Targeting language development:

the use of metaphor in academic

writing
The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in
terms of another (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p. 5).
The centrality of metaphor to language use in general has long been
acknowledged in the linguistic community. Metaphor is a vital tool in
communication for conveying imagery, feeling, nuance, passion and stance and,
rather than being a creative extravagance for the sole purview of poets and
novelists, is inextricably woven into every day communication across a broad
spectrum of genres and linguistic registers. Despite this ubiquity, metaphoric
language is one avenue that is rarely explored in EAP syllabi. In academic writing
authors may speak of theories coming under attack or of progress being made in
research; certain ideas may blossom, and chasms, or gulfs, may exist between
current states and those seen to be desirable. However, these physical
representations of abstract concepts tend not to make their way into mainstream
EAP teaching material and as such, it can often be a concept that is overlooked
in the classroom.
This paper reviews the status of metaphor in linguistics, and looks at ways in
which these concepts could be brought into an EAP teaching context. It is argued
that raising awareness of such language use has the potential to help students
across all disciplines develop as academic writers through heightened abilities in
conciseness and expressiveness.

The role of metaphor

Far from being a fringe element of language, metaphor lies at the heart of the
ability to communicate effectively. Deutscher (2005) argues persuasively for this
centrality, highlighting that metaphor is an integral part of the process of
language change and that it is fundamental to our ability to discuss abstract
concepts, claiming that it is possible to:
[trace] a stream of metaphors that runs right through language and flows
from the concrete to the abstract. In this constant surge, the simplest and
sturdiest of words are swept along, one after another, and carried towards
abstract meanings. As these words drift downstream, they are bleached of
their original vitality and turn into pale, lifeless terms for abstract
concepts - the substance of which the structure of language is formed.
Deutscher's work, from which this extract was taken, had a more general
audience in mind, and while the eloquence of the passage serves to make a
point in this context, the analogy of language change as a stream will be seen by
most as being a little over-worked for a stricter academic setting. Nonetheless,

the ability of metaphoric language to pack meaning more neatly into shorter
stretches of text is neatly illustrated. Furthermore, the point is made that
abstract concepts are themselves metaphoric, albeit more innocuous than the
romantic literary flourishes that may normally be associated.

Grammatical metaphor
The fact that the activity of creating something is now discussable in itself via
the nominalised term creation is a staple point made in many mainstream EAP
syllabuses, and with good reason; grammatical metaphor is not only compact
and efficient, it encodes the scientific perspective on reality (Martin, as cited in
Bloor & Bloor, 2013, p. 226), and as such is of crucial relevance for students
about to enter an academic discourse community. This form of metaphor via
nominalisation is explored in detail by systemic functional linguists (e.g. Halliday;
2004, Bloor & Bloor, 2013, Eggins; 2010), on whom EAP draws heavily for a
range of language points, in addition to the notion of the academic register. This
type of rendering is labelled grammatical metaphor rather than lexical, and
essentially differs from what Bloor and Bloor term traditional metaphor in that a
choice is made on grammatical structure rather than word choice (2013, p. 130).

Metaphor in academic writing

While EAP practitioners will be all too familiar with nominalisation as a tool for
depersonalising academic writing, there is scant material widely available for
applying metaphor to discuss these concepts in more physical terms. So while
we may teach students to talk about disagreement rather than the fact that
people disagree [about something], it can be easy to overlook the fact that
students also need to be taught how to discuss these abstract concepts. For
example, the fact that disagreement may evaporate, dominate, loom on the
horizon or perhaps even erupt, is not a concept that features in many popular
EAP textbooks (e.g. de Chazal & McCarter, 2012; Hewings & Thaine, 2012; Cox &
Hill, 2007; Swales & Feak, 2012). This is regrettable, since abstract concepts
such as disagreement can be represented in physical terms and, perhaps
contrary to traditional expectations, such representations do indeed permeate
academic writing. A cursory review of random academic material reveals that:

the past can be traced, and the future opened up (Ahmed, 2002, p.
558).
English language institutions will push for a native speaker model
(Kirkpatrick, 2006, p. 71)
The popular version of McCarthys 4ps has increasingly come under
attack (Rafiq & Ahmed, 1995, p. 4)
Functional grammar is so vast that its notions are still being unpacked,
and its impacts still relatively uneven. (Saraceni, 2008, p. 165)

Some metaphors are so familiar to the experienced academic eye as to seem

benign: discussions may be focussed or they may arise, and they may take
place in the public sphere or in academic circles. Admittedly, the extent to

which certain language can be classed as metaphoric at all may be open to

question. Indeed, when companies are described as laggards, the term may be
as often used to discuss concepts as it is things or people. Therefore, perhaps it
is more helpful to view language on a cline between literal and figurative
identities, or to use Deutscher's words, as a stream.
While many teachers and academic practitioners will disagree over the extent to
which metaphoric language can be objectively used in academic writing, the fact
that at least an awareness of figurative language is a prerequisite to involvement
in academic discourses is indisputable. The examples above were sourced within
a few minutes and taken from academic literature which was directly to hand,
and although it is not the purpose of this paper to provide an exhaustive
catalogue of metaphor across academic genres, it is suffice to say that the
surface did not need to be scratched to reveal surprisingly rich and varied
figurative language structures.
Such control over metaphor affords all writers an enhanced facility of expression,
enabling audience engagement and a concise, accurate conveyance of
information and stance. Moreover, one of the interesting aspects of teaching this
kind of language in the classroom is that very often upper-intermediate students
will already be familiar with the vocabulary involved in constructing metaphor.
They will know what it means to unpack, and they will know what it means to be
uneven, but what they may not be aware of is that these physical verbs can be
used to bring life to non-physical ideas, such as discussions, theories, problems
and progress. Therefore, one of the key learning outcomes of a classroom focus
on metaphoric language is for students to start redeploying known words to new
contexts. Such awareness can help towards the goal of leading students away
from clunky and unsubtle Anglo-Saxon verbs such as make, get and do, an
overreliance on which can often be a hallmark of those students who seem to
have plateaued somewhere within the B2 band of the CEFR, and feel unable to
make headway with their writing and level of expression.

Patterns in metaphor
Although bringing these ideas into the classroom may well be beneficial,
teaching the concept of metaphoric language in general in any kind of structured
and systematic way can be daunting. Even the few examples that have appeared
so far in this article have not conformed to any categorical patterns, and so while
it may be possible to identify metaphorical representations in a text, without any
kind of conceptual framework it becomes extremely difficult for student writers
to internalise the concept and take advantage of such expression in their own
writing. Therefore, this section adapts some ideas put forward by authors looking
at language more generally. A useful point to initiate the discussion is provided
by Howarth (1998, cited in McKenny, 2010) who refers to a continuum of
freedom within which metaphoric language is categorised by the extent to which
it is idiomatic, or to which the wording of the metaphor is a fixed convention.
Pure idioms

Figurative
idioms

Literal
idioms

Restricted
collocations

Free
combination
s

Let the cat out

of the bag

Move the
goalposts

On foot

Make off with

something

Drop names

One day

Catch fire

In the
meantime

Explode a
myth/theory/
notion/idea/
belief
Wage freeze

Read a book

Fig. 1: Continuum of freedom

From Howarths model it can be seen that the kind of metaphors most of interest
to EAP will be those termed restricted collocations. These are collocative enough
to condense meaning into a concise word group, while still allowing a degree of
flexibility in word choice, thus leaving room for creativity and freedom of
expression. By contrast, the more idiomatic end of the cline represents lexical
bundles that are often more colloquial and perhaps less suited to academic
writing. Indeed, they fall outside of the remit of the current study as they would
arguably be better learned simply as lexemes in their own right; there is no
creative redeployment of known vocabulary in their usage; students either know
them or they do not. Therefore, a focus on restricted collocations entails
introducing the idea of applying physical processes to abstract ideas.
The next step in the categorisation of metaphors is to look for themes by which
they can be grouped. A good starting point for this kind of taxonomy is provided
by Lakoff & Johnson (1980), who identify a range of themes that appear in
common metaphoric language use. Examples include: argument as war, ideas as
buildings, and discussion as a journey. The authors offer examples in the form of
claims being indefensible, criticisms being on target and attacking weak
points in an argument (ibid p. 4).

Categorising metaphor for the classroom

Once such ideas have been introduced at a theoretical level, students can begin
to explore more contextualised instances. For a class with a linguistic level
sufficient to cope with wider, independent reading, this can begin with the
literature from their area of study. For less confident students, it would be
prudent at this stage to provide abridged or modified texts which exemplify
cogent and categorisable instances of metaphor in use. A useful stepping stone
at this stage is the daily news, as news articles are often resplendent in
metaphoric language which represents the abstract as physical. The following
excerpt from a Guardian article provides an example: The hardening of
Britains refusal to share any responsibility for the refugees or migrants caught
up in the Mediterranean boat crisis was roundly criticised by British refugee
organisations. (Travis, 2015).
One of the main learning outcomes from such an exploration is for students to
employ a certain degree of creativity, imagination and experimentation with
language, lest the endeavour be reduced to simply memorising fixed
expressions. Nevertheless, there are clearly boundaries of creativity within which
students need to operate in order for their writing to be taken seriously. Lakoff

and Johnson provide a useful illustration of this point (1980, p. 53) where they
note that metaphors such as theories are buildings can only be coherent to a
certain extent. While it may appear perfectly lucid to talk of certain facts being
the bricks and mortar of ones theory or that the foundations of an argument are
on shaky ground, coherence would break down were it to be put forward that one
was developing a massive Gothic theory covered with gargoyles. This clearly
takes the writer into an unused area of the theories are buildings metaphor,
and if the text is to retain coherence, any imaginative uses of metaphor must be
extremely precise in the connotations they carry and the imagery they convey.
Most non-native students of EAP will be unsure, and at times completely unaware
of, what is a used and unused area of a metaphor, let alone what rules a writer
should bear in mind when making sense of creative and idiosyncratic language.
To an extent these points can be addressed in the long term by wider reading.
Moreover, there is unlikely to be any simple classroom method that will allow
students to systematically and accurately evaluate the appropriacies of their own
writing. Nevertheless, below is suggested a possible lesson template for raising
awareness initially of the ubiquity of metaphor and its potential to increase
expression.
The lesson starts with the teacher providing a handful of common metaphors,
such as:

Someone who is living in/on another galaxy/planet

Unless youve been living in a cave/under a rock of the past 20 years,
youve heard of ___
Some of this grammar homework is killing me!
Im going to get something to eat, Im starving.
All I want to do in this first class is lay a foundation.

The examples used here to initiate class discussion and introduce the ideas of
metaphor are intended to be fairly light hearted. The teacher invites students to
think about what the core meaning of the metaphor is, and what the speaker
intends to convey by deploying it in conversation. Why would a speaker choose
to say that theyre starving when this is unlikely to be true? Students may also
be able to offer examples from their own language. The class is then issued with
Text 1: an excerpt from a travel brochure (although this information can be
withheld initially):
The jewel in the crown, historic Dubrovnik attracts tourists year-round
with its pristine Old Town enclosed within stark white fortifications and
lapped by a blue Adriatic.
Students are asked to identify the source of the text, along with the specific
language that gives it its character. The phrase Jewel in the crown immediately
betrays the texts identity as being from promotional material; the purpose of
such a heavy handed metaphor is to sell the idea of Dubrovnik to the reader,
and students may also pick out the adjective stark and the verb lapped as
serving similar purposes. The outcome of this short activity is twofold: primarily
that overuse of metaphor means a text loses its objectivity, which is a key
component of academic writing. This must be retained for a paper to be taken

seriously as academic discourse. In other words, we are setting boundaries for

language use early in the lesson. The second outcome is that metaphoric
language is not limited to certain parts of speech. Nominal groups, verb phrases,
adjectives and adverbs all have the potential to be used figuratively.
The next text is longer, and students can work in pairs to identify language that
they believe originally had a more physical meaning, as is being used to discuss
more intangible ideas. The register has moved to that of a journalistic article.
At the cabinet meeting, ground-breaking new plans were put
forward by the minister for tough new legislation to curb the power
of unions. It was clear that the unions would never go along with the
suggestions, and the conflict erupted as soon as news of the plan
was leaked to the press. At the trade-union conference, the minister
encountered a frosty reception. He tried to get across the idea of
that the excessive power of unions was holding back economic
growth.

This particular excerpt is also one originally offered by Deutchser (2005), and
was chosen here for its relative anonymity. However, a scan of most current
news articles will reveal equally rich material.
Once students have identified as many as they are able, a class discussion can
help clarify some of the more subtle points. It should also be made clear that
although the language here is in the style of a news article, many of the
metaphors used could potentially be deployed in academic writing.
The next stage is to begin categorizing metaphors using Lakoff and Johnsons
framework as a starting point. The following statements are shown to students:

Your claims are indefensible.

It is important to attack every weak point in an argument.

The criticisms were on target.

His argument was demolished.

Ive never won a debate with him.

All the arguments so far have been shot down.

In groups, students work together to identify lexis that is metaphoric, and

themes which run through the statements. The fact that arguments are
represented here as wars will hopefully emerge from discussions (with guidance
from the teacher if necessary). The class can then move on to a new set of
statements:

The foundations of the argument are shaky.

While the theory needs restorative work, the foundations appear to be

intact.

Adam Smith was the architect of the invisible hand theory.

Students at Masters level need to build solid arguments.

Your arguments seem to be unsupported.

These phrases adhere to the theme of arguments as buildings, and here students
can move to production by extending the list of expressions. At this point
creativity can take precedence, and once several ideas have been brainstormed
they can be discussed and edited in open class. Which ideas convey meaning
successfully? Which ones are objective? Why might we discard creations
involving gargoyles?
It can also be helpful at this stage in the class to discuss how some language
carries connotation, or below the surface meaning. A poignant way to highlight
this aspect of lexis is to take the examples bachelor and spinster. On the
surface, both words refer to an individual who is unmarried, differing only by
gender. However, most English users will instantly recognize the bifurcation of
emotional content: the term bachelor conveys a sense of independence and
empowerment, while spinster is largely seen to convey an undesirable state of
affairs amongst which perhaps loneliness comes top of the pile (it would also be
important to point out to the class that spinster has largely fallen out of use in
daily discourse, likely because of these connotations). For classrooms equipped
with Internet access, entering the terms into Google Images succinctly elucidates
the level of connotation each term holds and the role it plays in shaping
meaning. This activity serves to underline how important mental imagery is in
metaphor, and how an advantage of deploying metaphoric language is the sheer
amount of visual meaning and connotation that can be packed into a single word
or phrase.
Now that initial class discussions have covered what is being represented by
certain metaphors and what connotations are being conveyed, we are ready to
examine and comment on authentic academic literature. In previous classes, I
have turned to model essays from previous students; the following excerpts are
taken from a pre-sessional student studying at City University in the summer of
2012:

It is important to gauge the economys present state and its likely

trajectory.
The British economy has long since harboured many small, privately
owned businesses.
Statistics such as these reinforce the notion that small, family run
establishments are tightly woven into the British economy.

For the sake of brevity here, these three short extracts give a flavour of the kind
of language used in the paper. However even in a longer class, one or two
paragraphs provide sufficient material for an analysis of contextualized language
use which exploits metaphor yet retains an appropriately academic register.
Students should now be equipped to discuss the following questions: which lexis
is being used metaphorically? What impact does this metaphor have on the
message of the writer? How are abstract concepts represented? What
connotations can you identify?
Finally then, students can attempt production of their own. This could be done
through peer editing recent written work, and identifying opportunities to add
figurative language, either by condensing ideas into a single metaphor or
expounding on ideas for impact. Edited versions can then be exchanged again

among students and looked over for appropriacy of register and communicative
accuracy.
What has been covered here is a whistle stop tour of some key ideas related to
starting to recognize and use metaphor in academic reading and writing
respectively. Main points to form an introductory lesson (or two) are suggested
as:

An introduction to everyday metaphor

Identifying the core meaning of a metaphor, and what the writer wishes
to convey
Starting to categorise metaphoric language by theme
Identifying connotations
Producing figurative academic prose

Conclusions
The language points with which most EAP practitioners are familiar:
nominalization, relative clauses, various aspects of cohesion etc. appear to vary
only mildly within the teaching community. Therefore, it is hoped that some of
the ideas discussed in this article will provide not only material to add a new
dimension to lexical acquisition and broaden the range of learning outcomes
available within the EAP course, but also to raise awareness of the fact that,
contrary to some beliefs, academic writing can embody creative flair and
imaginative deployment of language. This can be useful when notions of genre
and register in academic writing feel as though they are gravitating towards the
mechanical and formulaic. An awareness of how figurative language is used to
add both impact and conciseness can also enable writers to begin to develop a
style of their own.

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