A Critical Analysis Of "Struggle" Metaphor In American News On Unemployment

Based on the metaphor of “Struggle” put forward by Ruth Wodak, this thesistakes the American unemployment news reports from2010to2014as the data, andanalyzes the “Struggle” metaphor in them and how the2basic meanings of “Struggle”manifested in those reports. Meanwhile, it also attempts to dig into the ideologybehind such metaphor by using the Discourse-Historical Approach, so as to improvereaders’ understanding of news reports.In Wodak’s research,"Struggle" entails two levels of meaning: fight and problem,and she put forward3categories of "Struggle" metaphor, namely, Struggle with,Struggle against, and Struggle for. In the actual analysis of this thesis, the authorattempts to study each category from2aspects. For the first category of the "Struggle"metaphor, the author focuses on the abstract problem and the controllable object. Under the category of "Struggle against", the author conducts the analysis from theaspects of "Struggle against enemy" and "Struggle against enemy by using tools". Thethird category of the "Struggle" metaphor deals with the beneficiary and aims of thisstruggle.To ensure the credibility of research data, all the materials were downloadedfrom the American mainstream media websites, such as New York Times, Boston,Economist, Wall Street Journal, etc. We have taken all together18excerpts from11news reports. For each category, there are6excerpts for analysis. The study showsthat in different periods, the American government adopts different attitudes andpolicies towards unemployment. Besides, the government often neglects its duties.What’s more, reporters criticize the government from the stand of ordinaryAmericans.This research has some practical significance. To begin with, this thesis can helppeople know better about the metaphor from the Discourse-Historical Approach.Appropriate use of metaphor can enhance people’s interpersonal ability. Secondly, itcan improve readers’ critical awareness and help them understand the underlying meanings in news discourses. Finally, this research has some guiding significance forEnglish teaching. Teachers can teach their students how to use metaphor fromDiscourse-Historical Approach to improve their reading and writing skills.