Metaphors in the discourses about green architecture : Italian, English and German in comparison

Green architecture is architecture that seeks to minimize the use of non-renewable and or polluting materials in construction and use of a building (see Almusaed 2011). It uses a conscious approach to energy in order to ensure that the way of living of today do no inhibit the opportunities of future generations. The topic of green architecture is relevant at a European level not only from a political, economic and social perspective but also from a linguistic perspective. Linguistically seen, it is interesting to analyse how metaphors contribute to build the specialised discourse of green architecture, which can be considered a mixture of a language of popularisation used to achieve non-specialist readers, i.e. all citizens interested in green buildings, and of a language of specialization used by experts such as architects, engineers and legislators (see Crestani 2016). Metaphors structure the understanding of the experience and they shape perceptions and actions (Lakoff and Johnson 2003). The paper aims to analyse in which extent metaphors present similarities in Italian, German and English texts and what aspects of green architecture are conceptualised through figurative language. The term green architecture itself is a metaphorical expression that is also used in the Italian language (architettura verde) and in the German language (grüne Architektur). On the basis of a corpus of texts, selected according to the criteria of different text genres (monographs, official web sites of institutes, specialised articles etc.), of diamesic variation (written texts and audio-visual texts) and of temporal proximity (texts of the last five years), the paper investigates differences and similarities among the three languages, i.e. cultures referring to the ways of metaphorization of specialised concepts. In particular, the focus is posed on the grade of standardisation of metaphors. The study adopts a qualitative perspective and analyses morpho-syntactic and semantic features of metaphorical multi-word units, looking for the kinds of functions adopted by the different “metaphorical concepts” (Lakoff and Johnson 2003: 7) and for the kinds of concepts (structural metaphors, orientational metaphors, ontological metaphors according to the categorization of Lakoff and Johnson). References Almusaed, A. (2011): Biophilic and bioclimatic architecture. Springer. Crestani, V. (2016): Passive house / Passivhaus / casa passiva: Metaphorik im europäischen Diskurs des nachhaltigen Bauens. In: Germanistische Kontexte 1(2), 20-41. Gotti, M. (2003): Specialized Discourse. Linguistic Features and Changing Conventions. Peter Lang. Lakoff, G. and Johnson, M. (2003): Metaphors we live by. The University of Chicago Press.