From Barren to Sterile: The Evolution of a Mixed Metaphor

Jensen, Robin E.

doi:10.1080/02773945.2014.957413

Cited by 14 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…The examples illustrated above show that metaphor changes can come in different forms. Focusing on evolutionary change, metaphors may shift meaning over time (Musolff, 2014) by acquiring new (Nerghes et al, 2015) or losing old, deficient semantic associations (Matlock et al, 2014), or be replaced entirely (Jensen, 2015). Focusing on revolutionary change, external circumstances can trigger the rise or replacement of metaphors (Campbell & La Pastina, 2010), but individuals or institutions may also make the deliberate and explicit decision to reject and/or replace old metaphors (Hurley, 2014).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conceptualizing Change in Communication Through Metaphor

Burgers

2016

J Commun

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Modeling communication patterns by individuals and organizations dealing with institutional and social change is an important challenge for communication scholars. Metaphors provide frames of thinking about societal topics. The ways metaphors change can thus reveal how conceptualizations of social topics change over time. Change occurs in two temporal paces: evolutionary (continuous) or revolutionary (discontinuous). Furthermore, change occurs in two ways: through incremental (meaning of extant metaphors change) or fundamental (old metaphors are replaced) transformation. I propose that studying shifts of metaphors can be used to model incremental and fundamental change in communication at both evolutionary and revolutionary pace. I describe how such shifts have been studied on the microlevel, mesolevel, and macrolevel through both qualitative and quantitative research methods.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, fundamental change can happen when old metaphors are slowly replaced by new ones over relatively long stretches of time. For instance, one study focuses on metaphors about (in)fertility in women (Jensen, ). Results show that, in the 17th and 18th centuries, the metaphorical expression of “barren” was used most often.…”

Section: Fundamental Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptualizing Change in Communication Through Metaphor

Burgers

2016

J Commun

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“…6 Being a mother has long been associated with being a good woman, and framing women's bodies as failing at what they may perceive as a critical task serves only to reinforce the idea that all bodies should be reproductive. 7 Although these pressures similarly exist for men, it is important to note that the terms used to describe male body parts, fluids and functions in a clinical setting usually come without normative descriptors. The language used is that of "male-factor infertility" and an "antibody reaction," 5 rather than "hostile sperm" or "incompetent testicles."…”

Section: The Problem(s) With Failure Speakmentioning

confidence: 99%

Women’s reproductive health and “failure speak”

Moore

Cattapan

2020

CMAJ

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“…Rather, we believe, and as the authors in this special issue show, that both the medical humanities and RHM would gain by exploring these intersections and tensions. For example, the medical humanities and RHM are built on a foundation of rhetoric, which leads to productive research on narrative, metaphor, invention, identity, genre, collaboration, style, memory, rhetorical analysis, negotiation, and collaboration, among many other issues (see, e.g., Angeli, 2015;Charon, 2006;Ding, 2009;Donovan, 2014;Emmons, 2010;Fountain, 2014;Graham, 2015;Heifferon, 2008;Jensen, 2015;Lyne, 2001;Mol, 2003;Popham, 2005;Stormer, 2002;Teston, 2017;Wells, 2010). By developing connections between the medical humanities and RHM, scholars of technical communication can take advantage of both fields' strengths, allowing us to engage more directly with issues involving ethics, history, sociology, literary studies, and curricular design-issues that the authors explore in this special issue.…”

Section: Purpose Of the Special Issue And Significance To The Field Omentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction to the Special Issue: Medical Humanities and/or the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine

Angeli

Johnson-Sheehan

2017

Technical Communication Quarterly

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In 2015, my (Elizabeth's) dad was diagnosed with liver disease and was in liver failure by summer, 2017. He was added to the liver transplant waiting list that summer, putting my family on a journey that involves three main stages: pretransplant, which can last weeks to years as the recipient waits for a donor match; transplant, which lasts many hours in the operating room and is followed by weeks to months of healing and rehabilitation in the hospital; and posttransplant, which refers to the rest of the recipient's life with the donor organ. Each stage has its own challenges unique to the situation and my dad's health, but my family knew two things for sure throughout the process. First, we would be receiving a deluge of health information and specific care instructions at each stage, some of which had fatal consequences if not followed correctly; and second, we would work with the "Liver Team" at each stage of the transplant. This team includes four transplant surgeons, eight transplant physicians, nine nurse practitioners and physicians' assistants, one transplant pharmacist, one transplant social worker, one financial coordinator, and three transplant coordinators who are registered nurses (one coordinator is assigned to the patient for each transplant stage). Throughout this process, and still today posttransplant, I learned how the rhetoric of health and medicine (RHM), medical humanities, and technical communication can inform one another. Scholars in these fields study and help manage the rhetorical negotiation involved in intersections of healthcare communication, patient education, and evidence-based medicine. This rhetorical negotiation was apparent while my parents and I kept track of all the specialists' roles and their relationship to my dad's care (e.g., transplant surgery, hepatology, cardiology, nephrology, psychiatry, infectious disease, critical care, dietetics, physical and occupational therapy, spiritual care). We received a binder labeled "Liver Transplant Education" once my dad was placed on the transplant list that outlined this information. Although the binder contained useful information, it was text heavy, and some of the graphics were illegible to nonmedical audiences, especially as they experienced the extreme stress of the transplant process-and the Liver Team agreed. For my family's purposes, the most useful-but also the most confusing-information included the bios of various members of the Liver Team, their specialties, and their contact information. These professionals were our go-to people for questions and concerns around the clock, but my parents and I struggled to keep track of which person we were supposed to contact with which health concern, especially pretransplant as more of my dad's bodily systems were deteriorating due to his failed liver. At one point before the transplant surgery, I suggested that we amend the transplant education materials by making a map of the Liver Team so that we could better understand the relationships among everyone. Following spatial mapping ...

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From Barren to Sterile: The Evolution of a Mixed Metaphor

Cited by 14 publications

References 25 publications

Conceptualizing Change in Communication Through Metaphor

Conceptualizing Change in Communication Through Metaphor

Women’s reproductive health and “failure speak”

Introduction to the Special Issue: Medical Humanities and/or the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine

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