A Corpus-Based Study of Interpersonal Metaphors of Modulation in Academic English

Abstract

This article presents a study on the synchronic distributions of interpersonal metaphors of modulation based on the British National Corpus (BNC). The synchronic research reveals that interpersonal metaphors of modulation are mode-sensitive to written texts. Regarding genre distribution, metaphorical obligations driven by the explicit orientation dominate fiction texts. In contrast, the objective orientation drives obligations to be more prevalent in academic texts or more technical genres. The objective orientation of metaphorical inclinations is notably prevalent in newspapers and magazines other than academic texts. Besides, the findings highlight that the inherent personal and subjective characteristics of interpersonal modulations remain unchanged in their metaphorical forms, demonstrating less objectivity compared to ideational metaphors in highly technical disciplines.