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Pepper''s [1942] conceptualization of `root metaphors´ offers developmentalists a scheme for organizing theories of child behavior held by both parents and professionals. In this paper, we identify the root metaphors underlying current perspectives on human develoment, and present evidence for their role in interpretations of child behavior by parents and mental health professionals. Study 1 demonstrates that there are stable individual differences in root metaphor preference among US parents (n = 224), and these differences are influenced by experience in predictable ways. Study 2 describes similar differences among 32 mental health professionals at a US psychiatric clinic, and confirms relationships expected on the basis of theoretical analysis between metaphoric orientation and therapeutic specialization. Study 3 replicates these findings with a broader sample of 55 mental health professionals at a Dutch psychiatric treatment center and further relates metaphoric orientation to the daily task demands of their occupational roles. Thus the studies reported here provide strong support for the proposition that Pepper''s metaphoric analysis of philosophical systems can be applied meaningfully to the cognitive systems used by both parents and professionals in interpreting children''s behavior. We discuss the implications for understanding the socially regulated nature of partents'' belief systems, the origins of individual variation, the `goodness of fit´ between mental health practitioners and their clients, and the role of theory in the developmental sciences.

This special issue entails a twofold question about the nature of political metaphors, or to put it differently, about the nature of metaphors in political discourse, on the one hand, and the nature of their reception, on the other hand.

Public opinion can be seen as an integral part of society and is represented by metaphors such as a chorus, voices from the gods, destiny, threatening peer pressure to enforce social norms, and so on. These metaphors and their relation to social organization are fruitful to consider in constructing theories of public opinion. (Abstract amended)

The development of medical theories and concepts is not isolated from the societal &ldquo ; Zeitgeist&rdquo ; of any medical culture. Depending on the purpose and the audience addressed, different metaphors are used to explain different medical content. Doubtlessly, Tibetan medicine is associated with Tibetan Buddhism and various medical topics are linked to Buddhist knowledge. In addition to the religious link, medical texts and terms also make use of nomadic or even military metaphor. In anatomical language, metaphor and metonym are usually based on visual or morphological similarities. In the case of physiological, pathological, or therapeutic processes, metaphor often deals with dynamic and strategic elements drawn from comparisons with everyday life and other spheres of activity. These models commonly relate to specific historical and cultural backgrounds. Let us think of the European &ldquo ; body republic&rdquo ; in Renaissance medical theory or the theory of the &ldquo ; cell state&rdquo ; devised by Rudolf Virchow (1821&ndash ; 1902), which explains the concept of cellular pathology. Asian examples that use state functions as metaphors for the hierarchy of internal organs in Chinese and Tibetan medicine are well-known. In addition to these prominent state models, Tibetan medical language and its visual representation is rich in metaphor. In this preliminary paper not all occurring metaphors can be discussed in depth, however different types of Tibetan medical metaphor will be compared and contextualized with non-Tibetan metaphors from other contemporary and historical medical cultures.

This work is performed as part of the cognitive-discursive paradigm of modern linguistics. The object of the investigation is the concept "computer virus" and its linguistic representation in a computer virology discourse. The research is based on the texts from the Corpus of Contemporary American English. The first stage of the linguistic and conceptual investigation of "computer virus" is based on Metaphor Investigation Process (MIPVU) developed by the Metaphor Lab at VU University Amsterdam. The identification procedure includes the following main steps: reading the text/discourse, acquiring a general understanding of its meaning, selecting lexical units from the text/discourse, and establishing their contextual and contemporary meanings. If the contextual meaning contrasts with the basic meaning but can be understood in comparison with it, the lexical unit is marked as metaphorical (Pragglejaz Group 2007). The second stage of the investigation is based on the method of metaphorical modeling, which implies taxonomic categorization, developed by S. Mishlanova (Mishlanova 2002). On the basis of corpus analysis a metaphorical model "computer virus" was constructed. The model represents a taxonomic structure, which includes the basic taxons "man as a social subject," "man as a biological creature," and "animal." The most representative areas of source domains included, "military operation" (represented by such linguistic metaphors as attack, strike, defeat ), "diseases" ( crippling, succumb, infected ), and "interpersonal relations" ( be angry at, enter into, want ). At the current stage of computer virology development, metaphor plays a very important role as a universal tool for conceptualization and categorization of new knowledge that relies on the preceding experience of the person participating in the cognitive process. The structure of the concept "computer virus" is a hierarchical system, fixing the unscientific notion of a computer virus, the peculiarities of its functioning, and the ways to combat this malicious program.

In the face of the great danger posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, political leaders worldwide, speaking from a position of authority, delivered carefully crafted televised speeches and press conferences, intended to inform the public about the pandemic, its implications and the preventive restrictions they were imposing. The main objective of this paper is to investigate how politicians used language, particularly metaphors, when talking about and interpreting the newly created situation with the Covid-19 pandemic. For the purposes of this study a corpus was compiled of coronavirus-related speeches delivered by several key world political figures – Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, and Emanuel Macron. The speeches were delivered on a timeline from March to May 2020, i.e. the period that saw the inception, the peak and the gradual withdrawal of the first 'wave' of the coronavirus in Europe and the United States. A contrastive analysis of the speeches was carried out in order to detect similarities and differences in the use of metaphors on the part of the politicians, at the three specific time points of the pandemic's trajectory.

In the face of the great danger posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, political leaders worldwide, speaking from a position of authority, delivered carefully crafted televised speeches and press conferences, intended to inform the public about the pandemic, its implications and the preventive restrictions they were imposing. The main objective of this paper is to investigate how politicians used language, particularly metaphors, when talking about and interpreting the newly created situation with the Covid-19 pandemic. For the purposes of this study a corpus was compiled of coronavirus-related speeches delivered by several key world political figures – Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, and Emanuel Macron. The speeches were delivered on a timeline from March to May 2020, i.e. the period that saw the inception, the peak and the gradual withdrawal of the first 'wave' of the coronavirus in Europe and the United States. A contrastive analysis of the speeches was carried out in order to detect similarities and differences in the use of metaphors on the part of the politicians, at the three specific time points of the pandemic's trajectory. The final aim was to ascertain whether any correlation existed between the use of metaphoric language and the outcome of the pandemic, i.e. how people reacted and whether they followed the politicians' instructions and recommendations. The analysis showed that a range of different metaphors permeated the analysed political speeches; however, the war metaphor presenting the pandemic as a fight against a deadly and invisible enemy was the most persistent one. The usage of war metaphor was particularly frequent during the peak of the pandemic but the results suggests that it had no real bearing on the outcome of the pandemic, i.e. people's response to politicians' calls for caution and obedience to the preventative measures.

Building on an interdisciplinary approach bringing together political science and linguistics, this paper investigates how and why metaphors are used by Belgian politicians. In particular, the article focuses on the usage of metaphors to describe the evolution of federalism in the country over time. As argued by Ritchie (2013), 'examining metaphors that appear in political discourse provides insights into the way speakers understand their situation, and how they seek to accomplish their ends'. This research undertakes a systematic analysis of the use of metaphors by Belgian politicians during television debates from the 1980's until now. We rely on an original longitudinal corpus of 127 (part of) television debates covering 40 years from both public broadcasters in Belgium: the Dutch-speaking VRT and the French-speaking RTBF. The selected television debates relate to the progressive – albeit not without political tensions – transformation of Belgium's political system. Our corpus is thus a solid indicator of this political transformation and therefore provides a fertile ground for the analysis of metaphors. To do so, we will conduct a corpus analysis by applying the MIPVU procedure (Steen et al., 2010) in order to identify potential metaphorical contexts. In line with Steen's three-dimensional model (2008), we will subsequently analyse the identified metaphors by making a distinction between three different layers of metaphor, respectively at the linguistic, conceptual and communicative levels. Building on previous studies (Perrez & Reuchamps 2014), this analysis makes it possible to determine which (deliberate) metaphors have been used by the political elite to describe the establishment and evolution of the federal system, and more specifically, to assess to what extent this metaphor usage evolved over time and across the linguistic border.

Building on an interdisciplinary approach bringing together political science and linguistics, this paper investigates how and why metaphors are used by Belgian politicians. In particular, the article focuses on the usage of metaphors to describe the evolution of federalism in the country over time. As argued by Ritchie (2013), 'examining metaphors that appear in political discourse provides insights into the way speakers understand their situation, and how they seek to accomplish their ends'. This research undertakes a systematic analysis of the use of metaphors by Belgian politicians during television debates from the 1980's until now. We rely on an original longitudinal corpus of 127 (part of) television debates covering 40 years from both public broadcasters in Belgium: the Dutch-speaking VRT and the French-speaking RTBF. The selected television debates relate to the progressive – albeit not without political tensions – transformation of Belgium's political system. Our corpus is thus a solid indicator of this political transformation and therefore provides a fertile ground for the analysis of metaphors. To do so, we will conduct a corpus analysis by applying the MIPVU procedure (Steen et al., 2010) in order to identify potential metaphorical contexts. In line with Steen's three-dimensional model (2008), we will subsequently analyse the identified metaphors by making a distinction between three different layers of metaphor, respectively at the linguistic, conceptual and communicative levels. Building on previous studies (Perrez & Reuchamps 2014), this analysis makes it possible to determine which (deliberate) metaphors have been used by the political elite to describe the establishment and evolution of the federal system, and more specifically, to assess to what extent this metaphor usage evolved over time and across the linguistic border.