CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN GREY’S ANATOMY: A COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF MEDICAL DISCOURSE IN SEASON ONE

30 September 2023


Author Marianna Chiricenco - 1 Decembrie 1918 University of Alba Iulia, Romania
Abstract

This study examines the conceptual metaphors used to construct medical discourse in Season One of the television series Grey’s Anatomy. Drawing on a 57,000-word corpus of episode scripts, the analysis identifies dominant metaphorical frameworks—including medicine is a competitive game, doctors are fighters / hospital is a battlefield, and the human body is a machine—that shape how clinical practice and professional identity are represented. The study adopts a cognitive linguistic perspective informed by Conceptual Metaphor Theory and extends it through insights from multimodal metaphor research (Forceville & Urios-Aparisi, 2009). It demonstrates how verbal dialogue, visual cues, sound design, and character behaviour work together to realise complex metaphorical meanings that reflect both the scientific and emotional dimensions of medical work. The findings highlight the narrative and pedagogical significance of metaphor in medical dramas and point to the value of analysing subsequent seasons to further understand the cultural and communicative functions of figurative language in popular media.

Keywords
Conceptual metaphor; Multimodal metaphor; Medical discourse; Grey’s Anatomy; Metaphor in media.
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How to cite this article
Chiricenco, M. (2023). Conceptual metaphors in Grey’s Anatomy: A cognitive linguistic analysis of medical discourse in Season one. Journal of Linguistic and Intercultural Education – JoLIE, 16(2), 21–34. https://doi.org/10.29302/jolie.2023.16.2.2