If “Journeys” and “Things” Frame Our Thinking,

Can We Adequately Reason About The Nature of Conflict?

Thomas SmithAsociace Mediatorů České Republiky

Prague

Why Metaphor?

• The “experts” speak and think metaphorically (not just literally) about conflict.

• The professional literature depends heavily on metaphor to explain conflict and how to resolve it.

• These unconscious metaphors frame thinking, structure assumptions, inferences, guide reasoning.

Weaker Frames & Metaphoric Frames

Research Questions

• What are the metaphors used when the “experts” speak of conflict?

• Are these metaphors adequate, robust, and creative enough to describe and explain our highly specialized knowledge?

Method

• The first corpus of 362,000 words… diverse but mainstream mediation professionals.

• 262 extracts totaling 8,118 words.

• Find words used metaphorically in the extracts.

Read entire extract for its overall meaning. Finding

Metaphors

“At the extreme we see the all too frequent practice of dispute resolution through arm-twisting, in which people are pressured to agree through relatively coercive means.”

Identify Incongruent Usage• Manually identify figuratively used words or groups of words.• Reviewed to see if in fact each is a metaphor.“At the extreme we see“

Conflict Resolution is Journey; This Conflict Resolution is Visible Path.

“through arm-twisting” Conflict is Movement; This Conflict is Stopped Movement Overcome By Twisting Motion.

“people are pressured” Conflict Resolution is Struggle/War.

“coercive means” Conflict Resolution is Struggle/War.

Second Corpus

• 17,050 words taken from articles on dynamical systems analysis of conflict.

• 95 such extracts were found totaling 2,284 words.

Looking for…1. Numerous, widespread conventional

metaphors; some conceptual in nature (operating in the authors’ thinking).

2. Uncommon metaphors, reflecting the need to explain advances in understanding of conflict.

3. Second corpus: find elaborated, extended, novel metaphors, better able to describe and explain conflict.

First Corpus Second Corpus Corpus Statistics

Quantity % Quantity % Total words in extracted segments 8,118 2.2 2,884 16.9

Total metaphoric words or word combinations 674 8.3 289 10.0

Extracts with no metaphor 9 1.3 1 0.4

Metaphor Statistics

Journey Metaphor Subtotal start, path, destination, obstacles, movement, territory, see where to go

276 *40.9 134 *46.7

Object Metaphor Subtotal material substance, container 170 *25.2 39 *13.5

Building Construction 53 *7.9 29 *10.0

Struggle/War 50 7.4 14 4.8

Personification/Animated Being 46 6.8 27 *9.3

Other Metaphors including Game-Legal Contract-Illness-Plant/Procreation-Economic/Accounting, etc.

79 11.7 46 15.7

Totals 674 100.0 289 100.0

Quantitative Results

Weak/strong frame

Major metaphors found

Journey metaphor

[44%]

Discussion of Journey Metaphor• Note number of sub-mappings. Diversity and widespread use.• Blue indicates 2nd corpus. • Are these innovations necessary to explain greater complexity?• Journey metaphor overall has enormous intricacy and flexibility to

use in describing and explaining. However, it is generally sequential, two-dimensional, and reliant on mechanical movement and force dynamics.

• Extensions and elaborations needed;– With 3rd and more dimensions, simultaneously traveling

entities.– Topology– Multiple possible destinations, multi-directional travel. – …the idea of “attractor” The result may be a much more intuitive

visualizing/conceptualizing of the formation, changes in, and resolution of conflict.

Conflict metaphorically understood as … Material Object

[19%]

Discussion of Material Object Metaphor

• Same metaphors as found elsewhere.

• Promulgate materialistic ideology, unconsciously chosen, reifying sequences and processes into objects located in time-space where every change is a physical action.

• Familiar and coherent, but oversimplification.

• Combinations of metaphors recover some complexity, but reorganize it.

Continued

• 2nd corpus, notion of “attractor” multivariate dynamical process, befuddled with image of gravity pulling an object into a hole.

• Blended features of dynamical activity on the one hand and the nearly static image on the other.

• Both helpful in understanding and misleading in its oversimplification.

• “Positive feedback loop” makes process somewhat understandable.

Conflict metaphorically understood as … Building

Construction

[9%]

Discussion of Building Construction Metaphor

• Often collocated with Material Object.

• Generic parts-whole metaphor structure.

• Sub-mapping of “façade” notable.

• Greater diversity in 2nd corpus.

• Internal workings of conflict (levels, deconstruction).

Conflict metaphorically understood as … Personification/Animation

[8%]

Discussion of Personification/Animation Metaphor

• Ascribing ‘person’ status to things, events.

• Increased in 2nd corpus.

• “Life of own”.

• Linked to Conflict is Complex Machine:– Tinkering.– Cybernetic mechanisms (feedback, control).

‘Other’ Metaphors [14%] 1st Corpus 2nd Corpus

• Game/Sport• Legal Contract• Plant/Agriculture• Business/Economics• Weather• Instrument• Ship• Dancing• Theater• Conduit/Channel

Conclusions

• Metaphors found are common to a variety of discourse in English.

• Minimal evidence of any special or more comprehensive set of metaphors, or of elaborated or extended versions of common metaphors, yet interesting.

• Certain strong ones work at cross purposes to the literal statements and general themes of the expert literature.

• In the 2nd corpus case examples relied upon to explain complexity even in systems-oriented writings.

continued

• 2nd corpus cybernetic machine language may substitute for the relatively linear, input-output or source-path-goal spatial relations, force-mechanics, sequential schemas found prevalent in 1st corpus.

• Personification-Animation metaphors more elaborated in the 2nd corpus are easily understood; enable people without in-depth experience in difficult conflicts to understand some of its complex character.

continued

• Such additions and extensions help but they are not sufficient.

• Examination of the source domains of the metaphors found reveals that these metaphors could be exploited to do much more work.

• It is now necessary to devise ways that the source domains might be consciously and deliberately accessed for their greater descriptive and explanatory power, and evolved further to be capable of explaining greater complexity.

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