Skip Navigation


Applied Linguistics Advance Access originally published online on April 3, 2008
Applied Linguistics 2008 29(3):428-455; doi:10.1093/applin/amn008
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
29/3/428    most recent
amn008v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Low, G.
Right arrow Articles by Koester, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© Oxford University Press 2008

Metaphor Use in Three UK University Lectures

Graham Low1, Jeannette Littlemore2 and Almut Koester2

1University of York, 2University of Birmingham


  Abstract

It has been claimed in recent years that, on the one hand, metaphor occurs in UK university lectures in ways that are likely to confuse ESL learners (Littlemore 2001, 2003) and on the other hand that US lecturers use it in highly structured ways, particularly involving linked clusters, to help organize the lecture and indicate the opinions of the speaker (Corts and Pollio 1999; Corts and Meyers 2002). Both sets of claims are potentially useful to teachers of English for Academic Purposes (EAP). However, they both derive from studies with fairly narrow foci. There have to date been few studies examining at a more general level where metaphor occurs and how it is used in lectures. The present paper reports part of a small-scale study to develop a viable methodology for analysing metaphor use generally in lectures. It examines the incidence and use of metaphor in three UK university lectures in the BASE corpus, using a version of the MIP procedure developed by the Pragglejaz Group (2007). The main findings are that metaphor is used repeatedly throughout all three lectures, but that there are few elaborated or developed metaphors; those there are tend to be short, unconnected with later metaphors and used primarily to solve local, rather than global purposes. The implications for EAP teaching are discussed.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Language and LiteratureHome page
J. Gavins
The year's work in stylistics 2008
Language and Literature, November 1, 2009; 18(4): 367 - 383.
[PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.