L'usage métaphorique et métonymique du terme "crise économique" dans les magazines d'actualité économique français

The causes of the recent economic situation in France, which is often referred to as economic crisis, are multiple and complex. Neither political leaders nor economists seem to be able to interpret and deal with this situation appropriately. Most experts consider it to be a profound systemic crisis of capitalism. The existing socio-economic problems and a perceived political lack of power threaten and affect people’s way of life. Due to its social dimension the crisis has had extensive media coverage for the last several years. Hence, journalistic texts about the crisis represent an interesting field to investigate how media try to explain the complex socio-economic developments. One characteristic of these texts is that they often contain a considerable number of metaphors. The presented study is based on a corpus of articles published in the French economic magazines L’Expansion and l’Express (2011-2015). A first research objective was to detect the main metaphorical and metonymic patterns used within the context of the crisis. Second, the investigation aimed at identifying possible correlations between recurring metaphorical patterns and certain phases of the crisis.