Metaphors in the time of Coronavirus in some English newspapers: A semantic and ontological analysis
Keywords:
Metaphor – Coronavirus –semantic – ontological - linguistic devices – affect/shapes our perception/ decisions – systematic mapping - people’s reaction - linguistic gestalt.Abstract
Metaphors dealing with the Coronavirus attracted a certain amount of attention from linguists, philosophers, politicians, and many other sects in societies. The present study adopts some examples of metaphors on Corona used by Professor Brigitte Nerlich, a blogger and a biologist from Nottingham. They are analyzed using George Lakoff & Mark Johnson‘s book Metaphors We Live By (2003) which is a book offering an extensive semantic as well as ontological analysis of metaphors. The analysis and discussions render some results which may be used in a new look as to how linguistic devices like metaphors can help us perceive reality and further convince and direct the public to changeit.In other words, how language masters man. This will logically affect our understanding of the world from both semantic, as well as ontologicalperspectives.
