A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Conceptual Metaphors In Reports Of Economist

Metaphor, pervasive in our daily lives, is a way of thinking instead of simply one of rhetorical devices. Taking Conceptual Metaphor Theory as the theoretical framework, this thesis focuses on metaphors about China's economy in economic discourses. There is absolutely a reason for every metaphor used in a discourse, which reveals ideology and real attitude of user of a certain metaphor. For a long time, China Threaten Theory and China Collapse Theory never have been extinct. With information globalization, news report is an effective tool of shaping national images of other countries as well as building a perfect national image of one's own country.As a tool of discourse analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis offered a new angle to analyze public discourse so that power and ideology hidden behind discourse can be uncovered. Under the guidance of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, this thesis classified all example metaphors picked from Economist into 3 kinds--orientational metaphor, ontological metaphor and structural metaphor and analyzed them from a perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis. The purpose of this research is to find out how China Threaten Theory and China Collapse Theory are expressed in these news reports. As a result, China's national image shaped by those economic reports with objective ideology will be clearly presented.After filtration, classification, generalization and analysis, the result demonstrates that the Economist has adopted a negative attitude towards the future of China's economy. The main tone of most of reports in Economist is still China Threaten Theory and China Collapse Theory. As language learners, we should hold a critical attitude toward all kinds of discourses and improve our ability of independent judgment even when we read news reports which should have been objective and fair. It is better for us to set up our vigilant to negative commentary and strengthen our sense of national pride. It is our duty to fight back at imputation and vindicate China's national image.