A1 Journal article (refereed)
Figurative language and ‘doing interculturality’ in a lingua franca : A case study from a study-abroad context (2023)

Johnson, E. (2023). Figurative language and ‘doing interculturality’ in a lingua franca : A case study from a study-abroad context. European Journal of Applied Linguistics, 11(2), 410-433. https://doi.org/10.1515/eujal-2022-0001

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Johnson, Esko

Journal or series: European Journal of Applied Linguistics

ISSN: 2192-9521

eISSN: 2192-953X

Publication year: 2023

Publication date: 26/05/2023

Volume: 11

Issue number: 2

Pages range: 410-433

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH

Publication country: Germany

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/eujal-2022-0001

Publication open access: Not open

Publication channel open access: 

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/91374

Abstract

Research has shown how, in a narrative event, people give meanings to and conceptualise their experience in figurative language. The aim of this case study was to explore the figurative language which emerged in the flow of mobile students’ narrative accounts of interculturality. Pragmatic features of talk, including those specific to the lingua franca, were analysed in the participants’ use of figurative language. The data of the exploratory study derived from mobility project interviews conducted with South Korean student teachers at the beginning and end of their short-term stays in Finland. The results revealed, among other things, that metaphors of movement and force were used for ‘doing interculturality’, when the interviewees constructed themselves, others and events in figurative language in the context of the mobility project interview. Using oppositional metaphor (e.g., free-strict) as well as metonymy and hyperbole, the participants presented their views on school education, society and people in the two contexts. By exploring the narrators’ strategies for telling and their discursive construction of roles and positions, it was possible to analyse in more detail the interplay of figurative language and the narrative construction of interculturality.

Keywords: interculturalism; intercultural communication; figures of speech; lingua franca; narrativity; meanings (semantics); concepts (notions); metaphors; metonymy

Free keywords: interculturality; narrative; figurative language; lingua franca

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

VIRTA submission year: 2023

JUFO rating: 1