John Benjamins Publishing Company
Metaphors and meaning-making in young people’s talk about climate change
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Abstract
Climate change is of especial relevance to young people, yet studies have found that there is no consistent approach to teaching about it in terms of either scientific facts or societal implications. In the UK, it is taught in different elements of the curriculum, but as knowledge to be tested, and rarely if ever as perhaps the most urgent issue facing our species. We explored young people’s understandings of climate change through a metaphor analysis of 41 group interviews with school students in the north of England. Our analysis supports Gibbs’ view of metaphor as dynamic, embodied and hugely powerful in thought and language, and also highlights its potential for spreading misinformation.
Abstract
Climate change is of especial relevance to young people, yet studies have found that there is no consistent approach to teaching about it in terms of either scientific facts or societal implications. In the UK, it is taught in different elements of the curriculum, but as knowledge to be tested, and rarely if ever as perhaps the most urgent issue facing our species. We explored young people’s understandings of climate change through a metaphor analysis of 41 group interviews with school students in the north of England. Our analysis supports Gibbs’ view of metaphor as dynamic, embodied and hugely powerful in thought and language, and also highlights its potential for spreading misinformation.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Art: My Dancing Mind vii
- Prologue 1
- Introduction 11
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Part I. New windows into cognition and communication
- Metaphor in The Cancer Poetry Project 31
- Narrative experiences of metaphor 45
- Researching embodied metaphor production through improvisational dance practice 63
- Feeling for speaking 77
- Multimodal body, multimodal mind, multimodal communication 95
- Fictive motion in the wild 109
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Part II. Account expansion, flexibility, or integration
- Extended CMT and the dynamic systems theory of metaphor 131
- Communication, comprehension, and interpretation 143
- Between embodiment and usage 157
- Metaphors and meaning-making in young people’s talk about climate change 191
- Experiential viewpoint, simile and dynamicity in discourse 205
- Metaphor and elaboration in context 223
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Part III. Influencers and drivers
- Figurativity 243
- Conceptual blending and memes 265
- How to talk about motion without verbs 293
- Defaultness vs. constructionism 305
- Relevance theory perspectives on web-mediated communication 325
- Language happens 341
- Index 357
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Art: My Dancing Mind vii
- Prologue 1
- Introduction 11
-
Part I. New windows into cognition and communication
- Metaphor in The Cancer Poetry Project 31
- Narrative experiences of metaphor 45
- Researching embodied metaphor production through improvisational dance practice 63
- Feeling for speaking 77
- Multimodal body, multimodal mind, multimodal communication 95
- Fictive motion in the wild 109
-
Part II. Account expansion, flexibility, or integration
- Extended CMT and the dynamic systems theory of metaphor 131
- Communication, comprehension, and interpretation 143
- Between embodiment and usage 157
- Metaphors and meaning-making in young people’s talk about climate change 191
- Experiential viewpoint, simile and dynamicity in discourse 205
- Metaphor and elaboration in context 223
-
Part III. Influencers and drivers
- Figurativity 243
- Conceptual blending and memes 265
- How to talk about motion without verbs 293
- Defaultness vs. constructionism 305
- Relevance theory perspectives on web-mediated communication 325
- Language happens 341
- Index 357
