Armbruster
WRIT 2072
Spring 2006

Exercise 4

This assignment gives you the opportunity to apply some of George Lakoff's ideas from Don't Think of an Elephant.   It will be due in class on Tuesday, March 21st and should be 300-500 words.

Scan the national news (print form, such as newspapers and Web-based news will be best) for coverage of political issues and note examples of the type of metaphor that Lakoff discusses, such as "tax relief" and "permission slip." (It doesn't matter what political orientation the metaphors come from.)   Choose one metaphor that seems particularly prevalent and powerful and analyze its implications, following Lakoff's examples.   If possible, attach copies of some of the articles where you found the metaphor to your analysis  

Some terminology might be helpful: in a metaphor, the thing to which the new attributes are ascribed is known as the "tenor" and the thing from which the attributes are borrowed is known as the "vehicle." In Lakoff's example of "tax relief," which implies the metaphor "taxation is an affliction," taxation is the tenor and affliction is the vehicle.

Questions you may want to consider in your analysis include

·             How does the metaphor work (what is being compared to what)?

·             What are the connotations of the vehicle?  

·             How does the comparison change our perceptions of and attitudes toward the tenor?

·             What larger "frames" does the metaphor fit into?   You could connect it to either the strict father or the nurturant parents frame, but you might also see other frames out there.

·             Overall, how do you think this metaphor shapes the debate about this issue?

·             What alternative metaphors could be used to frame it differently?