Magistrale 1 Remote lesson 2

We will  be using this material in tomorrow's lesson.

Metaphor – Students’ examples

1)      Coronavirus is spreading like an oil-spot.

2)      Italian government seems to be weathering the storm masterfully.

3)      Boris Johnson has scored an own goal by not introducing immediately the security measures to ensure safety in England.

1.       Coronavirus is spreading like a gossip.

2.       In such a situation a government that is not taking a drastic decision is skating on thin ice.

3.       Boris Johnson hasn’t realized how critical the situation is and he is acting his shoe size.

a)       It’s spreading with unruly speed and covers the whole world.

b)      It’s as dangerous as burst of anger, as rising irritation which burns the person from the inside.

c)       It’s as dangerous as furious animal.

d)      It’s as dangerous as boiling water that unexpectedly touches human’s body.

e)      It’s more dangerous than space filled with noiseful silence.

1. Coronavirus is spreading like wildfire.

2. Coronavirus is the Big Bang of our age: it is going to revolutionize our social habits.

3. Coronavirus is more dangerous than Voldemort’s horcruxes: once Harry Potter

found one, he just had to destroy it; once people are diagnosed with coronavirus,

instead, it is not sure that the treatment will work.

4. Boris Johnson is spitting his irresponsibility on citizens’ life.

Sample Summaries  - Rivers and swarms: how metaphor fuels anti-immigrant feeling.

A

This article taken from The Conversation regards how some metaphorical expressions are used by politicians to rouse anti-immigrant feelings and influence the electorate. According to the author, metaphors belonging to the semantic field of war and disease tend to depict migrants in outrageous ways and to associate them to the most reprehensible activities even without hard evidence.

Moreover, by using this provocative language, politicians strive to implement more restrictive immigration policies even if the migrants’ number “has remained constant”.

To conclude, it seems that, despite some voters’ awareness, such dehumanising metaphors will unjustly keep fuelling fear and hatred against immigrants.           100 words.

B

The passage, an extract from The Conversation, examines how metaphorical discourse can be used in politics to gain support and manipulate people by exploiting their fears and providing them with a set of assumptions. In this case, the article reports British defence secretary Michael Fallon using eloquent and offensive expressions in his description of British society, which is allegedly jeopardised by immigrants. Though recent assessments report a relatively exiguous amount of migrants worldwide, the use of metaphors to condemn and allegedly protect people against them works and will continue to do so in order to gain political consent.

C

There is evidence that a particular property of language makes manipulation possible.

Politicians are masters of that, and manage to exert influence through the use of metaphors: for example, they manage to make people think that migrants are responsible for pernicious activities even when there is little or no evidence.

Nevertheless, sometimes the public awareness manages to detect these stratagems: for instance, Fallon was forced to retract his outrageous description of British towns as "swamped" by migrants.

Two main factors make this possible: people’s choice to bandwagon-jumping and the politicians’ skilful utilisation of metaphors capable of transforming migrants into threats.