Metadiscursive functions of conceptual metaphor in guided meditation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5209/clac.90259
Keywords: meditation, non-denotational meaning, interactional metadiscourse, metaphor
Agencies: Spanish Research State Agency (Agencia Estatal de Investigación), project reference: PID2020-118349GB-I00.

Abstract

Metadiscourse focuses on the interactional dimension of communication, what Sinclair (1981) called the 'interactive plane', and the coherence of interpersonal resources used to organise discourse (Hyland, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2010). In this vein, we have analysed a corpus of recorded guided meditations from lay and religious meditation contexts. We have searched for explicit signals instantiating metaphors that guide the meditation practice by marking successive genre stages. The Metaphor Identification Procedure Vrije Universiteit (MIPVU) (Steen et al., 2010) is applied to identify this type of meta-discursive mark. Three types of guided meditation are compared for the signalled metaphors used to guide meditative practice and their functions. The results show that metaphor signalling plays an ostensive communicative function in organising the text contents and serving the purpose of both maintaining the audience's attention and achieving their comprehension of the mental processes they are involved in during the meditative practice. The conclusions suggest a view of metaphor usage as a metadiscursive mechanism conveying non-denotational meaning and a clue factor in meditation discourse.

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Author Biographies

Ignasi Navarro i Ferrando, Universitat Jaume I

Ignasi Navarro i Ferrando (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6475-3034) is a senior lecturer at the Department of English Studies and researcher at IULMA (Institut Universitari de Llengües Modernes Aplicades) at Universitat Jaume I (UJI) Spain, where he coordinates the Research Group on Contrastive and Applied Semantics (GReSCA, Grup de Recerca en Semàntica Contrastiva i Aplicada). His research interests include contrastive spatial semantics, the polysemy of spatial particles, and metaphor in discourse and culture, also from a contrastive perspective, as well as the application of these fields to Foreign Language Teaching and Learning.

He is co-author of Culturas cara a cara (Edinumen 2006), editor of Current approaches to metaphor analysis in discourse (Mouton De Gruyter 2019) and co-editor of several collective volumes: Language Systems and Cognitive Perspective (Tirant Lo Blanch 2010), In-roads of Language (Universitat Jaume I 2006), Cognitive and Discourse Approaches to Metaphor and Metonymy (Universitat Jaume I 2005), and Los estilos de aprendizaje de lenguas (Universitat Jaume I 1997).

He is editor-in-chief of the Journal Culture, Language and Representation (SJR Q1) and has worked as a referee for Journals such as Applied Linguistics, International Journal of Educational Methodology, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Language Teaching Research, Metaphor and Symbol, Review of Cognitive Linguistics, Respectus Philologicus, Studies in Logic, Grammar and Rhetoric.

He has participated in the Lexicom Project http://www.lexicom.es/drupal/ since 2006 and has been collaborating as a researcher in diverse projects within the Grupo Riojano de Investigación en Semántica, Sintaxis y Uso del lenguaje since 2010.

Antonio José Silvestre-López, Universitat Jaume I

Antonio-José Silvestre-López is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at Jaume I University (UJI), Spain. In 2003 he graduated in English Philology with two independent extraordinary academic achievement awards granted by the UJI and the Generalitat Valenciana (GV). He was granted a 4-year FPU scholarship by the Spanish Ministry of Education (2004-2008) leading to a European Doctorate in Applied Linguistics (2008) which he earned with Summa Cum Laude and another Extraordinary Doctoral Award (2008). Currently he has 2 six-year research terms recognised by ANECA-CNEAI (the last one obtained in 2020) and holds a Senior Lecturer position since 2020.

Since the onset of his academic career, his research interests have focussed on space semantics, the analysis of figurative language in several types of discourse, and their applications in specialised and pedagogical environments, all of them from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. He has worked on these lines as a member of the research groups GReSCA (UJI), GIAPEL (interuniversity) and the interuniversity institute IULMA, participating (research team and PI) in several research projects obtained by competitive tendering from national and regional agencies and institutions like MCIN, GV, UJI, with publications in prestige Linguistics and Social Science editorials. One of his most recent research lines is the analysis of conceptual metaphor in different types of discourse and of the communicative functions and effects of metaphor in specialised areas of expertise, with publications in prestige Linguistics and Social Science publishers like Springer Nature, John Benjamins, Peter Lang, or Mouton (JCR/SJR Q1-Q2 y SPI Q1/Q2). 

Some of his relevant contributions related to the field of metaphor research and contemplative practices (directly related to the submission to “Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación”) can be accessed on his ORCID webpage: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4006-1364

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Published
2025-11-14
How to Cite
Navarro i Ferrando I. y Silvestre-López A. J. . (2025). Metadiscursive functions of conceptual metaphor in guided meditation. Círculo de Lingüística Aplicada a la Comunicación, 104, 261-272. https://doi.org/10.5209/clac.90259
Issue
Vol. 104 (2025): Subalternities in Media Discourses / Las subalternidades en los discursos mediáticos, coordinado por Teresa Fernández-Ulloa (California State University, Bakersfield)
Section
Articles

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