A Critical Analysis Of Metaphors In Us President Trump's Public Speeches

In this era of pursuing democracy and civilization,language has superseded military force and becomes a more effective way to attain political objectives.Through the tactical use of language,politicians can persuade the public to accept their political views and values and therefore drum up support for their political moves.Given the complexity and obscurity of politics,metaphors,which can simplify political concepts to some extent,are widely exploited in assisting politicians in achieving the goal of persuasion.Scholars from different nations have studied metaphor for over two thousand years,from regarding it as a pure rhetorical device to redefining it as a reflection of human conceptual system.The publication of Lakoff and Johnson's Metaphors We Live By brought in the Conceptual Metaphor Theory,in which metaphor is considered as a way of perceiving the world.This theory illuminates research on discourse analysis for it claims that metaphor can reveal people's underlying thoughts and ideas.However,Charteris-Back points out that cognitive approach alone is insufficient to interpret the phenomenon of metaphor,because both individual experience and social contexts can exert influence on metaphor choice.For this reason,he proposes a model of Critical Metaphor Analysis that combines results of both Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Critical Discourse Analysis.The uniqueness of this new model lies in that it explains why particular metaphor choices are made by taking into account not only individual resources but also social factors.Based on the model of Critical Metaphor Analysis,the present study analyzes the conceptual metaphors identified in the political speeches by US President Donald J.Trump with aims to explore the cognitive,pragmatic and social factors underlying metaphor choices and unveil the covert intentions behind metaphor use.Methodologically,the study selects fifteen of Trump's public speeches in the year of 2017 as the research data,containing approximately 57,669 words,and adopts a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis.The study is conducted in terms of three stages: metaphors are first identified and classified into different categories according to their source domains;then each type of metaphor is interpreted with reference to its cognitive and pragmatic factors;finally,metaphor choices are explained by considering the broader social contexts.The findings of the study are as follows:(1)Ten categories of metaphors are identified in the fifteen speeches,of which the most frequently used are CONFLICT metaphors,RELIGION metaphors,JOURNEY metaphors,BUILDING metaphors and PLANT metaphors,accounting for more than 90% of the total.The rest categories include SPORTS metaphors,FAMILY metaphors,LIGHT and FIRE metaphors,BUSINESS metaphors,and PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT metaphors.(2)Different conceptual metaphors are found to convey a single political viewpoint,which intensifies the persuasive effect of Trump's speeches.(3)Some conceptual metaphors that are conventionally used for positive evaluations in other cases are employed negatively by Trump.The eccentric use of these metaphors serves to justify his particular policies.(4)Social factors,including ideological outlook and cultural and historical background,exert great influence on Trump's metaphor choices.Particular ideologies of the United States decide how Trump would metaphorically construct one entity in terms of another,for example,AMERICA IS A LEADER;the war-fighting history and the religious tradition of the nation account for the extensive use of CONFLICT metaphors and RELIGION metaphors respectively.This study facilitates people's understanding of Trump's political views and values,helps them foster a rational attitude towards political discourse and raises their awareness of critical thinking.It further highlights the value of metaphor in constructing political opinions.Moreover,the study gives some insight into metaphor research in political discourse.