Metaphorisation in fashion designers' TED Talks

• Balteiro, Isabel ^[1]
  1. [1] Universitat d'Alacant

     Universitat d'Alacant

     Alicante, España

     
• Localización: Metaphor in economics and specialised discourse / coord. por José Mateo Martínez, Francisco Yus Ramos, 2021, ISBN 978-3-0343-4048-9, págs. 257-282
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen

  • Metaphors have largely been studied in specialized fields such as medicine and healthcare (Demmen et al. 2015; Demjén & Semino 2017) or economy (Telibașa 2015), for example. While in other discourses, such as architecture (Úbeda Mansilla 2003; Caballero 2006, 2014; Soneira 2017), some, but still insufficient, attention has been devoted to metaphors, none has been paid to their presence in the language of fashion. In this chapter we focus on the metaphors used by fashion designers when they describe not only their works but also their creative process, their place in the industry, etc. This study is based on the hypothesis that fashion designers often refer to and describe their products from the earlier stages of their work to the final products by using images from domains as diverse as human beings, feelings, death, fight, etc. Our sample consists of a compilation of randomly selected designers’ TED talks, a genre which has gained enormous importance in the dissemination of specialized knowledge to the general population. Metaphor selection was performed following the Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP/MIPVU; Steen et al. 2010). An analysis, a description and a classification of the different identified metaphors are provided but they are also analysed and explained within the general context of the fashion industry, the consumer persuasion and attraction and the difficulties that both designers and their work may encounter in such a competitive and ambitious world.