A linguist’s take on warspeak
Posted by Pierre Igot in: SocietyApril 9th, 2003 • 4:23 pm
While it contains some exaggerations (500,000 civilian casualties?), it’s still a good read:
“Metaphor and War, Again” by George Lakoff, AlterNet.org
I’m not sure it all falls under the “Metaphor” category, though. As far as I can tell, some of the language is based on metonymy as much as it is based on analogy.
In any case, it’s the good old problem of rhetoric as a weapon. All sides are guilty — and linguists are left dreaming of a world in which weak figures of speech are not required to convince the masses.