Metaphor in case study articles on Chinese university counseling service websites

This paper investigates metaphor use in case study articles (CSAs), which share knowledge and describe counseling processes, on a Chinese university counseling centre website. Metaphors from 27 CSAs were coded under the variables textual position, target, and source. Chi-squared tests of independence reveal a moderate association between metaphor targets and metaphor position within CSAs(Cramer’s V = 0.3897), but not between sources and position(Cramer’s V = 0.0751). Crosstabulation of targets and sources reveal prominent conceptual mappings in CSAs, which are analyzed with reference to communicative and cultural factors underpinning the counselor-student relationship. Implications and future directions are discussed.