Culture-specific variation in interpretations of nations as bodies metaphors by English and German L1 speakers

Abstract

One of the key-metaphor complexes in conceptualizing national identity is that of the nation as a body or a person. Nation -embodiment and -personalization have had a long conceptual history and still figure prominently in present-day political discourse. However, the socio-psychological impact of these metaphors is still in question: does the occurrence of embodied and personalized nation-depictions in public discourse mean that recipients understand and interpret international relations in terms of inter-body or inter-personal relationships? New empirical evidence from a metaphor interpretation survey conducted in 30 countries suggest that such conceptualizations do indeed occur and lead to creative elaboration and inter-metaphor blendings. Moreover, it can be shown that the elicited metaphor interpretations relate to culture-specific discourse traditions. The chapter compares data from the English and German L1 survey samples and discusses their implications for the analysis of metaphor understanding.