Religion as Source Domain of Metaphors in World War II Media Discourse

Abstract

The article studies the English-language media discourses of the World War II period from a retrospective point of view. The aim is to identify the patterns of modeling the images of war and peace in British, American and Australian media discourses. The definition of military media discourse as an institutional form of communication is proposed, its essential characteristics are highlighted. The source of the material was the authoritative digitized archives of the UK, the USA and Australia. The material was extracted using corpus linguistics tools. The qualitative analysis was carried out within the framework of the cognitive-discourse methodology using the method of metaphorical modeling. The object of the research is the dominant metaphor used when representing the images of war and peace in the three discourses. The authors show common and specific features of the use of the religious metaphor, conditioned by cultural and extra-linguistic factors, and conclude that the religious metaphor places war and peace at different poles of the scale of values and actualizes the binary axiological opposition “good — evil”, “light — darkness”.

Modern metaphor research in Russia: Trends, schools and results

“…In our opinion, desacralisation of traditional spheres happens in the aftermath of certain tragic events, especially if we consider the history of conflicts and wars. Solopova and Koshkarova's (2021) research deals with source domains in the English-language media discourse of World War II. Although the authors claim that religion is their main sphere of interest, they nevertheless show a much wider perspective and describe various spheres of metaphoric production in those times (Solopova & Koshkarova).…”

Metaphors across languages, cultures and discourses: A research agenda

“…In language and culture, metaphors influence not only how we communicate ideas, express emotions, and shape our identities but also how people perceive certain issues across different forms of discourse, such as media, politics, legal, medicine, fiction, humor, and beyond (see Budaev 2017, Charteris-Black 2004, Gornostaeva 2018, Kondratjeva 2020, Leontovich 2017, Musolff 2016, Solopova & Koshkarova 2021, Sun et al 2021, Trim 2022, Zibin 2020. Investigating the adaptability and development of metaphors within these dynamic contexts offers valuable insights into the ever-changing realm of human expression and communication.…”

“…(см. Budaev 2017, Charteris-Black 2004, Gornostaeva 2018, Kondratjeva 2020, Leontovich 2017, Musolff 2016, Solopova & Koshkarova 2021, Sun et al 2021, Trim 2022, Zibin 2020. Изучение особенностей функционирования метафор, доминирования одних моделей над другими и их изменчивости в зависимости от типа дискурса свидетельствует о разнообразии и непрерывном развитии способов выражения метафоричности в различных сферах коммуникации.…”