Where does the money go? An analysis of the container metaphor in economics: The market and the economy

There is a crucial difference in the way economists and linguists approach metaphor in economics, the former being mostly interested in the representation of knowledge in the discipline, while the latter more concerned with the discursive and communicative context in which metaphors are used. The present paper attempts to bring together the two perspectives to analyze the CONTAINER metaphor in economics textbooks. Thus, the identification and analysis of highly metaphorical terms of the discipline will serve to determine the conceptual areas in which metaphor plays an important role, whereas a textual analysis will demonstrate how this metaphorical content is laid out for novice readers in the discourse of the introductory textbook. This article suggests that the CONTAINER metaphor is a rhetorical device, like the passive voice or hypotheticality, used to convey the idea of depersonalization and objectification.