A Study Of Conceptual Metaphors In Xi Jinping’s Important Speeches From 2012 To 2019

Nowadays,metaphor is widely applied to political discourse,such as press reports,government work reports and national leader’s speeches and so on.Therefore,based on Conceptual Metaphor Theory(Lakoff & Johnson,1980),this study aims to reveal how Chinese President Xi Jinping uses conceptual metaphors to convey his ideas of national management and governance.The research conducts a quantitative and qualitative analysis of conceptual metaphors in Xi Jinping’s 67 important speeches from 2012 to 2019,with 339,223 Chinese words in total.Based on methodological framework of Charteris-Black’s three steps of metaphor analysis and the employment of software AntConc3.2.4w,this study identifies different types of conceptual metaphors in the speeches,interprets the realization forms and explains factors of the choice of metaphors.The results can be concluded as follows:Firstly,through metaphor identification,it shows that the total number of conceptual metaphors of the data is 3082 with 10 different types.They are journey metaphor occupying 26.51% of the total number of conceptual metaphors,construction metaphor(22.68%),human metaphor(19.05%),war metaphor(13.63%),family metaphor(8.14%),plant metaphor(4.61%),machine metaphor(2.40%),weather metaphor(1.62%),animal metaphor(0.81%)and disease metaphor(0.55%).Secondly,through metaphor interpretation,it can be noticed that President Xi Jinping is accustomed to adopting metaphors to express his political intentions.All these metaphors use familiar and simple source domains to explain the abstract political ideologies,which makes his speeches more vivid,appealing and persuasive.In addition,the main target domains in the selected speeches can be concluded from two main aspects: Chinese development and common prosperity of the world.Thirdly,through metaphor explanation,this study summarizes some factors influencing the choice of metaphors.On the one hand,President Xi Jinping has working experience in rural areas in China,so he is familiar with the life of the ordinary people.On the other hand,as for social factors,the choice of metaphors may be influenced by traditional Chinese culture and current political situation,such as ancient Chinese silk road and modern socialism.This study is hoped for enriching research on Xi Jinping’s speeches and providing reference for scholars to make metaphorical analyses of other political discourse.