La «feminización de la pobreza energética»: metáforas y colocaciones léxicas en la legislación de la Unión Europea en español (Eur-Lex)

cocco simona;zizi daniela

2025-01-01

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Abstract

This study examines the lexical and metaphorical construction of the concept of «energy poverty» within the European Union legislation, adopting a critical gender perspective. Focusing on a self-compiled corpus of EU directives and amendments in Spanish in EurLex, the analysis employs both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, utilizing corpus linguistics tools such as Sketch Engine and the Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIPVU). The research identifies «energy poverty» (pobreza energética) as a key terminological collocation and reveals its dominant conceptual metaphor: ENERGY POVERTY IS A DISEASE. This is evidenced through systematic co-occurrence with verbs such as aliviar, sufrir and mitigar, and nominal phrases like grupos vulnerables and efectos adversos. The analysis further explores the gendered dimension of this phenomenon, highlighting the emergent collocation «feminization of energy poverty» (feminización de la pobreza energética), which appears predominantly in gender-focused amendment proposals. The findings suggest that while metaphorical framing effectively underscores the urgency and negative impacts of energy deprivation, the limited integration of gender-sensitive amendments into final legislative texts reveals a gap between discursive intention and policy implementation