Metaphorical Representation of Coronavirus in Medical Myths

Abstract

This paper focuses on metaphorical representation of coronavirus in medical myths on the example of the British media. To attain this goal, the descriptive metaphor theory is used for the analysis of metaphorical models for the conceptualization of coronavirus. The information about the virus transmitted by the media correlates with background knowledge of the recipient, acquires new conceptual characteristics. Our hypothesis is that metaphorical actualization of coronavirus in medical myths is represented by the descriptive metaphor, the content of which changes depending on the specifics of the spread of the virus over the country as well as the political situation in the country. The research is based on the assumption that metaphorical implications in medical myths influence the representation of the disease, which reflects not only general beliefs about this disease, but also molds the public opinion on political situation in the linguocultural society. The objective of this research is to analyze the titles and leads of the British press about coronavirus and interpret the metaphorical models for the conceptualization of coronavirus, used in medical myths. The objective of the research determined the choice of research methods: content analysis of titles and leads that contain metaphorical models for the conceptualization of coronavirus in medical myths; sampling analysis aimed at identifying and describing the functions of metaphorical models in the representation of the disease in medical myths. The notions of metalanguage such as the signification descriptor and the denotation descriptor are used to describe the functioning of metaphors. The research findings reveal that for the conceptualization of coronavirus in medical myths the following metaphorical models are used: Coronavirus-military rival, Coronavirus-natural disaster and Coronavirus-silver lining.