The Analysis Of Conceptual Metaphor In Xi Jinping's Speech Of The Belt And Road Forum For International Cooperation

Metaphor,as a linguistic phenomenon,has been studied for more than two thousand years since Aristotle.Metaphors We Live By,co-authored by Lakoff and Johnson,has brought metaphor into the cognitive field.Lakoff(1980)puts forward conceptual metaphor theory,and elaborates that conceptual metaphor is an effective cognitive tool for people to identify abstract concepts through concrete things.It is a mapping from the source domain to the target domain.In 1991,Lakoff applied conceptual metaphor theory to political discourse analysis for the first time and gained significant achievements.He denotes that metaphor can construct people's way of thinking,especially when people focus on complex situations.Metaphorical thinking is inevitable in political life.Therefore,Lakoff has provided a new view for researchers to study different political discourses from the perspective of conceptual metaphor.In recent years,an increasing number of scholars begin analyzing political discourses from the view of conceptual metaphor.Xi Jinping's Speech of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation is a typical political discourse in contemporary China.This paper aims to analyze this political discourse by using conceptual metaphor theory and conceptual integration theory,excavates the rule of metaphorical thinking in President Xi Jinping's ideological system,and explores how metaphor reflects President Xi's idea of sharing,building and winning by all.It further proves that metaphor is also the traditional thinking mode of Chinese nation.Meanwhile,this paper tries to construct a complete analysis system about metaphorical characteristics of Xi Jinping's political discourse,and explores the language realization form and mapping process of conceptual metaphor in the analysis text.In addition,this paper attempts to propose metaphorical thinking system as the path and framework of constructing discourse thinking and the bridge of information integration between the author and the reader.Metaphor is a probe into a person's deepest thought and it is also a tie that reveals how a person views himself and all the relationships around him.Metaphor reflects Xi Jinping's concept of constructing China and world's politics,economy,culture and values with the people-centered idea.The research findings of this paper can be concluded as follows:Firstly,through the identification of conceptual metaphors in Xi Jinping's Speech of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation,the author finds that seven types of metaphor are the main linguistic forms,including organic metaphor,building metaphor,journey metaphor,war metaphor,family metaphor,color metaphor and tool metaphor.Secondly,the author points that there are mainly ontological metaphor and structural metaphor in the Belt and Road discourse by summarizing the conceptual metaphors in Xi Jinping's Speech of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.Conceptual metaphors with high frequency in ontological metaphor are“state is human”,“economy is human”,etc.and in structural metaphor include “the Belt and Road is building”,“sustainable development is war”,etc.The use of metaphor in the Belt and Road speech reveals the ideology of socialism in China and the analysis of this text can promote the study of political discourse and cognitive linguistics.Thirdly,conceptual metaphors in political discourses can make people understand abstract and complex political concepts easily.Metaphor can also reveal the speaker's attitude towards certain political events and has a great impact on the audience's views.Fourthly,through the analysis of Xi Jinping's Speech of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation,it is concluded that the conceptual metaphors of Xi Jinping's political discourses are mostly derived from everyday life,and are common metaphorical types used by the general public.It also infers that the choice of conceptual metaphors in Xi Jinping's speech is related to personal and social factors.In a word,there are still many vacancies of studying conceptual metaphor in Xi Jinping's political discourse.Therefore,this paper explores the primary metaphors including organic metaphor,building metaphor,journey metaphor,war metaphor,family metaphor,tool metaphor and color metaphor in Xi Jinping's Speech of the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation and their cognitive basis,functions,ways of presentation,mapping mechanism and cognitive construal to fill these vacancies.