The Play of Voices in Metaphor Discourse: A Case Study of "NATIONS ARE BROTHERS"

Dialogic patterns around the metaphor "NATIONS ARE BROTHERS" is the object of investigation of this article. The purpose is to demonstrate heteroglossia created by this metaphoric proposition. The article seeks to explore the variation of themes and social implications evoked by the same m...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Metaphor and symbol 2012-04, Vol.27 (2), p.171-194
Main Author: A'Beckett, Ludmilla
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Case studies
Discourse analysis
Heteroglossia
Ideology
Linguistics
Metaphor
Propositions
Values
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Summary:Dialogic patterns around the metaphor "NATIONS ARE BROTHERS" is the object of investigation of this article. The purpose is to demonstrate heteroglossia created by this metaphoric proposition. The article seeks to explore the variation of themes and social implications evoked by the same metaphoric concept. Various social agents adopt and adapt the metaphor to achieve dissimilar communicative and ideological goals. Receivers of the metaphoric message do not react uniformly to the proposition either. Multiple voices are involved in negotiation of values and ideas associated with the metaphor usage. The play of voices around the metaphoric proposition extends, reverses, twists and truncates the mapping of the metaphoric paragon. The article concludes with the discussion of discursive techniques which enable metaphor producer to enlarge or alter the scope of metaphoric inferences. 1 Compare Medvedev: my i seychas ispytyvaem bratskie chuvstva po otnosheniyu k gruzinskomu narodu "D. Medvedev: 'We feel the fraternal feelings towards the Georgian people even now'" (September 7, 2008; retrieved from http://www.newsru.com/arch/russia/07sep2008/grt.html ). In this article, Russian politicians maintain that they have only fraternal feelings toward Georgians even after the South Ossetia war which resulted in annexation of South Ossetia from Georgia. Similarly in Putin: Glavnoe v otnosheniyakh s Ukrainoi ne gaz i flot, a chuvstvo loktia "V. Putin: 'The most important thing in relations with Ukraine is not the gas and the fleet but the feeling of comradeship'" (April 22, 2010; retrieved from http://afn.by/news/i/134633 ). Putin argues that the feeling of comradeship is more important in relation between Ukraine and Russia than the economic and geopolitical benefits. Ironically, Ukraine had to agree upon a ruinous gas contract with Russia and a Russian military presence in Ukraine.
ISSN:1092-6488
1532-7868
DOI:10.1080/10926488.2012.665797