TYPES OF METAPHORS USED IN ECONOMIC DISCOURSE

TYPES OF METAPHORS USED IN ECONOMIC DISCOURSE Elena Gubareva

Following G. Lakoff and M. Johnson (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980) metaphor can be divided into two categories: conceptual and lexical (linguistic) metaphors.

Conceptual metaphor operates at the level of cognition, activating links between

different fields. These are then realized linguistically or lexically on the surface of

text. In keeping with the same theory, Lakoff sees metaphor not as a figure of

speech, but as «a mode of thought defined by a systematic mapping [1, p.210].

The metaphoric theory of economic text is well shown in the literature.

Economic texts in English express negative and positive economic events through

the metaphor. The language of Economics contains a large range of metaphoric

terms, which can be classified according to different criteria.

According to the classification of metaphors advanced by Ullmann [3, p.123],

the language of Economics is well-represented in all the categories established by the researcher:

a) anthropomorphic metaphors, i.e. transfers of meaning from the human body

and its parts to inanimate objects, e.g. Samurai market (the foreign market in Japan), Yankee market (the foreign market in the U.S.), Matador market (the foreign market in Spain), arm's length price (the price at which a willing buyer and a willing unrelated seller would freely agree to transact), beggar-thy-neighbour devaluation (a device that is designed to cheapen a nation's currency and thereby increase its exports at other countries' expense and reduce imports), lifting a leg (closing out one side of a long-short arbitrage before the other is closed), daughter company, sister company, parent company, head office, etc. These terms hold a very important position in the language of Economics owing to the relationship they establish between economic entities and vehicles marked. Therefore, it may be said that a basic formation principle of economic metaphors is the 'humanization' of economic entities, so that to facilitate their comprehension and manipulation by human 'end- users .

b) animal metaphors, viz. transfers of meaning from the animal field to other

fields, e.g. Bulldog market (the foreign market in the U.K.), bear (an investor who

believes a stock or the overall market will decline), buck (slang for one million

dollars), fair game (an investment prospect that has a zero risk premium), butterfly

shift (a non-parallel shift in the yield curve involving the height of the curve), hurdle rate (the required return in capital budgeting), bull market (a situation in a stock market or currency market where prices are raising and lots of shareholders are buying), shark (a person who lends money at a very high rate of interest), stag (a person who applies for shares with the intention of selling them immediately for

profit), wildcat strike (a strike called at short notice and without trade union

agreement), wildcat (of a project that is very risky financially), cats and dogs (1

Slang for highly speculative, low-priced securities; 2. An odd assortment, especially of goods on sale), etc.

c) metaphors that translate abstract experience into concrete terms, e.g. heavy

industry, light industry, to catch a cold, to streamline, etc. Such terms display a high

frequency of occurrence, due to their powerful evocative virtue, as they appeal to the basic human method of cognitive appropriation of abstract concepts, processes and entities, i.e. by means of concrete illustration and particularization.

d) synaesthetic metaphors, i.e. metaphors based upon the transposition from

one sense to another, are not so frequent, possibly because of the relatively narrow

specialisation of this particular type of discourse, focusing not on humans (and

implicitly human senses) but on economic concepts and entities. Such metaphors are however, highly suggestive and expressive: hot industry (transferring the cognitive  appreciation occasioned by the sense of sight to the physical sensation pertaining to the human sense of taste, apparently on the ground 'similarity of effect'); to cook/ salt the books (obtained by means of the transposition of the information received by the sense of sight to the sense of taste). It is to be remarked that the Romanian equivalent resorts to either a paraphrase of the initial metaphor, or the sense on which the target originally relied.

Metaphors occur pervasively and systematically in all types of discourse. The

production, processing and communication of meaning depends on the mapping of

metaphorical domains, as «the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another» [2, p.85].

The approach is largely cognitive linguistic, at the same time emphasising the

interactive and persuasive aspects of metaphor. Thus, metaphor is seen as a way of

structuring our understanding of concepts as well as a way of interacting with the reader.

In recent years, much research has pointed to the fact that metaphor in

economic discourse reflects cultural, political and economic issues of society, and

that in this way it helps shape the reality we as readers are confronted with.

Traditionally the metaphor was considered mainly in stylistic and rhetoric

terms as mean of achievement of figurativeness, but metaphor consideration as a

cognitive phenomena is widely involved in discourse now.

Growth of theoretical interest to a metaphor was stimulated in its kinds of

texts, since poetic speech and different branches of scientific knowledge.

The theory of a conceptual metaphor of M. Johnson became one of the

leading directions of the cognitive linguistic. Metaphors are much more powerful

instruments in the eyes of Lakoff and Johnson. «Metaphors have entailments that

organize our experience, uniquely express that experience, and create necessary

realities» [2, p. 67].The authors' explain of a metaphor is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects, for example in economic text. Because such metaphors structure our basic understandings of our experience, Lakoff and Johnson attacked the two commonly accepted theories of metaphor. Previous theories derive, they believe, from a naive realism that there is an objective world, independent of ourselves, to which words apply with fixed meanings. But the answer is not to swing to the opposite and embrace a wholly subjectivists view that the personal, interior world is the only reality. Metaphors, for Lakoff and Johnson, «are primarily matters of thought and action, only derivatively of language. Metaphors are culturally-based, and define what those with certain assumptions and presuppositions find real. The «isolated similarities» are indeed those created by metaphor, which simply create a partial understanding of one kind of experience in terms of another kind of experience. They are grounded in correlations within our experience» [2, p.136].

When metaphors are said to cause economical phenomena, political scientists

often object. Their objections are rarely specific. Rather than offering reasoned

arguments why metaphors must be causally impotent, they often respond with

bewilderment, even outrage, to sentences that start with «metaphor» as the subject

and continue with «causes» appearing as the verb followed by a noun phrase

mentioning any political phenomenon.

High rate of metaphors in a modern economic discourse speaks that the

metaphor has turned to one of the strongest means of representation of economic

concepts and influence on economic consciousness of a society.

Studying and the description of a metaphor from positions of cognitive linguistic is the most productive. Interest to the description of metaphors in various

kinds of a discourse recently has considerably amplified.

The choice of zoometaphors as an object of research isn't specific.

Traditionally languages use figurative sphere of animals as representations about the world view.

Metaphors reflect culture of the people which economic activities are

described. Many economic events are described by means of metaphors. For

example, terms bulls and bears. These concepts exist in an economic discourse

already more than a hundred years. These animal steels symbols of exchange trade.

Such a bit unusual names have been given the professional participants of stock

market (bulls). Bulls predict the Dow Jones will go beyond 13,000 [4, p. 63], The

bears argue that after the stock market's dramatic rise, shares are bound to fall again

[4, p.42].

Just as the bull hooks the contender on horns, the traders adhering to

speculation for the rise, aspire to raise the price as it is possible above. «Bears» show the complete antithesis to «bulls». They sell securities or currency, cutting the prices and buy up the same papers already more cheaply.

«Bulls» and «bears» - constant opponents, and their activity - one of the basic

destabilizing factors in the world financial markets. Bulls and Bears - personify these images which have become already classical, two basic market forces - buyers and sellers. Initially such comparison was used at stock exchanges, but began to be applied and concerning participants of any other financial markets later.

The bull (Bull) - the investor or the trader who believes that the price of the

certain financial tool or all market will grow and opens a long position. Just as the

bull lifts the enemy on horns and throws it upwards, the bull-trader buys, promoting increase in demand and lifting of the prices.

The bear (Bear), on the contrary, predicts falling of cost of an active or the market as a whole and takes a short position. To similarly how the bear leans on the victim and presses it downwards to the earth, the bear-trader sells, causing growth of the offer and reduction of prices. Except bulls and bears an exchange zoo are also other representatives of fauna - the greedy pigs, doubting chaotic sheep, skilled and prudent whales. Lump of nonprofessional players also name «herd». In the conclusion it is possible to say that the use of zoometaphors creates not only estimated value but explains the character of behavior between participants of the market in an English-speaking economic discourse. REFERENCES 1. G. Newsletter, Chicago University Press, 1996. 2. Lakoff, G., Johnson, M. Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press, 1980. 3. Ullmann, S. Semantics: An introduction to the science of meaning, Oxford: Blackwell, 1962. 4. Longman Business English Dictionary, 2007.