| Conceptual metaphor theory was first proposed by Lakoff and Johnson in their masterpiece Metaphors We Live By in 1980.Most of researchers pay their attentions to stylistic analysis of the theory,but few of them study it in military or political news discourses,especially in news discourses about Sino-Philippines South China Sea disputes which occurs in April,2012.Within the framework of conceptual metaphor theory by Lakoff and Johnson with reference to the explanation on ideology and power in Critical Discourse Analysis,this thesis conducts abundant analyses of conceptual metaphors in American political news discourses about Sino-Philippines South China Sea disputes,involving the mainly-used types of conceptual metaphors in the news discourses,the ideologies and powers of American media hidden in the news discourses.In addition,main functions of conceptual metaphors in American news discourses are concluded.Three research questions were designed as follows:(1)What are the main types of conceptual metaphors in American news discourses?(2)How are the conceptual metaphors conceptualized in the news discourses and what are the American ideologies and political stances hidden in the news discourses about Sino-Philippines South China Sea Disputes?(3)What are the functions of the conceptual metaphors in realizing American purposes?All the news discourses were collected from two mainstream news websites in America--USA Today and CNN(Cable News Network)."Huangyan Island","Sino-Philippines","South China Sea disputes" were used as key words to search in the two news websites.And 25 news discourses about Sino-Philippines South China Sea disputes were collected respectively from USA Today and CNN.The time span is from April,2012 to November,2017.With methods of quantitative and qualitative,the writer analyzed and discussed the discourses in terms of the three research questions.Conclusions were gained as follows:(1)Orientational metaphor,ontological metaphor and structural metaphor are frequently and widely used in the collected American news discourses.The main types of conceptual metaphors are:human metaphor,container metaphor,war metaphor,up-down metaphor,journey metaphor and game metaphor.(2)After analyzing the conceptual metaphors in the news discourses,ideologies and powers hidden in the news discourses are identified.It is found that America regards "the South China Sea" as an independent area or an international water which should be open to all countries for trade.It doesn't admit that the South China Sea belongs to China.Otherwise,America blames China's activities in South China Sea.America thinks that it is China's activities in South China Sea that cause the intensified tensions in the region.In addition,news discourses use conceptual metaphors identified in the collected news discourses to show America's unsatisfied emotion with China's activities.(3)Three functions of conceptual metaphors are identified in news discourses:function of simplification,function of filter and function of motivation.This thesis tried to make a contribution to fill in the gap of insufficient research on conceptual metaphors in political news discourses and provide a new point of view for later researchers to study news discourses from the angle of conceptual metaphor. |
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