A corpus-based description of metaphorical marking patterns in scientific and popular business discourse

Abstract

This article describes the variations in the use of metaphorical markers, as defined and classified by Goatly (1997), in two corpora: one consisting of business research articles and another of business periodical articles. Marker categories, the occurrences of individual markers, as well as cases of multiple marking are analysed using concordancing techniques to determine the patterns of metaphorical marking in the two corpora. It is shown that a wider range of marker types, a larger number of individual markers and of multiple marker clusters can be found in the corpus of business periodical articles. The frequency of a relatively small number of overlapping markers is also higher in this corpus. The differences described could indicate the varying attitudes towards the use of metaphor in the mentioned corpora.