Abstract
This corpus-based study compares how Chinese and American banks construct corporate identities through genre-specific metaphors, metaphor scenarios, and stances in the genre of letter to shareholders. More specifically, it attempts: 1) to examine how Chinese and American banking companies construct their major foci using genre-specific metaphors; 2) to explore metaphor scenarios included in these genre-specific metaphors; 3) to elicit what types of identities are constructed through these scenarios and their stances. Six source domains were identified as genre-specific, under which metaphor scenarios of moving forward, support, and target & goal are shared by both corpora. Additionally, seeding, hurt & pain, and outcome of game are more frequent in American letters, whereas mechanism and soil appear more often in Chinese letters. These scenarios help to convey different stances taken by the banks, among which negative stances are more frequently presented in American letters. Despite of the shared identities of goal-oriented travelers by both corpora, Chinese banks tend to project themselves as loyal followers of country policies, authoritative leaders among peer companies, and flexible controllers of corporate issues who value the joint efforts from shareholders. In contrast, American banks prefer to project identities of skeptics of country policies, winners among peer competitions, and proactive stewards of shareholders and customers. The similarities can be explicated through embodied philosophy, and the variations are further examined through national culture of power distance, Chinese traditional Confucianism, and corporate culture of these banks.
References
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Jaffe, A. (Ed.) (2009). Stance: Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Oxford University Press.
Johnson, M. (1987). The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason. The University of Chicago Press.
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Kövecses, Z. (2015). Where Metaphors Come from: Reconsidering Context in Metaphor. Oxford University Press.
Kövecses, Z. (2020). Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Cambridge University Press.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. Basic Books.
Lakoff, G., & Turner, M. (1989). More Than Cool Reason. University of Chicago Press.
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Marissa K. L. E. (2020). Discourse of future-orientedness as neoliberal ideal: Metaphor scenarios as a means of representing neoliberal logics. Critical Discourse Studies, 18(5), 582-599.
McEntee-Atalianis, L. J. (2013). Stance and metaphor: Mapping changing representations of (organizational) identity. Discourse and Communication, 7(3), 319-340.
Musolff, A. (2006). Metaphor scenarios in public discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 21(1), 23-38.
Musolff, A. (2015). Dehumanizing metaphors in UK immigrant debates in press and online media. Journal of Aggression and Conflict, 3(1), 41-56.
Musolff, A. (2016). Cross-cultural variation in deliberate metaphor interpretation. Metaphor and the Social World, 6(2), 205-224.
Musolff, A. (2021). Researching political metaphor cross-culturally: English, Hungarian, Greek and Turkish L1-based interpretations of the Nation as Metaphor. Journal of Pragmatics, 183, 121-131.
Ochs, E. (1992). Indexing gender. In A. Duranti & C. Goodwin (Eds.), Rethinking Context: Language as An Interactive Phenomenon (pp. 335-358). Cambridge University Press.
Perrino, S., & Kohler, G. (2020). Chronotopic identities: Narrating made in Italy across spatiotemporal scales. Language & Communication, 70, 94-106.
Ponroy, J., Lê, P., & Pradies, C. (2019). In a Family Way? A model of family firm identity maintenance by non-family members. Organization Studies, 40(6) 859-886.
Rayson, P. (2008). From key words to key semantic domains. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics,13(4), 519-549.
Rodríguez, C., & Bélanger, E. (2014). Stories and metaphors in the sensemaking of multiple primary health care organizational identities. BMC Family Practice, 15(1), 41-51.
Santibáñez, F. (2002). The OBJECT image-schema and other dependent schemas. Atlantis, 24(2), 183-201.
Semino, E., & Demjén, Z. (2017). The cancer card: Metaphor, intimacy and humor in online interactions about the experience of cancer. In B. Hampe (Ed.), Metaphor: Embodied Cognition and Discourse (pp. 181-199). Cambridge University Press.
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Slocum-Bradley, N. (2010). The positioning diamond: A trans-disciplinary framework for discourse analysis. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 2010(1), 79-107.
Steen, G. J., Dorst, A. G., Herrmann, J. B., Kaal, A. A., Krennmayr, T., & Pasma, T. (2010). A Method for Linguistic Metaphor Identification: From MIP to MIPVU. John Benjamins.
Sun, Y., & Jiang, J. (2014). Metaphor use in Chinese and US corporate mission statements: A cognitive sociolinguistic analysis. English for Specific Purposes, 33, 4-14.
Sun, Y., Jin, G., Yang, Y., & Zhao, J. (2018). Metaphor use in Chinese and American CSR reports. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 61(3), 295-310.
Sveningsson, S., & Alvesson, M. (2003). Managing managerial identities: Organizational fragmentation discourse and identity struggle. Human Relations, 56(10), 1163-1193.
Vuković-Stamatović, M. (2021). The long-journeying poor cousin before the shut EU door: How the Western Balkans are metaphorically conceptualised in the context of the EU integrations. Zeitschrift für Slawistik, 66(4), 578-603.
Westcott Alessandri, S. (2001). Modeling corporate identity: A concept explication and theoretical explanation. Corporate Communications, 6(4): 173-182.
White, M. (2003). White, M. (2003). Metaphor and economics: The case of growth. English for Specific Purposes, 22(2), 131-151.
Xu, Y., Royce, T., & Hu, C. (2023). Economy is human: A corpus-based comparative study in English and Chinese economic media discourse. Review of Cognitive Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00140.xu
Bednarek, M. (2015). What we contrarians already know: Individual and communal aspects of attitudinal identity. In N. Groom, M. Charles & J. Suganthi (Eds.), Corpora, Grammar and Discourse: In Honour of Susan Hunston (pp. 257-282). John Benjamins.
Bhatia, V. (2017). Critical Genre Analysis: Investigating Interdiscursive Performance in Professional Practice. Routledge.
Breeze, R. (2017). Explaining superfoods: Exploring metaphor scenarios in media science reports. Ibérica, 34, 67-88.
Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4-5), 585-614.
Caballero, R. (2014). Thinking, drawing and writing architecture through metaphor. Ibérica, 28, 155-180.
Carollo, L., & Guerci, M. (2017). “Activists in a suit”: Paradoxes and metaphors in sustainability managers’ identity work. Journal of Business Ethics, 148(2), 249-269.
Cheng, X., & Shi, X. (2022). A corpus-based study of the discursive construction of corporate identities by Chinese and American banks. Contrastive Pragmatics, 3, 313-335.
Cienki, A. (1997). Some properties and groupings of image schemas. In M. Verspoor, K. D. Lee & E. Sweetser (Eds.), Lexical and Syntactical Constructions and the Construction of Meaning (pp. 3-15). John Benjamins.
Davies, B., & Harre, R. (1990). Positioning the Discursive Production of Selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 20(1), 43-63.
Deignan, A. (1995). Collins Cobuid English Guides 7: Metaphor. HarperCollins.
Deignan, A., Littlemore, J., & Semino, E. (Eds.). (2013). Figurative language, Genre and Register. Cambridge University Press.
Du Bois, J. W. (2007). The stance triangle. In R. Englebretson (Ed.), Stancetaking in Discourse: Subjectivity Evaluation Interaction (pp. 139-182). John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Dunn, G. (1989). Design and Analysis of Reliability Studies: The Statistical Evaluation of Measurement Errors. Oxford University Press.
Fuoli, M. (2012). Assessing social responsibility: A quantitative analysis of Appraisal in BP’s and IKEA’s social reports. Discourse and Communication, 6(1), 55-81.
Fuoli, M. (2018). Building a trustworthy corporate identity: A corpus-based analysis of stance in annual and corporate social responsibility reports. Applied Linguistics, 39(6), 846-885.
Goodwin, C. (2007). Participation, stance and affect in the organization of activities. Discourse & Society, 18(1): 53-73.
Hofstede, G., Hofestede, G. J., & Minkov, M. (2010). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind. McGraw-Hill.
Jacobs, C. D., Oliver, D., & Heracleous, L. (2013). Diagnosing organizational identity beliefs by eliciting complex, multimodal metaphors. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 49(4), 485-507.
Jaffe, A. (Ed.) (2009). Stance: Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Oxford University Press.
Johnson, M. (1987). The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason. The University of Chicago Press.
Kheovichai, B. (2015). Metaphorical scenarios in business science discourse. Ibérica, 29, 155-178.
Koller, V. (2008). Corporate brands as socio-cognitive representations. In G. Kristiansen & R. Dirven (Eds.), Cognitive Sociolinguistics: Language Variation, Cultural Models, Social Systems (pp. 389-418). Mouton de Gruyter.
Koller, V. (2009). Corporate self-presentation and self-centredness: A case for cognitive Critical Discourse Analysis. In H. Pishwa (Ed.), Language and Social Cognition: Expression of the Social Mind (pp. 267-287). Mouton de Gruyter.
Kövecses, Z. (2005). Metaphor in Culture: Universality and Variation. Cambridge University Press.
Kövecses, Z. (2010). Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. Oxford University Press.
Kövecses, Z. (2015). Where Metaphors Come from: Reconsidering Context in Metaphor. Oxford University Press.
Kövecses, Z. (2020). Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Cambridge University Press.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. University of Chicago Press.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1999). Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. Basic Books.
Lakoff, G., & Turner, M. (1989). More Than Cool Reason. University of Chicago Press.
Liu, M., & Wu, D. (2015). Discursive construction of corporate identity on the web: A glocalization perspective. Intercultural Communication Studies, XXIV(1), 50-65.
Marissa K. L. E. (2020). Discourse of future-orientedness as neoliberal ideal: Metaphor scenarios as a means of representing neoliberal logics. Critical Discourse Studies, 18(5), 582-599.
McEntee-Atalianis, L. J. (2013). Stance and metaphor: Mapping changing representations of (organizational) identity. Discourse and Communication, 7(3), 319-340.
Musolff, A. (2006). Metaphor scenarios in public discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 21(1), 23-38.
Musolff, A. (2015). Dehumanizing metaphors in UK immigrant debates in press and online media. Journal of Aggression and Conflict, 3(1), 41-56.
Musolff, A. (2016). Cross-cultural variation in deliberate metaphor interpretation. Metaphor and the Social World, 6(2), 205-224.
Musolff, A. (2021). Researching political metaphor cross-culturally: English, Hungarian, Greek and Turkish L1-based interpretations of the Nation as Metaphor. Journal of Pragmatics, 183, 121-131.
Ochs, E. (1992). Indexing gender. In A. Duranti & C. Goodwin (Eds.), Rethinking Context: Language as An Interactive Phenomenon (pp. 335-358). Cambridge University Press.
Perrino, S., & Kohler, G. (2020). Chronotopic identities: Narrating made in Italy across spatiotemporal scales. Language & Communication, 70, 94-106.
Ponroy, J., Lê, P., & Pradies, C. (2019). In a Family Way? A model of family firm identity maintenance by non-family members. Organization Studies, 40(6) 859-886.
Rayson, P. (2008). From key words to key semantic domains. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics,13(4), 519-549.
Rodríguez, C., & Bélanger, E. (2014). Stories and metaphors in the sensemaking of multiple primary health care organizational identities. BMC Family Practice, 15(1), 41-51.
Santibáñez, F. (2002). The OBJECT image-schema and other dependent schemas. Atlantis, 24(2), 183-201.
Semino, E., & Demjén, Z. (2017). The cancer card: Metaphor, intimacy and humor in online interactions about the experience of cancer. In B. Hampe (Ed.), Metaphor: Embodied Cognition and Discourse (pp. 181-199). Cambridge University Press.
Semino, E., Demjén., Z, & Demmen., J (2018). An integrated approach to metaphor and framing in cognition, discourse, and practice, with an application to metaphors for cancer. Applied Linguistics, 39(4), 625-645.
Slocum-Bradley, N. (2010). The positioning diamond: A trans-disciplinary framework for discourse analysis. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 2010(1), 79-107.
Steen, G. J., Dorst, A. G., Herrmann, J. B., Kaal, A. A., Krennmayr, T., & Pasma, T. (2010). A Method for Linguistic Metaphor Identification: From MIP to MIPVU. John Benjamins.
Sun, Y., & Jiang, J. (2014). Metaphor use in Chinese and US corporate mission statements: A cognitive sociolinguistic analysis. English for Specific Purposes, 33, 4-14.
Sun, Y., Jin, G., Yang, Y., & Zhao, J. (2018). Metaphor use in Chinese and American CSR reports. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 61(3), 295-310.
Sveningsson, S., & Alvesson, M. (2003). Managing managerial identities: Organizational fragmentation discourse and identity struggle. Human Relations, 56(10), 1163-1193.
Vuković-Stamatović, M. (2021). The long-journeying poor cousin before the shut EU door: How the Western Balkans are metaphorically conceptualised in the context of the EU integrations. Zeitschrift für Slawistik, 66(4), 578-603.
Westcott Alessandri, S. (2001). Modeling corporate identity: A concept explication and theoretical explanation. Corporate Communications, 6(4): 173-182.
White, M. (2003). White, M. (2003). Metaphor and economics: The case of growth. English for Specific Purposes, 22(2), 131-151.
Xu, Y., Royce, T., & Hu, C. (2023). Economy is human: A corpus-based comparative study in English and Chinese economic media discourse. Review of Cognitive Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1075/rcl.00140.xu
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