Metaphorical Functions and Strategies in Same Sex Marriage Bill Debate (2013) FRANÇOIS LABATUT – Université Paris 7 Denis-Diderot Supervisors: Mme CELLE & Mme L’HÔTE Contact: 26/04/2014

REMEMBER, REMEMBER… Frigide Barjot (2013)

WHAT ABOUT GREAT BRITAIN? "With the genie out of the bottle, the government will find it hard to resist call for a re-definition of marriage. I have no doubt that polygamy is next on the list, followed by demands from all kinds of groups. This will doubtless degrade and undermine the very concept of marriage as the building brick of society for the procreation and nurturing of children."

3 FUNCTIONS : DEFINITION FRAMING STEREOTYPE Pragma-Rhetorical Approach - Ilie (1994)

OUTLINE: I – DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE II - FRAMING SLIPPERY SLOPE METAPHOR III - STEREOTYPE OF HOMOSEXUALITY

CONCEPTS & METHODS. METAPHOR MULTI-FACETED PHENOMENON COGNITIVE Lakoff&Johnson (2003) PRAGMATIC Cameron (2010), Semino (2008) RHETORICAL Charteris-Black (2004, 2013) POLITICAL DEBATE INSTITUTIONALISED DIALOGUE EPIDEICTIC DELIBERATIVE

CORPUS. 3 CORPORA: words DEBATE CORPUS-PRO CORPUS-ANTI

METHODS. WMATRIX (2009) TWO-LAYERED ANALYSIS Keywords + Semantic fields PRAGGLEJAZZ (2007)

I – DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE

I – DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE. SOCIETY IS A BUILDING MARRIAGE IS THE FOUNDATION OF SOCIETY "Consequently marriage is the building block of society regulating the approved and universally acknowledged means for male and female to express their full potential."

I – DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE. "Thus the outcome of the Bill would be to undermine, rather than promote and encourage marriage as the foundational and God-given building block of our society. Again, is it what the Government wants to achieve?" CONVENTIONAL METAPHOR

I – DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE. "Over and above that, we believe that the Bill is all about extending marriage. That is what we believe is the gold standard and the thing to which people aspire." (Secretary of State) MARRIAGE IS THE GOLD-STANDARD OF SOCIETY SOCIETY IS A STOCK EXCHANGE

I – DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE. "The language about a gold standard, bronze standard and so on is not exactly offensive, but it is wholly inappropriate. People live their lives in many different ways, and we should not judge between one another. (Chris Briant) ALTERNATIVE: MARRIAGE IS A BOND

II – FRAMING DISCOURSE

II – FRAMING DISCOURSE. IMPLICIT FRAMING : SLIPPERY SLOPE (Dag 2008) IF X… THEN Y "If the government goes along with this plan to redefine marriage - there will be 'unforeseen consequences'. As an example - when the Abortion Act was passed in 1967, who would have believed that by million healthy foetuses would have been killed, and abortion would be used as a form of contraception?"

II – FRAMING DISCOURSE. INSTANT CASE DANGER CASE Dag (2008) IF X......THEN Y TIME SCALEfuturenow UP IS GOOD orientational metaphor DOWN IS BAD

III – METAPHOR & STEREOTYPE

III – STEREOTYPED HOMOSEXUALITY. STEREOTYPING = PROCESS NEGATIVE STEREOTYPE = PRODUCT

III – STEREOTYPED HOMOSEXUALITY. "I would not describe myself as homophobic and would be quite happy to have homosexual people as my friends however my sexuality is such that I find the thought of being involved in homosexual sex as something that fills me with horror." "Gay life is a high-risk lifestyle and people, especially lads, should be discouraged from engaging it, even as they now are discouraged from smoking. No one is 'born gay' and people can do develop their heterosexual potential. With SSM it will be even harder to tell kids the actual risks of especially gay sex." SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS = SEXUAL ACT

III – METAPHOR & STEREOTYPE. "We exist primarily to stand as a witness in this land to the foundational truths of Holy Scripture, and in opposition to the current tide of ungodliness which is sweeping across this nation." (Michel Hobbis) HOMOSEXUALITY IS AN UNCONTROLLABLE AND EXTERNAL EVENT (Dijk 1997) BRISTISH SOCIETY IS A BOUNDED SPACE (Koller&Davidson 2008)

III – METAPHOR & STEREOTYPE. 2 METAPHORICAL SUB-FUNCTIONS: CLEAR-CUT DICHOTOMY DEHUMANIZATION

CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION. 3 functions: DEFINITION FRAMING STEREOTYPE METAPHORS FOR... REGAIN CONTROL OF LANGUAGE INTELLECTUAL FREEDOM (Charteris-Black 2004, 253)

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!

BIBLIOGRAPHY.