ABSTRACT Conceptual metaphor theory implies that ubiquitous metaphors become mere descriptions or concepts if they are not embedded in competing discursive communities. This paper demonstrates that weaponiz- retained its meaningfulness after becoming ubiquitous despite being used by all sides in contemporary contentious politics. Because metaphors derive their figurativeness through tension, weaponiz- shows that temporality, or social time, can be marshaled to contrast an unpleasant “now” with a better “past.” This metaphoricity stands in contrast to the word’s conceptual origins in the Cold War defense industry as a literal description of the logistical deployment of weapons systems. As the word’s use mutated into a metaphor around 2003, it took on its contemporary moral meaning of over-politicizing things that had been, and should remain, neutral or peaceful. By 2017 “the weaponization of everything” implied that all aspects of social life were newly embroiled in illegitimate politics, making the metaphor a profound act of nostalgia that erased even recent conflicts. This paper thus adds temporal rhetorical tension as one of the ways that metaphors can retain meaningfulness through a case study of a metaphor that arose only recently, demonstrating the usefulness of diachronic analyses of novel metaphor emergence.

中文翻译：

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武器化：无处不在和隐喻意义

摘要 概念隐喻理论意味着，如果它们没有嵌入竞争性的话语社区，那么无处不在的隐喻就会变成纯粹的描述或概念。本文表明，尽管在当代有争议的政治中被各方使用，武器化在变得无处不在后仍然保留了其意义。因为隐喻通过张力获得其比喻性，武器化表明时间或社会时间可以用来对比不愉快的“现在”和更好的“过去”。这种比喻与冷战国防工业中这个词的概念起源形成鲜明对比，它是对武器系统后勤部署的字面描述。随着这个词的使用在 2003 年左右转变为一个隐喻，它呈现出当代的道德意义，即对过去和应该继续存在的事物过度政治化，中立或和平。到 2017 年，“万物武器化”意味着社会生活的方方面面都新卷入了非法政治，使这个比喻成为一种深刻的怀旧行为，甚至抹去了最近的冲突。因此，本文通过对最近出现的隐喻的案例研究，增加了时间修辞张力，作为隐喻保持意义的一种方式，证明了对新隐喻出现的历时分析的有用性。