Corpus-assisted metaphor analysis of pregnancy discourse

在有关怀孕的公共话语中，真正经历过怀孕的人的声音并不占主导地位。这导致怀孕个体面临歧视，因为她们的声音在主流话语和政策制定中是隐形的。本研究的目的是比较这些公共怀孕话语与那些有生活经验的话语，从而突出歧视的来源。我的研究通过分析隐喻作为一种理解和将一个概念概念化为另一个概念的语言手段来进行这种比较。隐喻使研究者能够直接了解人们的思维方式。具体而言，体现隐喻分析探讨了隐喻映射是如何通过人们感知自己身体的方式以及身体与环境的相互作用形成的（见Littlemore 2019）。在怀孕期间，当一个人对自己的身体的看法因新生命的发展和一个身体和两个身体之间的有限空间的冲突而发生变化时，考虑到这一点尤为重要。在健康传播领域，研究已经确定隐喻和转喻（Semino 2010）有助于传达生活经历（特别是那些涉及情绪和疼痛感的经历），否则其他人可能难以概念化和理解，也是在改变生活的疾病后管理新的自我意识的一种方式（Demjen and Semino 2017； Semino等人，2017;Gibbs and Franks, 2002）。利特莫尔和特纳（2019）发现，在“出生前死亡”项目中，那些经历过流产的人使用的隐喻也是如此，该项目研究了那些经历过流产的人的经历。目前的项目旨在建立在这些文献的基础上，特别是Littlemore和她的团队的工作，重点关注怀孕而不是失去，这包括了社会中一个庞大但往往不可见的群体。如前所述，怀孕的声音在公共话语中往往缺席，但在育儿论坛等社区的话语中占主导地位，这些社区是父母和准父母的强大在线社区（见Pedersen和Smithson, 2013; Pedersen, 2016; Mackenzie, 2018）。比较隐喻分析可以揭示基于受众、类型和作者经验的来源概念差异（见Deignan et al., 2013; Semino et al., 2013）。比较不同怀孕经历的作者与论坛和公共话语的隐喻使用将是一个富有成效的分析。语料库分析显示语言的模式和最显著的特征。我已经从怀孕论坛Mumsnet、怀孕杂志和英国报纸上创建了三个怀孕话语语料库。语料库软件将用于寻找用于描述怀孕以及与之相关的情感和身体感受的隐喻。通过关键词和关键语义分析来识别隐喻。研究问题:1。在每个语料库中发现的突出隐喻是什么？它们如何在语料库中进行比较？这些隐喻说明了不同群体和媒体对怀孕的看法？

The voices of people who have actually experienced pregnancy are not dominant in public discourses around pregnancy. This contributes to the discrimination faced by pregnant individuals as their voices are invisible in mainstream discourse and policymaking. The aim of this research is to compare those public pregnancy discourses with the discourses of those with lived experience, and thus to highlight sources of discrimination.My research approaches this comparison through the analysis of metaphor as a linguistic device for understanding and conceptualising one concept as another. Metaphor affords the researcher direct access to the way people think. Embodied metaphor analysis, in particular, explores how metaphorical mappings are formed by the ways in which people perceive their bodies and how their bodies interact with their environment (see Littlemore 2019). This is especially important to consider during pregnancy when there is a change in how a person may view their body caused by the new life developing and a conflict within the liminal space between one body and two.In the field of health communication, research has identified metaphor, and metonymy (Semino 2010), to be useful for conveying lived experiences (especially those involving emotions and feelings of pain) that might be otherwise difficult for others to conceptualise and understand, and also as a way to manage a new sense of self after a life-changing illness (Demjen and Semino 2017; Semino et al., 2017; Gibbs and Franks, 2002). Littlemore and Turner (2019) found the same to be true of metaphors used by those who have experienced pregnancy loss during the Death Before Birth project that examined the experiences of those who had faced pregnancy loss. This present project aims to build upon the work of this literature, particularly the work of Littlemore and her team, with a focus on pregnancy rather than its loss, which encompasses a large but often invisible group in society. As previously mentioned, pregnant voices are often absent in public discourses but dominant in the discourses of communities like parenting forums, which serve as a powerful online community for parents and expecting parents (see Pedersen and Smithson, 2013; Pedersen, 2016; Mackenzie, 2018). A comparative metaphor analysis can reveal differences in the source concepts used based on audience, genre, and author experience (see Deignan et al., 2013; Semino et al., 2013). The comparison of metaphor use between authors of differing pregnancy experiences and forum and public discourse will serve as a fruitful analysis.Corpus analysis shows patterns in language and what is most salient. I have already created three corpora of pregnancy discourse from pregnancy forum Mumsnet, pregnancy magazines, and British newspapers. Corpus software will be used to find metaphors used to describe pregnancy and the emotional and physical feelings associated with it. Metaphors will be identified through keyword and key semantic analysis.Research questions:1. What are the salient metaphors found in each corpus and how do they compare across corpora?2. What do these metaphors say about the ways in which different groups and media types think aboutpregnancy?