'Spain's ship comes in at last': national metonymy and intertextual metaphors in international media representations on Spanish Foreign Direct Investment
- Author
- Jasper Vandenberghe (UGent)
- Organization
- Abstract
- This paper reports on an ongoing PhD project on the intercultural representation of a cross-border acquisition performed by a Spanish company in Argentina, and the way an acquiring company uses its corporate communication to influence the way it is represented in society. Cross-border mergers and acquisitions are often said to be ‘risky business’ because the acquiring company faces a possible clash of both corporate and national cultures. This case study must also be seen in the broader context of the Spanish investments in Latin America at the end of the nineties when Spanish multinationals made eye-catching investments in Latin America, taking over former state-owned companies in highly regulated sectors (banking, telecommunications, energy). As a result of Spain’s economic expansion, the international media used a number of frequently reproduced stereotypes referring to the Spanish investors as cruel fanatics, with the term ‘new conquistadores’ as the most famous example. This paper looks at the broader picture of international media representation on Spanish Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The data consists of a selection of 80 English language newspaper articles published over a period of 20 years (1990-2009). These articles are scrutinized in order to reveal the combination of national metonymy and metaphors in business media discourse. Whereas the use of metaphors in this genre has been a popular research topic (Greco, 2009; Koller, 2005; White & Herrera, 2003), it has only recently been combined with research into national metonymy (Riad & Vaara, 2010). The analysis reveals how the actions of ‘the Spaniards’ were represented in the international media over the last 20 years.
- Keywords
- media representation, metaphor, Spanish FDI, metonymy, nationalism
Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-4162540
- MLA
- Vandenberghe, Jasper. “‘Spain’s Ship Comes in at Last’: National Metonymy and Intertextual Metaphors in International Media Representations on Spanish Foreign Direct Investment.” Cross-Cultural Pragmatics at a Crossroads II : Linguistic and Cultural Representation across Media, Abstracts, 2011.
- APA
- Vandenberghe, J. (2011). “Spain’s ship comes in at last”: national metonymy and intertextual metaphors in international media representations on Spanish Foreign Direct Investment. Cross-Cultural Pragmatics at a Crossroads II : Linguistic and Cultural Representation across Media, Abstracts. Presented at the Cross-Cultural Pragmatics at a Crossroads II : Linguistic and cultural representation across media, Norwich, UK.
- Chicago author-date
- Vandenberghe, Jasper. 2011. “‘Spain’s Ship Comes in at Last’: National Metonymy and Intertextual Metaphors in International Media Representations on Spanish Foreign Direct Investment.” In Cross-Cultural Pragmatics at a Crossroads II : Linguistic and Cultural Representation across Media, Abstracts.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Vandenberghe, Jasper. 2011. “‘Spain’s Ship Comes in at Last’: National Metonymy and Intertextual Metaphors in International Media Representations on Spanish Foreign Direct Investment.” In Cross-Cultural Pragmatics at a Crossroads II : Linguistic and Cultural Representation across Media, Abstracts.
- Vancouver
- 1.Vandenberghe J. “Spain’s ship comes in at last”: national metonymy and intertextual metaphors in international media representations on Spanish Foreign Direct Investment. In: Cross-Cultural Pragmatics at a Crossroads II : Linguistic and cultural representation across media, Abstracts. 2011.
- IEEE
- [1]J. Vandenberghe, “‘Spain’s ship comes in at last’: national metonymy and intertextual metaphors in international media representations on Spanish Foreign Direct Investment,” in Cross-Cultural Pragmatics at a Crossroads II : Linguistic and cultural representation across media, Abstracts, Norwich, UK, 2011.
@inproceedings{4162540,
abstract = {{This paper reports on an ongoing PhD project on the intercultural representation of a cross-border acquisition performed by a Spanish company in Argentina, and the way an acquiring company uses its corporate communication to influence the way it is represented in society. Cross-border mergers and acquisitions are often said to be ‘risky business’ because the acquiring company faces a possible clash of both corporate and national cultures. This case study must also be seen in the broader context of the Spanish investments in Latin America at the end of the nineties when Spanish multinationals made eye-catching investments in Latin America, taking over former state-owned companies in highly regulated sectors (banking, telecommunications, energy). As a result of Spain’s economic expansion, the international media used a number of frequently reproduced stereotypes referring to the Spanish investors as cruel fanatics, with the term ‘new conquistadores’ as the most famous example. This paper looks at the broader picture of international media representation on Spanish Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The data consists of a selection of 80 English language newspaper articles published over a period of 20 years (1990-2009). These articles are scrutinized in order to reveal the combination of national metonymy and metaphors in business media discourse. Whereas the use of metaphors in this genre has been a popular research topic (Greco, 2009; Koller, 2005; White & Herrera, 2003), it has only recently been combined with research into national metonymy (Riad & Vaara, 2010). The analysis reveals how the actions of ‘the Spaniards’ were represented in the international media over the last 20 years.}},
author = {{Vandenberghe, Jasper}},
booktitle = {{Cross-Cultural Pragmatics at a Crossroads II : Linguistic and cultural representation across media, Abstracts}},
keywords = {{media representation,metaphor,Spanish FDI,metonymy,nationalism}},
language = {{eng}},
location = {{Norwich, UK}},
title = {{'Spain's ship comes in at last': national metonymy and intertextual metaphors in international media representations on Spanish Foreign Direct Investment}},
year = {{2011}},
}