Conceptual metaphors for SARS: 'war' between whom?

Abstract

By analyzing naming strategies and conceptual metaphors for SARS in three major broadsheet newspapers, The Liberty Times and The United Daily News in Taiwan, and The People's Daily in China, this article demonstrates how the political agendas and underlying ideologies of newspapers permeate their use of metaphors. Taking critical metaphor analysis (Charteris-Black, 2004) as the theoretical framework, we analyze how the DISEASE IS WAR metaphor, in particular, constructs Self and Other, as well as several other metaphors (e.g. DISEASE IS A NATURAL DISASTER/ A DISASTER IN GENERAL). We argue that all the linguistic devices under consideration represent SARS as an issue in the domain of political rather than medical discourse.