On the interaction between metaphors and sentiment polarities

Abstract

This study investigates Facebook posts related to ‘校正回歸 retrospective adjustment; to backlog’, a neologism coined during the first outbreak of COVID-19 in Taiwan in May 2021. It identifies 19 linguistic metaphors used to refer to this neologism; these are classified into the following eight metaphor groups: financial statements, lie, propaganda, recreation, scoundrel, straw, traffic congestion and tricks; among these, traffic congestion and recreation groups occur in posts of diverging polarities; the remaining six groups occur in posts exclusively expressing negative evaluation. Moreover, this study identifies a rhetorical strategy, parallelism, which occurs exclusively in the negative polarity and triggers a negative interpretation of value-neutral metaphors. Considering the aspects highlighted via the use of certain metaphors, it predicts that, for the conceptualisation of this neologism, objective metaphors are more likely to be used when the emphasis is on things that occur without the involvement of any agent’s volition; subjective metaphors are more likely to be used when the user emphasises the agent’s volition underlying a behaviour, including the manipulation of the number of infected patients, concealment of the truth, and transmission of false information.