Alice Deignan
Biographic Data
| ID | 1106872 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alice Deignan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alice |
| FAMILY NAME | Deignan |
| SIGNATURE | DEIGNAN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Leeds |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9156-9168 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Children’s ability to interpret metaphorical polysemy in educational materials
Metaphor is used as a tool for communicating specialist knowledge to non-specialists in popular discourse and in educational contexts. Research has explored its use in higher education, but less is known about its efficacy with learners of school age. Experimental research has shown that very young children are able to interpret and produce attributional metaphors, but that relational metaphors and analogies do not seem to be understood until lat…
Rhetorical moves in teachers’ PowerPoint presentations
This study examines the rhetorical characteristics of teachers' PowerPoint presentations, a commonly used yet underexplored genre in school language, across school stages (primary-secondary) and between disciplines. Although there have been empirical studies on the linguistic characteristics of other genres, such as textbooks, PowerPoint presentations have received very little attention despite their widespread use in educational settings. Using …
Narratives, Information and Manifestations of Resistance to Persuasion in Online Discussions of HPV Vaccination
There are both theoretical accounts and empirical evidence for the fact that, in health communication, narratives (story telling) may have a persuasive advantage when compared with information (the provision of facts). The dominant explanation for this potential advantage is that narratives inhibit people’s resistance to persuasion, particularly in the form of counterarguing. Evidence in this area to date has most often been gathered through lab …
Unconventional Metaphor Use in the Writing of Chinese Learners of English
Metaphors are known to present both opportunities and challenges for second language learners, but relatively little is known about learners' awareness of them. To investigate this, we analyzed 72 argumentative essays written in English by a group of 37 intermediate Chinese university students of English. We identified metaphors using an established identification procedure, and then used dictionary descriptions and corpus procedures to identify …
Metaphors of Climate Science in Three Genres
Experts are generally in agreement that anthropogenic climate change is happening and will increase in severity, but this view is not clearly reflected in more non-specialist texts. Research has shown that school students have a limited and sometimes faulty understanding of climate change. Metaphors are used by scientists in developing thought and communicating with non-scientists; they are also used by educators. This research investigates stude…
MIP, the corpus and dictionaries
MacArthur questions the use of the “Macmillan Dictionary” in metaphor identification. In this response, I argue that the ideal way of determining basic meaning is by analysis of concordance citations sampled from an appropriate corpus. This is demonstrated using a 1000 word sample of the concordance for say and its inflections, taken from the “British National Corpus”. It is shown that it is very difficult to identify separable senses, which call…
Metaphor in use
This book was developed from papers presented at the Seventh ‘Researching and Applying Metaphor’ (RaAM) Conference, held in Spain in 2008. Recent scholarship has largely taken place within the Conc
Metaphor, Genre, and Recontextualization
Earlier studies have demonstrated the dynamic properties of metaphor by showing how the meanings and functions of metaphorical expressions can flexibly change and develop within individual texts or discourse events (Cameron, 2011 Cameron, L. 2011. Metaphor and reconciliation: The discourse-dynamics of empathy in post-conflict conversations, London, , UK: Routledge. [Google Scholar]). In this article, we draw from Linell's (2009 Linell, P. 2009. R…
Figurative language in discourse
Deliberateness is not unique to metaphor
Preview this article: Deliberateness is not unique to metaphor: A response to Gibbs, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/msw.1.1.05dei-1.gif
The Emergence of Metaphor in Discourse
We show how emergence offers new explanations for the behaviour of metaphorically-used expressions. Analysis of metaphors in two types of natural language data are combined: detailed analysis of continuous discourse, which offers wealth of context and the possibility of monitoring emergent forms as the discourse unfolds, and computer-assisted corpus analysis, which enables the examination of large numbers of examples of specific words and phrases…
Readership and Purpose in the Choice of Economics Metaphors
The findings described in this article suggest that writers' choices of linguistic metaphors are importantly influenced by 2 factors: the text's intended readership and its purpose.We describe a corpus comparison of metaphor use in scientific and popular business discourse. Frequency measures and concordancing techniques were used to identify the differences in metaphorical use between the 2 corpora. A narrower range of metaphors was found in the…
Metaphor and Corpus Linguistics
Metaphor is a topical issue across a number of disciplines, wherever researchers are concerned with how speakers and writers package and process messages. This book is addressed at readers from diverse academic backgrounds who are interested in ways of researching metaphor from different perspectives, and especially through corpus linguistics. A number of approaches to and exploitations of metaphor, including conceptual metaphor theory and cognit…
A corpus study of metaphors and metonyms in English and Italian
Combining Large and Small Corpora to Investigate Tuning Devices Around Metaphor in Spoken Discourse
We studied metaphorical language in spoken discourse from a number of settings to explore the words and expressions that regularly appear in the cotext of both conventional and innovative metaphors. We found that expressions that we call "tuning devices" are frequent in all the data consulted. Tuning devices have a number of different functions, clustered around the central notion of suggesting to the hearer how to interpret a metaphor. Our data …
Metaphorical Expressions and Culture
Lakoff (1993) argued that basic level conceptual metaphors are grounded in human experience, and are therefore likely to be found widely across different languages and cultures. However, other mappings may not be shared. It is well documented that many metaphorical expressions vary across languages, and a number of researchers have argued cultural motivations for this. Possible reasons for cross-linguistic differences in metaphor are that differe…
Metaphorical polysemy and paradigmatic relations
The recent cognitive view of metaphor has implications for semantic relations between established metaphorical senses of polysemous lexemes. It has been suggested that the relations of synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy holding between literal senses of lexemes may be replicated by their metaphorical senses. In this paper, lexemes with literal senses in the semantic areas of temperature, illness and tools are examined using concordance data from a l…
Linguistic Metaphors and Collocation in Nonliterary Corpus Data
The description of linguistic metaphors has often been restricted to intuitively generated examples or the analysis of short texts. The development of large corpora of computer-searchable nonliterary texts enables researchers to make more accurate statements about the use of linguistic metaphors. In the studies described in this article, a computerized corpus has been used to determine the extent to which clusters of words from particular source …
A corpus study of metaphors and metonyms in English and Italian
Unconventional Metaphor Use in the Writing of Chinese Learners of English
Metaphors are known to present both opportunities and challenges for second language learners, but relatively little is known about learners' awareness of them. To investigate this, we analyzed 72 argumentative essays written in English by a group of 37 intermediate Chinese university students of English. We identified metaphors using an established identification procedure, and then used dictionary descriptions and corpus procedures to identify …
Metaphorical polysemy and paradigmatic relations
The recent cognitive view of metaphor has implications for semantic relations between established metaphorical senses of polysemous lexemes. It has been suggested that the relations of synonymy, antonymy and hyponymy holding between literal senses of lexemes may be replicated by their metaphorical senses. In this paper, lexemes with literal senses in the semantic areas of temperature, illness and tools are examined using concordance data from a l…
Linguistic Metaphors and Collocation in Nonliterary Corpus Data
The description of linguistic metaphors has often been restricted to intuitively generated examples or the analysis of short texts. The development of large corpora of computer-searchable nonliterary texts enables researchers to make more accurate statements about the use of linguistic metaphors. In the studies described in this article, a computerized corpus has been used to determine the extent to which clusters of words from particular source …
Combining Large and Small Corpora to Investigate Tuning Devices Around Metaphor in Spoken Discourse
We studied metaphorical language in spoken discourse from a number of settings to explore the words and expressions that regularly appear in the cotext of both conventional and innovative metaphors. We found that expressions that we call "tuning devices" are frequent in all the data consulted. Tuning devices have a number of different functions, clustered around the central notion of suggesting to the hearer how to interpret a metaphor. Our data …
Metaphorical Expressions and Culture
Lakoff (1993) argued that basic level conceptual metaphors are grounded in human experience, and are therefore likely to be found widely across different languages and cultures. However, other mappings may not be shared. It is well documented that many metaphorical expressions vary across languages, and a number of researchers have argued cultural motivations for this. Possible reasons for cross-linguistic differences in metaphor are that differe…
A corpus study of metaphors and metonyms in English and Italian
Metaphor and Corpus Linguistics
Metaphor is a topical issue across a number of disciplines, wherever researchers are concerned with how speakers and writers package and process messages. This book is addressed at readers from diverse academic backgrounds who are interested in ways of researching metaphor from different perspectives, and especially through corpus linguistics. A number of approaches to and exploitations of metaphor, including conceptual metaphor theory and cognit…
The Emergence of Metaphor in Discourse
We show how emergence offers new explanations for the behaviour of metaphorically-used expressions. Analysis of metaphors in two types of natural language data are combined: detailed analysis of continuous discourse, which offers wealth of context and the possibility of monitoring emergent forms as the discourse unfolds, and computer-assisted corpus analysis, which enables the examination of large numbers of examples of specific words and phrases…
Readership and Purpose in the Choice of Economics Metaphors
The findings described in this article suggest that writers' choices of linguistic metaphors are importantly influenced by 2 factors: the text's intended readership and its purpose.We describe a corpus comparison of metaphor use in scientific and popular business discourse. Frequency measures and concordancing techniques were used to identify the differences in metaphorical use between the 2 corpora. A narrower range of metaphors was found in the…
Deliberateness is not unique to metaphor
Preview this article: Deliberateness is not unique to metaphor: A response to Gibbs, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/msw.1.1.05dei-1.gif
Figurative language in discourse
Metaphor, Genre, and Recontextualization
Earlier studies have demonstrated the dynamic properties of metaphor by showing how the meanings and functions of metaphorical expressions can flexibly change and develop within individual texts or discourse events (Cameron, 2011 Cameron, L. 2011. Metaphor and reconciliation: The discourse-dynamics of empathy in post-conflict conversations, London, , UK: Routledge. [Google Scholar]). In this article, we draw from Linell's (2009 Linell, P. 2009. R…
MIP, the corpus and dictionaries
MacArthur questions the use of the “Macmillan Dictionary” in metaphor identification. In this response, I argue that the ideal way of determining basic meaning is by analysis of concordance citations sampled from an appropriate corpus. This is demonstrated using a 1000 word sample of the concordance for say and its inflections, taken from the “British National Corpus”. It is shown that it is very difficult to identify separable senses, which call…
Metaphor in use
This book was developed from papers presented at the Seventh ‘Researching and Applying Metaphor’ (RaAM) Conference, held in Spain in 2008. Recent scholarship has largely taken place within the Conc
Metaphors of Climate Science in Three Genres
Experts are generally in agreement that anthropogenic climate change is happening and will increase in severity, but this view is not clearly reflected in more non-specialist texts. Research has shown that school students have a limited and sometimes faulty understanding of climate change. Metaphors are used by scientists in developing thought and communicating with non-scientists; they are also used by educators. This research investigates stude…
Narratives, Information and Manifestations of Resistance to Persuasion in Online Discussions of HPV Vaccination
There are both theoretical accounts and empirical evidence for the fact that, in health communication, narratives (story telling) may have a persuasive advantage when compared with information (the provision of facts). The dominant explanation for this potential advantage is that narratives inhibit people’s resistance to persuasion, particularly in the form of counterarguing. Evidence in this area to date has most often been gathered through lab …
Unconventional Metaphor Use in the Writing of Chinese Learners of English
Metaphors are known to present both opportunities and challenges for second language learners, but relatively little is known about learners' awareness of them. To investigate this, we analyzed 72 argumentative essays written in English by a group of 37 intermediate Chinese university students of English. We identified metaphors using an established identification procedure, and then used dictionary descriptions and corpus procedures to identify …
Rhetorical moves in teachers’ PowerPoint presentations
This study examines the rhetorical characteristics of teachers' PowerPoint presentations, a commonly used yet underexplored genre in school language, across school stages (primary-secondary) and between disciplines. Although there have been empirical studies on the linguistic characteristics of other genres, such as textbooks, PowerPoint presentations have received very little attention despite their widespread use in educational settings. Using …
Children’s ability to interpret metaphorical polysemy in educational materials
Metaphor is used as a tool for communicating specialist knowledge to non-specialists in popular discourse and in educational contexts. Research has explored its use in higher education, but less is known about its efficacy with learners of school age. Experimental research has shown that very young children are able to interpret and produce attributional metaphors, but that relational metaphors and analogies do not seem to be understood until lat…
Linguistics (17 works) · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition (15 works) · Philosophy (15 works) · Metaphor (13 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Corpus linguistics (5 works) · linguistics and terminology studies (5 works) · Literal and figurative language (5 works)