Public Discourse Prooject (GRADUN

N)
 
 
Mediaating meta
aphors
Ruth Breeeze & Inés Olza,
O eds.
Book projecct

Abstrract and the

ematic lines
Metaphors are an n essential part
p of everydday commun nication. Peo
ople use mettaphors consstantly
to faccilitate commmunication between expeert and novicce or profess sional and laayperson, and also
moree generally to o move from known to neew, or from familiar expe eriences to aabstract concepts.
Particcularly in situ
uations of difficulty, wheere power or knowledge is unequallyy shared, or where
theree is a grave risk attache ed to misun nderstandingg, the use ofo metaphor appears to arise
naturrally as a way of building g bridges bettween particiipants. In situations of coonflict, meta
aphors
help people find common gro ound and bu ild consensu us on how too settle their disputes. In other
areass, such as sccientific popuularisation orr health communication, metaphors hhelp professionals
to communicate more effectively with an interested public,p or to convey impoortant inform mation
sensiitively to people at risk.
This mediating dimension
d of
o metaphorr cannot be reduced to o its concepptual or ling
guistic
dimension alone, as meanin ng is essenttially createdd in interperrsonal comm municative spaces
whichh involve coggnition, langu
uage and paaralinguistic devices. Mettaphors are often multim modal,
operaating simultaaneously thrrough gestu re and lang guage. Metaphors are aalso often partial,
p
foreggrounding only certain asspects of a pparticular sce nvey meaningg. Metaphors may
enario to con
also be creative, generating new conceppts through a process of o blending iin which diffferent
aspeccts of two or more menta al spaces aree brought tog
gether in an innovative waay.
The vvolume addre
esses two ma
ain issues:
(1
1) How do metaphors
m pe
erform a meddiating function in social life?
(2
2) And how do the properties of theese mediating metaphors s extend ourr understand
ding of
metaphor as a phenoomenon?
We w welcome prop posals for ch
hapters on m
metaphor and mediation in any area of social life
e. The
wing list provvides some suggestions, bbut is by no means
follow m exhau
ustive:
 Metaphor and mediattion in educaation at all le
evels.
 Metaphor in commun nication betw
ween experts and laypeop ple.
 Metaphor in healthcare.
 Metaphor in intercultu
ural commun nication.
 Metaphor in commu unication beetween instittutions (statte, police, juudiciary) and the
public.
 Metaphor and mediattion in the mmedia.
 Metaphor, mediation and mediati sation.

Publiication plan (tentative)

The book propo osal will be e submittedd to the Metaphor
M in
n Languagee, Cognition,, and
Commmunication Series
S at John Benjaminss (https://ben
njamins.com
m/#catalog/bbooks/milcc//main;
Gerarrd J. Steen, editor).
e
 Submission of titles and
a abstractss: 15th May 20182
 Submission of chapte ers: 15th Ma rch 2019
 Review process by ed ditors and extternal expertts: March-July 2019
 on: autumn 2019
Publicatio 2