This article accurately emphasizes how Tesla Motor Company will have to showcase and convince investors that even with the declining stock market since the start of the new year, it will still be able to compete with many other traditional automobile companies. As many people know, the Tesla Model S was the first full-sized fully electric car released, which is an extremely significant technological accomplishment. Tesla shares have gone down by 33% since August and now Tesla must convince the “bears” of the stock market that their company is still profitable and changes are being made. This metaphor is used exceptionally well because it compares with the war like metaphor discussed by Lakoff and Johnson, as Tesla Motor Company is ready to go to war with investors.
2 thoughts on “Now it is Tesla’s turn to confront the bears”
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This particular article is interesting because it uses two metaphors: argument as war and the bull/bear market metaphor. Lakoff and Johnson went into a lot of depth about the argument-as-war metaphor, so I won’t go into it much. The use of the bull/bear metaphor is interesting, though, because of it’s origins. While there is some dispute regarding the exact origins of the metaphor, the most popular explanation is the different fighting styles of bulls and bears. A bull thrusts it’s horns up to attack it’s opponent, while a bear scratches downward with it’s claws. Both acts are aggressive and quick, the only difference being the direction they come from.
The use of bear and bull markets to explain trading in the stock market, rather then “confront”, I believe, is the real metaphor here. While confront can mean oppose as in war, and is often used in argument as a reference to being on the other side of the argument, bullish and bearish metaphors carry much deeper meaning. In reference to literal actions, markets are considered bullish when trades push higher due to the act of the bull raising its horns to the sky. Correspondingly, markets are considered bearish when trades come down in reference to the bear swinging his paws down.