A Study of English Metaphors on Economic Stagnation: A Nigerian Perspective

Abstract

Economic stagnation is presently a global phenomenon. Reinhart & Rog off (2009a) see the phenomenon as "an equal opportunity menace.” According to them, economic stagnation can originate domestically as well as externally (CBN 2012) and can affect both private and public sectors. It often manifests in the form of severe credit, currency, banking, and trade crisis. Thus, it is given different names depending on the weight of its effect on the economy. It could be addressed as economic crisis, economic recession, economic meltdown etc. These names reflect the interpretation of the phenomenon in different contexts. One major strategy to interpret the phenomena of economic recession, in line with Sontag (1989) is the use of metaphors. Incidentally, most of the recorded contexts in which metaphors has been deployed for this purpose do not include Nigeria. This is the major motivation for this study. It will be profitable, for instance, to reflect how the key conceptual metaphors are applied in a second language situation.

This study therefore, aims to highlight the use of conceptual metaphors in describing the Economic Stagnation the world has experienced over the years. The researcher adopted Lak off and Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory for the analysis of the texts. Also, we engaged in a textual analysis of the selected articles in leading Nigerian economic newspaper- Business Day, between 2016 and 2017, with the aim of identifying the occurrence of the metaphors as used. The analysis of this research is quasi-quantitative in nature with focus on the headlines of the articles that discussed economic recession.  The research findings show that there is minimization in the use of wide range of the concepts as is obtainable in other contexts. This way very few of the metaphors have been deployed by Nigerian economic journalists.  This study has the potential to serve as a catalyst to enhanced reportage of economic realities in the Nigerian media.