PRAGMATIC FUNCTIONS OF METAPHOR AND SATIRICAL HUMOUR IN MEDIA DISCOURSE

Abstract

This article examines how metaphor and satirical humour work pragmatically in war journalism, using a focused corpus of The Economist texts on the war in Ukraine. The study asks three questions: (1) which metaphorical frames dominate the selected coverage, (2) how satirical humour is integrated into those frames, and (3) what communicative effects these choices generate for the reader. The analysis combines pragmaticstylistic close reading with discourse-functional categorization. The theoretical framework integrates Gricean implicature, Relevance Theory and Conceptual metaphor analysis. The material includes 27 articles of The Economist coverage on the war in Ukraine, from which 15 high-salience cases were selected for detailed interpretation. The findings show that metaphor and satirical humour do not function as decorative language: they structure interpretation and guide stance. Five recurring pragmatic functions are identified: delegitimising hostile actors and sanction-evading practices; compressing complex geopolitical processes into cognitively economical schemas; assigning agency and responsibility in negotiations; mobilising solidarity and resilience under infrastructural stress; and calibrating scepticism toward diplomatic optimism. Particularly frequent are source domains of game, weather, commerce/brand logic, predation/hunting, and mythic personification. Satirical humour tends to appear in strategically brief, high-impact segments manifesting itself through ironic naming, incongruous analogies, and dark humour and thereby increasing cognitive effect while preserving journalistic density. The article argues that in mainstream war reporting, satirical humour is most effective when embedded in metaphorical framing rather than deployed as explicit ridicule. Such hybrid framing both informs and evaluates, shaping how readers infer urgency, credibility, and moral asymmetry.