| 11. |
- Hommerberg, Charlotte, 1960-, et al.
(author)
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Battle, Journey, Imprisonment and Burden : patterns of metaphor use in blogs about living with advanced cancer
- 2020
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In: BMC Palliative Care. - : Springer Nature. - 1472-684X. ; 19, s. 1-10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: The significance of metaphors for the experience of cancer has been the topic of extensive previous research, with “Battle” and “Journey” metaphors standing out as key. Adaptation to the patient’s use of metaphor is generally believed to be an important aspect of person-centered care, especially in palliative care. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of metaphors in blogs written in Swedish by people living with advanced cancer and explore possible patterns associated with individuals, age and gender.Methods: The study is based on a dataset totaling 2 602 479 words produced some time during the period 2007–2016 by 27 individuals diagnosed with advanced cancer. Both qualitative and quantitative procedures were used, and the findings are represented as raw frequencies as well as normalized frequencies per 10 000 words. Our general approach was exploratory and descriptive. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyze statistical significance.Results: Our results confirm the strong foothold of “Journey” and “Battle” metaphors. “Imprisonment” and “Burden” metaphors were also used by the majority of the individuals. The propensity to use metaphors when describing the cancer experience was found to differ extensively across the individuals. However, individuals were not found to opt for one conceptualization over the other but tended to draw on several different metaphor domains when conceptualizing their experience. Socio-demographic factors such as age or gender were not found to be strong predictors of metaphor choice in this limited study.Conclusions: Using a range of different metaphors allows individuals with advanced cancer to highlight different aspects of their experience. The presence of metaphors associated with “Journey”, “Battle”, “Imprisonment” and “Burden” across individuals could be explained by the fact that the bloggers are part of a culturally consistent cohort, despite variations in age, sex and cancer form. Awareness of metaphors commonly used by patients can enhance health professionals’ capacity to identify metaphorical patterns and develop a common language grounded in the patients’ own metaphor use, which is an important requisite for person-centered palliative care.
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| 12. |
- Hommerberg, Charlotte, 1960-
(author)
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Bringing consumption reviews into relief by combining appraisal and argumentation analysis
- 2015
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In: Text & Talk. - : Walter de Gruyter GmbH. - 1860-7330 .- 1860-7349. ; 35:2, s. 155-175
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent years have seen a rapid influx of reviews in the field of different aesthetic and consumption domains, which is indicative of the importance assigned by present-day society to what we choose to experience and consume. Given their prevalence, there is a need to find an adequate analytic framework which allows insightful understanding of the discursive construction of such reviews. This paper aims to propose such a framework by combining tools from the Appraisal model with ideas from argumentation theory. The combined methodology is demonstrated using one text from a corpus of wine reviews written by the extraordinarily influential wine critic Robert Parker. The analysis takes into consideration both meanings that are internal to the text and meanings that are text-external, so-called world knowledge. I argue that the technique of reconstruction adopted from argumentation theory helps to highlight and explain how the appraisal works in the text. The findings are generalizable to the extent that the methodology can be used for any type of review text, especially in the domain of present-day luxury consumption, which is not overtly argumentative but which can still be found to have an assessment-basis format that leads its readers towards a certain worldview that they are invited to co-construct and see as rational.
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| 13. |
- Hommerberg, Charlotte, 1960-
(author)
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Bringing persuasive discourse into relief : Deciphering Robert Parker’s wine reviews by combining argumentation and appraisal analysis
- 2012
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In: CADAAD 2012, IV Conference, Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines, July 4-6, 2012. ; , s. 27-28
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents an analysis of reviews written by world-renowned and extremely influential wine critic Robert Parker, an American ex lawyer raised on Coca-Cola in rural Maryland who promotes himself as a naïve country boy with a super nose. Parkerʼs wine assessments have become so influential that even prestigious Bordeaux wines are adapted to his taste to sell well on todayʼs ever more globalized wine market. As a result, his words have come to exercise considerable dominance in the institutional setting where his texts are staged.To decipher this exceptionally successful instance of contemporary rhetoric, a combination of argumentation theory and the SFL-anchored Appraisal model is used. The presentation also has the methodologically oriented aim of showing how argumentation analysis and Appraisal analysis can be combined as mutually supportive tools in order to arrive at an insightful understanding of the hierarchical organization of persuasive discourse.In addition, the choice of subject is intended to accentuate the increasing importance that consumption has come to have as a driving force for present-day life, raising awareness of and encouraging reflection on the effects of global consumption patterns on the existence of cultures.
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| 14. |
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| 15. |
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| 16. |
- Hommerberg, Charlotte, 1960-, et al.
(author)
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It is completely ok to not be in the fighting spirit mood all the time : Metaphors and normality in Swedish cancer talk
- 2016
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In: 6th Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines Conference, CADAAD 2016. - : University of Catania. ; , s. 118-119
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Communication in palliative cancer care contexts involving health care professionals, patients and relatives takes place in an arena that merges medical expertise, lay understanding, ‘helpers’ and ‘sufferers’. Professional and private discourses co-exist in conversations about medical as well as existential matters. Such communication often draws on metaphors – conscious metaphors aiming to render the ungraspable graspable and unconscious metaphors which are so conventionalized that they are no longer perceived as metaphors.But incurable cancer diagnoses often entail emotional hypersensitivity and therefore unpredictable responses to language use (Sandgren et al. 2010). While metaphors have the potential to be empowering, they can also give rise to feelings like fear, helplessness and guilt, which is why particular attention has been devoted to the use of violence and battle metaphors in cancer talk (Semino et al. 2015; Hawkins 1999).The overarching goal of our study Metaphors in palliative cancer care (MEPAC), a Sweden-based three- year interdisciplinary research project involving linguists and health care researchers, is to strengthen the scientific foundation for health care professionals’ understanding and use of metaphors in Swedish palliative cancer care. We investigate the use of metaphors in personal blogs written by patients as well as relatives and in interviews with patients, relatives and health care professionals, carried out within the frames of the Centre for Collaborative Palliative Care, Linnaeus University, Sweden. The project is inspired by the UK-based study Metaphor in end-of-life care (MELC) and combines qualitative metaphor analysis with quantitative analysis using corpus tools adapted for Swedish.Our presentation highlights the blog data. We focus on how the use of metaphors sheds light on what is perceived as normal when living with incurable cancer and discuss whether the use of metaphorical expressions can be related to the degree of normality that is attributed to the described phenomenon. We also offer examples from our material of possible negotiation of or resistance to such normality.
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| 17. |
- Hommerberg, Charlotte, 1960-, et al.
(author)
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Metaforer i palliativ cancervård
- 2016
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In: Palliativ vård: tidskriften för palliativ vård i Sverige. - Stockholm : Nationella rådet för palliativ vård. - 2001-841X. ; :4, s. 36-37
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Journal article (pop. science, debate, etc.)abstract
- Metaforer är våra språkliga ”redskap” när vi talar om okända eller känsliga ämnen. Att reflektera över hur dessa används kan ge vårdpersonal ökad förståelse för hur patienter och närstående ser på och hanterar sin situation.
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| 18. |
- Hommerberg, Charlotte, 1960-, et al.
(author)
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Metaphors in palliative cancer care : A Sweden-based three-year interdisciplinary research project
- 2016
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In: RaAM 11, The 11th onference of the Association for Researching and Applying Metaphor. ; , s. 229-230
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Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Good communication is of utmost importance in all forms of cancer care and especially so in the palliative context, where patients as well as relatives tend to be hypersensitive (Sandgren et al. 2010). To render the ungraspable graspable, met- aphors are frequently used drawing on their capacity to capture the intangible in terms of more familiar experiences. For instance, to die from cancer can be described as coming to the end of a life journey or losing a battle (Semino et al. 2015). The overarching goal of the project Metaphors in palliative cancer care (MEPAC), a Sweden-based three-year interdisciplinary research project involving linguists and health care researchers, is to strengthen the scienti c foundation for health care professionals’ understanding and use of metaphors in Swedish palliative cancer care. The project is inspired by the UK-based study Metaphor in end-of-life care (MELC). Our poster aims to give an overview of the entire project and present a snapshot of some preliminary ndings from a pilot study on blogs written by patients su ering from incurable cancer. Compared to other inter- net-based platforms such as chat rooms or discussion groups, ill-ness blogs are unique forums for self-expression. Personal blogs written by cancer patients have been observed to have the potential to contribute to nursing science’s body of knowledge and hence capability to alleviate the psychosocial burdens associated with cancer diagnosis (Heilferty 2009), which is why blogs were found particular- ly suitable for the current study. Furthermore, the Swedish blog arena stands out in international comparisons, because it is not delimited to young users but hosts a more varied range of writers (Andersson 2012). In addition to the blog data, the project also investigates interviews with patients, relatives and health care profes- sionals carried out within the frames of the Centre for Collaborative Palliative Care at Linnaeus University, Sweden. Our qualitative analysis of the blog data serves as a foundation for subsequent quantitative analyses using corpus tools in collaboration with the SWE-CLARIN initiative.
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| 19. |
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| 20. |
- Hommerberg, Charlotte, 1960-
(author)
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Persuasiveness in the discourse of wine : The rhetoric of Robert Parker
- 2011
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The primary purpose of this study is to explore a case of remarkably powerful contemporary rhetoric, namely Robert Parker’s wine writing, which has had an unprecedented impact in the world of prestigious wine for more than two decades. Parker, an American autodidact who gave up his career in law to become a fulltime wine critic, is considered the most influential critic of all time. This background motivates the approach of the current enquiry, which targets the persuasiveness in Parker’s writing. The investigation strives to bring to the fore both explicit and implicit elements of his wine reviews that have the potential to contribute to rhetorical success.The material selected for analysis comprises a corpus of reviews extracted from Parker’s extensive bulk of wine writing. The texts are studied against the backdrop of socio-cultural and institutional frames. Considerable importance is assigned to the fact that the reviews occur within a strictly specialized field of discourse with a highly conventionalized configuration.This hermeneutic enquiry approaches the topic from three analytical perspectives, designed to highlight persuasiveness in representations, argumentation and appraisal. The presentation reports on schematic patterns in Parker’s discourse as well as close interpretation of individual texts. The analysis of representations shows that both visual and verbal representations contribute to the persuasiveness of the text. The argumentative exploration of Parker’s discourse, which is assisted by the analytical tools of pragma-dialectics, demonstrates that the reviews involve rational argumentation on several subordinate levels, given in support of assessments and recommendations. Finally, the perspective of appraisal draws on the analytical resources provided by the Appraisal model to shed light on the way in which the audience is positioned to respond with respect to emotional, associative and perceptual values. The results indicate that the persuasiveness of Parker’s discourse arises as a result of concordance among an intricate array of interrelated factors. The audience is recurrently demonstrated to play a crucial role as co-constructors of the message.The present study also has methodological outcomes, presenting a novel combination of analytical methods to perform contextually situated discourse analysis. In addition, the material is allowed to challenge the theoretical ideas and notions that are addressed.
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