A Diachronic Study On Conceptual Metaphor In Chinese Government's Work Reports (1978-2011)

Each year on the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, the Prime Minister of the State Council delivers Government Work Report which is on the one hand a review and a summary of tasks accomplished in the past year, and on the other hand a deployment and an arrangement of affairs in the coming year. As a typical pattern of official documents, Government Work Report is usually supposed to be serious and fossilizing in language, neutral and objective in mood, and devoid of sentimental expressions.However we are told by the Conceptual Metaphor Theory that language is metaphorical in nature and that metaphor is a mode of thought, a way of cognition, rather than a mere rhetoric device. Language in any form will demonstrate the thinking mode and deliver the intention of the speaker in an either explicit or inexplicit way, and thus influence the conceptualization of the hearer.Based on Lakoff & Johnson's Conceptual Metaphor Theory and starting from the Government Work Report from 1978 to 2011, the present paper attempts to uncover the underlying ideology and political philosophy on the part of Chinese state leaders from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. Basically the present research answers the following questions:1. What are the general patterns of conceptual metaphor in Government Work Reports from 1978 to 2011?2. How do these patterns distribute diachronically?3. How does this distribution relate to the government's ideology and philosophy?After both qualitative and quantitative study the following conclusions are achieved:First, construction metaphors and journey metaphors (road metaphors included) are the two most intensively used metaphorical patterns in The Reports, which reflects that that since Reform and Opening Up constructing socialist country and developing national economy are always the top concern of our government; machine metaphors are also in the front rank, reflecting the governmental philosophy of focusing on the global situation and exercising macroscopical control.Second, the use of organism and stuff metaphors reveals the government's purposive directing and molding of the masses' ideology. The state leaders make use of those metaphorical patterns of which people are familiar to frame their political philosophy and propositions, with a view to get the plain citizens across with these political concepts and thus maximize the influence of political publicity.Third, other metaphorical patterns involving the source domains of water, war, family and weather all together mirror the transition of international trends, the change of times as well as the subsequent adjustment of the Chinese leaders'governing policies. Our government has always adhered to the philosophy of peaceful development and actively shouldered the responsibility of promoting social harmony and justice and achieving happiness and esteem for the people, and has continuously made new progresses.As one of the attempts in exploring the relationship between conceptual metaphor and political discourse, this thesis aims at discovering some metaphorical patterns with Chinese characteristics through Government Work Reports and unveiling the underlying ideology and political philosophy from a linguistic perspective. It is hoped that this study would enrich the research in this field, and provide proof that language in use does interact immensely with social development.