A Contrastive Study Of Conceptual Metaphors In Obama’s And Hillary’s Political Discourses

Scholars are passionate about the studies of conceptual metaphors in political discourses.Given that using metaphor effectively can lure supporters to their sides, politicians prefer totake advantage of conceptual metaphors to construct their political discourses, and to fulfilltheir aspirations. Therefore, the study of conceptual metaphors in their political discourses canhelp us find the trends of their political attitudes, ideologies and emotions effectively.With the theoretical framework of Conceptual metaphor theory, this thesis adopts amodel that combined with critical metaphor analysis and comparative analysis for analyzingmetaphorical expressions in Obama and Hillary’s political discourses on the theme ofeconomy in2011. The thesis lays special attention on those metaphor types, which realizedfor each source domains and used productively in different ways in either politician’sdiscourses. By means of analyzing the similarity and difference of their metaphoricalexpressions, the study is to unearth those factors, which making a difference in the way ofpoliticians constructing their political discourses, such as implicit ideology, gender culture andindividual trait. By compiling and filing their metaphorical expressions in their politicaldiscourses, this study finds out that their metaphorical expressions focus on eight sourcedomains, such as HUMAN, JOURNEY, PLANT, BUILDING, GAME, WAR, NATURE, andDRAMA. The first and foremost, it is found that both Obama and Hillary prefer to useHUMAN, JOURNEY, PLANT, BUILDING, GAME metaphors, which are related to humanlives closely. And it explains those universal attributes of human cognition are based on theuniversal knowledge and common experience of human lives. The second, it is discoveredthat some differences are correlated with their individual traits. Firstly, the density andvariation of their metaphor used appear a big difference. Hillary is inclined to use a slightlyhigher number of different expressions relating to the HUMAN, BULDING, PLANT andDRAMA metaphors, while Obama tends to GAME, WAR and NATURE metaphors. And themore varied ways of Obama’s metaphor used are HUMAN, JOURNEY, BUILDING, WARand NATURE metaphors, and Hillary does in GAME, PLANT and DRAMA metaphors.Secondly, those differences are mainly revealed in diverse scenarios activated by lexicalchoices within the same concept domain. The feature of Obama metaphorical expressions is that he prefers to use some powerful words to express his iron will of reforming outdatedfinancial regulations, and that delivers his attitude to American people effectively. Hillary’smetaphorical expressions have two special features. On the one hand, she prefers to use somegentle and emotional words to express diplomatic policies. On the other hand, she draws apicture of women in the economy with conceptual metaphors. The third, the thesis alsoattempts to discuss others with regard to ideologies, gender cultures and economic factors,which can impact on politicians metaphor used. Firstly, through analyzing those similaritiesof their dominant metaphors used, it is never difficult to find that American social liberalismhave played a vital role in their political discourses. In obama’s political discourses, theAmerican ideology is the driver of Keynesianism economic policies, which make Americaneconomy recovery be on track step by step. And in Hillary’s political discourse, the Americanideology is the ultimate goal of her diplomatic polices, which is to promote domesticeconomy growth through pushing more and more American companies and products into theglobal markets in light of cooperation relationship with other countries. Secondly, theprominent difference is related with their gender culture. Hillary takes use of conceptualmetaphors to propose one special economic recovery policy formally and diplomatically,which can steer global economy out of depression, and at the same time, to elevate the era ofwomen participation into economy.And the thesis, which paying a special attention on the comparative analysis ofconceptual metaphors in Obama’s and Hillary’s political discourses, attempts to extend thefields of social metaphor research. Furthermore, it also attempts to afford some reliableinstances for understanding different ideologies and individual traits in the same culture, andto provide some reliable examples of conceptual metaphor used in the political discourse forthe gender researches.