Tourism discourse is a type of specialised discourse (Cappelli 2006; Gotti 2006) typically characterised by stylistic choices and linguistic strategies of persuasion. In English promotional tourist websites suasion is specially achieved through metaphoric language use. This study investigates tourism metaphors within the framework of relevance-oriented lexical pragmatics (Wilson and Carston 2007, 2008; Sperber and Wilson 2008; Carston forthcoming). The primary aims of the study are to show that: a) metaphor is a subvariety of lexical broadening, and often combines with hyperbole to produce suasive effects, as in the last paradise on earth; b) in tourist texts, metaphor interpretation does not always involve the construction of ad hoc concepts such as ‘paradise’, based on information made accessible by the encyclopedic entry of the encoded concept; c) metaphors may be interpreted literally, too, and metarepresented so as to activate a mental image that evokes an imagined world (Davidson 1984; Levin 1993; Camp 2006).
Metaphor in tourism discourse: Imagined worlds in English tourist texts on the web
MATTIELLO, ELISA
2012-01-01
Abstract
Tourism discourse is a type of specialised discourse (Cappelli 2006; Gotti 2006) typically characterised by stylistic choices and linguistic strategies of persuasion. In English promotional tourist websites suasion is specially achieved through metaphoric language use. This study investigates tourism metaphors within the framework of relevance-oriented lexical pragmatics (Wilson and Carston 2007, 2008; Sperber and Wilson 2008; Carston forthcoming). The primary aims of the study are to show that: a) metaphor is a subvariety of lexical broadening, and often combines with hyperbole to produce suasive effects, as in the last paradise on earth; b) in tourist texts, metaphor interpretation does not always involve the construction of ad hoc concepts such as ‘paradise’, based on information made accessible by the encyclopedic entry of the encoded concept; c) metaphors may be interpreted literally, too, and metarepresented so as to activate a mental image that evokes an imagined world (Davidson 1984; Levin 1993; Camp 2006).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
