Metaphorical Depictions of the American and Chinese Economies during the 2010 Financial Crisis

Fan, Fan (2025) Metaphorical Depictions of the American and Chinese Economies during the 2010 Financial Crisis. Doctoral thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

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Abstract

This thesis contributes to the critical analysis of metaphors in economic news discourse during financial crisis, aiming to explore metaphorical images of the American and Chinese economies in economic news articles as representatives of distinct cultural and ideological backgrounds. It also examines whether these metaphorical depictions convey varying attitudes towards the two countries. In this study, I analyzed metaphors in economic news articles from The Economist during and immediately after the global American subprime mortgage crisis (2010-2011), with specific focus on China and America. To enrich this field, a corpus-based research methodology was employed within the Critical Cognitive Linguistics (CCL) framework, supplemented by the Pragglejaz Group‘s Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP, 2007). Furthermore, to avoid relying solely on personal intuition for metaphor identification, Lakoff‘s Master Metaphor List (1991) and metaphors from relevant studies were systematically utilized for comparison. Additionally, six major categories of economic crisis metaphors generalized by Arrese (2014) and Arrese & Vara-Miguel (2016), along with Charteris-Black‘s (2004) animate/inanimate metaphor division, and van Dijk‘s (2006) Us/Them ideological polarization (Hart 2014) were applied to categorize and critically analyze metaphors. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the superordinate metaphor categories, frequent metaphor types, and modifications of existing metaphors revealed that both China and America were metaphorically depicted as strong economies. China emerged as a new powerful player with positive economic growth, but there was caution about its future. America was portrayed as impacted by the financial crisis, yet its outlook remained positive. Both the Chinese and American economies were framed under unilateral framing but exhibited differences in metaphor categories and types. The selected economic news articles reported on the Chinese economy using more inanimate metaphors, whereas the American economy was described using more animate metaphors, indicating different ideological distances. The selected economic news reports were not entirely objective nor biased either. These methodologies and findings offer insights for future research and practical applications examining the portrayal of countries with diverse backgrounds in economic news articles through metaphors.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HJ Public Finance P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Divisions:	Theses and Dissertations > Doctoral Theses
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.82227/repository.uwtsd.ac.uk.00004077
Depositing User:	Victoria Hankinson
Date Deposited:	07 Jan 2026 16:01
Last Modified:	07 Jan 2026 16:03
URI:	https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/4077

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