A Comparative Analysis Of Conceptual Metaphor In Speeches By Chinese And American Leaders In Cross-Cultural Contexts

As a linguistic device,the research of metaphor has drawn many scholars' attention since Aristotle.The research of metaphor has gone through several stages.In the traditional theories,metaphor is regarded as the pure figure of speech.While in the book Metaphor We Live by published in 1980 s,Lakoff and Johnson consider that metaphors are the thinking modes and cognitive activities.Political discourse is a significant instrument for political leaders to convey their ideas and viewpoints.The political language is relatively abstract and difficult to understand,so the political leaders tend to employ the conceptual metaphors as the medium,which aims to realize their political intentions.Based on Lakoff's Conceptual Metaphor Theory,this thesis adopts quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze campus speeches from cross-cultural contexts by American and Chinese political leaders.Through the analysis,the similarities and differences of the two corpora are found out and the reasons are also summarized.The common conceptual metaphors are War Metaphors,Human Metaphors,Journey Metaphors,Plant Metaphors,Building Metaphors and Natural Force Metaphors.Besides,the Circle Metaphors are specific in Chinese corpus,and the Tie Metaphors,Drama Metaphors are specific in American corpus.The research results reveal that the similarities between the two corpora might derive from the common physical experience of human beings.But the differences might derive from various cultures,historical factors and ideologies,etc.The political leaders employ various conceptual metaphors to achieve their motivation and persuasion intentions.