A visual approach to interpreting the career of the network metaphor

• Published in: Poetics (Amsterdam) Vol. 88; p. 101566
• Main Author: Yung, Vincent
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Hague Elsevier B.V 01.10.2021; Elsevier Science Ltd
• Subjects: 19th century; 20th century; Argumentation; Careers; Cognitive linguistics; Computational hermeneutics; Formal model; Leverage; Linguistics; Metaphor; Network; Occupations; Rhetorical figures; Sociological theory; Sociology; Text analysis; Time; Computational hermeneutics; Text analysis; Metaphor; Formal model; Network
• ISSN: 0304-422X; 1872-7514
• DOI: 10.1016/j.poetic.2021.101566

•I offer a formal model for visualizing and interpreting what metaphors describe and do and how they change and conventionalize.•I characterize the career of the network metaphor over a period of two centuries.•The network metaphor underwent significant changes in use over the first half of the 19th century.•The network metaphor stood in for anatomical structures of the body in the mid-19th century.•The network metaphor conventionalized prior to the start of the 20th century. Metaphor has had a prolific presence in sociology: as a subject of empirical study, as a tool for theorizing, and as ideas that live public lives beyond the ivory tower. Despite all this work, tracing the core dynamics of metaphors over time remains a persistent challenge. To address this problem, I propose a systematic analysis of metaphor anchored around four core questions. What do metaphors describe? How do metaphors change over time? What do metaphors do? And how do conventional metaphors emerge? I address these questions in the context of one persistent and prolific metaphor: the network metaphor. To do so, I offer a formal model of the career of metaphor by drawing on cognitive linguistics and sociological theories of public ideas and professional careers. Specifically, I integrate the Google Books Ngram corpus with computational techniques that leverage co-occurrence to visualize and interpret the career of the network metaphor with respect to four areas: its jurisdiction, temporality, ecology, and conventionality. I leverage the network metaphor as both a revelatory case for evaluating my model and a critical case for deepening our historical understanding of the network. My analysis lends validation to the argument that the network metaphor has achieved the status of a broad category for thinking about contemporary life. However, it also demonstrates that the network metaphor had a lively history prior to the twentieth century. This includes significant changes in how it was used in the first half of the nineteenth century, a career standing in for anatomical structures of the body in the mid-nineteenth century, and a predominant expression in simile form prior to the start of the twentieth century.