Metaphor use in financial reviews: a language in crisis; linguistic change and metaphorical patterns in EU financial stability reviews (2004-2010)

The European Financial Stability Reviews (FSRs henceforth) are biannual (June-December) publications by the European Central Bank supplying a synopsis of the “possible sources of risk and vulnerability to financial stability in the euro area” (http:// www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/fsr/html/index .en.html). The present paper aims to analyze how the 2004-2010 world financial crisis is reflected in or deviated by language metaphors and metaphorical patterns. Both a quantitative and a qualitative analysis will be carried out, the latter aimed at identifying how metaphorical expressions are lexicalized in these texts (Partington 1998; Deignan 2005). The present study is part of a work-in-progress research aimed at achieving the identification of a type of text/genre through the analysis of the evolution of language during a period of deep financial and economic changes.