Abstract
We investigate the different interpretations related to the metaphorical IMPRINT of climate change in English and French media discourses. This cross-linguistic perspective is motivated by the particularities of both languages which have been assumed to promote different understandings of climate change-related concepts. We focus on the metaphor CARBON FOOTPRINT whose meaning can be compared to another climate change metaphor in English: FINGERPRINT. These two source domains share a highly specific and concrete meaning interpreted from lexical constructions enabled by the English language. In French, however, such a specification cannot be interpreted from the meaning of the metaphor EMPREINTE CARBONE (CARBON IMPRINT) which defines a similar concept. We rely on visual representations of these metaphorical expressions in English and French to discuss the characteristics associated with each source domain: we show that visual metaphors can contradict expectations emerging from the interpretations of verbal metaphors.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-22 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Metaphor and the Social World |
Volume | 12 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 1 Nov 2021 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 22 Mar 2022 |
Keywords
- Carbon footprint
- fingerprint
- Climate Change
- English
- French
- multimodality
- Media
- imprint
- media variation of meaning
- climate change
- multi-modal metaphor