o:37529 Mine Your Own Business: The Functions of Metaphor in Serbian Anti-Lithium Mining Discourse en From the perspective of Critical Metaphor Analysis, the paper examines how the topic of lithium mining and extraction is metaphorically conceptualized in the Serbian political and media discourse, particularly focusing on the ways anti-lithium activists and politicians use metaphor in the argumentation of their viewpoints. Based on a dataset collected from various electronic news media in the period June–September 2024, we aim to investigate the functions of the two metaphors manifested in the anti-lithium discourse, i.e., WAR and COLONIALISM, and how they help shape attitudes against Rio Tinto’s lithium mining and extraction in the Jadar river valley in Western Serbia. Our analysis shows that these two metaphors exhibit three main functions: the persuasive one, to convince the various audiences of the seriousness of the issue and mobilize the public against the Jadar lithium-mining project; the affective one, to create a sense of urgency in the public and deepen their emotional reaction to the project; and the evaluative one, to provide a negative judgment of opponents and belittle their arguments. The third function becomes particularly evident when anti-lithium activists and politicians use the ideologically charged COLONIALISM metaphor. The paper highlights the irreplaceable role of metaphor in structuring reasoning about controversial and contentious issues Keywords: anti-lithium mining discourse; WAR metaphor; COLONIALISM metaphor; functions of metaphors; Serbian language 1552099 10.11649/sm.3384 1552101 2392-2400 2026-01-21T13:50:26.462Z 44 no 46 Nadežda Silaški Univerzitet u Beogradu Ekonomski fakultet 0000-0001-7655-1042 Tatjana Đurović Univerzitet u Beogradu Ekonomski fakultet person 0000-0002-8859-8638 application/pdf 380600 https://phaidrabg.bg.ac.rs/o:37529 no yes 16 70 1552253 11A03 Slavia Meridionalis 25 Article 3384 2025