THE METAPHORICAL NOMINATION OF WAR IN JOURNALISTIC TEXTS ON THE RUSSIAN INVASION OF UKRAINE – AS EXEMPLIFIED BY THE WEEKLY “POLITYKA”
Aleksander Kiklewicz
University of Warmia and Mazury in OlsztynAbstract
The article deals with the metaphorical nomination of war characteristics, i.e. linguistic (grammatical and semantic) aspects of metaphorical expressions containing the noun ‘war’ in journalistic texts on the Russian-Ukrainian war of 2022-2023. Based on a corpus consisting of constructions extracted from articles published in the weekly magazine “Polityka”, the author describes these expressions in terms of the grammatical properties of the collocate, the case form of the noun ‘war’, as well as aspects of metaphorical nomination. The research analysis, leads, inter alia, to the conclusion that the linguistic nomination of war is so diverse that it is impossible to claim, in the spirit of linguistic determinism, that the existing schemes of the linguistic (lexical and phrasal) nomination of war influence the awareness of language users and the culturally shaped mental conceptualization of war.
Keywords:
metaphor, mental conceptualization, conceptual metaphor, framing, journalistic text, war, UkraineReferences
Abrams, M. H. (1960), The Correspondent Breeze. A Romantic Metaphor, [in:] Abrams, M. H. (ed.). English Romantic Poets. Modern Essays in Criticism. New York, 37-54. Google Scholar
Ahrens, K. | Burgers, C. | Zhong, Y. (2022), Evaluating the Influence of Metaphor in News on Foreign-Policy Support, [in:] International Journal of Communication 16, 4140-4163. Google Scholar
Brzoza-Kolorz, K. (2020), Rama konfliktu w opisie mediów masowych i polityki w okresie polskiej kampanii parlamentarnej 2015 w wybranych tygodnikach opinii, [in:] Politeja 64, 357-74. Google Scholar
Charteris-Black, J. (2004), Corpus approaches to critical metaphor analysis. New York. Google Scholar
Cserép, A. (2014), Conceptual Metaphor Theory: in defence or on the fence?, [in:] Argumentum 10, 261-288. Google Scholar
Dolińska, J. (2018), Zur Klassifizierung der Prädikative. Katowice. Google Scholar
Durkheim, É. (2007), Zasady metody społecznej. Warszawa. Google Scholar
Dvořák, P. (2012), Translating Metaphors within Political Discourse: The Case of EU [master’s diploma thesis]. Brno. Google Scholar
Eriksson, I. (2019), Retaining or losing the conceptual metaphor A study on institutional translation of metaphors in political discourse from English into Swedish and Spanish. Stockholm. Google Scholar
Fabiszak, M. (2007), A Conceptual Metaphor approach to War Discourse and its Implications. Poznan. Google Scholar
Flusberg, S. J. | Matlock, T. | Thibodeau, P. H. (2018), War metaphors in public discourse, [in:] Metaphor and Symbol 33 (1), 1-18. Google Scholar
Gražytè, R. | Maskaliūnienè, N. ( 2009), Translation of Conceptual Metaphor in the Legal Discourse of EU White Papers [in:] Vertimo Studijos 2, 71-87. Google Scholar
Hanusch, N. (2014), From Words to War. Eine Analyse des metaphorischen Sprachgebrauchs internationaler Printmedien vor Ausbruch des Irakkrieges 2003, [in:] Journal for EuroLinguistiX 11, 44-50. Google Scholar
Harrington, K, J. (2012), The use of metaphor discourse about cancer: A review of the literature, [in:] Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing 16 (4), 408. Google Scholar
Jäkel, O. (2002), Hypotheses revisited: The cognitive theory of metaphor applied to religious texts, [in:] Metaphorik.de 2 (1), 20-42. Google Scholar
Karlberg, M. | Buell, L. (2005), Deconstructing the ‘war of all against all’: The prevalence and implications of war metaphors and other adversarial news schema in TIME, Newsweek, and Maclean’s, [in:] Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies 12 (1), 22-39. Google Scholar
Katz, A. | Law, A. (2010), Experimental support for conceptual metaphors with an episodic memory task, [in:] Metaphor and Symbol 25 (4), 263-270. Google Scholar
Keller, R. (1994), Sprachwandel. Von der unsichtbaren Hand in der Sprache. Tübingen | Basel. Google Scholar
Kiklewicz, A. (2006), Kognitywna teoria metafory – zagadnienia dyskusyjne, [in:] Przegląd Humanistyczny L (2), 29-45. Google Scholar
Kiklewicz, A. (2019), Metafory konceptualne: fenomeny umysłu czy konstrukty kognitywistyczne? Część 1, [in:] LingVaria XIV (2), 13-27. Google Scholar
Kiklewicz, A. (2020), Metafory konceptualne: fenomeny umysłu czy konstrukty kognitywistyczne? Część 2, [in:] LingVaria XV (1), 31-46. Google Scholar
Kiklewicz, A. (2022), Problem realności psychologicznej metafor konceptualnych, [in:] Prace Językoznawcze XXIV (4), 7-26. Google Scholar
Krennmayr, T. (2011), Metaphor in newspapers. Utrecht. Google Scholar
Lahlou, H. | Abdul Rahim, H. (2022), Conceptual metaphors in North African French-speaking news discourse about COVID-19, [in:] Indonesian Journal Of Applied Linguistics 11 (3), 589-600. Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. (1977), Linguistic Gestalts, [in:] Papers from the 13. Regional Meeting Chicago Linguistic Society. Chicago, 236-287. Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. (1992), Metaphor and war: The metaphor system used to justify war in the gulf, [in:] Pütz, M. (ed.), Thirty years of linguistic evolution: Studies in honour of Rene Dirven on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. Amsterdam, 463-481. Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. | Johnson, M. (1980), Metaphors We Live By. Chicago | London. Google Scholar
Leshchova, M. (2017), Leksicheskaja polisemija v kognitivnom aspekte. Moskva. Google Scholar
Lipowicz, E. (2015), Rola i znaczenie metafory w mediacjach narracyjnych, [in:] Dyskursy Młodych Andragogów 16, 91-100. Google Scholar
Lupton, D. (2012), Medicine as culture: Illness, disease and the body. Sage. Google Scholar
Maalej, Z. (2014), Doing critical discourse analysis with the contemporary theory of metaphor: towards a discourse model of metaphor, [in:] Hart, C. | Lukeš, D. (eds.), Cognitive linguistics in critical discourse studies: Application and theory. Cambridge, 132-158. Google Scholar
Mihas, E. (2005), Non-Literal Language in Political Discourse, [in:] Shields, R. (ed.), LSO Working Papers in Linguistics 5: Proceedings of WIGL. Madison, 124-139, Google Scholar
Miller, G. A. (1979), Images and Models, Similes and Metaphors, [in:] Ortony, A. (ed.), Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge | London | New York etc., 202-248. Google Scholar
Najjari, R. | Mohammadi, M. (2018), Metaphorical conceptualization of SPORT through TERRI¬TORY as a vehicle, [in:] Journal of Research in Applied Linguistics 9 (1), 127-147. Google Scholar
Olechowska, P. (2018), Metadziennikarstwo – funkcje okładek tygodników społeczno-politycznych z 2016 roku w analizie multimodalnej, [in:] Hofman, I. | Kępa-Figura, D. (eds.), Współczesne media. Zagadnienia ogólne i teoretyczne. Multimodalność mediów drukowanych. Lublin, 119-150. Google Scholar
Pastucha-Blin, A. (2022), Wojna o ciało idealne Metaforyczna konceptualizacja jako jedna ze strategii perswazyjnych dyskursu, [in:] Polono-Italica Fabrica Litterarum 1 (4), 1-15. Google Scholar
Richards, I. A. (1950), The Philosophy of Rhetoric. Oxford. Google Scholar
Sontag, S. (1978), Illness as metaphor. Farrar. Google Scholar
Ullmann, S. (1964), Semantics. The Introduction in the Science of Meaning. Oxford. Google Scholar
Vervaeke, J. | Kennedy, J. (2004), Conceptual metaphor and abstract thought, [in:] Metaphor and symbol 19 (3), 213-231. Google Scholar
Völker, I. (2019), Totaler Krieg“ durch Metaphern? Eine kognitiv-linguistische Untersuchung der Sportpalastrede von Goebbels im Hinblick auf die Verwendung und Bedeutung von konzeptu¬ellen Metaphern nach Lakoff und Johnson, [in:] Mythos-Magazin: Politisches Framing 1, 1-40. Google Scholar
Werner, W. (2004), Wokół metafory wojny, [in:] Pro Libris. Lubuskie Pismo Literacko-Kulturalne 1 (6) 69-82. Google Scholar
Wicke, P. | Bolognesi, M. M. (2020), Framing COVID-19: How we conceptualize and discuss the pandemic on Twitter, [in:] PLOS ONE 15 (9), 1-24. Google Scholar
Zvegincev, V. A. (1967), Teoreticheskaja i prikladnaja lingvistika. Moskva. Google Scholar
Żmudzka-Brodnicka, M. (2013), Wojna w dziennikarskim przekazie sportowym w ujęciu kogni¬tywnej teorii metafory, [in:] Naukovi zapysky. Serija „Psikholohija i pedahohika” 24, 164-167. Google Scholar
University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Aleksander Kiklewicz, Anatoliy Zahnitko, Order of demonstrative modifiers in contemporary Polish and Ukrainian , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 15 No. 1 (2024): East European Review
- Aleksander Kiklewicz, Julia Mazurkiewicz-Sułkowska, Helena Pociechina, Art in protest discourses – on the example of the Belarusian anti-government protest movement , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 14 No. 2 (2023): East European Review
- Aleksander Kiklewicz, About conjunctive use of disjunctive conjunctions (based on Polish and Russian languages) , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 12 No. 2 (2021): East European Review
- Aleksander Kiklewicz, Analysis of one lexicographic case: the Russian noun svist ‘whistle’ , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 13 No. 1 (2022): East European Review
- Aleksander Kiklewicz, Active processes in the terminology of modern linguistics , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 11 No. 1 (2020): Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski
- Aleksander Kiklewicz, Pragmatic aspects of street protests discourse (on the example of protests in Belarus in 2020) , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 13 No. 2 (2022): East European Review
- Aleksander Kiklewicz, Colloquialisms in the contemporary press: functions and determinants (on the material of “Gazeta Wyborcza” and “Novaya Gazeta”) , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 16 No. 2 (2025): East European Review
- Aleksander Kiklewicz, Michail L. Kotin, The object sentences with the subjunctors ČTO ‘that’ and KAK ‘how’ in contemporary Russian under a partial comparison with their German equivalents , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 12 No. 1 (2021): East European Review
- Aleksander Kiklewicz, Michail L. Kotin, The object sentences with the subjunctors ČTO ‘that’ and KAK ‘how’ in contemporary Russian under a partial comparison with their German equivalents , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 17 No. 1 (2026): East European Review
Similar Articles
- Łukasz Jureńczyk, NATO enlargement to the East and the war in Ukraine from the American perspective , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 15 No. 1 (2024): East European Review
- Bara Ndiaye, Russian-African relations in the light of the war in Ukraine , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 14 No. 1 (2023): East European Review
- Mirosława Wielopolska-Szymura, Content and programs dedicated to the Ukrainian population in the activities of the Polish Radio External Service and the Polish Radio for Ukraine , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 16 No. 2 (2025): East European Review
- Igor Borkowski, Reporter at war. The distinct feature of coverage reporting after February 24, 2022 – on the example of “Polityka” and “Tygodnik Powszechny” , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 16 No. 1 (2025): East European Review
- Wojciech Kajtoch, The adventures of six lieutenants, or on a new hypothetical subgenre of contemporary Russian war films about the Second (Great Patriotic) War , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 17 No. 1 (2026): East European Review
- Jolanta Brzykcy, Russian-speaking literary community against Russia’s war with Ukraine. , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 17 No. 1 (2026): East European Review
- Yuliana Palagnyuk, Threat, savior, or victim? How Ukrainian online news media represent labor migrants during Russia’s aggression against Ukraine , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 16 No. 2 (2025): East European Review
- Barbara Rodziewicz, The medialization of war trauma. Discursive analysis of Volodymyr Zelensky’s narrative , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 15 No. 2 (2024): East European Review
- Mirosław Minkina, Russian secret services in the so-called special operation in Ukraine , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 14 No. 2 (2023): East European Review
- Daria Ławrynow, Lesson plan for self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic’s schools Strukturnyy plan uroka na temu «Moya istoriya» (2022) as an example of propaganda text , Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski: Vol. 15 No. 2 (2024): East European Review
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
