Metaphors of war and war on metaphors On the use of the military lexicon to talk about the Covid-19 pandemic
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, public discourse has been characterized by a massive use of war metaphors. At the same time, this use has been harshly attacked as inappropriate and potentially dangerous. The article proposes a reflection on this debate by questioning the demonization o...
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University of Bologna
2021-03-01
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doaj-0056ebe81f80417f9aba9e5df63ca7f42021-09-29T12:02:16ZengUniversity of BolognaDNA Di Nulla Academia2724-51792021-03-0112879610.6092/issn.2724-5179/1231410620Metaphors of war and war on metaphors On the use of the military lexicon to talk about the Covid-19 pandemicFrancesca Piazza0Università degli Studi di PalermoSince the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, public discourse has been characterized by a massive use of war metaphors. At the same time, this use has been harshly attacked as inappropriate and potentially dangerous. The article proposes a reflection on this debate by questioning the demonization of the war metaphor. Indeed, the appropriateness and the efficacy of a metaphor are not absolute values but depend on many factors such as context, audience and communicative purposes. Therefore, instead of attacking war metaphors it would be more useful to enrich the range of expressions to talk about the pandemic. What is really important is to never forget that expressive choices are never only words but a constitutive part of our experience of the world.https://dnacamporesi.unibo.it/article/view/12314military speechmetaphor |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Francesca Piazza |
spellingShingle |
Francesca Piazza Metaphors of war and war on metaphors On the use of the military lexicon to talk about the Covid-19 pandemic DNA Di Nulla Academia military speech metaphor |
author_facet |
Francesca Piazza |
author_sort |
Francesca Piazza |
title |
Metaphors of war and war on metaphors On the use of the military lexicon to talk about the Covid-19 pandemic |
title_short |
Metaphors of war and war on metaphors On the use of the military lexicon to talk about the Covid-19 pandemic |
title_full |
Metaphors of war and war on metaphors On the use of the military lexicon to talk about the Covid-19 pandemic |
title_fullStr |
Metaphors of war and war on metaphors On the use of the military lexicon to talk about the Covid-19 pandemic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Metaphors of war and war on metaphors On the use of the military lexicon to talk about the Covid-19 pandemic |
title_sort |
metaphors of war and war on metaphors on the use of the military lexicon to talk about the covid-19 pandemic |
publisher |
University of Bologna |
series |
DNA Di Nulla Academia |
issn |
2724-5179 |
publishDate |
2021-03-01 |
description |
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, public discourse has been characterized by a massive use of war metaphors. At the same time, this use has been harshly attacked as inappropriate and potentially dangerous. The article proposes a reflection on this debate by questioning the demonization of the war metaphor. Indeed, the appropriateness and the efficacy of a metaphor are not absolute values but depend on many factors such as context, audience and communicative purposes. Therefore, instead of attacking war metaphors it would be more useful to enrich the range of expressions to talk about the pandemic. What is really important is to never forget that expressive choices are never only words but a constitutive part of our experience of the world. |
topic |
military speech metaphor |
url |
https://dnacamporesi.unibo.it/article/view/12314 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT francescapiazza metaphorsofwarandwaronmetaphorsontheuseofthemilitarylexicontotalkaboutthecovid19pandemic |
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1716864366020657152 |