A Critical Metaphor Analysis Of Reports On South China Sea Dispute

An unprecedented attention has been paid to metaphor research due to the rise of cognitive linguistics which holds that metaphor is not only a language phenomenon and a rhetorical mean, but also an important way of thinking and a cognitive tool. Charteris-Black(2004) puts forward critical metaphor analysis(CMA)which analyzes metaphor in language use and its cognitive way so as to reveal the language user’s pragmatic intention and ideology. This method inherits the results of traditional rhetoric research, but also takes in the theory of cognitive linguistics. It provides a whole new perspective on critical discourse analysis(CDA).The trend of internationalization and complexity of the South China Sea dispute has become increasingly obvious in recent years. The South China Sea dispute has become an urgent problem to affect the national safety of China. And regardless of the strong opposition of the Chinese government, the Philippines takes China to UN arbitral tribunal in 2013. This is a huge challenge to adopt national policy and construct harmonious society. On the basis of conceptual metaphor theory(CMT),news reports about South China Sea dispute are first selected. And then they are analyzed within the framework of critical metaphor analysis(CMA). This research also discusses the similarities and differences among conceptual metaphors that occur in Chinese and Philippine media in order to reveal the covert intention and ideology hidden the choice of metaphor.After the qualitative and quantitative analyses, this thesis achieves these findings. First, the frequently used source domains in People’s Daily are conflict,war, journey, family and plant, while the frequently used source domains in Philippine Daily Inquirer are conflict, journey, war, building and plant. And the similarities of conceptual metaphors in the two newspapers result from the sameliving experience and cognitive system. On the other hand, due to the different ideology, culture and religion, there exist differences in conceptual metaphors in news reports in the two newspapers.This research has significant insights for different discourses research in related areas. However,this research still needs to be improved because the limitations of the author’s current research capabilities.