A Corpus Study of Bank Financial Analyst Reports: Semantic Fields and Metaphors

Abstract

This corpus-based study compares financial analyst reports, collected during the Eurozone financial crisis in 2011, of the BNP Paribas and Bank of China (Hong Kong), which differ in corporate history and backgrounds. The study aims to describe, first, salient semantic and pragmatic meanings characteristic of salient topics in the financial analyst reports of the banks and, second, the patterns of use and function of metaphors specific to key semantic fields of each corpus to shed light on how the genre was exploited by respective banks to achieve organizational, professional, institutional, and sociocultural goals. Metaphors in each corpus were identified and meanings interpreted in the co-text of concordances, following the steps detailed in the metaphorical identification procedure (MIP). The website METALUDE (Metaphor at Lingnan University, Department of English; http://www.ln.edu.hk/lle/cwd/project01/web/introduction.html) was used as a source of reference. Analysis of key semantic fields shows that the two sets of reports were composed of different topics. Concordance analysis of frequent lexical words in the key semantic fields further reveals semantic and pragmatic meanings. Major findings include BNP Paribas using more empirical research and survey findings in their financial analyst reports to promote their professional image and sense of responsibility to stakeholders, and frequent use of human traits metaphors, depicting different aspects of health, motion, mobility, and injury, revealing the way and extent to which financial analysts describe different business and financial market performance and activities.