A Cognitive Analysis Of Metaphorical Gestures In American Presidential Speeches

Based on conceptual metaphor theory, framing theory and American presidential election debates in2012, this thesis analyzes two candidates——Obama and Romney’s metaphorical gestures in the debates. It focuses on the analysis of the types of metaphorical gestures on the basis of conceptual metaphors and the different ideologies of the Democratic Party and Republican Party from the perspective of framing theory.Through data comparison and analysis, the following major findings are yielded:1. Just like the classification of metaphors, metaphorical gestures in speech also have corresponding types such as UP/DOWN, BACK/FRONT, CENTER IS IMPORTANT, IMPORTANCE IS POINT, and UNDERSTANDING/KNOWING IS SEEING.When people are saying some words or sentences with metaphorical meaning, they will also make the corresponding metaphorical gestures subconsciously, since vocal cords and body are both controlled by human’s brain.2. Gestures connect with the brain as the verbal system, thus metaphorical gestures are often matched with verbal expressions, but they are not always synchronized with the verbal expressions. Metaphorical gestures are more reliable and faster than languages, thus we will see some unmatched gestures during speakers’speeches, while the unmatched gestures also help us to understand the speaker better.3. Metaphorical gestures definitely embody frames in audience’s mind. This thesis mainly compares the frames of Obama who represents Democratic Party and Romney who represents Republican Party. This thesis also gets the ideas that Obama makes many gestures which embody the frame of the Democratic Party’s "big government":controlling something just like curving his hand and holding something in it; while Romney makes many gestures which embody the frame of the Republican Party’s "small government": just like finger-pointing gestures which mean that he prefers to focus more on individual right and freedom. In addition, the incumbent-Obama prefers to make many gestures with "forward" frame:extending his hand forward; and the challenger-Romney prefers to make many gestures with "change" frame such as queries gestures and denunciation gestures.This thesis can not only facilitate the studies on metaphors, but also enrich theories in metaphorical gestures. In addition, it may further facilitate the application of metaphors in psychological linguistics and neurolinguistics.