Metaphor and Entertainment

Chong Han

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1137298030 ISBN 13: 9781137298034

Publisher: AIAA, 2013

The internet has changed the way news media write about various issues and disseminate information and opinions. It has reshaped the way people look for leisure and pleasure. Metaphor and Entertainment investigates the online language practice of a relatively new genre of news writing in contemporary China: online entertainment news. It focuses, in particular, on the patterns of metaphor, which are used to inform the rhetorical goal of providing readers with the latest information about the popular entertainment industry (movies, TV and pop music), while entertaining them.

The author argues that these patterns of metaphor are products of the changing landscape of Chinese society. They reveal an emergent discourse pattern where mainstream media discourse interacts with and is constantly re-shaped by traditional literary legacy and the public and grassroots discourse. This cutting-edge analysis will be of interest to scholars and students dealing with media discourse, metaphor and Chinese language.

Review:

“The content is accessible for students new to the field of corpus linguistics and metaphor: concepts are clearly defined and backed up with thought-provoking examples from the corpus data. The book is also relevant to established scholars in the field as it provides a novel and fascinating insight into the socio-cultural roots, and evolution, of traditional and contemporary metaphors in Chinese entertainment news writing. In sum, the book provides a valuable contribution to the field of corpus linguistics and metaphor.” (Shirley Anne Paul, Metaphor and the Social World, Vol. 6 (2), 2016)

About the Author:

Chong Han is Associate Lecturer in Linguistics, Translation and Interpreting at the University of Western Sydney, Australia. Her research interests are in the areas of Semantics, Discourse Analysis, Corpus Linguistics, Translation and Interpreting Studies.