Molteplicità di prospettive : l’attuale “crisi migratoria” nella stampa italiana e tedesca attraverso metafore e frame

This paper exposes a corpus-based, qualitative and contrastive analysis of the contribution that frame semantics can make in the analysis of conceptual metaphors within the debate on the current refugee crisis, with selected examples taken from the Italian and German press. The use of frame semantics allows looking at any given phenomenon from several different perspectives, a characteristic that is also typical of metaphors and especially of those rooted in the cultural context of a specific linguistic community. This is obtained through the so-called highlighting and hiding effect of metaphors, theorized by Lakoff/Johnson in 1980, by means of which some features are placed in the spotlight while other remain in the dark. Factors that influence which elements will be focused on and/or which will be neglected include the political orientation of the journalists or politicians involved or the political situation of the country as a whole.