A Study On Conceptual Metaphors Used In "the Belt And Road" Reports Of The Economist

In 2013,Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward “the Belt and Road” Initiative to conform to the trend of world and seek the new modes for the development of China.Since then,news media worldwide follow closely to express their different viewpoints on the Initiative.In many of the writings,the conceptual metaphors are employed frequently to imply something or to transmit the writer’s bias.This is a very helpful way in shaping public’s social value.Therefore,there is a wide space to study the conceptual metaphors used in political discourses.Using the reports on “the Belt and Road” in The Economist as data,the present research is to study the categories of conceptual metaphor with George Lakoff’s conceptual metaphor as theoretical support.It also explores the images of China in order to reveal the ideologies constructed by The Economist.Through research,thirteen categories of conceptual metaphor are identified.They are WAR metaphor,JOURNEY metaphor,PERSON metaphor,ORIENTATION metaphor,BUILDING metaphor,CONTAINER metaphor,BODY metaphor,GAME metaphor,FAMILY metaphor,LINE metaphor,WATER metaphor,CIRCLE metaphor and BUSINESS metaphor.Through analysis,it finds that both the positive and negative images of China are constructed by The Economist,but the negative image is dominant.On the one hand,China is portrayed as a responsible country who actively makes endeavors for a stable and healthy development of the world.“The Belt and Road” creates various opportunities for the development of the countries involved.On the other hand,according to the reports,the implementation of “the Belt and Road” is facing various practical problems and some countries worry that China may hold other strategic purposes and ambition.This suggests that China Threat theory is still popular among western countries.The study on conceptual metaphors in “the Belt and Road” reports of The Economist elaborates the world’s viewpoints on China’s policy and the construction of the images of China.From the perspective of linguistics,this study is a significant attempt on the issue of “the Belt and Road”.