Book Review: Wodak R,De Cillia R,Reisigl M,et al. The Discursive Construction of National Identity Jonathan Charteris-Black,Metaphors for Brexit: No Cherries on the Cake?

This is an innovative work on the metaphors in the media discourses regarding the UK’s leaving the EU, or ‘Brexit’. Using the approach of critical metaphor analysis as a framework, Charteris-Black provides a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the metaphors used in the contesting discourses regarding the issue of the UK’s leaving versus remaining in the EU.

The author conducts his analysis within a span of 10 chapters. In Chapter 1, he introduces the topic with several interesting metaphorical frames: (1) the food metaphors of ‘cake and cherries’, whose target domain is the benefits of staying in the EU; (2) The allegorical metaphors of ‘sinking ships’ and ‘getting divorced’, with the former frequently associated with Titanic alluding to EU as a whole, and the latter referring to leaving the EU; and (3) The ‘backstop’ (referring to UK’s conditionally remaining in the EU) and the ‘emergency brake’ (allowing member countries to limit access to in-work benefits for new EU immigrants) metaphors which are ‘naming concepts’ (p. 10) serving as shorthand terms that summarise and simplify complicated legal and political positions or procedures.

Charteris-Black then introduces the purpose of the research, that is, to probe ‘how, why and with what effect’ (p. 12) metaphors are used in the Brexit debate. The data are sourced from social media, political communication and the press. The author also explains the relevant concepts including framing and frames (a socially shared or established perspective on certain issues), allegory (a story offering covert ethical indications for readers or listeners), scenario (the different or opposing situations arising from an allegory), script (a socially accepted structure describing sequences of events in a certain context), keywords (high-frequency words in particular discourses) and embodied simulation (a physical response that is neurologically triggered by metaphors relevant to the body and physical feelings).

Chapter 2 discusses the lexicon of the referendum, including new words, neologisms and the wording of the Ballot paper. Some portmanteaus are formed, for instance, ‘Brexit’. These new words, amongst others, are then morphologically adapted by adding suffix (for instance, ‘Brexiteer’ and ‘Remainiac’). Some neologisms are formed by using a morpheme that rhythms with one in an existent word, for example, ‘remoan’ (changed from ‘remain’). The portmanteau word, Brexit, is analysed in analogy to the original coinage of ‘Grexit’ (blended with ‘Greece’ and ‘Exit’) which implies the EU’s inability to deal with Greece’s financial crisis. The author also probes the use of ‘exit’ in new words, such as ‘Auxit’, ‘Bexit’ and ‘Drexit’, in relation to the semantic field of the word ‘exit’. The derivative words such as ‘Brexiteer’ and ‘Remainiac’ contribute to the representation of the group identities by conveying strong negative evaluative meanings. These words are attached with moral intuition predominantly arising from allegories and moral reasoning which are analysed by a syllogism.

Chapter 3 focuses on the frame of the ‘Patriotism and the Nation’, and in relation to this, the ‘Distrust and Betrayal’ frame. These frames are based on the ‘Loyalty/Betrayal’ and ‘Sanctity/Degradation’ moral foundations postulated by Haidt (2012) in his work The Righteous Mind. They are used to enhance the solidarity and to construct the identity of the ‘Us’ group versus the ‘Them’ group through their evaluative meaning potentials. The author analyses how Jacob Rees-Mogg successfully utilised both frames and both moral foundations, with his ‘learned and prophetic’ (p. 97) biblical style and various genres of political communication such as speeches, press articles and online debates to convince the public of the disastrous consequences of remaining in the EU.

Chapter 4 analyses the representations of two scenarios of the ‘Sovereign Nation’ and the ‘Invaded Nation’. The ‘Sovereign Nation’ appeals to the middle-class voters and is predominantly based on the ‘Care, Loyalty, Authority and Sanctity’ moral foundations postulated in Haidt (2012). Metaphors representing the scenario of the ‘Sovereign Nation’ argue for preserving the Britain’s authority and sanctity through the Brexit. The ‘Invaded Nation’ scenario represents the potential dangers caused by the out-group (for instance, immigrants from other EU member countries). It relies predominantly on the moral intuition based on the ‘Harm, Betrayal, Subversion and Degradation’ moral foundations. In terms of the remain side, the author demonstrates how they failed to identify the ‘Sovereign Nation’ scenario of the leave side, and hence they ended up utilising the ‘Invaded Nation’ scenario. In so doing, both sides engaged in a ‘rhetorical slanging match’ (p. 133) in which metaphors in the frame of ‘War and Invasion’ were prevalent. In a similar vein, Chapter 5 centres on containment metaphors and game-related metaphors. Boundaries are seen in terms of containers, with supporters being inside whereas the opponents outside. This corresponds with the ‘Loyalty/Betrayal’ moral foundation. Game-related metaphors frame politics as a game which substantially relies on the Fairness/Cheating moral foundation. They are frequently used by the leaders of the Leave campaign in advocating ‘playing by the rule’ (p. 158).

Chapter 6 spotlights the discourse of Boris Johnson, whose language style is based on ‘surreal humor, eccentric appearance, and considerable linguistic skill[s]’ (p. 161). The author analyses Johnson’s exploitation of simulated embodiment in his journalistic frames (e.g. the food frame embodied by metaphors such as camembert to refer to hard Brexit and parmesan to refer to soft Brexits) and political frames (e.g. the container frame and the nation-as-body frame). Chapters 7 and 8 are devoted to the frames of ‘Family and Special Relationships’ (including friends and enemies, partners, neighbours and the club membership), and ‘Marriage and Divorce’ scripts. A host of scenarios and allegories in these frames or scripts were used by both sides to appeal to various degrees of emotional intimacy grounded in the moral institutions of ‘Fairness and Cheating’.

Chapter 9 discusses animal-related metaphors which mainly fall into two categories: the ‘Human-as-Animal’ frame, which is allegorical, and the ‘Animal-as-Human’ frame. The ‘Human-as-Animal’ frame mainly includes idioms containing animals indicating certain human traits. For instance, the ‘Brexit big beast Boris Johnson’ appeared in many Tweets to refer to his style with ‘“natural” authority – and with a high level of assuredness’ (p. 275). The ‘Animal-as-Human’ frame attributes the view of the author of a Tweet to their pet, which serves as an ‘emotional shield’ (p. 270) against direct personal attack. The author offers both qualitative and quantitative (i.e. by counting the number of repeated metaphors) analysis of these metaphors and probes the corresponding moral intuitions and moral reasoning underlying the respective frames and allegories. The final chapter (Chapter 10) discusses the master metaphors of Brexit regarding the government’s incompetence in the negotiations. And increasingly, the ‘CONTAINERS ARE BOUNDED SPACES’ came to be the master metaphor of the Brexit whereby Britain or its leader is seen in terms of bounded spaces, such as a locked car from which Theresa May could not get off while Angela Merkel was waiting outside.

In general, this is a very interesting, timely and innovative work on ‘Brexit’. It covers the prevalent metaphors that were used in the media discourse of Brexit. The analysis extends the scope of Critical Metaphor Analysis in Charteris-Black’s previous studies by focussing not only on discourses of traditional press and media but also on those of social media such as Twitter. Drawing on concepts and theories in cognitive linguistics, rhetoric and moral psychology, this work not only reveals how various metaphors constitute the cognitive patterns in persuading the audiences into supporting the intended political positions concerning Brexit, but it also shows how these metaphors make use of and contribute to the British moral codes and political moral foundations at large. Besides, the evolving complexities of Brexit discourses, and the ingenious and humorous use of metaphors by oppositional camps are lucidly and intriguingly demonstrated by the authors’ accessible writing style. All these characteristics make the monograph a must-read for both scholars and other (lay) readers interested in Brexit, political communication, (critical) discourse analysis or cognitive linguistics.