Metaphor is a powerful tool to communicate and potentially think of abstract concepts and complex emotions, such as those experienced by trauma survivors. This chapter contributes a cognitive view of metaphor to the study of trauma. It does so by showing how metaphor is defined in cognitive linguistics and how its study can be operationalised to investigate the language of trauma victims. It also shows how the researcher can create their linguistic databases fulfilling ethical and legal requirements. It finally exemplifies how different scholars have studied the language of trauma from a metaphor perspective, as well as the practical implications of their findings.
Study metaphor to study trauma
Michele Mannoni
2026-01-01
Abstract
Metaphor is a powerful tool to communicate and potentially think of abstract concepts and complex emotions, such as those experienced by trauma survivors. This chapter contributes a cognitive view of metaphor to the study of trauma. It does so by showing how metaphor is defined in cognitive linguistics and how its study can be operationalised to investigate the language of trauma victims. It also shows how the researcher can create their linguistic databases fulfilling ethical and legal requirements. It finally exemplifies how different scholars have studied the language of trauma from a metaphor perspective, as well as the practical implications of their findings.
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