A Comparative Study of LIQUID Metaphors in English and Romanian Economic Language

This article discusses the economic terminology of English and Romanian from the perspective of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, focusing on the way in which the two languages employ lexical items from the semantic field of liquids in relation to the economy. The approach used here is both quantitative and qualitative. Thus, the study analyses the dictionary distribution in the two languages of words and phrases that fit the LIQUID metaphor of the economy, and tries to formulate statistical conclusions regarding the importance of this metaphor in shaping the vocabulary of the subject. The results of the quantitative analysis are illustrated with examples from economic publications, with an emphasis on those cases where English and Romanian do not share the same conceptual metaphors, and which could thus prove problematic for learners of Business English as well as for professionals working with the two languages. Metaphor researchers studying English and Romanian generally agree that English is more metaphorical in the way it discusses economic phenomena. However, dictionaries and newspaper articles may differ in the extent to which they follow this prediction, with the latter showing a higher density of metaphorical language than the former.