Metaphor scenarios, stances, and corporate identities

Abstract

This corpus-based study compares how Chinese and American banks construct corporate identities through genre-specific metaphors, metaphor scenarios, and stances in the genre of letter to shareholders. More specifically, it attempts: 1) to examine how Chinese and American banking companies construct their major foci using genre-specific metaphors; 2) to explore metaphor scenarios included in these genre-specific metaphors; 3) to elicit what types of identities are constructed through these scenarios and their stances. Six source domains were identified as genre-specific, under which metaphor scenarios of moving forward, support, and target & goal are shared by both corpora. Additionally, seeding, hurt & pain, and outcome of game are more frequent in American letters, whereas mechanism and soil appear more often in Chinese letters. These scenarios help to convey different stances taken by the banks, among which negative stances are more frequently presented in American letters. Despite of the shared identities of goal-oriented travelers by both corpora, Chinese banks tend to project themselves as loyal followers of country policies, authoritative leaders among peer companies, and flexible controllers of corporate issues who value the joint efforts from shareholders. In contrast, American banks prefer to project identities of skeptics of country policies, winners among peer competitions, and proactive stewards of shareholders and customers. The similarities can be explicated through embodied philosophy, and the variations are further examined through national culture of power distance, Chinese traditional Confucianism, and corporate culture of these banks.

Keywords

• Conceptual metaphors, Metaphor scenarios, Stances, Corporate identities, Letters to shareholders