COVID-19 Similes and Metaphors from English and Spanish Digital Media, 2020-2022

From February 2020 to February 2022, this dataset contains 319 examples of similes and metaphors using the word 'virus' or 'coronavirus' as a target, sourced from Spanish digital media. It was created by Maria Josep Cuenca and harvested from the e-cienciaDatos Dataverse. The collection includes 94 simile examples from 76 sources and 225 metaphor examples from 35 sources.

Use Cases

• Comparative analysis of simile and metaphor usage based on the described counts and source numbers.
• Multilingual linguistic research on COVID-19 communication based on the inclusion of English and Spanish media.
• Training models for figurative language detection based on the annotated examples of 'virus is like X' and 'virus is X' constructions.

Strengths

• Provides a clear count of 319 total linguistic examples.
• Distinguishes between 94 simile and 225 metaphor instances, allowing for comparative analysis.
• Specifies a well-defined time range from February 2020 to February 2022.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale ML tasks.

Provenance

Source

Maria Josep Cuenca via e-cienciaDatos Harvested Dataverse.

Collection Method

Likely collected through manual or automated analysis of Spanish digital media articles.

Time Range

February 2020 to February 2022.

Freshness

Last updated 2025-10-14 21:34:59; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Media sources are implied to be Spanish, but the description mentions English and Spanish, suggesting a multilingual scope.