Ideological Construction Function Of Metaphor In Political Discourse

Political speeches usually play an important role in international political issues. They serve as a powerful weapon for heads of states and other politicians to perform psychological attacks and achieve political goals. The reason lies in the positive effects of language. Metaphor is a frequently used linguistic device in political discourse. Previous studies have pointed out that metaphor has the function of ideological construction. However, few researches have been done on how metaphor realizes the ideological construction function, and thus the question still lacks a satisfactory answer. Yet among those previous studies, Lakoff offers a potential approach to probe into the question from the perspective of the frame theory. Though his work is confined to the analysis of specific words and involves few systematic researches, he provides a new angle into the study of this field.Inspired by Lakoff, this research aims to make an elaborate exploration of the ideological construction function of metaphor in political discourse, from the perspective of the frame theory, by making an analysis of the speeches over the Iraq War delivered by the 43rd American President George W. Bush (henceforth President Bush). To be specific, there are four research questions: (1) What metaphors do President Bush use in his speeches over the Iraq War? (2) Do the metaphors used by President Bush have the function of ideological construction? (3) If yes, what final ideology has President Bush established by those metaphors? (4) If yes, how do those metaphors realize the ideological construction function?The thesis is designed as a case study. 52 transcripts of President Bush's speeches are chosen from Weekly Radio Addresses with the topical category of Iraq War (during President Bush's tenure from 2001 to 2008) as the corpus of the research. Each transcript is about 600 to 800 words long, and thus the corpus contains approximately 36,000 words. The research procedure, which follows the approach of Critical Metaphor Analysis, is divided into the following three stages: (1) metaphor identification, in which the metaphors in the corpus are identified through the Metaphor Identification Procedure; (2) metaphor interpretation, in which the metaphors in the corpus are described in detail, including the frequency, the classification and the interaction between the source domain and the target domain; (3) metaphor explanation, in which the ideological construction function of metaphor is explained from the perspective of the frame theory.After the critical metaphor analysis, the major findings of the study are summarized as follows: (1) The metaphor density of the current corpus is 14.39, which is at a comparatively higher level. This indicates that President Bush has used plenty of metaphors in his speeches over the Iraq War; (2) The metaphors used by President Bush in the corpus have the function of ideological construction; (3) The final ideology constructed by the metaphors in the corpus is: the Iraq War is a just war. To be specific, the motivation, process and outcome of the Iraq War all prove that the war is a just war; (4) Presupposition is a way for metaphor to realize the ideological construction function in political discourse. In the corpus, the presupposition of IRAQ WAR AS WAR ON TERROR, IRAQ WAR AS JOURNEY, DISARMAMENT AS IRAQ (SADDAM GOVERNMENT)'S DUTY, IRAQ WAR AS UNITED STATES'DUTY, WAR SUPPLEMENTAL AS SURGE are typical examples; (5) Foreground is the second way to realize the function of ideological construction. In the corpus, it is mainly manifested by metaphors with the target domain of Iraq War and political entities; (6) Creation of political myth is the third way to realize the function of ideological construction. In the corpus, the three major political myths are: Firstly the motivation of the Iraq War is reasonable. Secondly, the process of the Iraq War is a process towards advancement. Thirdly, the outcome of the Iraq War is positive; (7) The synthesis of the above findings shows the potentialities and feasibilities of the frame theory as a privileged cognitive-systemic tool for analyzing the ideological construction function of metaphor.By initiating a bold exploration of the ideological construction function of metaphor from the perspective of the frame theory and making a tentative discussion on the working mechanism, the significance of the research lies in the following aspects: (1) The research enriches the study of the role of metaphor in political discourse, thus deepening the understanding of the conceptual metaphor theory; (2) The research verifies the explanatory power of the frame theory in the ideological construction function of metaphor, and therefore broadens the application of the frame theory; (3) The research educes some implications on the awareness of the power of language in constructing ideology as well as the enlightenment of strategies responding to the American media warfare and psychological operations in a broad sense.The bold attempt of the study shows the significance of exploration, yet there are still some limitations, which require further researches.