A Critical Metaphor Analysis Of PANDEMIC Metaphors In Chinese And American Media Discourses On COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic,the mainstream media throughout the world have played a critical role in the release of epidemic information and reports of relevant news.A large number of metaphorical expressions have been widely used in epidemic-related reports,such as the fight against the pandemic and the test of the COVID-19 epidemic,which has attracted the attention of many metaphor researchers at home and abroad.As a disease of global concern,the mainstream media have endowed the prevention and control of the pandemic with metaphorical meanings in their coverage of the disease,which has deeply influenced people’s perception of the pandemic.Under the theoretical framework of Critical Metaphor Analysis,incorporated with the concept of metaphor scenario,the thesis conducts a cross-linguistic comparative study of pandemic metaphors in Chinese and English using two mainstream corpora,the People’s Daily(PD)and the New York Times(NYT).The thesis intends to identify the pandemic metaphors employed by the Chinese and the US media on reporting COVID-19 and explore the similarities and differences of the pandemic metaphors used in the two media.By discussing the pandemic metaphors in the two news media,the thesis seeks to shed light on the different attitudes of the Chinese and American media toward the COVID-19 pandemic.Two research questions are addressed:Q1.What are the similarities and differences of the conceptual metaphors in the Chinese and American news media in reporting COVID-19?Q2.How do the pandemic metaphors reveal the underlying attitudes of the Chinese and American news media towards COVID-19?Data show that eight PANDEMIC metaphors were identified in the two corpora.Among them,1)four conceptual metaphors were shared by the PD corpus and the NYT corpus: WAR metaphor,NATURAL PHENONMENON metaphor,JOURNEY metaphor,and SUPERNATURAL metaphor.2)Despite the coexistence of the four metaphors in both corpora,significant differences were found among all the four pandemic metaphors in the frequencies of metaphorical expressions.3)The EXAMINATION metaphor and the CHESS metaphor were unique to the PD corpus.4)The GAME metaphor and the LIVING ENTITY metaphor were found only in the NYT corpus.Incorporating the notion of metaphorical scenario into CMA,the analysis of these eight types of metaphors revealed that for the same target domain(the COVID-19 pandemic),the various scenarios activated by different metaphorical expressions within the same conceptual metaphor reflect the different attitudes and perspectives towards the same things of the two media.The Chinese media uses the RESULT OF WAR scenario in the WAR metaphor,the EXAMINATION metaphor,etc.to refer to the outcome of the antipandemic in a more positive and firm manner,inspiring people to fight the epidemic and strengthening the determination of the whole society against the epidemic.On the other hand,the American media have generally taken a negative and uncompromising attitude towards the outcome of the anti-pandemic,and have paid more attention to the negative phenomena,such as the hardship of the epidemic fighting process and the unsatisfactory outcome of the epidemic fight,as shown in the WAR metaphor and the DEFACILITATING FORCE scenario.The Chinese media focuses more on the changing quality of the pandemic.It has more confidence in controlling the spreading of the pandemic and tends to adopt more flexible strategies in the anti-pandemic campaign,as illustrated in the SEASON scenario in the SUPERNATURAL metaphor and CHESS Metaphor.Whereas,the American media concentrates more on the destroying impacts of the pandemic,as shown in the DISASTER scenario,which is unique to the American corpus.The Chinese media tends to highlight the preparation for anti-epidemic campaign,while the American media tends to emphasize the great efforts in developing vaccines,as illustrated in the FACILITATING FORCE scenario in the JOURNEY metaphor.The use of SUPERNATURAL metaphor by both countries suggests that under the centralized leadership of the Communist Party of China,China has implemented nationwide life-saving activities,which is closely related to the Chinese collectivist culture.Americans,on the other hand,put hope in God and highlight the individual salvation acts,which is closely related to the American individualistic culture.Findings of the study support the traditional theories about disease metaphors,including the experiential view of conceptual metaphors and the characteristics of metaphors as a way of thinking and an ideological carrier.The study also indicates the important role metaphor scenario plays in revealing the subtle and covert attitudes of the news media in reporting diseases,enriching the socio-cognitive analysis model in CMA.