I.
Reading comprehension
Rivers and swarms: how metaphor
fuels anti-immigrant feeling
In a recent interview with Sky News, the UK
defence secretary, Michael
Fallon, described British towns and communities as “swamped” by migrants, a controversial phrase he was later forced
to retract.
And while it’s easy enough to dismiss this as a sad glimpse
into a politician’s personal views, Fallon’s language fits right into a rhetorical
war that’s been waged on immigrants for decades.
The language used by politicians to depict
migrants obviously influences public opinion – which, as surveys suggest,
currently demonstrates high levels
of opposition to immigration even though public
perceptions of immigration figures are often inaccurate and
exaggerated. Immigrants are often accused of a range of pernicious activities,
frequently with little or no evidence: abusing and straining welfare
services, endangering public health,
driving up crime, taking jobs from
the local workforce and causing wage
deflation, placing additional strains on housing,
killing and eating swans,
and generally jeopardising the well-being, culture
and values of host societies. But it is the careful and calculated use of
metaphor, as in Fallon’s statements, that turns this shopping
list of accusations into a visceral, emotive political appeal – and then,
all too often, into actual policy.
There are a lot of ways to go about this,
of course. For decades, politicians on both sides of the British political
spectrum have used fluid metaphors to associate immigration with disaster. From
Enoch Powell’s infamous 1968 Rivers of
Blood speech to Margaret Thatcher’s 1978 statement that
“people are really rather afraid that this country might be rather swamped by
people with a different culture”, we have heard decades of warnings that we’re
being flooded, deluged and drowned by waves of migrants.
Another reliable theme is the military
metaphor – “invasion”
and “siege”
– which tie migrants into more typical ideas of what security means. References
to insects (“swarms”)
or disease (“epidemic” or “plague”),
on the other hand, are a sure fire way to dehumanise
migrants and exclude them from the host community. Around the world, metaphors
such as these are a vital political tool for those advocating restrictive
immigration regulations. And their power is evident in the vocabulary used for
the policies their users advocate and implement. Huge sums of money are spent
“securing” borders, whether by the
construction of physical barricades, militarised
technological security apparatus for maritime and border
surveillance, attempts to “Stop the
Boats”, or dubious attempts to pressure migrants to “go home”.
But even as migrants are described in outrageously sensationalist terms, the number of
migrants around the world has remained relatively modest and constant. Recent data from the UN estimates
a population of 232m migrants worldwide, up from an estimated 175m in 2000 and
154m in 1990 – but although the actual numbers have increased, this represents
a consistent 3% proportion of the world population.
With the UK’s 2015 general election
campaign ramping up and the ongoing furore over freedom of movement across the
EU, we can expect to hear more and more provocative language from British
politicians, with little recourse to hard evidence. The outrage at Michael
Fallon’s words suggests it may be time for politicians to be a bit more wary of
this sort of rhetoric; after all, much of the electorate is wise to the
language used to stir up fear of migrants. But then
again, as the rise and rise of UKIP and the attendant bandwagon-jumping shows, these insidious metaphors still work for plenty of people –
and will continue to work for some time to come.
The Conversation
1)
Read the passage and explain the meaning of
the word/words below as used in this context.
a)
swamped
|
b)
glimpse
|
c)
pernicious
|
d)
jeopardising
|
e)
shopping list of accusations
|
f)
deluged
|
g)
a sure fire
|
h)
outrageously
|
i)
ramping up
|
j)
to stir up
|
2)
In not more than 100 words,
summarise the passage.
3)
which semantic fields do the metaphors used to
refer to immigrants belong to?
4)
Research the use of metaphor in
your own language in a specific field and prepare a presentation. This work is
to be carried out as a group activity with a maximum of 3 members in each
group.
Self study
1)
Listen to the first part of the
talk and fill in the gaps.
Metaphor lives a
…………… life all around us. We ……………
about six metaphors a minute. Metaphorical thinking is …………… to how
we understand ourselves and others, how we communicate, learn,
discover and invent. But metaphor is a way of …………… before it is a
way with words.
Now, to assist me in explaining
this, I've …………… the help of one of our greatest philosophers, the
reigning king of the metaphorians, a man whose contributions to
the ……………are so great that he himself has become a metaphor. I
am, of course, referring to …………… other than Elvis Presley.
Now, "All Shook Up" is a great
love song. It's also a great example of how …………… we deal with
anything abstract -- ideas, emotions, feelings, concepts, thoughts
-- we inevitably resort to metaphor. In "All Shook Up," a
touch is not a touch, but a chill. Lips are not lips, but. ……………
. She is not she, but a …………… .And love is not love, but being all
shook up. In this, Elvis is following Aristotle's classic definition of
metaphor as the …………… of giving the
thing a name that belongs to something else. This is the…………… of metaphor. And fortunately, it's very
simple. X equals Y. This ……………
works wherever metaphor is present.
Elvis uses it, but so …………… Shakespeare in this famous line from
"Romeo and Juliet:" Juliet is the sun. Now, here,
Shakespeare gives the thing, Juliet, a name that ……………to something else,
the sun. But whenever we give a thing a name that belongs to something
else, we give it a whole network of …………… too. We mix and match what
we know about the metaphor's ……………, in this case the sun, with what
we know about its ……………, Juliet. And metaphor gives us a much more vivid
understanding of Juliet than if Shakespeare had literally described what
she looks like.
2)
Complete the sentences taken
from the talk.
a)
Metaphor is not just the
detection of patterns; …………………………………………………………
b)
Synaesthesia is the experience
of a stimulus in once sense organ ……………………………..
c)
We instinctively find, or
create, a pattern between the round shape ………………………..
d)
Metaphor creates
……………………………………………………………..
3)
Answer the questions, based on
your listening to the text.
a)
What does the Stoop test prove?
b)
What was the result of the
Stoop test based on metaphors?
d)
How can metaphor mislead?
1)
The lines below are
taken from Shakespeare’s plays. Underline what you think the metaphor is in each example and then try
to define their meaning.
a)
The king’s a bawcock, and a
heart of gold, a lad of life, an imp of fame, of parents good, of fist most
valiant. – Henry V
b)
This is a way to kill a wife
with kindness, and thus I’ll curb her mad and headstrong humor.– The Taming of
the Shrew
c)
Pray you let us not be
laughing-stocks to other men's humours; I desire you in friendship, and I will
one way or other make you amends. – The Merry Wives of Windsor
d)
Nay, if our wits run the
wild-goose chase, I am done, for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy
wits than, I am sure, I have in my whole five.– Romeo and Juliet
e)
O, beware, my lord, of
jealousy! It is the green-eyed monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on. –
Othello
f)
If he could right himself with
quarrelling, some of us would lie low. – Much Ado About Nothing
g)
Faint-hearted Woodvile, prizest
him 'fore me? Arrogant Winchester, that haughty prelate, Whom Henry, our late
sovereign, ne'er could brook? Thou art no friend to God or to the king. – Henry
VI
h)
Flower of this purple dye, hit
with Cupid’s archery, sink in apple of his eye. – A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
i)
But I will wear my heart upon
my sleeve for daws to peck at. I am not what I am.” – Othello
j)
If it be so, sir, that you are
the man must stead us all and me amongst the rest, and if you break the ice and
do this feat, achieve the elder, set the younger free for our access, whose hap
shall be to have her will not so graceless be to be ingrate.” – The Taming of
the Shrew
2)
Now write a sentence for each
metaphor you underlined that shows
that you have understood its meaning.
Self study
Watch the
video and take notes on the different
types of metaphor
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
V . LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT – COMPARATIVES
1)
We can use comparative forms , repeated with
AND , to emphasise that something is increasing or decreasing, e.g.: It’s becoming less and less
common/ We meet more and more
frequently.
2)
We use THE+
comparative …. THE + comparative to say
that one development is connected
to the other, e.g: The sooner we
leave, the faster we’ll get there.
Practice
Complete the sentences below
a)
The more it rains,
………………………………………… .
b)
The older he gets,
……………………………………….. .
c)
The more I work,
………………………………………… .
d)
The more I know him,
………………………………… .
e)
The longer I waited,
………………………………….. .
Change the adjective in brackets into a comparative and
use and to express continuing change:
a)
My exams /to get/ hard.
b)
Books / to become/ expensive.
c)
Intolerance/ to become/ common.
d)
His behaviour / to become/ unacceptable.
e)
People/ to live/ long.
V.
Essay – Choose three
metaphors from your native language,
explain their origin and why
you believe they reveal something important about your country’s
culture .
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