When a relationship ends “there can be no turning back”. The divorce metaphor in the Brexit discourse

Autori

  • Denise Milizia University of Bari Aldo Moro
  • Cinzia Giacinta Spinzi University of Bergamo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1285/i22390359v34p137

Parole chiave:

Brexit, discourse, metaphor, divorce, frame

Abstract

Brexit has inspired far more metaphors than it has solutions. Many conventional and novel metaphors have been used to frame this issue and the relationship between the EU and the UK. This paper addresses one of them: the divorce metaphor. Starting from the assumption that it is not the side with ‘the most’ or ‘best’ facts that wins but the one that provides the most plausible and reliable scenarios (Musolff 2017), this paper intends to explore how the metaphor of divorce has been used by British politicians and in British mainstream media with a view to influencing citizens when justifying political actions. Modelling our method of analysis on Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Charteris-Black 2004), we try to demonstrate how the same metaphor becomes a powerful tool for disseminating different evaluative content and expressing criticism.

Biografie autore

Denise Milizia, University of Bari Aldo Moro

Denise Milizia is Associate Professor at the University of Bari Aldo Moro. She is assistant editor of the international journal ESP Across Cultures. Her research and her main publications include ESP – mainly political and legal English – Applied Linguistics, Corpus Linguistics, political phraseology in American, British and Italian cultures, and
phraseology in Legal English, in particular in European documents. She has published several works in which she analyses the relationship between the UK and the European
Union, with a special focus on the role of metaphor in European politics in particular, and on the dissemination of knowledge in general. Her more recent interests lie in the spread
of populism in Europe and beyond.

Cinzia Giacinta Spinzi, University of Bergamo

Cinzia Spinzi is Associate Professor at the University of Bergamo. She holds a PhD in English for Specific Purposes, a Master’s in Translation Studies from the University of
Birmingham, and a Research Fellowship from the City University of London. She is co-editor of Cultus: the journal of intercultural mediation and communication. She is
member of the Research Centre on Languages for Specific Purposes (Cerlis) and of the EU funded Project TTRAILs on teaching Language for Specific Purposes. Her research
interests include cultural mediation and translation, Corpus Linguistics and Functional Grammar applied to the study of ideology and metaphors in specialised communication
(political and tourism discourses).

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Pubblicato

16-06-2020

Fascicolo

Volume 34 (2020) - Special Issue

Sezione

STUDI - Articles

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