Deliberate metaphors in English as a lingua franca interactions: characteristics and constructing processes

ABSTRACT

Drawing on insights from intercultural pragmatics and Deliberate Metaphor Theory, this study investigates the use of metaphorical expressions in English as a lingua franca (ELF) interactions. Research data were collected from the Asian Corpus of English, and eight orientational phrasal verbs – namely put up, get up, go down, come down, stay in, live in, come out, and check out – were selected and analyzed using the Deliberate Metaphor Identification Procedures. The findings reveal that ELF speakers make extensive use of deliberate metaphors, which display linguistic creativity, intentionality, and context-dependency in intercultural communication. A detailed analysis of the corpus data indicates that ELF speakers employ various communication strategies, including repetition, clarification, paraphrasing, back-channeling, and confirmation, to negotiate the metaphorical meanings of the orientational phrasal verbs. This study provides significant insights into the construction of deliberate metaphors by ELF speakers in specific situational contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Phrasal verb
• Deliberate Metaphor Theory
• English as a lingual franca
• characteristics
• constructing process

Acknowledgements

This research is sponsored by the Shanghai Pujiang Program (21PJC004), the Fundamental Research Fund for Central Universities (LZB2021006), and the DHU Distinguished Young Professor Program.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. ENL prefabricated expressions refer to English native language prefabricated expressions, also referred to as formulaic language or lexical bundles, and are recurrent sequences of words or phrases that are commonly used in everyday communication by native speakers of English. These expressions are often learned and used holistically as a single unit, rather than as individual words, and they are frequently idiomatic or figurative in nature.

2. Ad hoc generated utterances refer to spontaneous, improvised utterances that are created on the spot, without any pre-planning or premeditation. These utterances are typically generated in response to a specific situation or context, and they are not pre-existing or rehearsed expressions.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Shanghai Pujiang Program [21PJC004]; DHU Distinguished Young Professor Program [LZB2021006]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [LZB2021006].