Metaphors of cancer in the Arabic language: An analysis of the use of metaphors in the online narratives of breast cancer patients

IF 0.5 Q3 LINGUISTICS

Open Linguistics Pub Date : 2022-01-01 DOI:10.1515/opli-2022-0184

Hessah S. Abaalalaa, Wesam M. A. Ibrahim

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

Abstract This study explores the use of metaphors in the narratives of breast cancer patients in online magazine websites in the Arabic language. It aims to find similarities and/or differences between English and Arabic in respect of the metaphorical constructions of cancer experiences. The corpus of the study consists of 13,705 words in 19 narratives in Arabic. We used the metaphor identification procedure of Pragglejaz Group (2007) to detect the metaphors in the corpus. We focused on the role of metaphor in constructing our experience of cancer, and examined which metaphors are more frequent in the construction of the cancer experience. The results of the study revealed that there is a great similarity between Arabic and English in respect of the metaphors used to construct the cancer experience; the patients have framed their cancer situation via WAR and/or JOURNEY metaphors, with War metaphors more frequently used than Journey Metaphors. The findings also indicate that the Arabic narratives tended to include a stronger religious framework, constructing cancer as a kind of Trial by Ordeal in which one proves one’s firm faith through patience and acceptance of fate.

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阿拉伯语言中癌症的隐喻——癌症患者网络叙述中隐喻的使用分析

摘要本研究探讨了隐喻在阿拉伯语在线杂志网站上对癌症患者的叙述中的使用。它旨在寻找英语和阿拉伯语在癌症经历的隐喻结构方面的相似性和/或差异。该研究的语料库由19个阿拉伯语叙述中的13705个单词组成。我们使用Pragglejaz小组（2007）的隐喻识别程序来检测语料库中的隐喻。我们关注隐喻在构建癌症体验中的作用，并研究了哪些隐喻在构建癌症体验中更常见。研究结果表明，阿拉伯语和英语在构建癌症体验的隐喻方面有很大的相似性；患者通过战争和/或旅程隐喻来描述他们的癌症状况，其中战争隐喻比旅程隐喻更经常使用。研究结果还表明，阿拉伯的叙述往往包括一个更强大的宗教框架，将癌症构建为一种Ordeal审判，在这种审判中，人们通过耐心和接受命运来证明自己的坚定信仰。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Open Linguistics LINGUISTICS-

CiteScore

1.70

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

25 weeks

期刊介绍： Open Linguistics is a new academic peer-reviewed journal covering all areas of linguistics. The objective of this journal is to foster free exchange of ideas and provide an appropriate platform for presenting, discussing and disseminating new concepts, current trends, theoretical developments and research findings related to a broad spectrum of topics: descriptive linguistics, theoretical linguistics and applied linguistics from both diachronic and synchronic perspectives.