"PIENSO QUE TIENES QUE SALIR DEL CIRCULO VICIOSO DE RESTRICCIÓN": METÁFORAS E INTERACCIÓN EN UN FORO DE RECUPERACIÓN DE TRASTORNOS DE LA CONDUCTA ALIMENTARIA.

Online support forums focused on health and illness represent geographies of social action in which rules of behavior, stances, roles, identities and discourses are negotiated, thus overcoming the stigma associated with some pathologies. The aim of the present qualitative study was to identify the functions accomplished by metaphors in the interactions taking place in a recovery forum for eating disorders. The sample included 488 messages published in 30 threads. The metaphors were identified applying the Pragglejaz method. The analysis revealed that the forum members used metaphors to fulfill three specific functions: to explain a complex meaning in more concrete terms collaboratively (ideational function); to build the coherence and the cohesion in the interactive discourse of the forum; and to sustain the speech acts of asking and giving advice, qualifying the content of the dispreferred responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]