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Isabel Negro

Universidad Complutense

Figurative language in the SpaniSh, BritiSh and French BuSineSS preSS:

the caSe oF endeSa’S take over

ABSTRACTIn the present paper we identify and contrast the conceptual and linguistic

metaphors related to Endesa’s – the largest Spanish utility - takeover process in the Spanish, British and French press. These metaphors pertain to the source domains of war, fiction, sports, game and love, and they result from various processes: a) a mapping between conceptual domains (Lakoff 1980, 1987, 2006); b) blending (Fauconnier and Turner 1995, 2006); or c) the literal-figurative interface (Herrera and White 2006).

The comparative analysis of the business metaphors in Spanish, English and French shows a similar conceptualization of the takeover, which backs the claim that metaphor is a cross-language phenomenon.Keywords: Domain, conceptual metaphor, mapping, blending, interface.

RESUMEN

En este artículo identificamos y comparamos las metáforas conceptuales y lingüísticas relacionadas con la OPA sobre Endesa, la principal compañía eléctrica española, que se han utilizado en la prensa española, británica y francesa. Estas metáforas pertenecen a los dominios conceptuales de la guerra, la ficción, los deportes, el juego y el amor, y son el resultado de distintos procesos: a) correspondencia sistemática entre dominios conceptuales (Lakoff 1980, 1987, 2006); b) integración conceptual (Fauconnier and Turner 1995, 2006); o c) el interfaz literal-figurativo (Herrera and White 2006).

El análisis comparativo de las metáforas económicas en español, inglés y francés muestra una conceptualización similar de la OPA, lo cual apoya la idea de la metáfora como fenómeno interlingüístico. Palabras clave: Dominio, metáfora conceptual, transferencia, integración conceptual, interfaz.

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1. INtroductIoN

Metaphor and metonymy pervade thought and speech. The ubiquity of metaphor in thought and language is one of the central claims of cognitive linguistics (lakoff 1980, 1987, 2006; lakoff & Turner 1989). As gibb (1989: 121) remarks, “[…] many facets of everyday thought and language are indeed metaphorical.”

This paper tries to demonstrate the major role of figurative language in economic discourse through the discussion of the metaphors used to describe Endesa’s – the biggest Spanish electricity group – takeover process in the Spanish, British and French press. The basis for this study is a trilingual corpus comprising the articles on Endesa’ s bid published in five newspapers between September 2005 and April 2007. The newspapers chosen are Financial Times, El País, El Mundo, Le Monde and Libération. The analysis shows the rich metaphorical structuring of Endesa’s takeover in the business press, and the similarities in the conceptualization found in the Spanish, English and French samples, which argues for the conventionalization of metaphor in many languages.

2. backgrouNd: eNdesa’s takeover We will start by giving a short account of Endesa’s takeover

process, as sketched in Financial Times. In September 2005 the Spanish gas distributor and wholesaler

gas Natural (gN) launched a cash-and-share bid for its rival Endesa, Spain’s biggest electricity group, which would reshape the Spanish energy sector. Although the Spanish government was sympathetic to the operation, Endesa rejected it.

In February 2006 Eon, the german energy giant, made a rival all-cash offer provided that the 10% cap on voting rights at Endesa was lifted.

In September 2006 Acciona – a Spanish construction and energy group – bought a 10% stake at €33 a share in Endesa.

last February Enel, the Italian electricity group, began buying shares in Endesa, eventually taking its stake to nearly 25%. Its ally Acciona held a further 21%, giving the two companies together enough

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to block Eon’s bid.Eon dropped one of the conditions on its offer – that voting

restrictions on Endesa’s shares had to be removed.GN pulled out of the takeover process, leaving Eon with the support

of Endesa board and the opposition of the Spanish government. By April Eon had increased its offer to €40 a share. Yet on 2 April

the German group agreed to withdraw its bid in return for a carve up of Endesa’s assets.

on 1 April Enel and Acciona presented a €41.30-a-share bid for Endesa.

3. MetaphorIcal coNceptualIzatIoN of eNdesa’s takeover IN the spaNIsh, brItIsh aNd freNch press

A wide range of metaphors is employed to explain Endesa’s long takeover process. Here we are concerned with the metaphors as linguistic expressions which reflect a metaphorical representation of BUSINESS (i.e. Endesa’s takeover).

The metaphors found in the corpus can be classified into three groups according to the process they result from:

Metaphors which involve a conceptual mapping from a source 1. domain to a target domain (lakoff 1980, 1987, 2006). Metaphors which result from blending (Fauconnier and Turner 2. 1995, 2006).Metaphors resulting from the literal-figurative interface pattern 3. (herrera and White 2006).

Let us now examine each category separately.

3.1. Metaphor as a cross-domain mapping

Following Lakoff (1980, 1987, 2006), conceptual metaphor involves a conceptual mapping – a set of fixed correspondences - from a concrete domain (the source domain) to a more abstract domain of experience (the target domain). The source domain is the domain

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supporting the literal meaning of the expression, whereas the target domain is the domain the expression is actually about (Croft & Cruse 2004: 195).

Conceptual metaphors are realized as metaphorical expressions.Endesa’s takeover is metaphorically represented in the corpus

through various domains: WARFARE, FICTIoN, SpoRTS, gAME and lovE.

An overview of the source domains and conceptual metaphors found in the corpus is provided in Table 1.

Source doMain conceptual MetaphorWAR BUSINESS IS WAR

FICTIoNBUSINESS IS A SERIAl

BUSINESS IS A plAY

SpoRTS

BUSINESS IS A RACE

BUSINESS IS A BoXINg gAME

BUSINESS IS A FooTBAll MATCh

gAME BUSINESS IS A CARd gAME

lovE BUSINESS IS A lovE RElATIoNShIp

Table 1. Conceptual metaphors in the language for Endesa’s takeover.

As we see, the takeover is partially structured in terms of a war, a serial or play, a sports game, a card game and a love relationship.

We postulate the coherence of the various metaphorical structurings of the takeover on the following grounds:

a) Most source domains share a multidimensional structure:participants: the kinds of participants are people or groups of • people.Stages: The action goes through different stages. • Purpose: The participants share the purpose of winning.•

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b) Some source domains share one or more element(s). For instance, competition and rules are part of the domains of sports and game.

c) Some conceptual metaphors focus on the same aspect of the takeover process. It is the case of the metaphors BUSINESS IS WAR and BUSINESS IS A SERIAL, which focus on the length of the process:

largo proceso de pugna • long drama •

This emphasis on certain features of the bid serves as a link between the source domains, thus making blending (cf. below) possible.

The tables below give evidence of the metaphorical system activated by each metaphor and their instantiations in the corpus.

Metaphorical mapping

expressions in the Spanish press

expressions in the British

press

expressions in the French press

The takeover process is a war

la batalla estaba en pleno fragor

A new front opened in the

battle for control of Endesa

la bataille autour d’Endesa s’intensifie

et se complexifie

The bidders are opponents

Un nuevo combatiente, Enel, se incorporaba a la guerra de Endesa

It is time for the rival armies to come out of their Spanish

trenches

The bidders plan and use strategies

to win

partida de alianzas y guerrillas que se prepara en torno a

Endesa

Endesa draws up a defence

strategy

Alliance italo-espagnole

pacte inattendu entre le constructeur acciona et l’italien

Enel

The bidders win or lose

E.oN se retira de la pugna

gN quits Endesa battle

Eon withdrew

Table 2. The conceptual metaphor BUSINESS IS WAR.

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Metaphorical mapping

expressions in the Spanish press

expressions in the British press

expressions in the French press

The takeover process is a serial/play

El último acto de la feria eléctrica

Endesa saga would have a

happy ending for Spain

Nouveau coup de théâtre dans le

feuilleton d’Endesa

The bidders are actors E.oN entra en escena Eon burst into the

sceneAcciona est entré en

scène

The bidders play different roles

Iberdrola, el convidado de piedra

Table 3. The conceptual metaphor BUSINESS IS BUSINESS IS A SERIAl/plAY.

Metaphorical mapping

expressions in the Spanish press

expressions in the British press

expressions in the French press

The takeover process is a race

la carrera entra en su fase final

other utilities considered joining

in the race

la course pour la prise de contrôle

d’Endesa a pris des tours frénétiques

The bidders are racing drivers

gN ha acabado fuera de pista

Endesa caracole en tête avec 37

milliards d’euros de capitalisation

The takeover process has a

definite beginning and a definite end

la aprobación de la CNMv a la opA de gN es el pistoletazo

de salida de la operación

Table 4. The conceptual metaphor BUSINESS IS A RACE.

Metaphorical mapping

expressions in the Spanish press

expressions in the British

press

expressions in the French press

The bidders are the lovers and Endesa

is the beloved

Endesa se ha convertido en un preciado objeto de

deseo

The bid for Endesa heated with the arrival of a new suitor

l’ultra-convoitée Endesa

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The bidders go through the stages of a love

relationship

E.oN se ha lanzado a tumba abierta después

de unos primeros acercamientos

Another suitor eyes up Endesa

E.oN s’est engagé à ne pas convoiter Endesa pendant 4

ans

Table 5. The conceptual metaphor BUSINESS IS A LOVE RELATIONSHIP.

Metaphorical mapping expressions in the Spanish press expressions in the British press

The takeover process is a card game

El Consejo de Administración de Endesa debe descubrir la jugada

ligada en los últimos meses

Endesa plays a deft hand of poker with

Eon

The bidders are playerslos jugadores de la gran partida en

torno a Endesa se miran por el rabillo del ojo

The bidders make moves to win

Minutos después de que E.oN moviera pieza, Enel y Acciona

revelaron sus cartas

Mr pizarro holds a trump card in the

game of poker being played out in the

energy

Table 6. The conceptual metaphor BUSINESS IS A CARd gAME.

Metaphorical mapping expressions in the Spanish press expressions in the British press

The takeover process is a boxing game

E:oN deberá decidir si lleva la pelea al centro del cuadrilátero

The bidders are boxerslos contendientes saltaron al cuadrilátero. A un lado, gN.

Al otro, Endesa

The bidders use tactics to win E.ON no renuncia las fintas

Eon increase its offer in an attempt to deliver a

knockout blow

Table 7. The conceptual metaphor BUSINESS IS A BoXINg gAME.

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Metaphorical mapping expressions in the Spanish press

The takeover process is a football match […] cuando parecía que E.oN ganaba por goleada

The bidders are footballers

El partido aún no ha acabado, aunque aún no sabemos cuántos jugadores hay

Table 8. The conceptual metaphor BUSINESS IS A FooTBAll MATCh.

The range of Spanish, English and French metaphors is largely similar. The conceptual metaphor BUSINESS IS WAR stands at the centre of a system of conceptualizations of the takeover. It provides the bulk of metaphorical patterns in the business discourse about Endesa’s takeover, as shown in table 9.

Metaphorical patterns in the Spanish press

Metaphorical patterns in the British press

Metaphorical patterns in the French press

guerra, batalla, pugna, lucha, luchar, conflicto, cruzada, combate, ofensiva, asalto,

desembarco, incursión, contraataque, alianza, aliado, pacto, pactar, rival, línea de

defensa, plan B, plan de rescate, maniobras nocturnas/defensivas,

resistencia, derrota, retirada, firmar la capitulación

war, battle, fight, struggle,

front, campaign, rival, defence

strategy,surprise counter-move,

resistance, withdrawal, defeat

guerre,bataille, offensive, manoeuvres, trésor de

guerre, alliance, pacte, se battre, débarquer

Table 9. Metaphorical patterns from the WAR domain.

The other central metaphor used to describe Endesa’s takeover is BUSINESS IS A SERIAl/plAY. The metaphorical scenario is richer in the Spanish and French texts, which present the bid as both a serial and a play (culebrón, obra; feuilleton, coup de théâtre) whereas in the English sample it is only represented as a play (play, drama).

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The BUSINESS IS A SERIAl metaphor has a strong connotative value as shown by the description of the takeover in the Spanish and French press as a culebrón / feuilleton (soap opera) respectively.

The BUSINESS IS WAR and BUSINESS IS A SERIAl/plAY metaphors view the takeover as a lengthy process, thus giving evidence of the ideological load of metaphor.:

Enésimo capítulo en la batalla de opas por Endesa. (BUSINESS IS WAR)El culebrón de las opAS más largo de la historia de España. (BUSINESS IS A SERIAl)le suspens va donc durer encore quelques semaines. (BUSINESS IS A SERIAl)lengthy drama (BUSINESS IS A SERIAl)

Another group of metaphors are the sports metaphors. What distinguishes them from the war metaphors is a less critical instance regarding the takeover. All the sports metaphors view Endesa’s bid as a contest between two or more opponents. Yet they put the emphasis on different aspects of such contest: the opponents’ tactics (BUSINESS IS A BoXINg gAME), their position (BUSINESS IS A RACE) or the excitement of the game (BUSINESS IS A FOOTBALL MATCH):

Como los púgiles experimentados, GN retrocederá golpeando. (BUSINESS IS A BoXINg gAME)on n’est plus seul en lice, avec l’irruption d’un trublion de poids. (BUSINESS IS A RACE)¡hay partido! (BUSINESS IS A FooTBAll MATCh)

The Spanish sample has almost exclusively characterization of the takeover in terms of sports imagery. In the English and French texts there are only examples of the BUSINESS IS A RACE metaphor.

The metaphor BUSINESS IS A CARd gAME is only found in the Spanish and English samples. Financial Times highlights the players’ skills:

Endesa plays a deft hand of poker with Eon.The lovE domain is used for an ideological purpose opposed

to that of the WAR domain: Endesa’s takeover is not understood as a

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fight between rival companies for its control but as an attempt to win Endesa’s heart:

Endesa se ha convertido en un preciado objeto de deseo.Gas Natural starts wooing Endesa.le gaz espagnol lorgne le courant (metonymy: INSTITUTIoN FOR PRODUCT and personification)

The choice of the lexemes lorgner (look at greedily) and objeto de deseo (a desirable thing) indicates that in the mapping between the conceptual domains of lovE and BUSINESS the emphasis lies on the bidders’ feelings, the dominant feeling being that of desire.

3.2 Metaphor as the result of blending

Another group of metaphors are best interpreted as the result of blending (or conceptual integration). Following Fauconnier and Turner (Fauconnier and Turner 1995, 2006; Fauconnier 1995, 1997; Turner 1996), metaphor results from a blending process involving at least four mental spaces (high-level cognitive structures): two or more input spaces, a generic space, and the blend. Each input contains the elements pertinent to a conceptual domain. The source domains operate as input spaces. Their common elements are projected onto a generic space. The blend integrates elements from the inputs.

Figure 1 illustrates the way the blend is created as a result of the projection. The mental spaces are represented by circles, elements by points in the circles, and connections between elements in different spaces by lines.

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Figure 1. Blend between the metaphors BUSINESS IS WAR and BUSINESS IS A SERIAL/plAY

The blended space gives rise to linguistic expressions such as the following:

la lucha por el control de Endesa llega a su epílogo. (Blend between the metaphors BUSINESS IS WAR and BUSINESS IS A plAY)Enel y Acciona han logrado meter presión al rival sin desvelar todas sus cartas. (Blend between the metaphors BUSINESS IS A FooTBAll MATCh and BUSINESS IS A CARd gAME)Con los protagonistas de la batalla por Endesa ya situados, comienzan ahora los tanteos ante el sprint final. (Blend between the metaphors BUSINESS IS WAR and BUSINESS IS A RACE)Everyone waited for its next move in Spain’s drawn-out utility merger saga. (Blend between the metaphors BUSINESS IS A

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CARd gAME and BUSINESS IS A SERIAl)

Table 10 shows the elements shared by certain conceptual domains, which serve as a link between them and make blending possible.

conceptual doMain

conceptual MetaphorS

link

WARFICTIoN

BUSINESS IS WARBUSINESS IS A SERIAl/

plAYSequence of events

SpoRTSgAME

BUSINESS IS A FooTBAll MATCh

BUSINESS IS A CARd gAME

CompetitionRules

Purpose: winning

WARSpoRTS

BUSINESS IS WARBUSINESS IS A RACE

Stages

gAMEFICTIoN

BUSINESS IS A CARd gAME

BUSINESS IS A SERIAl/plAY

purpose: entertainment

Table 10. Links between the source domains.

3.3 Interface metaphors

Another group of Spanish and French metaphors can be explained following Herrera and White’s (2006) literal-figurative interface pattern. These metaphors are provided by the denotative lexis from the target domain, which is used in a figurative sense.

Below are a few examples of interface metaphors:alianza que cortocircuitará la operación de E.oN.el sector eléctrico echa chispas.Endesa électrise les rois de l’énergie.E.oN court-circuité dans l’opA sur Endesa.Madrid passe par Rome pour débrancher Berlin. (Also metonymy

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plACE FoR ThE INSTITUTIoN: Madrid = Endesa, Rome = Enel, Berlin = E.oN)

The lexical units cortocircuitar / court-circuiter (short-circuit), echar chispas (throw off sparks), électriser (electrify) and débrancher (disconnect) have a connotative meaning.

4. coNclusIoN

The present paper has aimed to provide evidence for the widespread use of metaphor in economic discourse and across languages by carrying out an empirical investigation of the conceptual and linguistic metaphors related to Endesa’s takeover process that we have encountered in the Spanish, British and French press. The metaphors result from distinct conceptual processes. The metaphors understood as cross-domain mappings (Lakoff 1980, 1987, 2006) are drawn from a number of source domains - WARFARE, FICTIoN, SpoRTS, gAME and lovE, and are coherent with each other on the basis of the common structure of the source domains and the elements shared by some domains. These similarities justify the metaphors resulting from blending (Fauconnier and Turner 1995, 20006), which integrate elements from the different domains.

Finally, another group of metaphors are accounted for by herrera and White’s literal-figurative pattern. These metaphors re activated by the figurative use off the lexicon from the source domain.

on the data obtained no relevant differences have been found between the Spanish, British and French coverage of the issue. In fact, the analysis has revealed a similar conceptualization of Endesa’s takeover in the three languages.

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