Contextual use of “journey” may communicate specific experience and concerns of a social group

Abstract This study is an applied consideration of the importance of combining cognitive and historical approaches in linguistics. The noun journey is identified as representing an experience that is universal across time and cultures, and as often used metaphorically. In the study use of journey is compared in six social media settings relating to different health concerns. It is found that use of journey is different in each context, in terms of (i) its prevalence, including diachronic change; and (ii) the noun phrase in which it is most typically used, which in each case is intrinsically metaphoric. In each case also journey is found to have a predictable psychological characterisation, including that across all data contexts posts containing journey have a more positive valence than other posts. It is concluded that journey as a metaphor may support communication of the particular experience, and related ethos and concerns, of a social group, and that the contrasting wider and historic meaning of journey , including figurative use, is an important aspect of such insights; in addition, the amenability of journey to such local adaptations may be an undocumented aspect of its history. While such local adaptations may be categorised as variation, they may also contribute to historic change.