to venture in an unfamiliar place with his wife and child.”(Sina sport, May 12, 2015).29 Example 30 黄健翔说:“对于孙可来说, 转会是一把双刃剑, 千万不要只看眼前, 应该更多地去考虑, 如果走, 去其他球队, (if leave, and join other teams) 方方面 面的环境是否适合自己?” (新浪网, 2015年5月12日). (Football commentator Huang Jianxiang said: the transfer is a double-edged sword for Sun Ke, and he should not simply think about the present moment, but should focus more thoughts on whether all sorts of conditions will be suitable for him if he leaves and joins another team.) (Sina sport, May 12, 2015).30 26 http://www.skysports.com/transfer/news/12691/9977270/arsenal-transfer-inactivity-criticisedby-paul–merson. 27 http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9850888/harry-kane-not-on-the-radar-of-man chester-united. 28 http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11679/9953108/city-close-in-on-otamendi. 29 http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2015-05-12/08367604746.shtml. 30 http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2015-05-12/08367604746.shtml.

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Readers of FPTNs will spontaneously place themselves in the situations described in the linguistic expressions in order to receive the information embedded and capture the underlying intent of discourse writers. In Example 31, readers will pretend to be in the mental shoes of Bale and imagine being the striking leader of the national team, around whom the offensive and defensive tactics revolve and on whom the team members and coach rely heavily. With heavy loads upon his shoulders, he is under enormous pressure to come up with splendid performance in every match and carry his national team toward a satisfying destination, and the path is bound to be rugged and challenging. As for Example 32, there is almost a destination for every path. The coach and the teamwork cooperatively hoping to arrive at a satisfying place, and this common aim provides the biggest motivation. They step forward day by day and find themselves closer to the land of abundance. In Example 33, there are diverse routes leading to the same destination, but some are long-distance and take plenty of time, while some are short-cuts that greatly shorten the range and save much trouble. Example 31 Bale has continued to hit the headlines for Wales, steering them to the brink of Euro 2016 qualification. (Sky sport, Sept. 9, 2015).31 Example 32 We’re not the finished article but we’re getting nearer and nearer and this year is another step forward. (Sky sport, Aug. 21, 2015).32 Example 33 师傅领进门, 修行靠个人, 商业合作永远是现阶段帮助中国球员留 最快捷径 (the fastest shortcut)。(新浪网, 2015年9月23日). 洋的最 (Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself. A business partnership is always the fastest shortcut to helping Chinese players playing abroad at the moment.) (Sina sport, Sept. 23, 2015).33 It is undoubted that not every path is a smooth journey. Players may experience different coaches’ deployments either in matches or daily training, while coaches may also have different strategies concerning the long-term planning with top executives and have difficulties in getting along with players, managing their squads, and fulfilling their duties. Different participants may have divergence over the negotiation details, which would lead to aborted transfers (Example 35). These events and situations occur at a high frequency in professional football teams and can be understood through constant cognitive embodied simulations of outsiders. Example 34 Although the 29-year-old has a year left on his Swansea contract, both club and player accept that a parting of the ways is inevitable. (Sky sport, Aug. 21, 2015).34 31 http://www.skysports.com/transfer/news/12691/9983555/real-madrids-gareth-bale-wont-return-

to-premier-league-agent. 32 http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11065/9958192/swansea-boss-garry-monk-says-jeffer son-montero-stays-but-michu-can-go. 33 http://sports.sina.com.cn/china/j/2015-09-23/doc-ifxhzevf0970037.shtml. 34 http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11065/9958192/swansea-boss-garry-monk-says-jeffer son-montero-stays-but-michu-can-go.

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Example 35 “There is always speculation and obviously I think there was contact from that club to our club but that’s as far as it goes.” (Sky sport, July 25, 2015).35 Example 36 联赛争冠无望, 足协杯命悬一线, 鲁能泰山的2015赛季注定不 不顺 (unsmooth)。对于主帅库卡来说, 已然走 走到了下课的边缘 (walk to the end of the class)。(新浪网, 2015年10月3日). (There’s no hope for them to win the champion in the league, and their fate in FA Cup hangs in the balance: the 2015 season is doomed to be tough for Shandong Luneng. For coach Cuca, he’s approaching the brink of losing his job.) (Sina sport, Oct. 3, 2015).36 Readers will automatically engage in these simulation processes when faced with such cognitive abstract reasoning tasks, and the readers will experience the emotions and psychological status of the subject. As we can see, PATH Schemas are recurring patterns in our experience which play a crucial role in our interpretation of the world.

5.4 CENTER-PERIPHERY Schema in FPTN We experience our bodies as having centers (the trunk and internal organs) and peripheries (fingers, toes, hair). Similarly, trees and other plants have a central trunk and peripheral branches and leaves. The centers are considered as more significantly crucial than the peripheries in two ways: injuries to the central parts are severer (i.e., not mendable and often life-threatening) than injuries to the peripheral parts. Similarly, the center rather than the peripheral parts defines the identity of the individual. A tree that loses its leaves is the same tree. A person whose hair is cut off or who loses a finger is the same person. Thus, the periphery is viewed as dependable on the center, but not reversely: bad circulation may affect the health of your hair, but losing your hair doesn’t affect your circulatory system. Fig. 5.3 shows CENTERPERIPHERY Schema. This universal life experience bears great significance in how we conceptualize our physical surroundings and how we reconstruct notions to be manifested in Fig. 5.3 CENTERPERIPHERY schema

CENTER

PERIPHERY

35 http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11731/9924168/bafetimbi-gomis-is-staying-at-swa

nsea-says-garry-monk. 36 http://sports.sina.com.cn/china/j/2015-10-03/doc-ifximrxn8182159.shtml.

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linguistic communication and comprehension. Instances in Fig. 5.3 selected from FPTNs support such an argument. First glance at the word “target” in Example 37 will bring up the memory of shooting practices, and for those who never have such first-hand physical experiences, they are likely to recall scenes from gangster or spy movies which present similar circumstances. Comprehending this scenario requires us to automatically build a simulation in which we are the football scouts sent into the market searching for prospective reinforcements for the club. This market is so diversified that it contains players of different levels, and our job is to identify the most appropriate ones (aiming for the target) and take them under our wing (securing the target). Reports need to feature a specific target as the main topic. Example 37 Harry Kane is not a summer transfer target for Manchester United, according to Sky Sports News HQ reporter James Cooper. (Sky sport, May 15, 2015).37 From Examples 38, 39 and 40, we can figure out the impact of CENTERPERIPHERY Schema. The principle of “the fittest survives” is true on the pitch, and not everyone has the potential to be a leader and give commands. While those who are entitled to such privileges, the players and coaches have their winning cards. These capable people usually become the center of the club, whether on the pitch or off the pitch, and turn into the focus of attention. “Core of the team” generally refers to key players in the squad who exert a significant impact on the team’s tactical planning and execution, the absence of whom will undoubtedly compromise the squad’s performance. They play the role of CEO in an enterprise, engine in an automobile, core chips of a mobile phone, heart of the human body, and breadwinner of a family. The essence of creating an embodied simulation is to build a sense of what must be like for others, and to have the mental and psychological status as they do, which often requires people to take the perspective of the subject in the relevant context. Automatically imagining and assuming the role of “core of the team” will give a player the supreme power and privileges within the squad: teammates will look up to him on the battlefield as he gives out the tactical instructions, and they will have to cooperate with him so as to be entirely supportive; coaches will also provide him with greater flexibility to maximize his strengths and competitiveness. All attentions are directed toward him as if he were the center of the stage, while the other team members are just errand-runners (the peripheral parts) to ensure everything is in perfect order and the game will proceed as smoothly as it should be. The greater the power, the greater the responsibility, and the greater the pressure too. Enjoying substantial advantages, on the other hand, obligates the player to shoulder greater responsibilities in the battle, and full preparation is required so as to ensure victory to be on his side when he is the fulcrum of the team. 37 http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9850888/harry-kane-not-on-the-radar-of-man

chester-united.

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Example 38 亚洲杯后, 这位舜天核 核心 (core) 成为不少中超球队挖角的对象。( 新浪网, 2015年5月12日). (After the Asian Cup, the core of Shuntian became the target for many CSL teams.)(Sina sport, May 12, 2015).38 Example 39 他们将是贵州人和队明年冲超的基 基石 (cornerstone)。(腾讯网, 2015年11月13日) (They are the cornerstones for Guizhou Renhe in their fighting back to CSL next year.) (qq sport, Nov. 13, 2015).39 Example 40 事实上, 今年舜天为了留住孙可, 在方方面面也展现出了诚意, 主 帅 (the commander in chief) 高洪波甚至将孙可提拔为场 场上队长 (captain on field)。(新浪网, 2015年5月12日). (As a matter of fact, in order to retain Sun Ke, Shuntian has shown sincerity in every aspect and the coach Gao Hongbo even elevated him as captain on the match filed.) (Sina sport, May 12, 2015).40 Some players are destined to play minor parts for the team, i.e., “a peripheral figure” in Example 41, out of congenital factors or postnatal factors. The clubs that they pledge their allegiances to pay less attention to them because of their minor contributions to the team. Some of them are able to adjust themselves properly and accept such deployments; while others find it unacceptable and humiliating and seek alternatives by standing up against authorities, joining the mutiny, turning into rebels, and expecting to bring about revolutions. Example 41 Wenger realised his apparently ageing defence still had much to offer and Garde was left a peripheral figure. (Mirror, Oct. 31, 2015).41 With regard to “the golden period of one’s career” and “at the best of the times” like in Examples 42 and 43, the career trajectory of a football player can be divided into a couple of stages; even though some extraordinarily talented players exhibit splendid potentials at the outset, they will have to undergo the process of “cut and polish” so as to improve their overall qualities and hone their skills. Gradually the players enter their mature stage, namely, the central stage of their career in which their strengths reach the peak, and they attract numerous spotlights as well as profitable contracts. In the wake of the prime, there comes the declining period until the sun finally sets into the horizon. In comparison, therefore, the initial stage and declining stage of a football player’s career are peripheral whereas the prime stage during which his competitive levels reach the summit is central to his career.

38 http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2015-05-12/08367604746.shtml. 39 http://sports.qq.com/a/20151113/010740.html. 40 http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2015-05-12/08367604746.shtml. 41 http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/manchester-united-set-move-real-674

4655.

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Example 42 毕竟他们这几名球员已经是职 职业生涯黄金期 (the golden period of one’s career), 想要一个有保障性的大合同, 我们能理解。(新浪网, 2015年5月12 日). (After all, these players are already in their golden periods of their careers, and we can understand that they want guaranteed lucrative contracts.) (Sina sport, May 12, 2015).42 Example 43 加上这些球员都是当 当打之年 (the best fighting age), 因此最终离队 可能并不大。(腾讯网, 2015年11月28日). (In addition, these players are at the best of the times, therefore the possibility of them leaving is slim.)(qq sport, Nov. 28, 2015).43 Since enterprises have ownership of football clubs, they normally engage in a diversified range of businesses such as in Examples 44, 45 and 46. Club managements require proportionate distributions of resources, such as human resources and funding. Some aspects of business will take up the majority of resources and become the center spot; whereas others play necessarily supportive roles, ensuring the proper operation of the Group. Hence, the image-schematic structure of CENTERPERIPHERY is pervasive and has substantial influence on our understanding of and interaction with the world we live in. 器重 (think Example 44 “毕竟在舜天, 有那么多的球迷在支持他, 俱乐部也器 highly of)他, 不出现伤病等意外情况, 主力(top player) 肯定是能保证的。” (新 浪网, 2015年5月12日). (In Shuntian, after all, there are so many fans supportive of him, and the club holds him in high regard; without unexpected injuries, a place of top player will definitely be guaranteed.)(Sina sport, May 12, 2015).44 Example 45 他的主 主要精力 (main focus) 都放在了人和集团的经营业务上。(腾 讯网, 2015年12月29日). (His main focus is on the business erations of the Renhe Group.)(qq sport, Dec. 29, 2015).45 以足球为核心 (center on football), 全面提升 Example 46 在体育方面, 苏宁将以 足球俱乐部运营与竞技水平。(腾讯网, 2015年12月30日). (In sports, Suning will center on football and improve the overall operating level and competitiveness of the football club.) (qq sport, Dec. 30, 2015).46

42 http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2015-05-12/08367604746.shtml. 43 http://sports.qq.com/a/20151128/023683.html. 44 http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2015-05-12/08367604746.shtml. 45 http://sports.qq.com/a/20151229/013445.html. 46 http://sports.qq.com/a/20151230/051581.html.

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5.5 SCALE Schema in FPTN SCALE Schema refers to a dimension that crosscuts many different types of perceptual and non-perceptual experiences. Our world is experiencing the terms of “more”, “less”, and “the same”. We can have more, less, or the same “number” of objects, “amount” of substances, “degree” of force, or “intensity” of sensation. This “more” or “less” aspect of human experience is the basis of the SCALE Schema as shown in Fig. 5.4 (Johnson 1987: 122). Picture a familiar scene where we are leaving home again for boarding school after a short weekend: parents urge us again and again to pack more groceries and foodstuffs for fear that we will be starving in the middle of the night, to take more clothing to prevent us from catching a cold, and to fill our pockets with more than enough allowances in case of emergency. Imagine a situation in which a group of people is preparing for a late-night party, and some of them are blowing air into balloons: as the air thickens, the balloon puffs up gradually, and when the amount of air increases, it creates an ever-growing internal pressure within the balloon. When the pressure exceeds the extension limit of the material that makes up the balloon, the balloon will burst with a bang. The startling sound might scare a child, but for those grown-ups getting ready for the party, it might just lighten up the atmosphere and the emotions. As can be observed in Examples 47, 48, 49, 50 and 51, SCALE is an abstract parameter of degree that is employed to describe both the physical objects and the abstract entities involved in specific events. This type of measurement tool is rather ubiquitous in human experience; it is fundamental to both the quantitative and qualitative dimensions of our experience. As far as the quantitative dimension is concerned, our physical world is experienced as consisting of dissimilar objects that we can categorize in numerous ways and substances we can increase and decrease. As regarding the qualitative dimension, physical objects and events are generally experienced as possessing a certain degree of intensity. Example 47 Manchester United are expected to make more moves in the transfer market after the signing of Memphis Depay. (Sky sport, May 15, 2015).47 Fig. 5.4 SCALE schema

47 http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/9850888/harry-kane-not-on-the-radar-of-man

chester-united.

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Example 48 Juventus are becoming increasingly confident that they will be able to sign Chelsea’s Colombian international Juan Cuadrado on a permanent deal. (Mirror, Oct. 23, 2015).48 Example 49 “此前有很多球员, 一味追求去更 更好的球队 (better team), 拿更 更高 的工资 (higher salary), 但最后结果却是职业生涯都荒废了, 得不偿失啊。” (新 浪网, 2015年5月12日). (“Previously, many players simply went after better teams and higher salaries, but ended with completely wasted careers; the loss outweighs the gain.”) (Sina sport, May 12, 2015).49 Example 50 斯托伊科维奇把这次保级任务称为“不堪回首的艰苦考验”, 因为 难度比他之前想象的大太多 (the difficulties are more than he imagined before) 。(新浪网, 2015年10月29日). (Stojkovic refers to this avoiding-relegation mission as “arduous ordeal that he cannot bear to think of”, because the difficulty was much greater than he had imagined.) (Sina sport, Oct. 29, 2015).50 Example 51 说到中国球员, 我看到里皮在两年半的时间里让球队在战术上有 很大的进步 (great progress), 我看到中国球员越 越来越投入训练, 越来越敬业 了很 (more and more devote to training, and commit themselves to their professions), 当然, 这些变化都跟外教和外援的到来有关系。(新浪网, 2015年11月1日). (Speaking of Chinese players, I have seen the remarkable progress in team tactics realized by Lippi in two and a half years, and Chinese players are becoming increasingly devoted to their training, more and more committed themselves to their professions. Certainly, these changes have something to do with the arrival of foreign coaches and players.) (Sina sport, Nov. 1, 2015).51 It is obvious that the phenomenon of SCALE schematic constructions is “rampant” in both Chinese and English FPTNs, and that most of the Examples 47, 48, 49, 50 and 51 involve comparative-degree grammatical devices indicating a comparison/change of the status of quantity/quality. Noticeably, not all the targets surrounded by modifiers are physical objects, and these modifying devices are frequently employed in describing abstract degrees. Nonetheless, readers are still open to build embodied simulations to figure out these expressions and, meanwhile, feel the abstract levels. Examples 52, 53, 54 and 55 are presented in sharp contrast with Examples 47, 48, 49, 50 and 51. These examples are chosen because they contain superlative-degree devices, signifying the extreme levels of concepts. They are pervasive in expressing the pole value of adjectives (Example 52), in describing extreme conditions (Example 53), and in depicting the qualitative nature of concepts (the financial level 48 http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/juventus-growing-increasingly-confident-

keeping–6694229. 49 http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2015-05-12/08367604746.shtml. 50 http://sports.sina.com.cn/china/j/2015-10-29/doc-ifxkhcfn4163770.shtml. 51 http://sports.sina.com.cn/china/j/2015-11-01/doc-ifxkhcfk7502488.shtml.

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of a quotation in Example 54, the motivational level for a football player in Example 55). In Example 55, it’s not difficult to engage in a simulation in which our bodies are giant containers filled with positive energies that overwhelm us. We always feel inspired to perform actions that may prompt preferable results. Example 52 The 19-year-old, who scored 11 goals in 49 appearances for Monaco, became the most expensive teenager in the world after completing his move to Old Trafford. (Sky sport, Sept. 3, 2015).52 Example 53 在保 保级最危险(the most dangerous situation)的时候, 这家公司 不小的热情 甚至做好了从中甲接过球队的准备, 显然对于投资天津足球有着不 (great enthusiasm)。(新浪网, 2015年11月2日). (Even in the most dangerous situation of avoiding relegation, this company prepared itself to take over a China League team; it obviously has enormous enthusiasm in investing Tianjin Football.)(Sina sport, Nov. 2, 2015).53 Example 54 不过, 据知情人士透露, 切尔西方面的报价远 远远没达到 (far below) 最低报价 (the lowest quotation)” 张琳芃之前与俱乐部达成的“留洋触动条款的最 。(新浪网, 2015年8月30日). (However, according to informed sources, the offer from Chelsea is far below the lowest quotation that was agreed upon between Zhang Linpeng and the club to trigger an overseas transfer.) (Sina sport, Aug. 30, 2015).54 Example 55 埃尔克森坦言:“我总是想赢, 你在国外踢球, 没有什么比赢得冠军 更好的了 (nothing is better than winning the champion ship), 所以这对于一个 最大的动力 (the greatest motivation)。” (新浪网, 2015年11月1日). 球员来说是最 (Elkeson admits honestly: “I always want to win, and there’s nothing better than winning the champion, which is the greatest motivation for a player.”) (Sina sport, Nov. 1, 2015).55 Examples 56, 57 and 58 show other frequently adopted tools to reveal the change of quantitative status. It’s interesting that the words like “double” in Example 56, “treble” in Example 57 seem to have underlying scalar schematic structures that offer them inherent scalar meanings. Example 56 He was double spicy on loan at Villarreal last season, which means Liverpool will probably still have to pay way over the odds for him. (The Guardian, Sept. 21, 2015).56 52 http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11667/9976968/manchester-united-trebled-offer-foranthony-martial-within-a-week. 53 http://sports.sina.com.cn/china/j/2015-11-02/doc-ifxkhcfn4264802.shtml. 54 http://sports.sina.com.cn/j/2015-08-30/12577689763.shtml. 55 http://sports.sina.com.cn/china/j/2015-11-01/doc-ifxkhcfk7502488.shtml. 56 http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/sep/21/football-transfer-rumour-mill-manchesterunited-aaron-cresswell-west-ham.

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Example 57 Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev has revealed Manchester United almost trebled their offer for Anthony Martial within a week. (Sky sport, Sept. 3, 2015).57 Example 58 财大气粗的后者甚至做出了年 年薪翻番 (double annual salary)的承 诺。(搜狐网, 2016年2月14日). (The latter with deep pockets even made the promise of doubling annual salaries.) (Sohu sport, Feb. 14, 2015).58 Example 59 puts forward an intriguing question: why is AMOUNT based on verticality rather than some other important schema? Johnson (1987) suggests the answer that there are certain basic correlations of structures in our experiences that give rise to metaphorical projections of this sort. When we add more of a substance to a pile or container, the level rises. It appears that human beings are excellent in establishing similarities based on their embodied experience and finding connections between similar structures. In Examples 60 and 61, we use the structural similarities of PATH Schema (nowhere near) and PART-WHOLE Schema (partially) to understand scalar status, respectively. Example 59 But Vasilyev confirmed Arsene Wenger’s claim that the figure will eventually rise to £57.6m. (Sky sport, Sept. 3, 2015).59 Example 60 Gareth Bale was “nowhere near” a summer transfer from Real Madrid and is unlikely to play again in the Premier League, according to his agent. (Sky sport, Sept. 9, 2015).60 Example 61 Prolific last term, he’s scored only one goal in eight matches this season and recently explained that his dip in form is down not only to back trouble but also partially to the fact that his summer holidays were ruined by the Lyon chairman, Jean-Michel Aulas, claiming publicly during contract negotiations that Lacazette had been offered an annual salary of at least e4m. (The Guardian sport, Sept. 29, 2015).61 It is obvious that the instances enumerated generally have something to do with the concept of amount/number. Put it another way, the SCALE Schema is normally characterized by both its cumulative and decrescent features, though most of the cases above are cumulative-prone. As we can see, this schema is employed to define 57 http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11667/9976968/manchester-united-trebled-offer-foranthony-martial-within-a-week. 58 http://sports.sohu.com/20160214/n437326113.shtml. 59 http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11667/9976968/manchester-united-trebled-offer-foranthony-martial-within-a-week. 60 http://www.skysports.com/transfer/news/12691/9983555/real-madrids-gareth-bale-wont-returnto-premier-league-agent. 61 http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/sep/29/football-transfer-rumours-yacine-brahimichelsea-porto.

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not only concrete entities such as money, but also abstract entities such as the competitiveness of a team, the complexity of a situation, and the degree of commitment to one’s profession. One thing that should be noted is that when SCALE Schema is involved in concrete entities, the focus generally falls on the quantitative dimension, and when SCALE Schema is involved in abstract entities, we are generally talking about the qualitative dimension. Let us take a further look at Example 62 concerning this schema from a more “recreating” perspective. 花了太多冤枉钱, 走了太多冤枉 Example 62 本赛季, 富力的投入不算低, 只是花 路 (spend too much pointless money, walk too many wrong roads)。(新浪网, 2015年10月29日). (This season, the investment of R&F was not small; they merely spent too much money in the wrong ways and walked down too many wrong paths.) (Sina sport, Oct. 29, 2015).62 Example 62 may remind us of our unpleasant shopping experience when we spend a large sum of money on an item that once appeared impeccable and now is full of loopholes. We regret making the purchasing decision yet there’s nothing we can do about it but to face reality. Under certain circumstances, we may even have to increase the amount of our investment on the item to make it functional. That’s just like paying for a dead horse. On the other hand, the expressions will also probably represent our unpleasant journeys in which we wasted too much time and energies walking down the wrong ways before we finally arrive at the destination. It’s like we are intrinsically capable of making reasonable and logical connections and recreating instant pictures based on these written expressions to facilitate our understanding, yet these different image-schematic structures (image schemas) are step-stones paved (by recurring experiences) along the way. This experientially basic, value-laden structure of our grasp of both concrete and abstract entities is one of the most pervasive image-schematic structures in our understanding (Johnson 1987: 123). Abstract entities of many sorts are adequately covered due to the extension of this image schema which initially springs from our experiences of concrete and physical entities. Thanks to the metaphorical extension, we are capable of understanding practically every expect of our life experiences with the help of SCALE Schema. When it comes to FPTNs, the presence of this image-schematic structure is also noticeable.

5.6 Arithmetical Analysis of Image Schemas in FPTN The adoption of the qualitative analytical method with the consideration of varied image schematic patterns presents a picture of the bodily experience of human beings with both concrete physical behaviors and abstract cognitive thoughts, revealing the 62 http://sports.sina.com.cn/china/j/2015-10-29/doc-ifxkhcfn4163770.shtml.

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Table 5.1 Numbers of image schemas in English and Chinese FPTNs Image schemas

English FPTNs Numbers

Container

Chinese FPTNs Percentage (%)

Numbers

Percentage (%)

116

29

114

Path

82

21

109

24 23

Center-periphery

51

13

69

15

Scale

146

37

179

38

Total

395

100

471

100

Note FPTN = Football player transfer news

substantial and indispensable role Image Schema has played in our daily life. The results demonstrate how we human beings perceive our physical surroundings and abstract information in different cognitive tasks with the aid of image schema and that image schemas assume significant roles in our life. Nevertheless, quantitative analysis will unfold an entirely different landscape which clearly indicates writers’ linguistic preferences and the usage proportion of various elements that constitute the main body of FPTNs. After a careful calculation of the identified image schema structures within the database, the author obtains a better understanding of the footprints of such structures and some noticeable numbers are listed in Table 5.1. As can be seen in Table 5.1, English and Chinese FPTNs share the same pattern in terms of the usage frequency of targeted image schemas, from high-level to low-level: SCALE>CONTAINER>PATH>CENTER-PERIPHERY. This is purely an amazing coincidence which is totally unexpected. Although the total number of image schemas in Chinese FPTNs is greater than that of English, and the number of PATH, CENTERPERIPHERY, and SCALE Schemas in Chinese FPTNs holds a small lead, respectively, compared to their English counterparts, the English database involves more CONTAINER Schemas. This may serve as important evidence that English reporters tend to conceptualize various scenarios in their area of expertise (sports transfer reporting) in terms of CONTAINERs and favor the use of CONTAINER schema in encoding the messages they want to convey and recreating their personal understanding of specific events which they want to present to readers. Most SCALE Schemas are understandable because FPTNs generally contain business transactionrelated information that inevitably includes the scale status (both qualitative and quantitative) of contract values or other abstract concepts. A large number of PATH Schema is conceivable since FPTNs usually touch upon the driving factors behind specific transfer events or rumors, and the devious paths that the subjects of the news have been experiencing may motivate the transfer or introduction of players to justify the clubs’ past misdoings or help clubs to reach next possible successful destinations. When it comes to the frequency of usage, CENTER-PERIPHERY Schema comes to rank the last, but its existence should draw our attention, because football is a group event that has its own focus, such as core players, head coaches, and chief executives that play dominant roles in triggering and stabilizing the chemical reactions within the team.

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On the writers’ and readers’ cognitive process of sports news, we can argue that their discursive changes within the process of cognition have generally been reasonably both concretive and metaphysical: linguistic variations in sports discourses with regard to values, rules, practices, and ethos are associated with the sporting business, and news writers have tended to release their considerations of sports players’ performing and professional skills together with sports clubs’ maximum business turnover and profits. The sports news writers, who might represent the sports clubs and institutions, and transform their ideas and perceptions into public readers. They, for example, carefully and strategically integrate the concept and sensibility of players’ “trading” into the discourses and the players are in effect to bring the club to “rise in rank” and financially payoff. Thus, the notion that discourse and cognition are coterminous to help people conceive of thoughts as situated activities, and FPCTN discourses are situationally and specifically adapted to the material and social affordances of the sports environment. The author views news writers’ thought and reasoning process as inherently (and throughout their life span) social activities in which sports news is not just a means by which people learn to think about the sports issues, but also how they engage in thinking about them.

5.7 Summary Given the interrelation between language and cognition by which cognition is projected onto language and language reveals human cognition, the author decodes the language usages employed in news reports through image schematization to reproduce the “cognitive map” of news composers in their ways to perceive the world and exert influence on newsreaders’ ways of perception. By means of representing the image schematization based on the widely utilized five image schemas in sports discourses on player’s trading, covering CONTAINMENT, PATH, CENTERPERIPHERY, and SCALE, the research of this book compares the detailed language adoptions of image schematic structures flagged by semantic words in both Chinese and English FPTNs, and obtains a preliminary sketch of varied cognitive frames and cognition reflected by the language usage. The dynamic linguistic representations and simulations based on specific news excerpts dedicated by the author unwind the mysterious “cognitive pattern” in the forms of schematization and cognitive flow reproduction grounded on the principles of cognitive semantics and cognitive grammar, especially in the levels of semantics and discourse, which adds much comprehensiveness and novelty to this cognitive contrastive study in this book.

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References Damasio, A. (1999). The feeling of what happens: Body and emotion in the making of consciousness. New York: Harcourt Brace and Co. Damasio, A. (2003). Looking for Spinoza: Joy, sorrow, and the feeling brain. New York: Harcourt Brace and Co. Davis, M., & Stone, T. (1995). Mental simulation: Evaluations and applications—Reading in mind and language. Oxford: Blackwell. Dewell, R. (2005). Dynamic patterns of CONTAINMENT. In B. Hampe (Ed.), From perception to meaning: Image schemas in cognitive linguistics (pp. 369–393). Berlin/ New York: Mouton de Gruyter. Gibbs, R. W. (2003). Embodied experience and linguistic meaning. Brain and Language, 84, 1–15. Gibbs, R., Jr. (2010). The wonderful, chaotic, creative, heroic, challenging world of researching and applying metaphor: A celebration of the past and some peeks into the future. In G. Low, T. Zazie, D. Alice, & L. Cameron (Eds.), Researching and applying metaphor in the real world (pp. 1–17). John Benjamins: Amsterdam/Philadelphia. Johnson, M. (1987). The body in the mind: The bodily basis of meaning, imagination, and reason. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Richardson, D., Spivey, M., Barsalou, L., et al. (2003). Spatial representation activated during real-time comprehension of verbs. Cognitive Science, 27, 767–780.

Chapter 6

The Cognitive Stance in Corporate Statements on Commodities (CSC)

Abstract Within this chapter, the author conducts a cognitive semantic study on stance markers within a corporate statement on commodities (CSC) discourses. Initially, the author identifies the discoursal moves with lexical grammar from the perspective of genre focusing on vocabularies and their functions in sentence structures, figuring out its specific communicative purposes as well as lexico-grammatical features. Then, the analysis is followed by a lexical study on stance markers within the discoursal moves to illustrate the different linguistic forms in the cognitive frames with different communicative purposes. Keywords Cognitive stance · Generic structure potential · Move structure · Stance markers · Lexical preference

6.1 GSP in Chinese and English CSCs with Typical Lexico-Grammar As the author has mentioned, the first step to analyze the CSC corpus is to identify the moves in each discourse for commodity issues. The following two samples in Tables 6.1 and 6.2 illustrate the moves with regard to its communicative purposes with special attention to each move’s lexico-grammar. From the analysis in Table 6.1, it can be observed that this discourse consists of six moves which can be sequenced simply according to the Generic Structure Potential (GSP) formula proposed by Hasan (1989) like this: SEB∧ EG∧ CT∧ DP∧ IM∧ EE The formula presents a fixed sequence in the Chinese CSC discourse: SEB = Move 1, EG = Move 2, CT = Move 3, DP = Move 4, IM = Move 5, and EE = Move 6. (1) Stating Event Background (SEB) It offers background information on what has happened to this corporate and why this statement is released to the public. The description can be either very detailed or simple; meanwhile, some SEBs are marked by specific dates, especially the © Science Press 2020 W. Yang, A Cross-Cultural Study of Commercial Media Discourses, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8617-0_6

117

MV 2: Extending Gratitude

关于近期有关媒体 (With regard to the recent media report on) “奶粉疑致女婴性早熟, 消费者担忧” 的报道 (report), × × 营养食品有限公司 (下称 “ × × 公司”) 就此事做出如下声明 (makes the following statement on this matter): (With regard to the recent media report on “Milk powder is suspected to cause precocious puberty among baby girls and consumers are concerned about it”, × × International Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “× × Company”) makes the following statement on this matter:)

作为 (as) 中国婴幼儿配方食品的著名品牌公司 (famous brand company), × × 公司首先对关注 (attend to) 中国乳 品行业健康发展、关注中国婴幼儿身体健康的媒体记者朋友们 (media friends) 表示感谢 (extend gratitude to) (As a famous brand company for infant and young child food production in China, × × Company initially extends gratitude to the media friends who attend to the development of the Chinese dairy industry and the health of infants and young children.)

对于最近某些媒体关于婴幼儿 “性早熟” 的报道, 我们在此郑重声明 × × 公司生产销售的产品是安全的, 不存在 MV 3: Clarifying 添加任何 “激素” 等违规物质的行为。× × 公司的产品反复接受各级政府职能部门的检测 (undergo/receive tests the Truth by government agencies at all levels), 均未发现任何质量问题 (none of them have been found with any quality problems)。常年来, × × 公司在婴幼儿营养领域投入巨资进行基础性研究, 对 × × 产品的科学性、安全性具有 充分的把握和信心, 特别是激素含量更无懈可击 (Regarding some recent reports on “precocious puberty” in infants and young children, we hereby solemnly state that the products produced and sold by × × Company are safe, without any illegal substances like “hormone”. The products produced by × × Company have repeatedly undergone tests by government agencies at all levels, and none of them have been found with any quality problems. For years, × × Company has invested heavily in basic research in infant and child nutrition, and we have absolute trust and confidence in terms of scientificity and safety; particularly, the content of hormone is unarguable.)

Moves (MV) MV 1: Stating Event Background

Chinese statement (1)

Table 6.1 Move structures of a Chinese CSC Communicative purposes

(continued)

Denying the negative reports about the company firmly to show strong confidence

Showing clearly the company’s gratitude to the public’s attention to the event to show politeness and the positive image of this company

Telling the public why this statement is released

118 6 The Cognitive Stance in Corporate Statements on Commodities (CSC)

Expressing the company’s hope and trust in good results to show its confidence

× × 公司会积极配合国家相关部门的工作, 相信 (believe) 最终结果能够给予 (give) × × 公司乃至整个乳品行 MV 6: Expressing 业一个公道 (justice) Expectations (× × Company will actively cooperate with the government authorities, and we believe that the justice will be given to × × Company and the entire dairy industry.)

Source of the statement https://news.qq.com/a/20100807/001231.htm, 7th, August, 2010

Listing the measures the company has taken positively to show its resolution and sincerity

× × 公司认为此事如不得到公正客观的报道, 将严重损害中国乳品行业的形象。鉴于此 (in view of this), × × 公 MV 5: Illustrating 司已将事态上报 (has reported the situation to) 中国乳制品工业协会, 并由其向国家主管部门汇报 (report) 恳请查明 Measures 事实, 给全社会一个科学严谨的交代 (× × Company holds that if this matter is not reported fairly and objectively, it will badly harm the image of the Chinese dairy industry. In view of this, × × Company has reported the situation to the China Dairy Industry Association, and then through which reports to the national authorities, hoping that the fact will be ascertained and the whole society will be given a scientific and precise answer.)

Communicative purposes Conveying its attitude and showing its stance to build a positive and powerful image to the public

Moves (MV)

× × 公司欢迎 (welcome) 来自媒体的监督和支持 (supervisions and supports)。对于普通消费者缺乏专业知识、心 MV 4: Defining its 存误解我们表示理解 (understand); 但是 (however) 对于某些媒体断章取义、有意歪曲事实的报道表示遗憾 (feel Position regret), 认定配方奶粉导致 “性早熟” 是不科学非理性的, 国际国内的大量科研文献对此早有定论; 必要时 (if necessary), × × 公司会采用法律手段来保护企业和消费者的利益 (take legal actions to protect the interests of itself and its customers)。近期报道中说, 政府职能部门已经采集了武汉地区 “性早熟” 消费者使用的产品, 请媒体记者向 政府职能部门咨询, 并敦促尽早公布结果, 澄清事件真伪 (× × Company welcomes supervisions and supports from the media. For general consumers, we understand that they may have misunderstandings for the lack of professional knowledge; however, we feel regret that some media reporters have garbled reports out of context and intended to distort the facts. We believe that it is unscientific and irrational to conclude that infant formula causes “precocious puberty”. This fact has long been proved by lots of scientific research both at home and abroad; if necessary, × × Company should take legal actions to protect the interests of itself and its customers. It is reported recently that government agencies have already collected the products used by customers of “precocious puberty” in Wuhan. We would appreciate it if reporters would consult government agencies and urge them to announce the result and clarify the facts as early as possible.)

Chinese statement (1)

Table 6.1 (continued)

6.1 GSP in Chinese and English CSCs with Typical Lexico-Grammar 119

Certain recalls that have happened elsewhere in the world but not applicable in China have involved one of the following MV 4: Illustrating three circumstances: A. the products were not registered or sold in China at the time of the recall; B. the products of the Measures same category were sold in China but were supplied by a manufacturer that is different from the manufacturer of the products subject to recall; or C. the products of the same category were sold in China, but the recalled product lots were not sold in China

Move 3: Defining its Position

The company sticks to implementing the same open and transparent product recall system across the world, which reflects its commitment to the safety and well being of the people it serves

(continued)

Explicating the measure the company takes to deal with the issue to present a responsible or efficient company to the public

Conveying the company’s stance by emphasizing its commitment to build a responsible and positive corporate image

Telling the public what has happened to this company and the follow-ups of this event

MV 2: Stating Event Background

On June 13, senior leaders of J&J’s China subsidiaries met senior officials of CFDA to report on the company’s global-wide consistent product quality policy and quality management system and product recall process, and the recent media report on our product recall

Communicative purposes Conveying the company’s stance and attitude by stressing its business philosophy and operational rules to build a responsible and positive corporate image

Move (MV)

High product quality and the safety and well being of the people we serve is J&J’s No. 1 priority in China and in every MV 1: Defining its other country in which we operate Position Whether in our pharmaceutical, medical device or consumer businesses, J&J’s China subsidiaries and their products are always in strict compliance with Chinese laws and regulations and applicable technical standards. We adhere to the same quality standards and quality management system and utilize the same product recall standards in China as we do in all other countries or regions J&J’s China subsidiaries have reported all product recalls conducted in China in accordance with CFDA’s rules and relevant information has been published by CFDA on its official website since the authority introduced its product recall online publication system We have strict requirements for product quality and constantly endeavor to improve and enhance the quality of our products. Whenever a recall is necessary due to product quality issues, we will initiate and implement the recall without hesitation in accordance with applicable local regulations and our internal quality management process and timely report it to regulatory authorities

English statement (1)

Table 6.2 Move structures of an English CSC

120 6 The Cognitive Stance in Corporate Statements on Commodities (CSC)

Source of the statement http://news.qq.com/a/20100807/001231.htm, 13th, June, 2013

Showing the attitude of being grateful for the attention and of longing for super-vision from the public and media to build an open and confident corporate image

MV 6: Extending Gratitude

And greatly appreciates the attention paid by media and the public to us

Communicative purposes Informing the public of the general and developing directions about the crisis to show its resolution and future faith and to win back loyalty from consumers

Move (MV)

With our continuous commitment to public health, J&J’s China subsidiaries will continue to improve and enhance quality MV 5: Making management system, sincerely accept supervision and guidance from CFDA and all other regulatory authorizes Promises

English statement (1)

Table 6.2 (continued)

6.1 GSP in Chinese and English CSCs with Typical Lexico-Grammar 121

122

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

(8)

(9)

6 The Cognitive Stance in Corporate Statements on Commodities (CSC)

15th, March, the International Day for Consumers’ Rights and Interests in China, when many products problems are usually uncovered by mass media. Extending Gratitude (EG) It conveys clearly the company’s gratitude to the public’s attention to the event to show politeness and the positive image of this company. Clarifying the Truth (CT) In this move, the company tries to explicate clearly the facts by denying the reports or providing authoritative evidence to prove that its products or services are safe or qualified, showing strong confidence, telling the public the reasons, or illustrating the whole true event to express sincere concern, shouldering responsibilities for consumers, or making them assured. Defining its Position (DP) This move serves to show clearly the company’s stance and convey its attitude and judgment by stressing feelings, such as regrets, pity, sorrow, and blame. Business philosophy and directions, corporate mission and objectives, corporate values and its active role in the event, legal rights to show sincerity, politeness and the positive and powerful corporate image, and so on are also the main contents in this move. Illustrating Measures (IM) In IM move, the company lists the measures it will take or the efforts it will make to deal with the commodity issues to present its action, resolution, and sincerity. The measures or efforts can either be already done or planned. Expressing Expectations (EE) It is normal and optimistic to have hope or expectations in mind. Via this move, the company expects justice, good results of this problem, or a brighter future for the company, and even for the whole industry, reflecting the strong confidence to some extent. In China, owing to various considerations, Chinese companies often apply more moves to present their current situations (PCS), to eliminate doubts from the public (ED) and to make promises (MP) in their reports. Presenting Current Situation (PCS) The public is curious about the whole event, from the beginning to the end, therefore, informing the public of the latest information about the procedures of dealing with the problems to imply that the company has taken actions. Eliminating Doubts (ED) If a problem happens, it is common for the public to have doubts or worries on the corporate even if it has taken measures to cope with it. In order to reassure the public especially consumers and win their hearts, this move is often utilized. Making Promises (MP) Pointing out directions for the company with the endeavors to make progress can not only present the public with a responsible corporate image but also show its resolutions.

Based on the detailed analysis of Chinese CSCs in the corpus, the author proposes a possible formula of moves in the Chinese CSC discourse as following:

6.1 GSP in Chinese and English CSCs with Typical Lexico-Grammar

SEB^

{CT)^[(PCS)

(ED)]

(DP)

(IM)}^(MP)

(EG)

123

^(EE)

SEB: Stating Event Background

CT: Clarifying the Truth

PCS: Presenting the Current Situation

ED: Eliminating Doubts

DP: Defining its Position

IM: Illustrating Measures

MP: Making Promises

EG: Extending Gratitude

EE: Expressing Expectations

(): optional moves

ˆ: fixed sequence

[]: restraint on sequence

·: flexible sequence (more than one sequence) (

): can recur anywhere within the braces {} and the super-braces {}

This above move structure can be interpreted as: firstly, the moves within the parentheses “()” are all optional while the moves without parentheses are obligatory. Secondly, “ˆ” means that the sequence between the previous and following moves is constant, which cannot be changed flexibly. For example, the move SEB must appear before all the other moves and EE moves are forced to follow after all other moves. Thirdly, “·” indicates that the move’s sequence is flexible, being able to appear either before or after another move. For instance, PCS can be either before ED or after ED. Besides, the bracket “[]” illustrates the restraint on the move sequence; here, it conveys that both PCS and ED should be after CT. Furthermore, there is another very important point that should be mentioned here. As we can see from the analysis of )” Chinese CSCs, parts of the moves appear twice in one statement; therefore, “( is used here to explicate that the moves with this feature can reoccur at any position in the limited range, here, the braces are shown as {} and the super-braces are shown as “{}”. Having analyzed the GSP with lexico-grammar applied in Chinese CSCs, the author follows the same pattern to study the corresponding English CSCs. Following the same pattern, the author figures out that the English CSC discourse consists of six moves which can be listed as follows: DP∧ SEB∧ DP∧ IM∧ MP∧ EG The sequence in the English CSC discourse include DP = Move 1, SEB = Move 2, DP = Move 3, IM = Move 4, MP = Move 5 and EG = Move 6. (1) Defining its Position (DP). In DP move, the company tries to show its concerns, understanding, attitude to the event, providing the public by stressing its business philosophy, commitments, and operational rules to build a responsible and positive corporate image. This move appears again after Move 2 (SEB), functioning as an emphasis of the company position.

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6 The Cognitive Stance in Corporate Statements on Commodities (CSC)

(2) Stating Event Background (SEB). Some companies want to keep the consumers informed of what had happened to the companies, or the whole processes or follow-ups of the events; thus the means of giving background information may be adopted. Through this move, the company may have the purpose to show considerateness and openness to the public. (3) Illustrating Measures (IM). IM move is utilized to present the efforts the company has made, makes, is making, or will make, or the measures it has taken, takes, is taking or will take to deal with the issue actively and responsibly so as to build a positive and efficient image for the company in front of the public. (4) Clarifying the Truth (CT). When an unexpected and urgent commodity problem occurs to a company, presenting the event clearly and explicitly to the public to avoid any misunderstanding the public might encounter is necessary. Such a move is an optional one for the company reports, depending on the necessity of truth clarification. (5) Making Promises (MP). In MP move, showing its resolution and future faith, winning back loyalty from consumers, promising to inform the public of the general developing directions about the problem are the purposes for the company to achieve. It seems that this move overlaps with measures the company will take in IM move, but they are not the same since IM emphasizes concrete actions to solve the commodity problems while MP which always occurs after IM provides the general directions regarding the commodity issues. (6) Providing Further Information (PFI). Providing further information means that the company presents some not very commodity-related information, but they may serve as positive points to support the company’s position from another perspective. The common practice may include exposure of private communication between persons concerned, listing of websites for reference, explanation of terms as well as common sense, and so on. Like CT move, PFI move is an optional one too for a company to consider how much information it wants to release to the public. (7) Extending Gratitude (EG). In this move, the attitude of being grateful for attention and supervision from the public and media is highlighted in order to build a corporate image of openness and confidence. (8) Expressing Expectations (EE). When problems happen, it is normal for the public to expect the company to respond. But as a legal identity in the society, it also has expectations such as good results or others’ cooperation since it may not be the one which should take full responsibility. Since all moves are sequenced in each statement with the definition of natures, there should be some rules among them when they are analyzed from a holistic viewpoint. Having gone through all the presentations and the possibilities of moves sequences, the author generates the generic structure potential as the following formula:

6.1 GSP in Chinese and English CSCs with Typical Lexico-Grammar

SEB: Stating Event Background

CT: Clarifying the Truth

IM: Illustrating Measures

DP: Defining its Position

EE: Expressing Expectations

MP: Making Promises

PFI: Providing Further Information

EG: Extending Gratitude

(): optional moves

ˆ: fixed sequence

·: flexible sequence ( more than one sequence)

[]: restraint on sequence

(

125

): can recur anywhere within the braces { } : can recur anywhere within the braces {}

First of all, the moves within these parentheses “()” are all optional ones while the moves without parentheses is obligatory, here, the DP. Secondly, “ˆ” means that the sequence between the previous and following moves is fixed, which cannot be changed flexibly. For instance, the move SEB must appear in front of the move CT while EG is supposed to follow other moves. Thirdly, “·” indicates that the move’s sequence is flexible and can appear either before or after another move. For instance, IM can be either before or after DP. Besides, there is another very important point that should be mentioned. As we can see in Table 6.2, parts of moves appear twice ” are used here )” and “ or even three times in one statement; therefore, “( to explicate that the moves with this feature can recur at any position in the limited range, which also means that IM can recur in the braces “{}” and DP can recur in the super-braces “{}”. Furthermore, the bracket “[]” illustrates the restraint on the move sequence, which means that IM can only recur before or after DP. Having identified the moves in discourse structures, the author will move to the next section to analyze the stance markers in both Chinese and English CSCs.

6.2 Identification of Stance Markers in Chinese CSC News Reports The main concepts in stance theories, such as boosters, hedges, evidentiality, and so on, have been explicated in Chap. 2 with some new interpretations by the author to facilitate the study. Boosters’ original meanings are to allow the writers to show certainty to their statements and solidarity with the audience, and to stress the shared information, group membership, and engagement with readers which are extended into containing the extreme emphasis or highlighting viewpoints. Another one is evidentiality which refers to the writer’s expressed commitment to the reliability of the propositions he or she presents and their potential impact on the reader (Hyland 2005) and is mainly limited to the source of one proposition or an event to avoid the overlaps. Besides, the analysis of attitudinal markers focuses on commonly-used

126

6 The Cognitive Stance in Corporate Statements on Commodities (CSC)

attitudinal verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs from a more practical perspective. Here, the quantitative method is presented. On a brief explanation, the author proceeds to one Chinese sample analysis to identify the stance markers in each move, which is illustrated in Table 6.3. The above sample analysis gives insights into the rest of the fourteen Chinese CSC analyses. However, it is far from enough to realize the research goal of figuring out the regularities of stance markers in all possible moves. Therefore, the further step is to calculate the percentage of each stance marker in each move on the basis of the preliminary identification of stance markers in all the fifteen Chinese CSCs. The move patterns and calculation formula of the percentage of each stance marker are obtained from Table 6.3 and Fig. 6.1. Following this process, identifying the stance markers in the first move SEB in a Chinese CSC is accomplished, which is shown in Table 6.4. This sample sets an example for the rest fourteen statements of identifying stance markers and calculating their proportions. To conveniently get the holistic view, the calculated results are summarized in Table 6.5 without detailed analysis. Horizontally, from these summarized results presented in Table 6.5, some conclusions can be drawn with special attention to the words accounting for more than fifty percent. As to the SEB, the attitudinal verbs account for the largest percentage (67%), followed by the hedges (53%) and evidentiality (47%) while the attitudinal nouns are not applied by the Chinese CSCs. Here, the author defines the move which does not include all the stance markers as an incomplete move. Secondly, similar to SEB, in the move structure DP, the attitudinal verbs make up the largest one with the number reaching 83% while the attitudinal adjectives and boosters rank second (75%). Meanwhile, the percentage of attitudinal nouns and adverbs are 67% and 50%, respectively. It can be noted that hedges do not occur in DP, so DP is an incomplete move. In the next move CT, boosters become the majority (91%) with attitudinal verbs, adjectives, and adverbs following it at the same percentage of 82%. One unique point is that CT is the only move where all stance markers occur; therefore, the author perceives this move as a complete move, which is contradictory to an incomplete move. Regarding IM, there is one necessary stance marker (100%), namely, attitudinal verbs, which is followed by attitudinal adverbs (89%), boosters (78%), and attitudinal adjectives (56%) with no occurrence of evidentiality. Alike, attitudinal verbs represent 100% in EG, being the necessary one. Attitudinal nouns and self-mention rank second (57%) while boosters and evidentiality are absent. When the attention is turned to the move MP, it can be easily observed that the largest percentage (86%) is occupied by boosters, followed by attitudinal verbs (71%), adjectives (71%), adverbs (71%), and self-mention (57%) while the absent ones are hedges and evidentiality. EE is the move which has the most absence of stance markers with hedges, boosters, evidentiality, and attitudinal adjectives accounting for 0%; however, it

A. Attitudinal adjectives: 著名 (famous) B. Attitudinal verbs: 感谢 (extend gratitude) C. Attitudinal nouns: 朋友们 (friends) A. Boosters: 不存在 (without), 任何 (any), 均未 (none/all not), 常年来 (for years), 充 分的 (absolute), 无懈可击 (unarguable) B. Attitudinal nouns: 把 握 (trust), 信心 (confidence) C. Attitude verbs: 声明 (state) D. Attitudinal adverbs: 郑重 (solemnly/seriously) E. Attitudinal adjectives: 安全 的 (safe) F. Hedges: 某些 (some or certain) G. Self-mention: 我们 (we)

MV 2: Extending Gratitude

作为中国婴幼儿配方食品的著名 (famous) 品牌公司, × × 公司首先对关注中国乳品行业健康发展、关注中国婴 幼儿身体健康的媒体记者朋友们 (friends) 表示感谢 (extend gratitude) (As a famous brand company for infant and young child food production in China, × × Company initially extends gratitude to the media friends who attend to the development of the Chinese dairy industry and the health of infants and young children.)

对于最近某些 (some/certain) 媒体关于婴幼儿 “性早熟” 的报道, 我们 (we)在此郑重 (solemnly/seriously) 声明 MV 3: Clarifying (state) × × 公司生产销售的产品是安全的 (safe), 不存在 (without) 添加任何 (any) “激素” 等违规物质的行为。× the Truth × 公司的产品反复接受各级政府职能部门的检测, 均未 (none) 发现任何质量问题。常年来 (for years), × × 公司在 婴幼儿营养领域投入巨资进行基

础性研究, 对 × × 产品的科学性、安全性具有充分的 (absolute) 把握 (trust) 和信心 (confidence), 特别是激素含量 更无懈可击 (unarguable) (Regarding some recent reports on “precocious puberty” in infants and young children, we hereby solemnly state that the products produced and sold by × × Company are safe, without any illegal substances like “hormone”. The products produced by × × Company have repeatedly undergone tests by government agencies at all levels, and none of them have been found with any quality problems. For years, × × Company has invested heavily in basic research in infant and child nutrition, and we have absolute trust and confidence in terms of scientificity and safety, particularly, the content of hormone is unarguable.)

Stance markers identification

关于近期有关媒体 “奶粉疑致女婴性早熟, 消费者担忧”的报道 (report), × × 营养食品有限公司 (下称 “× × 公 司”) 就此事做出如下声明 (make statements): (With regard to the recent media report on “Milk powder is suspected to cause precocious puberty among baby girls and consumers are concerned about it”, × × International Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “× × Company”) makes the following statement on this matter:)

(continued)

A. Evidentiality: 报道 (report) B. Attitudinal verbs: 做出声明 (make statements)

Move (MV) MV 1: Stating Event Background

Chinese statement (1)

Table 6.3 Sample identification of stance markers of a Chinese CSC news report

6.2 Identification of Stance Markers in Chinese CSC News Reports 127

A. Attitudinal verbs: 配合 (cooperate), 相信 (believe) B. Attitudinal adverbs: 积极 (actively) C. Attitudinal nouns: 公道 (justice)

× × 公司会积极 (actively) 配合 (cooperate) 国家相关部门的工作, 相信 (believe) 最终结果能够给予 × × 公司乃 MV 6: Expressing 至整个乳品行业一个公道 (justice) Expectations (× × Company will actively cooperate with the government authorities, and we believe that the justice will be given to × × Company and the entire dairy industry.)

Source of the statement http://news.qq.com/a/20100807/001231.htm, 7th August, 2010

A. Attitudinal adjectives: 科学 (的) (scientific), 严谨的 (precise) B. Attitudinal verbs: 损害 (harm/damage) C. Attitudinal adverbs: 严重 (badly)

× × 公司认为此事如不得到公正客观的报道, 将严重 (badly) 损害 (harm) 中国乳品行业的形象。鉴于此, × × 公 MV 5: Illustrating 司已将事态上报中国乳制品工业协会, 并由其向国家主管部门汇报恳请查明事实, 给全社会一个科学 (scientific) Measures 严谨的 (precise) 交 代 (× × Company holds that if this matter is not reported fairly and objectively, it will badly harm the image of the Chinese dairy industry. In view of this, × × Company has reported the situation to the China Dairy Industry Association, and then through which reports to the national authorities, hoping that the fact will be ascertained and the whole society will be given a scientific and precise answer.)

Stance markers identification A. Attitudinal verbs: 欢迎 (welcome/embrace), 理解 (understand), 遗憾 (regret/sorry), 保护 (protect), 敦 促 (urge), 公布 (announce/publish), 澄清 (clarify) B. Attitudinal adjectives: 不科学非理性 的 (unscientific and unreasonable), 必 要 (necessary) C. Attitudinal adverbs: 尽早 (as early as possible) D. Evidentiality: 近期报道中 说 (it is reported recently)

Move (MV)

× × 公司欢迎 (welcome) 来自媒体的监督和支持。对于普通消费者缺乏专业知识、心存误解我们表示理解 MV 4: Defining its (understand); 但是对于某些媒体断章取义、有意歪曲事实的报道表示遗憾 (regret), 认定配方奶粉导致 “性早熟”是 Position 不科学非理性的 (unscientific and unreasonable), 国际国内的大量科研文献对此早有定论; 必要 (necessary) 时, × × 公司会采用法律手段来保护企业和消费者的利益。近期报道中说 (it is reported recently that), 政府职能部门已经 采集了武汉地区 “性早熟” 消费者使用的产品, 请媒体记者向政府职能部门咨询, 并敦促 (urge) 尽早 (as soon as possible) 公布 (announce) 结果, 澄清 (clarify) 事件真伪 (× × Company welcomes supervisions and supports from the media. For general consumers, we understand that they may have misunderstandings for the lack of professional knowledge; however, we feel regret that some media reporters have garbled reports out of context and intended to distort the facts. We believe that it is unscientific and irrational to conclude that infant formula causes “precocious puberty”. This fact has long been proved by lots of scientific research both at home and abroad; if necessary, × × Company should take legal actions to protect the interests of itself and its customers. It is reported recently that government agencies have already collected the products used by customers of “precocious puberty” in Wuhan. We would appreciate it if reporters would consult government agencies and urge them to announce the result and clarify the facts as early as possible.)

Chinese statement (1)

Table 6.3 (continued)

128 6 The Cognitive Stance in Corporate Statements on Commodities (CSC)

6.2 Identification of Stance Markers in Chinese CSC News Reports

129

Total number of occurrences of that stance marker Percentage of One Stance Marker =

Total numbers of moves

Fig. 6.1 Calculation formula for stance marker’s application in discourse

Table 6.4 The percentage of different stance markers in Chinese move SEB SEB

SM

Attitudinal markers

S

H

B

E

V.

N.

ADJ.

ADV.

C1

−

−

+

+

−

−

−

−

C2

+

−

+

−

−

−

−

−

C3

+

−

+

+

−

−

+

+

C4

−

−

+

+

−

−

−

−

C5

−

−

+

−

−

−

−

−

C6

+

−

−

+

−

−

+

−

C7

−

−

−

−

−

−

−

−

C8

+

−

−

+

−

−

+

+

C9

+

+

−

+

−

+

−

−

C10

−

−

−

+

−

+

+

−

C11

+

−

−

+

−

−

+

−

C12

+

−

−

−

−

+

−

−

C13

+

−

+

+

−

+

−

+

C14

−

−

+

+

−

+

−

−

C15

−

−

−

−

−

+

+

+

Tot

8

1

7

10

0

6

6

4

Fre. (%)

53

7

47

67

0

40

40

27

Notes SEB Stating Event Background, SM stance markers, H hedges, B boosters, E evidentiality, V. verbs, N. nouns, ADJ. adjectives, ADV. adverbs, S self-mention, C1 Chinese CSC 1, + once occurrence, − absence, Tot.. total, Fre. frequency. The percentage calculated here only keeps the integer based on the rounding-off method

also has one stance marker which accounts for 100%, namely, the attitudinal verb, followed by the attitudinal adverb (67%). In PCS, three stance markers, namely, hedges, boosters, as well as attitudinal verbs, make up 67% equally; the absent ones are evidentiality, attitudinal nouns, and adjectives. As to the last one ED, the uniqueness is that two necessary ones, boosters, and attitudinal adverbs, occur at the same time with attitudinal verbs, adjectives and selfmention representing 50% and hedges, evidentiality, and attitudinal nouns being absent. Vertically, it is attitudinal verbs and adverbs and self-mention that are contained in all the possible moves in Chinese CSCs. Based on Hasan’s (1989) definition of

130

6 The Cognitive Stance in Corporate Statements on Commodities (CSC)

Table 6.5 The summary of stance markers percentage in Chinese moves Unit: % M

SM H

Attitudinal markers B

E

V.

S N.

ADJ.

ADV.

SEB

53

7

47

67

0

40

40

27

DP

0

75

17

83

67

75

50

33

CT

45

91

27

82

36

82

82

36

IM

33

78

0

100

11

56

89

33

EG

14

0

0

100

57

43

14

57

MP

0

86

0

71

43

71

71

57

EE

0

0

0

100

33

0

67

33

PCS

67

67

0

67

0

0

33

33

ED

0

100

0

50

0

50

100

50

Notes SM stance markers, H hedges, B boosters, E evidentiality, V. verbs, N. nouns, ADJ. adjectives, ADV. adverbs, S self-mention, M moves, SEB Stating Event Background, DP Defining Its Position, CT Clarifying the Truth, IM Illustrating Measures, EG Extending Gratitude, MP Making Promises, EE Expressing Expectations, PCS Presenting Current Situation, ED Eliminating Doubts

obligatory move in GSP, the author defines the stance marker with full occurrence in all possible moves as obligatory stance marker (OSM); in turn, three obligatory stance markers, attitudinal verbs and adverbs, and self-mention are identified. On the other hand, among all the eight incomplete moves, it is evidentiality which is the most frequently absent with six incomplete moves missing it and the author names it as the least optional stance marker (LOSM).

6.3 Identification of Stance Markers in English CSCs On the accomplishment of Chinese corpus analysis, now the focus should turn to English corpus which is also the core fundamental part of further study. One sample is illustrated as the analysis procedures in Table 6.6. By repeating the steps illustrated in the previous section, all the English CSCs are studied one by one in detail. Based on this fundamental analysis and according to the calculation formula used in working out the percentage of each stance marker in all possible moves, the move DP is studied as an example for the rest seven moves, details are shown in Table 6.7. Following the above example, the author continues to study the rest seven moves. For better understanding, they are summarized as in Table 6.8. Horizontally, in the obligatory move DP, there is also one 100% stance marker, attitudinal adjectives, followed by the attitudinal verbs (93%), the attitudinal nouns (80%), attitudinal adverbs (73%), boosters (67%) and self-mention (67%). Secondly,

Certain recalls that have happened elsewhere in the world but not applicable in China have involved one of the following MV 4: Illustrating three circumstances: (1) the products were not registered or sold in China at the time of the recall; (2) the products of the Measures same category were sold in China but were supplied by a manufacturer that is different from the manufacturer of the products subject to recall; or (3) the products of the same category were sold in China, but the recalled product lots were not sold in China

MV 3: Defining its Position

The company sticks to implementing the same open and transparent product recall system across the world, which reflects its commitment to the safety and well being of the people it serves

(continued)

A. Attitudinal adjectives: not applicable, same, different B. Hedges: certain

A. Attitudinal adjectives: same, open, transparent B. Attitudinal nouns: commitment to C. Boosters: sticks to

A. Attitudinal adjectives: global-wide, consistent B. Evidentiality: report

MV 2: Stating Event Background

On June 13, senior leaders of J&J’s China subsidiaries met senior officials of CFDA to report on the company’s global-wide consistent product quality policy and quality management system and product recall process, and the recent media report on our product recall

Stance markers identification A. Attitudinal verbs: (be) in compliance with, adhere to, (be) in accordance with, endeavor to, improve, enhance, initiate B. Boosters: every, always, all, without hesitation C. Attitudinal adjectives: high, strict, same, internal D. Attitudinal adverbs: constantly, timely E. Self-mention: we, our F. Attitudinal nouns: No. 1 priority G. Hedges: applicable, relevant

Moves (MV)

High product quality and the safety and well being of the people we serve is J&J’s No. 1 priority in China and in every MV 1: Defining its other country in which we operate Position Whether in our pharmaceutical, medical device or consumer businesses, J&J’s China subsidiaries and their products are always in strict compliance with Chinese laws and regulations and applicable technical standards. We adhere to the same quality standards and quality management system and utilize the same product recall standards in China as we do in all other countries or regions J&J’s China subsidiaries have reported all product recalls conducted in China in accordance with CFDA’s rules and relevant information has been published by CFDA on its official website since the authority introduced its product recall online publication system We have strict requirements for product quality and constantly endeavor to improve and enhance the quality of our products. Whenever a recall is necessary due to product quality issues, we will initiate and implement the recall without hesitation in accordance with applicable local regulations and our internal quality management process and timely report it to regulatory authorities

English statement (1)

Table 6.6 Sample identification of stance markers of an English CSC

6.3 Identification of Stance Markers in English CSCs 131

Source of the statement https://www.jnj.com.cn/en/content/news/474, 13th June, 2013

A. Attitudinal adverbs: greatly B. Attitudinal verbs: appreciates C. Self-mention: us

MV 6: Extending Gratitude

And greatly appreciates the attention paid by media and the public to us

Stance markers identification A. Attitudinal verbs: continue to, improve, enhance, accept B. Attitudinal adjectives: continuous C. Attitudinal nouns: commitment to D. Attitudinal adverbs: sincerely E. Self-mention: our F. Boosters: all

Moves (MV)

With our continuous commitment to public health, J&J’s China subsidiaries will continue to improve and enhance quality MV 5: Making management system, sincerely accept supervision and guidance from CFDA and all other regulatory authorizes Promises

English statement (1)

Table 6.6 (continued)

132 6 The Cognitive Stance in Corporate Statements on Commodities (CSC)

6.3 Identification of Stance Markers in English CSCs

133

Table 6.7 The percentage of different stance markers in English move DP DP

SM

Attitudinal markers

S

H

B

E

V.

N.

ADJ.

ADV.

E1

+

++

−

+

++

++

+

+

E2

−

+

−

−

−

+

+

−

E3

−

+

+

+

+

+

+

−

E4

−

−

−

+

+

+

−

−

E5

−

−

−

+

+

+

+

+

E6

+

+

−

++

+

++

++

+

E7

+

+

−

++

-

+

+

++

E8

−

−

−

+

+

+

+

+

E9

−

+

−

++

+

+

+

++

E10

−

−

−

+

+

+

−

−

E11

−

+

−

+

−

+

−

+

E12

−

−

−

+

+

+

+

−

E13

−

+

−

+

+

+

−

+

E14

−

+

−

++

+

++

++

+

E15

−

++

−

+

+

++

++

+

Tot

3

10

1

14

12

15

11

10

Fre. (%)

20

67

7

93

80

100

73

67

Notes DP Defining its Position, SM stance markers, H hedges, B boosters, E evidentiality, V. verbs, N. nouns, ADJ. adjectives, ADV. adverbs, S self-mention, E1 English CSC 1, + once occurrence, + + twice occurrence, − absence, Tot. total, Fre. frequency. The percentage calculated here only keeps the integer based on the rounding-off method Table 6.8 The summary of stance markers percentage in English moves Unit % M

SM H

Attitudinal markers B

E

V.

S

N.

ADJ.

ADV.

DP

20

67

7

93

80

100

73

IM

45

73

18

91

27

73

64

67 73

SEB

30

30

40

40

20

60

40

50

MP

17

67

17

100

33

83

33

83

CT

50

100

17

67

17

83

50

67

PFI

17

33

0

17

17

67

0

33

EE

100

0

0

100

0

100

0

100

EG

0

0

0

100

0

0

100

100

Notes SM stance markers, H hedges, B boosters, E evidentiality, V. verbs, N. nouns, ADJ. adjectives, ADV. adverbs, S self-mention, DP Defining Its Position, IM Illustrating Measures, SEB Stating Event Background, MP Making Promises, CT Clarifying the Truth, PFI Providing Further Information, EE Expressing Expectations, EG Extending Gratitude

134

6 The Cognitive Stance in Corporate Statements on Commodities (CSC)

as to the move IM, the attitudinal verbs represent 91% as boosters, attitudinal adjectives, and self-mention at the same percent 73%, followed by attitudinal adverbs at 64%. Regarding the SEB, the attitudinal adjectives are the majority (60%), followed by self-mention (50%) and three other ones with an equal proportion of 40%, namely, evidentiality, attitudinal verbs and adverbs. Concerning the MP, attitudinal verbs account for 100% while attitudinal adjectives and self-mention equally make up 83% followed by boosters (67%). Similarly, there is also a 100% in CT occupied by boosters; the attitudinal adjectives (83%) and attitudinal verbs with self-mention (both are 67%) rank second and third, respectively. Also, hedges and attitudinal adverbs are equal at 50%. Until now, it can be seen that all the stance markers are contained in DP, IM, SEB, MP, and CT without absence. As to the PFI, there are two stance markers standing at zero percent, namely, evidentiality and attitudinal adverbs while attitudinal adjectives account for the largest proportion (67%). For the last two moves EE and EG, there are four 100% (hedges, self-mention, attitudinal verbs and adjectives) and four 0% (boosters, evidentiality, attitudinal nouns and adverbs) for EE while three 100% (attitudinal verbs, adverbs, and self-mention) and five 0% (hedges, boosters, evidentiality, attitudinal nouns and adjectives) for EG. Vertically, the attitudinal verbs and self-mention are the two types of stance markers which occur in all possible English moves; in other words, they are obligatory stance markers. Meanwhile, the absence of evidentiality in all three incomplete moves becomes the least used one or the least optional stance marker.

6.4 Cross-Cultural Comparison of Stance Markers in CSCs The adoption of the qualitative analytical method with the consideration of varied discourse markers presents a picture of lexical choices by companies in different cultures, revealing the substantial and indispensable cognitions on issues, such as commodity problem resolution and public statements. Grounded on the qualitative analysis of the selected stance markers identification and analyses, quantitative analysis is employed in an attempt to grasp the mathematical and statistical variations, thus subsuming the linguistic preferences and application habits of news composers themed on company public statements in news texts. The statistical comparison in the stance embodiment and realization of the interaction between human actions and cognition displays both cultural and cognitive disparities. On the basis of signal words list innovated by the author, and the tool of concordancer AntConc, the arithmetical summary and comparison could be concluded in the followings. The analysis shows that all the three general stance markers, namely epistemic, attitudinal, and style, are identified with intonation in the complete moves in English CSCs. It should be also noted that a wider range of lexical stance markers being chosen in complete moves implies that English CSCs addressers intended for releasing various commodity problems in their statements. One more point that

6.4 Cross-Cultural Comparison of Stance Markers in CSCs

135

Table 6.9 Comparison of OSM and LOSM in Chinese and English CSCs Corpus Types

OSM

Chinese CSCs

Attitudinal verbs

Attitudinal adverbs

Self-mention

Evidentiality

LOSM

English CSCs

Attitudinal verbs

/

Self-mention

Evidentiality

Notes OSM obligatory stance marker, LOSM the least optional stance marker

should be mentioned here is that CT is the only common and complete move on both sides and it may be explained by the essential communication function of corporate reports on commodity problems to inform the public of the truth and not be misled by negative reports.

6.4.1 OSM and LOSM By vertically comparing all stance markers distribution on possible moves in Chinese and English CSCs (see the comparison in Table 6.9) and imitating the definition given to the obligatory move in GSP, it can be summarized that attitudinal verbs, attitudinal adverbs, and self-mention are the three obligatory stance markers in Chinese CSCs while there are two in English ones, namely, attitudinal verbs and self-mention. Moreover, both Chinese and English companies have converged on the point that evidentiality is the least frequently used among all moves; in other words, evidentiality is the shared least optional stance marker between Chinese and English CSCs. Table 6.9 clearly illustrates the comparison results and it can be seen that there are high similarities in OSM and LOSM of both Chinese and English CSCs with the only exceptional attitudinal adverbs in the Chinese context.

6.4.2 Comparison of Stance Markers in Parallel Moves After the vertical comparison and contrast, the author turns to the horizontal parallel in each comparable move. To begin with, the relatively frequent stance markers are different from attitudinal verbs (67%) and hedges (53%) in Chinese SEB in Table 6.5 and attitudinal adjectives (60%) and self-mention (50%) in its English counterparts in Table 6.8. The 27% self-mention in Chinese SEB is mentioned here for further discussion. Secondly, as to the DP, by observing, it can be figured out both attitudinal markers including attitudinal verbs, nouns, adjectives, as well as adverbs and boosters which are all over 50% are used frequently in both DP. Since the nature of the move DP is showing position and attitude, it is reasonable to figure out the high frequency of attitudinal stance markers; meanwhile, those expressions without any strong attitudes seem to weaken the public’s perceptions, which may reduce the reliability of their positions, which provides foundation for the preference to boosters in DP of both

136

6 The Cognitive Stance in Corporate Statements on Commodities (CSC)

Chinese and English CSCs. However, on the degree of subject-involvement, English companies tend to be more self-involved with high use of self-mention words (67%), while it is only 33% in Chinese companies. The self-mention can be used to shorten the distance between two sides and direct responsibility for a statement; so it may be induced that English companies are more likely to involve themselves in showing certainty of their positions. Similarly, both Chinese CT and English CT are realized through the frequent application of boosters (91% and 100%, respectively), attitudinal adjectives (82% and 83%, respectively), verbs (82% and 67%, respectively) and adverbs (82% and 50%, respectively). Truth is not easy to be presented and so is to persuade others to believe. But the expression of stance may contain elements of amplification expressed through “intensifiers” (Martin and Rose 2003: 38), such as very, best, and too. Hence to leave readers or listeners the impression that the writers or speakers are really trustworthy, the exploitation of intensifiers or boosters to amplify their stance is one feasible choice. Also, the slight difference in hedges with 45% for Chinese CT and 50% for English CT implies that even though companies try to amplify their stance for truth, they also carefully weigh their words to protect themselves from going too far in certainty. However, a further observation shows that the big gap between self-mention (67%) in English CT and self-mention (36%) in Chinese CT also proves the withdrawal of self-involvement in the Chinese side. Fourthly, attitudinal verbs have become the first choice to illustrate measures in both Chinese IM (100%) and English IM (91%). Measures are closely related to actions with the focus of doing something, so it is natural that verbs with doers’ attitudes are used to strengthen companies’ power for actions. Besides, other attitudinal stance markers including attitudinal adverbs (89% in Chinese IM and 64% in English IM) and adjectives (56% in Chinese IM and 73% in English IM) are also well used. Just similar to previous two moves, DP and CT, the application of boosters (78% in Chinese IM and 73% in English IM) is alike with a slight difference while the percent of self-mention in Chinese one (33%) is less than half of that in English one (73%). Moreover, by comparing Chinese EG with the English one, the common point that verbs with 100% occupation is highlighted; but on the English side, the verbs to express gratitude are modified with adverbs (100%), and at the same time, nouns are the main choice for Chinese companies. Although self-mention occurs on both sides, the English companies show greater preference with 100% than Chinese ones with only 57%. In addition, to make promises to the public, attitudinal verbs, adjectives, selfmention, and boosters are all mostly applied in Chinese MP and English MP. Whereas, self-mention, just like previous analysis, occupies larger percentage (83%) in English MP than that in the Chinese one (57%). Furthermore, the Chinese EE and the English EE witness the compulsory part, attitudinal verbs, at 100%. It can be observed that self-mention occurs on both sides, but the 100% on the English side is much higher than the 33% on the Chinese side, showing the responsible parties for problem resolution and management.

6.4 Cross-Cultural Comparison of Stance Markers in CSCs Table 6.10 Similar preference to stance for moves

Moves

137

Similar preference to stance

DP, CT, IM, MP

Attitudinal stance + epistemic stance

EG, EE, SEB

Attitudinal stance

Notes DP Defining Its position, CT Clarifying the Truth, IM Illustrating Measures, MP Making Promises, EG Extending Gratitude, EE Expressing Expectations, SEB Stating Event Background

The above respective analyses of corresponding moves do lead us to the world of details, but when a more holistic viewpoint is adopted, according to the frequencies of stance markers under three kinds of stance, namely, epistemic stance, attitudinal stance, and style, some insights can be drawn, which are illustrated in Table 6.10. With special attention to the stance markers over fifty percent, DP, CT, IM, and MP in both Chinese and English contexts show the great tendency of using attitudinal markers and epistemic markers (the majority are boosters) while the attitudinal stance is preferred in SEB, EG, and EE under both circumstances. As the author has commented that self-mention, which is related to style, is obligatory stance marker in all moves; but it is not included in the similar greatly-used stance table. The cause of this phenomenon is that there is a huge gap in self-mention between the two sides, which can be identically observed from Fig. 6.2. It can be clearly seen that the proportions represented by self-mention in most English moves are about twice as large as those in their Chinese counterparts. Since self-mention is concerned with style, it can be generalized that the English writing style of CSCs is quite distinct from the Chinese style. Hence, the statistical results reflect the dominating part that attitudinal stance plays in both English and Chinese CSCs, accounting for 82% and 83%, respectively; in terms of absolute quantity, however, self-mention stance projections are way ahead in English CSCs. Although it is obvious that both English and Chinese journalists exhibit a great fondness for attitudinal displays, English journalists are more individualistic and egotistical in making commercial statements. 100

100

100 83

80 Occurence

Fig. 6.2 Distribution of Chinese and English self-mention

60 40

67

67

73 57

50 27

33

36

DP

CT

57 33

33

20 0

SEB

IM EG Moves

MP

EE

Chinese Self-mention English Self-mention

138

6 The Cognitive Stance in Corporate Statements on Commodities (CSC)

Table 6.11 Distribution of lexis for hedges in Chinese and English CSCs Hedges classification

Percentage (%) Chinese

Examples English

Chinese

English May

Modal verbs

9

8

可能 (may)

Possibility verbs

0

8

/

Appears to

Adjectives

76

75

一些 (some)

Likely

Adverbs

12

4.5

略 (slightly)

Approximately

3

4.5

如能 (if)

Not until

Conjunctions

6.4.3 Lexical Preference Apart from the commonly-used specific subdivision of attitudinal markers, in this book, the author can generalize the preference of semantic choice in corporate reports on commodity problems through using stance markers in all possible moves, namely, hedges, boosters, and self-mention. One point should be made is that evidentiality is excluded because of the most frequent absence. As to hedges, there are altogether 33 devices in all Chinese CSCs while 24 ones in all English CSCs. With more detailed subdivisions, different word classes can be classified, respectively. See Table 6.11 for details. As is shown in Table 6.11, both Chinese and English companies are similar in choosing adjectives and modal verbs to express possibility and uncertainty; whereas, the English side also uses the verb phrase “appear to” to convey possibility while Chinese side shows greater preference to adverbs to convey degree of accuracy like “slightly”. Interestingly, both English and Chinese CSCs seem to be more predisposed to employ hedges when expressing their positions in relation to their propositions. In this regard, the author claims that both CSCs writers are known to be cautious and prudent; under this influence, they are extremely careful about giving weight and commitment to their statements and would only go so far as the information at hand indicates, thus minimizing the possibility of backfiring. As to boosters, 87 and 78 boosters have been identified, respectively, in Chinese and English texts and the components of different lexis choices at different percentages are illustrated in Fig. 6.3. As Fig. 6.3 shows, when words for boosting opinions, attitudes, positions, and so on are chosen, in both Chinese and English contexts, adjectives, adverbs, verbs or verb phrases and prepositions or preposition phrases are the major four kinds at descending order. To be more concrete, verbs or verb phrases with great definiteness, such as “证明” (“demonstrate”), “核实” (“confirm”), “ensure”, “reaffirm” and “must” are applied with similar percentages (16% and 17%, respectively) and the situation is the same as pronouns, such as “全部” (“all”), “nothing” and “anyone” application with 2% and 3% for the Chinese and English discourses, respectively. Concerning the applications of adjectives and adverbs, adjectives are preferred greatly in English texts at 54% compared with 38% in Chinese texts, while the proportion of adverbs

6.4 Cross-Cultural Comparison of Stance Markers in CSCs 100

Chinese CSCs English CSCs

60

54 38

40

5

2 3

Prepositions(Phrases)

Pronouns

12 Adverbs

0

19

1617

Adjectives

20

32

Verbs(Phrases)

Occurence

80

0 1

0 1 Privative

Fig. 6.3 Lexis distribution in boosters in Chinese and English CSCs

139

Lexis

used in the Chinese CSCs (32%) is larger than that in their English counterparts (19%). In terms of attitudinal stance projection, adjectives are most frequently used in both English and Chinese CSCs, while the least favorite words are quantifiers and privatives in both English and Chinese CSCs. Following adjectives, adverbs become the second favorite in Chinese and English attitudinal stance-taking, while verbs fall into the third place in both Chinese and English CSCs. These similarities are probably the results of the intrinsic nature of similar cognition on the commodity problem issues in both cultures, which similarly are projected in their languages. When the attention is shifted to self-mention or the use of the first person, 37 in Chinese CSCs and 59 in English ones are counted, among which three kinds of lexis are summarized, namely, plural subjective case (PSC), plural objective case (POC) and plural possessive case (PPC), with detailed distribution being shown in Fig. 6.4. It can be seen from Fig. 6.4 that plural subjective case and plural possessive case are frequently applied in both Chinese and English social contexts. However, English CSCs also show a greater tendency to choose plural possessive cases while Chinese CSCs prefer plural objective cases. The preference to adverbs in Chinese context is shown in attitudinal stance markers, hedges, and boosters. In expressing sentiment, adverbs with adjectives together perform better than adjectives alone. By observing Table 6.9 and Fig. 6.3, popularity of adjectives in English CSCs is salient while the dominance of both adverbs and adjectives in Chinese ones can be taken which implies stronger sentiment expression. In terms of stance in both CSC discourses, there exist obvious similar preferences with different linguistic expressions or patterns, with English reporters being more inclined to facts to convince their readers of their propositions and opinions, while Chinese reports are more inclined to position themselves on plural subjective grounds to create collectivism in their course of persuasive endeavors. The explanation could

6 The Cognitive Stance in Corporate Statements on Commodities (CSC)

Fig. 6.4 First-person distribution in self-mention in Chinese and English CSCs. Note PSC = plural subjective case, POC = plural objective case, PPC = plural possessive case

100

Chinese CSCs English CSCs

80 Occurence

140

60

51

49

46

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33 16

20

5 0 PSC

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have everything to do with the cultural values that are deep-rooted in both countries. English CSC reporters are more dedicated to collecting authentic information via different channels and uncovering the actual status of certain events to support their perspectives; whereas Chinese reporters tend to put substantial emphasis on conveying their collective attitudes toward the commodity issues, which displays the reporters’ real positions. However, this does not mean that Chinese CSCs reporters are not committed to revealing the true value of propositions; actually they construct such cognitive networks grounding upon the information in hand.

6.5 Summary In this part, the study of CSCs from the perspective of stance markers has been completed. The analysis starts with the sample analysis of identifying different types of stance markers in one Chinese CSC; then, by following this example, stance markers distribution in all Chinese CSCs are analyzed in detail. After this, the next step is to sum up the concrete situation of each type of stance markers in each possible move and the author provides one sample about the stance markers in the move SEB. Based on this, a summary about the distribution of stance markers in all possible moves is made in order to figure out some regularities or features. Having accomplished the Chinese section, the author analyzes the English CSCs and identifies that there are altogether eight possible moves in English corpus together with the corresponding sample analysis on moves and the linguistic devices in them. On finishing the analysis of these two corpora, the author compares the stance markers and lexis applied by both Chinese and English CSC writers to identify the similarities and differences at cross-cultural level.

References

141

References Hasan, R. (1989). The structure of a text. In M. A. K. Halliday & R. Hasan (Eds.), Language, context and text: Aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective (pp. 52–69). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hyland, K. (2005). Stance and engagement: A model of interaction in academic discourse. Discourse Studies, 7(2), 173–192. Marting, J. R., & Rose, D. (2003). Working with discourse: Meaning beyond the clause. New York: Continuum.

Chapter 7

Cross-Cultural Comparison of Cognitive Semantics in Commercial Discourses

Abstract The empirical contrastive study on commercial news reports from the theoretical standpoints of cognitive linguistics, especially a cognitive semantic analysis based on metaphorical mapping, image schema, and a discoursal stance on the ground of cognitive semantics, offers a comprehensive and quite rewarding insight into the cross-cultural research of human cognition reflected by news reports, disclosing the profound correlation between the employment of language wording and cognitive perceptions. In this section, the author will further interpret the semantic phenomena in commercial news discourses from cognitive perspectives. Keywords Cognitive semantics · Semantic application · Embodied cognitive actions · Embodied cognitive thought

7.1 Cross-Cultural Contrast of Semantic Applications in Commercial Discourses Following the trailblazing pace of theories of cognitive semantics, the author pledges commitment to enriching the diversity of cognitive linguistics studies by combining cognitive semantics and cognitive grammar in contrastive news reports analysis, adding vitality through representing the metaphorical mapping, schematic embodiment, and dynamic applications of cognitive stance markers in the cognitive frames. By calculating the frequency of metaphorical representations, it is revealed that the most frequently used conventional metaphors in Chinese and English news reports are HUMAN BEING, JOURNEY, GAME, WAR, and MACHINE. Besides conventional metaphors in both languages, novel metaphors are identified, specifically, FOOD and KUNG FU in Chinese, and MANHATTAN project in English. Those similarities and differences attribute to cognitive and cultural factors. As a result of similar human experiences of cognition, the shared conventional metaphors in the two languages are similar in one way or another. The different FOOD, KUNG FU, and MANHATTAN project metaphors are representations of specific cultural phenomena. See Fig. 7.1. Those cultural variations are instantiated by religions, sociohistorical backgrounds, traditions, and customs. © Science Press 2020 W. Yang, A Cross-Cultural Study of Commercial Media Discourses, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8617-0_7

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Fig. 7.1 Metaphorical representations on HSR Chinese FOOD KUNG FU

HUMAN BEING JOURNEY GAME WAR MACHINE

English MANHATTAN project

Meanwhile, as metaphorical expressions and abstract concepts in both Chinese and English news reports are conveyed by cross-mapping for conventional metaphors, from the concrete and physical to the abstract and metaphysical, which means that from the concrete source domains of HUMAN BEING, JOURNEY, GAME, WAR, and MACHINE onto the abstract target domain of HSR development. Regarding novel metaphors, the meaning construction is formed by the dynamic interactions of multi-directional metal spaces. Besides, metaphorical representations in the HSR news reports are characterized by both cognitive universality and cultural relativity. Each metaphor has an “experiential” basis, which is rooted in our personal experiences and takes place within a vast background of cultural environment. Furthermore, metaphor is in agreement with a specific culture. Varied cultures can result in culturally specific metaphors. Upon the completion of the studies of image schemata within FPTNs and the crosscultural comparison between the Chinese and English FPTNs, the author claims that Chinese and English Football Commercial Transfer News Discourses also share a similar pattern with regard to the usage frequency of the four types of targeted image schemas, arranging from high-frequency to low-frequency: SCALE > CONTAINER > PATH > CENTER-PERIPHERY. See Fig. 7.2. This finding proves majorities of universalities of schematic applications in FPTNs with minor discrepancies, owning to the cross-cultural linguistic differences. This may serve as an important evidence that, in the sports field, Chinese and English people understand the outside world in pretty much the same way: they have accumulated similar embodied experience during their interactions with the physical world, and therefore they incline to understand certain concepts, events, and situations through remarkably similar image-schematic patterns. Evidence from this research supports the claim that embodiment shapes why certain words and phrases express the particular meanings as they do, people’s intuitions, and immediate understanding of, the meaning of various words, phrases, and linguistic expressions. The vast majority of SCALE schema usage is relatively easy to understand because this image-schematic structure applies to a wide variety of circumstances, describing the constantly-changing scalar status in both qualitative and quantitative dimensions. The world of professional football is dynamic, and situations run in a state of flux: the prices of players are always changing in accordance with their performance on the pitch, the competitive shape of football teams that varies from time to time, etc. One of the most typical representations of SCALE Schema is the variable value of financial contracts. Cross-culturally, however, some discrepancies are identified too: although

7.1 Cross-Cultural Contrast of Semantic Applications …

Chinese: FOOD COOKING…

SCALE CONTAINER PATH CENTER-PERIPHERY

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English SPACE…

FPTNs

Fig. 7.2 The universalities and discrepancies of schemas applied in FPTNs

the aggregate number of image schema occurrences in Chinese FPTNs is greater than that in English FPTNs, and PATH, SCALE, CENTER-PERIPHERY Schemas appear more often in Chinese contexts than in English contexts (according to the calculation of the database established for the research of this book), CONTAINER Schemas are more frequently seen in English football coverage, holding a small lead. In this case, the author concludes that English football reporters tend to conceptualize various scenarios in their area of expertise (football transfer reporting) in terms of CONTAINER structures and favor the use of this schema in encoding the messages they want to send to readers. Regarding the lexical choices of discoursal stance markers, both Chinese and English CSCs writers prefer attitudinal verbs and self-mention which function as the common obligatory stance markers, and attitudinal stance together with epistemic stance and boosters are also popular in CSC discourses, while evidentiality is the least optional stance marker. Meanwhile, both of them tend to choose adjectives and modal verbs to express possibility and uncertainty in hedges and apply adjectives, adverbs, verbs or verb phrases, prepositions or preposition phrases in boosters. Style stances which are realized by self-mention lexical devices, such as plural subjective, are followed by plural possessive and plural objective. Such preferences are salient and easily observed in both contexts, too. Regarding discrepancies in both discourses, Chinese companies are apt to choose a wider range of stance markers in company statements by using attitudinal adverbs as obligatory stance markers, while in English CSCs, adverbs of hedges and boosters gain more popularity. In the company news discourses, English CSC writers greatly prefer to apply adjectives while Chinese CSC writers like to use adverbs as boosters, at the same time, the occurrence frequency of self-mention with a greater tendency of using plural possessive case in English

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Chinese CSCs

Hedges Epistemic stance Boosters Style stance

Attitudinal stance English CSCs

Discourse stance in CSCs

Attitudinal stance

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Self-mention

Verbs Hedges

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Adjectives Adverbs Modal verbs Conjunctions Adjectives Adverbs Verb(phrases) Prepositions(phrases) Plural subjective case Plural possessive case Plural objective case Adjectives Adverbs Modal verbs Conjunctions Adjectives Adverbs Verb(phrases) Prepositions(phrases) Plural subjective case Plural possessive case Plural objective case

Fig. 7.3 Lexical choices of stance markers in CSC discourses

CSCs is almost double that for the Chinese ones which prefer the plural objective case. The distinctive disparities of lexical choices in Chinese and English CSCs are marked in bold forms shown in Fig. 7.3. Generally, the preference to adverbs in Chinese context can be identified in attitudinal stance markers, hedges, and boosters. In expressing the sentiment, adverbs together with adjectives perform better than adjectives alone. The results demonstrate that the popularity of adjectives in English CSCs is salient while the dominance of both adverbs and adjectives in Chinese ones can be achieved, which implies stronger sentiment expression. Since the first-person plural pronouns may be addressee-inclusive, they can be considered as textual manifestations of consubstantiality, namely an action conducted together by addressers and addressees for common sensations, concepts, images, ideas, and attitudes (Isaksson 2005). Therefore, significant differences in the use of self-mention, here, in CSCs, first-person plural pronouns between Chinese and English CSCs suggest that in Chinese context less weight is added to affiliation and intimacy between companies and the public than that in English context. Particularly, the frequent use of first-person plural subjective case and possessive case in the corpus of English CSCs seem to play a salient role in strengthening the unification, identification, and solidarity between companies and the public in “concretizing an idealized environment in which all the participants, regardless of their relative power, are working together to achieve the company goals and promote identification with the firm” (Rogers et al. 1990: 301). In other words, in terms of style, it seems that English companies are inclined to be engaged at first

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person in shortening the distance with a less bureaucratic tone and strengthening the unification, identification, and solidarity between companies and the public. To summarize, this book addresses three strands by contrasting the cognitive semantics in Chinese and English commercial news reports, analyzing the relationship between communication and cognition, meaning construction, the discoursal roles of semantics in discourses, and the role of empirical work in cognitive research. The feature of the book endows it with internal unity and consistency while preserving the clear cognitive semantic identity of the three strands and contributions therein.

7.2 Cultural Perspective on Cognitive Semantics Drawing from the contrastive results of the cross-cultural cognitive semantic studies, the universality and inevitability of lexical semantics metaphors, image schemas, and stance markers in mass media are widely applied, albeit it is imperative to develop cultural awareness for companies and media newsagents to construct proper cognitions for the public and business internationally. Thus, for commercial companies and media news agents to successfully enter the international markets especially those in developed countries and win those countries’ recognition, they have to understand the cultural uniqueness in cognitive-linguistics and its impact on people’s cognitive construction and language application, which may help avoid misinterpretation of business practitioners and their behaviors since certain behaviors are determined by the culture and language use. Moreover, the cognitive semantic representations in commercial news reports from Chinese and American media give reasons for different cognitive-linguistic usage in reference to cultural universality and cultural relativity. Having a good knowledge of the frequently used cognitivelinguistic expressions as well as grasping a reasonable number of cognitive lexical items accompanying the semantic field is beneficial to foreign language learners since it enhances their understanding of descriptive sentences and the corresponding underlying meaning. One important issue regarding cross-cultural cognitive differences is “ways-ofseeing” (Croft and Cruse 2004: 137) which should be considered when we analyze the cognitive semantic differences applied in discourses. Ways-of-seeing is derived from what was named by Pustejovsky (1995) as “qualia roles” which are analogous to the matic roles, but instead of detailing ways arguments may attach to a verb, they govern ways in which predicates attach themselves to nouns. As Pustejovsky (1995) proposes that qualia roles are reconceptualized as way-of-seeing (WOS) as: The part-whole WOS: viewing an entity as a whole with parts (e.g. a horse, as viewed by a vet). The kind WOS: viewing an entity as a kind among other kinds (e.g. a horse as viewed by a zoologist). The functional WOS: viewing an entity in terms of its interactions with other entities (e.g. a horse as viewed by a jockey).

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The life-history WOS: viewing an entity in terms of its life-history, especially its coming into being (e.g. a book as viewed by an author or publisher). In different cultures and with different life experiences, news communicators may present different degrees of autonomy of ways-of-seeing in discourse when they describe one thing or action. As he argues that ways of seeing do not correspond to distinct concepts, and they are not referentially distinct: they represent different ways of looking at the same thing. Nevertheless, the present research results of this book demonstrate that the universality and inevitability of semantic applications in discourses do not need pre-meanings in the full sense regardless of cultural differences. Many semantic devices applied are intentional in nature and they are parts of a more inclusive sense which are compositionally active with an extensional referential basis. Another important issue is perception process and its linguistic cognition in different cultures. The cognition is some kind of correspondence between representing elements in the mind and things or properties being represented in the world. Bickhard (2000: 33) argues that these correspondences are usually assumed to be created by causal influences in perception, such as lights causing various transductions into representations (cognition) in the visual system. The analogy here is that mental representations (cognition) are like external representations that are variously presumed to be causal, conversational, structural, isomorphic, or informational. The analyses in this book prove that such correspondence representations are presumed to perceive what they represent. Because the assumption is that all cognition has some versions of this form or that form, people have to call these approaches cognitive perception. Note that perceptions are inherently static. They can undergo transformation—they can be used as atoms for construction, but the cognitive elements themselves are inert. The cognitive relationships and the correspondences are not only static but generally assumed to be temporal and logical in nature. Clearly perception differences do exist, which is not at issue, but the assumption differences that all cognition is of the nature of perceptions are at issue. In particular, the assumption differences in different cultural backgrounds and all cognition processes encounter various mental and social representations. Both news communicators’ discoursal actions and their consciousness must ultimately be accounted for, but the assumed cognitive framework within which the cognitive process is inherently richly dynamic. As the author embarks on the analysis of preferences of semantics, it is important to point out the boundaries of the dynamics too. Research on semantic dynamics is often motivated by the inherent cultural variability of the details of cognitive processing. In contrast of the Chinese and English lexical semantics, namely the metaphorical application, image schemata and discoursal stance markers, the attributes of semantic choices, options, and preferences have both their own inherent degree of importance and inherent level of utility, which are determined during the cognitive processing. The fact that semantic choices are dynamic does not mean that standard cognitive assumptions are applied in the public media in both cultures. The only way that the dynamics of semantic choices can be understood is to make assumptions about the way that options and goals are cognized. These assumptions are critical for explaining

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the construction of cognitive frames. Initially, the structure of knowledge about the semantic options influences preferences. In particular, we assume that the semantic choices are cognized with structured cognition that permits the determination of commonalities and alignable differences of a set of semantic options. The research findings suggest that alignable differences are particularly important in semantic choices. Without the assumptions that there are structured cognition and that these cognitions can be compared by using a process of structural alignment, the focus on alignable differences cannot be explained. Such alignable differences involve cultural and individual experiential variations. Secondly, in addition to structural alignment, institutional goals were shown to influence both the importance of attributes and their value. An obvious function of institutional goals is to focus on particular aspects of interest choice options. Some information is positively addressed in Chinese media but negatively addressed in English media, because the value of an attribute can be determined only with respect to their active institutional goals. Although the preferences construction of cognitive semantics shows the evidence for dynamic processing which has often been used as evidence that there is no cognition, the cognitive process operates on cognitive representations that allow flexibility. Structured cognition is not a hindrance to the dynamics of semantic selection; rather, it works in service of the dynamics. Nevertheless, within all cultures, the cognitive process is a mental mechanism whose purpose is to derive a semantic representation from a linguistic expression in order to make it meaningful in the various discourses or interactions in which it is to be interpreted. From the cross-cultural analyses of the cognitive semantics on commercial news discourses conducted in this research of the book, the author proposes that different discoursal and semantic patterns in fact emerge out of cognitive activities. By the same token, it would be more appropriate to suggest a possible conclusion on the cognitive model regardless of cultural differences and their dynamic linguistic applications. In this case of this research of this book, a cognitive model is often seen as the result of the activity of an organizing principle which may be also perceived as the cognitive process. Based on this research of this book, the possible universal cognitive process can be sketched as in Fig. 7.4. Figure 7.4 demonstrates a rather linearly pattern of cognitive process and the correlation between writer/speaker and reader/hearer. In fact, there are many cultural, social, individual, and linguistic elements which must be integrated in the process at different stages, some of which may be paralleled by corresponding communicative functions. From the point of view of the communicative impact of both cognitive mechanisms, the cognitive process or model is a way of providing the reader/hearer with a rich amount of conceptual implications for very little processing effort. The reader/hearer is responsible for the number of implications that will be derived, generally not more than needed for satisfactory interpretation in context. To be more specific, the cognitive model also interprets that the full meaning impact of a linguistic expression based on cognitive correlation and integration which are to be calculated on the basis of the total range of meaning implications at different cognitive stages which the hearer is led to derive. Working out the meaning of the expression involves much more than simply perceiving the world and producing words.

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Correlation

Speaker’/writer’s Cognitive process

Perceiving the world

Digesting the perception

Constructing experience Projection

Presenting an linguistic image

Selecting semantics

Forming knowledge

Reader’/hearer’s perception

Fig. 7.4 Cognitive process/model

The current research in this book provides the abovementioned cross-cultural insights on the cognitive process by outlining the similarities and differences between Chinese and English people, in terms of their cultural values, traditions, thinking patterns, and social managements. The findings may shed light on people who frequently engage in cross-cultural activities, especially those who deal with international businesses. This study may help people to understand the business media news and its projected meanings and huge economic benefits it might bring about, meanwhile, suggesting appropriate and constructive perspectives on the sustainable development of China’s business and industrial production, in an attempt to help build up various cultural-loaded visions regarding business investments on a nationwide scale.

7.3 Embodied Cognitive Actions and Thought in Different Languages Broadly speaking, embodied cognitive actions and thought exist in different languages of different cultures. This study provides evidences and explanations why many cognitive acts are required if we are to communicate with others, involving communicators’ experience, their conceptual systems, and semantic structure encoded by language. The three phenomena referred to in this book of cognitive semantics—experience, the conceptual system, semantic structure encoded by language also suggest a variety of techniques and methodologies for their full elaboration. In this book, the author is more open to incorporating discoursal and contextual information in the analyses than linguists from most other schools of thought. Even

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with this openness to a more inclusive view about language and discoursal contexts, this book seems to elevate the media news discourse as a usage-based hypothesis to one of the fundamental assumptions in cognitive linguistics. Methodologically, several issues are needing to be considered in cognitive semantic studies. The overall results of the present study of this book suggest that most current thinking in the cognitive sciences underestimates the transformative power of language on thinking, which echoes Levinson’s (2003) arguments. Firstly, the assumption of the cognitive approach to grammar holds that the fundamental unit of a grammar is a form-meaning pairing or symbolic unit. Secondly, the assumption of cognitive approach to grammar is usage-based which is formed by the abstraction of symbolic units from situated instances of language use. The two assumptions all support Evans and Green’s (2006) elevations on cognitive linguistics, who point out that their usage-based hypothesis leads to a rejection of any strict division between “competence” and “performance”, or knowledge of the language and use of language. Although their elevations do not occupy any privileged place and hardly constitute any dramatic shift of attention in the scope of cognitive linguistics, this book demonstrates how discoursal contexts should be integrated into cognitive studies with authentic data analyses to encompass contextual information, such as words either in adjective forms or adverbial forms, etc., in the case of media discourse and communication. Thus, the author in this study allows a greater role for the communicative context in the cognitive linguistic study and incorporates a larger range of data than the traditional cognitive linguistic studies have done. In addition, the discoursal cognitive study should retain as the textual or verbal component of communication, which is abstracted from context, rather than the communicative activity taking place in the context. The integration of corpora in cognitive linguistics, applied in this book, presents an awareness of the relevance of registers, or genres, to the description of linguistic phenomena. Within the field of cognitive linguistics, media discourses on certain social issues with or without political positions and interests in different cultural backgrounds may display differentia of genres; however, with the widespread recognition of cross-cultural communication and international business knowledge, there is a relatively maintained and consistent pattern or genre which deeply probes into the fine-grained semantic properties of words or constructions, such as commercial written media discourses. The language of such performances has much more in common with highly formal writing of a corpus than it does with more spontaneous forms of oral communication, albeit the part of semantic categories available for both English and Chinese to depend upon still needs more provoking studies owning to different traditions, such as different degrees of abstraction, different lexical choices, different lexical forms, different degrees of sub-classifications, relevance of semantics. Such variations present subtle and essential cognitions, conception and values and their formation as well. Traditional cognitive linguistic studies often employ qualitative analysis, but do not emphasize the use of numbers to analyze cognitive semantics; however, the usage-based model places variation, between groups and even between individuals, as an integral part of the language. Hence, there is a priori in semantic choices

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when media writers draft discourses. Applying the usage-based model means that real language use, in all its complexity, must be the basis of linguistic research. Although cognitive meaning is an inherently subjective, mentally internal, and nonobservable phenomenon, the quantitative analyses do help researchers to obtain and generate the embodied cognitive actions and thoughts in different languages. This book uses both manual and automatic treatments to obtain the numbers for illustration of the semantic frequency, estimating statistical significance, detecting cognitive patterns in data, identifying the relative importance of usage factors in grammatical composition or word choice, and proposing cognitive models accurately in different cultures. As Schmid (2010) argues that more frequently occurring structures are believed to hold a more prominent place, not only in actual discourses but also in the linguistic system, than those occurring less often. The quantitative analyses can correlate the frequency of occurrence of linguistic phenomena with their salience or entrenchment in the cognitive system. The cognitive patterns of frequency distributions of lexical-grammatical variants of linguistic units correspond to variable degrees of entrenchment of cognitive processes or representations associated with them. Thus, the usage-based cognitive grammar approach together with quantitative analyses provides the best evidence people need in determining the nature and specific organization of linguistic systems.

7.4 Summary As discussed in this chapter, the author believes that cognitive semantics of a category (e.g., metaphors, schemas, and stance markers) may be a single node, a stable pattern of activation, a fixed set of linguistic features, a constant set of predicates, a static network, an immutable mental word, and so forth. The natural cognitive systems of human beings in different cultures exhibit remarkable similarities as well as variability. Discoursal sensitivity coexists with a degree of stability that is best captured by appeals to cognitive semantics in different cultures. In media discoursal cognition, media writers’ cognition bears the imprint of the types of professional and public activities that the media writers can be expected to carry out, and the writers’ cognition will heavily depend on the conditions of the activity itself. What is more, the cognition of all the media writers participating in similar collective activities will develop in similar linguistic directions, in dependence of the activities.

References Bickhard, M. H. (2000). Dynamic representing and representational dynamics. In E. Dietrich & A. B. Markman (Eds.), Cognitive dynamics (pp. 31–50). London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associations, Publishers. Croft, W., & Cruse, D. A. (2004). Cognitive linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Evans, V., & Green, M. (2006). Cognitive linguistics: An introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Isaksson, M. (2005). Ethos and Pathos representations in mission statements. In A. Trosborg & P. E. F. Jorgensen (Eds.), Business discourse: Texts and contexts (pp. 111–138). New York: Peter Lang. Levinson, S. C. (2003). Space in language and cognition: Explorations in cognitive diversity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pustejovsky, J. (1995). The generative lexicon. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Rogers, P., Swales, J., & Rogers, P. (1990). We the people? An analysis of the Dana Corporation policies document. Journal of Business Communication, 27(3), 293–313. Schmid, H. (2010). Does frequency in text instantiate entrenchment in the cognitive system? In D. Glynn & K. Fischer (Eds.), Quantitative methods in cognitive semantics: Corpus-driven approaches (pp. 101–136). De Gruyter Mouton: Berlin/New York.

Chapter 8

Conclusion

Abstract This cross-cultural empirical study of metaphors, image schemas, and stance-taking in commercial news discourse offers opportunities and challenges for the study of human cognitive mechanisms and how writers select and deploy sensitive linguistic resources to represent themselves and their positions. Based on current theoretical studies and their enlightenments, the author endeavors to provide novel perspectives on news discourse analysis and advocates embodied views of language applications and understanding. Keywords Cognitive mechanisms · Cognition processes · Cognitive tools · Stance-taking resources · Cross-cultural communications The book provides a novel embodied perspective on human cognitive mechanisms, emphasizing the importance of embodied activities in language use and understanding, and drawing attention to the relations between mind and body. This study also explains what metaphors, image schemas, and stance markers are, how they emerge and how they are helpful in our understanding of events, enriching the current body of research on media discourse analysis by introducing cognitive semantic theories and research methods. As cognitive theories are common in recent studies of economic, political, and educational discourses, the author proposes a combination of cognitive semantic studies on various business media discourses, presenting a cognitive analytical sample and also contributing to cross-cultural studies. From a pedagogical perspective, this book sheds insights on human cognition processes, cognitive tools, stance-taking resources, and cross-cultural communications, which can be applied to different levels of education. For instance, linguistics focusing on language teaching always desires to draw pedagogical inspiration from linguistic theories. In this book, the expansive analyses on the utilization of cognitive semantics in news reports provide various visions for thinking, which helps passage consumers and language learners decode the reports written by journalists. This enlightenment does not only limit to reports of business register but applies to all news reports. In light of this, the research on cognitive semantics is very essential to language teachers and linguistic researchers. Furthermore, this comparative study provides references to cross-cultural communication teachers as well as managerial communication. © Science Press 2020 W. Yang, A Cross-Cultural Study of Commercial Media Discourses, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8617-0_8

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Finally, the findings drawn from this analysis prove that the commercial news discourse can be categorized as a typical type of business genre that contains abundant cognitive business elements and implied information. With the boom of China’s industry and economic development, especially the development in the production and entertainment industry, commercial discourses carry significant academic importance and require further studies from different perspectives. Through this book, we obtain the knowledge of cognition and language applications projecting cognitive varieties in different cultures on certain social issues through the study of language, and vice versa, i.e., that our knowledge of cognition—acquired by other, non-linguistic means, may improve AI linguistic identification system which can be built more cognitively sensitive. It is impossible for this book to take everything into consideration. A few problems remain for further research. Despite the corpus in the book is collected from authoritative and famous websites which are influential, the moderate size of the corpus used in this book requires that findings in the analysis should be approached with reservation and caution. Corpus in certain stages and times may display other cognitive features and perhaps be more representative of commercial discourse research. Even though the research in this book is a relatively objective and reliable one based on corpuses, subjectivity cannot be averted in this study. Subjectivity may arise in the course of identifying specific metaphors, image schemas, and stance projections, sorting out individual linguistic data into different categories, because some instances are highly ambiguous as to the groups they belong to and each news discourse in the corpus carries huge information load, while the research focus for the book is relatively limited on the semantic devices concerning metaphors, schemas, and stance markers. Besides, the similarities and differences can result from different cultural-loaded explicit or implicit factors which may need much deeper and innovative linguistic and cognitive digging while the author only presents the most systematic theories for this study in this book, which certainly leaves more research space for further and deeper analyses in the field of cognitive discourse study in the future. Last but not the least, there are definitely other insights about media studies and cognitive analysis by focusing on a specific typology of discourse, which might be one of the limitations in this book. By more profound investigations in the future, researchers may draw other insightful understandings about the business media and cross-cultural cognitions. Apart from the existing limitations, future studies can be extended to other cognitive fields and natural language process (NLP) studies. Since cognition is closely related to discourse and AI communication analysis, especially public media communication and reports, the closer marriage between them can deepen the understanding of Chinese and English ideology in modern public communication. The contemporary movement of cognitive semantics, as an approach to the analysis of linguistic meanings and discoursal structure, has consequences beyond the narrow confines of linguistics, and also the narrow confines of the mental representation of linguistic knowledge. The present research of this book has pushed the boundaries of cognitive linguistics, although some critics may arise, which will challenge cognitive linguistics to go beyond its boundaries. With the combination of multidisciplinaries in

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the study of this book, the author argues that the survey and investigation done by involving some of the ways cognitive linguistics have gone, and should go, beyond its boundaries, and this research of this book just provides an example for mental representations and cognitive processes to respond to the discourse and functionalist approaches to languages and their applications in reality. Besides, the cognitive knowledge of language emerging from language use provides an opportunity for discoursal analysis to engage with the social-interactional nature of languages, such as news writers and readers. News writers construe their personal and cultural learning experience for the purpose of communicating with the readers of similar or other experiences, which in turn has broader social-interactional purposes, and newsreaders likewise invoke a construal of the discourses for those broader purposes. Therefore, cognitive semantics, or broadly, cognitive linguistics, has the potential to contribute to a theory of language that goes beyond cognition, as well as a theory of cognition that goes beyond language.