Deliberate Metaphor In Political Discourse

Current research findings on metaphor in language and thought may be interpreted as producing a paradox of metaphor;that is,most metaphor is not processed metaphorically by a cross-domain mapping involving some form of comparison.This paradox can be resolved by attending to one crucial aspect of metaphor in communication: the question whether a metaphor is used as deliberately metaphorical or not.It is likely that most deliberate metaphor is processed metaphorically by comparison,as opposed to most non-deliberate metaphor,which may be assumed to be typically not processed metaphorically(that is,by categorization).Deliberate metaphor is essentially a discourse strategy and combing Deliberate Metaphor Theory with discourse analysis contributes to explore the deep structure and internal motivations of discourse.In this thesis,detailed comments and examples are offered on the notion of metaphor deliberateness in discourse and on the nature of a three-dimensional model of metaphor involving metaphor in language,thought,and communication,known as Deliberate Metaphor Theory.Three research questions are focused :(1)How is the metaphor in communication represented?(2)Is there any processing difference between deliberate metaphors and non-deliberate metaphors?(3)To what extent the use of “deliberateness” of metaphor in political discourse influences reasoning?This thesis three case studies to answers the research questions through.Chapter three first explores deliberate metaphors in speeches delivered by Chinese President Xi from2014 to 2018 with a main focus on the particular discourse representation of the various forms of deliberate metaphors.Chapter four focuses on the difference in processing time and accuracy between deliberate metaphor and non-deliberate metaphor in political discourse revealed through two E-prime experiments.Chapter five investigates the effect of deliberateness of metaphor use in political discourse through two metaphorical frames related with reform and opening-up policy.Results of analysis shwed that the representation of deliberate metaphors in political discourse were novel metaphors,indirect metaphors and extended conventional metaphors and different forms of deliberate metaphors are used in order to communicate abstract political views to people.Processing time on deliberate metaphors tended to be longer thannon-deliberate metaphors and processing accuracy on deliberate metaphor was higher than non-deliberate metaphor for the the addressee’s attention was directed to the source domain of the metaphor while temporarily leaving the target domain where the current topic was discussed.Investigation of the thesis also revealed that the deliberateness of metaphor had a more subtle influence on people’s reasoning than it had been expected.The effect of novel metaphors used deliberately influenced people’s reasoning more significantly than conventional metaphors used deliberately through extending in context.