Speaking together, thinking together? Exploring metaphor and cognition in a shipyard union dispute

Abstract

Social scientists recognize that discourses are structured by historical and social processes, but only rarely make the case that discourses have internal coherence due to processes of individual and social cognition. Where social scientists have argued for internal structuring, however, they have disagreed over how language and cognition interact for (1) individuals, (2) dyads, and (3) social groups. Using semantic sequence and metaphor analysis, I analyze transcripts of a series of meetings of Scottish shipyard workers in order to investigate cognitive schemas structuring the workers' discourse. Results show how individuals' schemas shaped their participation in their group's discourse. Possible future uses of the analytic method developed in this paper are discussed.