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Metaphor is a central component of human cognition and communication. While metaphors can be studied for their own sake from a linguistic perspective as a process of meaning extension at various levels (be it morphological, lexical or syntactical) or as a rhetorical device used in argumentation, metaphor studies have broadened their scope and touched upon many other scientific disciplines among the cognitive and social sciences. As a result, metaphors have become a central topic in many disciplines, including linguistics, philosophy, psychology, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, communication studies, political science, education science or translation studies. Among these disciplines, politics remains one prominent area where to find metaphors, as has been highlighted by many scholars (see among others Carver & Pikalo, 2008; Charteris-Black, 2011, 2013; Lakoff, 2002; Musolff, 2004, 2016). This can be explained by two main factors. On the one hand, most of our political concepts are metaphorical in nature (Lakoff, 2002, 2004). This means that our understanding of complex and abstract political concepts and processes relies on conceptual metaphors that 'provide ways of simplifying complexities and making abstractions accessible' (Semino, 2008:90). On the other hand, metaphors are central to the domain of politics because they have the potential to frame the debate (Lakoff, 2004) and indirectly convey hidden ideologies (Goatly, 2007). Using a particular metaphor to depict a given reality will activate a particular frame and highlight some aspects of this reality while hiding others. Through framing, 'metaphor helps construct particular aspects of reality and reproduce (or subvert) dominant schemas' (Koller, 2009: 121). This framing function of metaphors suggests that they influence or even determine the representations of a given reality in the receiver's mind. This framing function of metaphors can be associated with their persuasive role in rhetoric (see Charteris-Black, 2011). In this talk I will report on the results of two sets of studies we have been conducting as part of an interdisciplinary project on the evolution of the discourse about Belgian federalism. The first set of studies (Perrez & Reuchamps, 2015b; Reuchamps et al., 2018) tackle the framing effect of metaphors and aim at understanding under which conditions metaphors might influence citizens' representations and preferences about Belgian federalism. Among other things, I will highlight the methodological issues related to these types of behavioral experiments and discuss the mediating role of political knowledge on the framing effect of metaphors. The second set of studies propose semiotic analyses of metaphor use in different types of political corpora, including citizen discourse, institutional discourse and media discourse about Belgian federalism (see for instance Heyvaert, 2019; Perrez & Reuchamps, 2015a). In this part of the presentation, I will question the notion of political discourse itself (see Randour et al., 2020) and focus on the notion of variation in political metaphor use, e.g. understanding why particular metaphors emerge in particular political contexts (or which type of metaphors are produced by which of type political actors?) and how they evolve in one or several discourse communities.‬‬‬‬‬‬ Building on the results of these studies, I will also argue that Deliberate Metaphor Theory (Steen, 2008, 2017) provides an appropriate theoretical framework to account for the rhetorical potential of political metaphors.‬‬ By focusing on these two interrelated dimensions of metaphor use in political discourse, I will try and highlight the cross-fertilization potential of such interdisciplinary research, by showing what metaphor studies can gain, as well theoretically as methodologically, from privileged contact with political science, in the hope that this can be a source of inspiration for any kind of interdisciplinary enterprise. ; Peer reviewed

Since the 1980's and the rise of computer-assisted technologies, Corpus Linguistics (CL) has become a mainstream methodology in linguistics, making it possible to analyze 'very extensive collections of transcribed utterances or written texts' (McEnery & Hardie, 2012: i). This workshop will be devoted to main theoretical and methodological basics of Corpus Linguistics. It will be composed of three main parts. Firstly, we will address the process of corpus construction, with a focus on data collection, balance and representativeness. Secondly, we will discuss essential notions of CL, such as tokens, types, concordances, collocations, corpus annotation and the distinction between corpus-based and corpus-driven approaches. Finally, we will present various types of specialized corpora (for example, monolingual and bilingual corpora, learner corpora and political corpora) to give an overview of the research questions that can be addressed thanks to Corpus Linguistics in a variety of disciplines. This workshop will also include a hands-on session during which the participants will have the opportunity to apply the notions that have been discussed to their own corpus, using the free corpus processing softwares AntConc (http://www.laurenceanthony.net/software/antconc, Anthony, 2019) and Unitex (https://unitexgramlab.org, Paumier, 2020). ; Peer reviewed

Cet article propose une analyse quantitative et qualitative de l'emploi des métaphores dans le discours politique citoyen. Basée sur des données issues de focus groups organisés à la fois dans les communautés francophones et néerlandophones de Belgique et portant sur la perception citoyenne du fédéralisme, notre étude suggère que les citoyens ont fréquemment recours aux métaphores quand ils parlent de processus politiques complexes, notamment pour expliciter leur(s) perceptions de ces processus. Parmi les domaines conceptuels mobilisés, il apparaît en outre que le domaine de la famille, et plus particulièrement la métaphore LE FEDERALISME BELGE EST UNE RELATION AMOUREUSE, joue un rôle prépondérant dans les perceptions citoyennes du fédéralisme belge.

Cet article propose une analyse quantitative et qualitative de l'emploi des métaphores dans le discours politique citoyen. Basée sur des données issues de focus groups organisés à la fois dans les communautés francophones et néerlandophones de Belgique et portant sur la perception citoyenne du fédéralisme, notre étude suggère que les citoyens ont fréquemment recours aux métaphores quand ils parlent de processus politiques complexes, notamment pour expliciter leur(s) perceptions de ces processus. Parmi les domaines conceptuels mobilisés, il apparaît en outre que le domaine de la famille, et plus particulièrement la métaphore LE FEDERALISME BELGE EST UNE RELATION AMOUREUSE, joue un rôle prépondérant dans les perceptions citoyennes du fédéralisme belge.

As metaphors not only reflect perceived reality, but can also function as cues through which citizens come to understand complex political processes, the aim of this study is to look at how specific metaphors might impact on the citizens' framing of Belgian federalism. To measure the impact of metaphors on political representations, we conducted an experiment among 493 citizens based on an article published in the newspaper Le Soir, in which Belgian federalism was compared to a Tetris game in both a text and an image. The participants were distributed across four experimental conditions according to the type of input they had been exposed to (text and image, text only, image only, no input) and were asked to perform a free description task. The productions of the participants were analyzed using keyword and content analyses. The results suggest that the participants who had been exposed to the experimental text tended to frame their perception of Belgian federalism in different ways. They also show that reading the text had more of an impact on the representations than looking at the image, but that this impact was in both cases short-lived.

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.

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.

This paper proposes a quantitative and qualitative corpus-based analysis of the use of metaphors in political discourse from the original perspective of citizen discourse. Our data were collected from focus group discussions respectively held in the French-speaking and Dutch-speaking parts of Belgium, which tackled the citizens' perceptions of Belgian federalism. Our findings suggest that citizens do produce metaphors when talking about complex political processes and that these metaphors reveal different political visions. This research also suggests differences in saliency of the source domains in terms of which citizens make sense of Belgian federalism. In this regard, the family domain, and more especially the metaphor Belgian federalism is a love relationship appears to function as an important conceptual reference point for the citizens' understanding of the political relations in the Belgian context.‪

In the wake of Lakoff and Johnson's seminal work (1980), much attention has been devoted to the study of metaphors not as rhetorical figures, but as conceptual tools to express a complex reality in more familiar terms. While conceptual metaphors occur in every area of life, the political domain remains a particularly rich source of metaphors. As Semino puts it: "It is often claimed that the use of metaphor is particularly necessary in politics, since politics is an abstract and complex do- main of experience, and metaphors can provide ways of simplifying complexi- ties and making abstractions accessible" (2008, p.90). Moreover, "if metaphor is at the heart of cognitive framing then it should be crucial to political study" (De Landtsheer, 2009, p. 60).

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.

This paper proposes a quantitative and qualitative corpus-based analysis of the use of metaphors in political discourse from the original perspective of citizen discourse. Our data were collected from focus group discussions respectively held in the French-speaking and Dutch-speaking parts of Belgium, which tackled the citizens' perceptions of Belgian federalism. Our findings suggest that citizens do produce metaphors when talking about complex political processes and that these metaphors reveal different political visions. This research also suggests differences in saliency of the source domains in terms of which citizens make sense of Belgian federalism. In this regard, the family domain, and more especially the metaphor BELGIAN FEDERALISM IS A LOVE RELATIONSHIP appears to function as an important conceptual reference point for the citizens' understanding of the political relations in the Belgian context. ; Peer reviewed

In België bestaat er een nauwe band tussen talen (Nederlands-Frans) en regionale identiteiten (Vlaming-Waal). Echter, de aanwezigheid van Franstaligen in Vlaanderen en van Nederlandstaligen in Wallonië laat zien dat deze band niet automatisch is. Deze twee (onder)bevolkingsgroepen lijken dus een ideaal studiemateriaal om de ingewikkelde relatie tussen taal (talen) en identiteit(en) te bestuderen. Ondanks de belangstelling van verschillende disciplines (onder meer politieke wetenschappen, geschiedenis, sociologie en taalkunde) voor dit onderwerp, valt het toch op dat deze bevolkingsgroepen nog nooit onderzocht werden. In dit onderzoeksproject willen we daarom aan de hand van biografische gesprekken nagaan (i) hoe deze minoriteitsgroepen in een anderstalige context hun identiteit opbouwen, en (ii) in hoeverre ze identiteitsstrategieën gebruiken naargelang van de communicatiecontext waarin ze zich bevinden. Om deze vragen te beantwoorden, zullen biografische gesprekken verzameld worden die die vanuit het interdisciplinaire perspectief van de sociologie, de sociale psychologie, de sociolinguïstiek en de taalkunde geanalyseerd zullen worden. In deze bijdrage zullen we specifieker ingaan op de methodologie die wij zullen gebruiken om deze biografische gesprekken te analyseren. We zullen meer bepaald uitgaan van een tweeledige analyse van identiteitsmarkeerders. Ten eerste zullen we een semantische studie van de identiteitscategorieën verrichten, door de lexicale eenheden te bestuderen die door de informanten gebruikt worden om hun identiteit te omschrijven. Het is hiermee de bedoeling om de sociale categorieën die de respondenten gebruiken verder in kaart te brengen. Ten tweede zullen wij een psychosociale studie van de identiteitsstrategieën van de informanten verrichten. Vanuit dit perspectief kan een identiteit beschouwd worden als het resultaat van de interactie tussen een "identiteit voor zichzelf" en een "identiteit voor de anderen". In dit onderdeel van onze studie willen we de persoonlijke identiteitsstrategieën van de informanten aan het licht brengen onder meer door hun identiteitskeuzes, zoals bijvoorbeeld de keuze voor een taalvariëteit in een bepaalde communicatiecontext, nauwkeurig te bestuderen. Deze tweedelige methode zal het mogelijk maken om de relatie tussen taal en identiteit in België beter te begrijpen en nauwkeuriger te kunnen omschrijven.

This article proposes to apply Steen's (2008) three-dimensional model of metaphor analysis in communication to a corpus of political discourse, in this case citizen discourse. Our corpus has accordingly been analysed by making a distinction between three layers of metaphor, respectively at the linguistic (direct vs. indirect metaphors), conceptual (novel vs. conventional metaphors) and communicative levels (deliberate vs. non-deliberate metaphors). Our results suggest that making the distinction between deliberate and non-deliberate metaphors leads to meaningful political insights, notably pointing to differences in saliency of the source domains in terms of which citizens make sense of Belgian federalism. In this regard, the family domain, and more especially the metaphor BELGIAN FEDERALISM IS A LOVE RELATIONSHIP appears to function as an important conceptual reference point for the citizens' understanding of the political relations in the Belgian context.

This article proposes to apply Steen's (2008) three-dimensional model of metaphor analysis in communication to a corpus of political discourse, in this case citizen discourse. Our corpus has accordingly been analysed by making a distinction between three layers of metaphor, respectively at the linguistic (direct vs. indirect metaphors), conceptual (novel vs. conventional metaphors) and communicative levels (deliberate vs. non-deliberate metaphors). Our results suggest that making the distinction between deliberate and non-deliberate metaphors leads to meaningful political insights, notably pointing to differences in saliency of the source domains in terms of which citizens make sense of Belgian federalism. In this regard, the family domain, and more especially the metaphor BELGIAN FEDERALISM IS A LOVE RELATIONSHIP appears to function as an important conceptual reference point for the citizens' understanding of the political relations in the Belgian context.