CONCEPTUAL MAPPINGS OF STRUCTURAL METAPHOR “INFLATION IS AN ENEMY” IN VIETNAMESE ONLINE ECONOMIC DISCOURSE

This study investigates the conceptual metaphor INFLATION IS AN ENEMY in Vietnamese online economic discourse from 2015 to 2025. Drawing on the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and employing a combination of the Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP) and Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA), the paper analyzes a corpus of 320 articles from major Vietnamese news sources. The findings demonstrate a variety of ontological correspondences between the source domain of ENEMY and the target domain of INFLATION. These metaphorical mappings not only serve cognitive functions - rendering an abstract economic concept more comprehensible - but also contribute to shaping public attitudes, emotional responses, and support for monetary policy interventions. The study also offers implications for metaphor-based teaching in economics and further research on metaphor variation across cultures and media platforms.