Study On Interpersonal Meaning Of Conceptual Metaphor In Corporate Mission Statement—From Perspective Of Attitude System In Appraisal Theory

Corporate mission statement(CMS)is an important part of corporate promotional discourse,which is designed for the purpose of persuasion.Metaphor as one of the common linguistic phenomenon in CMS,is often strategically deployed to persuade readers.So far,a number of scholars have investigated the metaphor use in CMS from cognitive linguistics,focusing on source domains and corporate image constructed by conceptual metaphor;however,few have noticed the communicative function of conceptual metaphor.Therefore,the present study is of practical significance to the corporate discourse study.To analyze the interpersonal meaning of conceptual metaphor,the present study adopts corpus analysis and online tool Wmatrix and proposes an analytical framework by integrating Conceptual Metaphor Theory into Attitude System in Appraisal Theory with a focus on the implicit attitude invoked by conceptual metaphor in CMS.As a result,in CMS altogether 35 source domains are identified to construct the target domain “business” and “corporation”,which can be generalized by six conceptual metaphors.After a qualitative analysis of attitudinal resources invoked by conceptual metaphors,it is found that corporations prefer objectively evaluating the concept “corporation” and “business” from social perspectives to ally readers.Cognitively,this corporation-readers alliance is on the ground of shared social and cultural values implicitly conveyed by conceptual metaphors.By subjectively deployment of source domains with positive attitude,corporations establish positive corporate image and guide readers to make positive evaluation on business and corporations.Thus,corporations are suggested to subjectively use conceptual metaphor as a linguistic strategy to promote the corporation-reader's communication.Meanwhile,business English teachers should include the conceptual metaphor use as one category of teaching plan to let students have a better understanding of corporate discourse.