A Critical Metaphor Analysis Of News Reports On European Refugee Crisis In The Guardian From The Perspective Of Conceptual Blending Theory

This thesis studies how metaphors contribute to the immigration news discourse from the perspective of Conceptual Blending Theory(CBT)and Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA).It analyzes the blending process of meaning construction of European refugee crisis news reports in The Guardian.The abundant articles on this topic have made the refugee crisis a central issue for public discussion.The European refugee crisis has gained widespread attention from all areas.Scholars have been studying the crisis from the perspectives of sociology,politics and history,etc.However,upon this topic,rare studies take the perspective of linguistics.Therefore,this thesis tries to fill this void and focuses on the metaphorical uses in news reports of the crisis.On the basis of Critical Metaphor Analysis(CMA),the thesis combines CBT and CDA together to offer a novel approach to the studies on metaphor.The major findings of the thesis are as follows: First,the meaning construction of the metaphors from European refugee crisis news reports contains conceptual models from various mental spaces and thus induces the fusion of intricate conceptualizations and background information.Second,without the CDA perspective,the analysis of the metaphors is incomplete due to the habitual use of certain metaphors blurring the boundary between neutral and negative conceptualization.The combination of CDA and CBT precisely reveals news makers' hidden attitude,and the cognitive analysis is more empirically and socially relevant.Third,the adjustment of the refugee policy prompts the changing of concern,and then metaphorical uses and conceptual blending processes of meaning construction change accordingly.