Metaphors of identity in dating ads and newspaper articles
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Carol Marley
Her research interests are based in discourse analysis, both spoken and written, with a current particular interest in metaphor and the construction of identity in media texts. Her publications include articles on interaction and nominal group structure in written dating ads.
Abstract
This article investigates metaphors of identity in dating ads and in two types of newspaper writing, ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ news articles. It focuses on issues of textualization and processing, and particularly on the role of cotext in decoding metaphors. Taking a pragmatic approach founded in the cooperative principle, it argues that the maxims of quality and relation play related but separable roles in the interpretation of identity metaphors; and that this process is guided and constrained by cotextual selections in the environment of the metaphorical term. The particular kinds of cotextual guidance provided by the writer are seen to vary according to genre-driven issues. These include the purpose and stylistic conventions of the genre in which the metaphor occurs and the circumstances under which the text is composed and read. Differing functional motivations are suggested for the use of identity metaphors in each of the genres considered.
About the author
Her research interests are based in discourse analysis, both spoken and written, with a current particular interest in metaphor and the construction of identity in media texts. Her publications include articles on interaction and nominal group structure in written dating ads.
© Walter de Gruyter
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- Arguing about Muslims: (Un)Reasonable argumentation in letters to the editor
- Political scientists on the functions of personal pronouns in their writing: An interview-based study of ‘I’ and ‘we’
- Metaphors of identity in dating ads and newspaper articles
- Enabling talk: How the facilitator shapes a focus group
- Complex advice acceptance as a resource for managing asymmetries
Articles in the same Issue
- Arguing about Muslims: (Un)Reasonable argumentation in letters to the editor
- Political scientists on the functions of personal pronouns in their writing: An interview-based study of ‘I’ and ‘we’
- Metaphors of identity in dating ads and newspaper articles
- Enabling talk: How the facilitator shapes a focus group
- Complex advice acceptance as a resource for managing asymmetries
