A Study On The Cognitive Metaphors In The Belt And Road Initiative Discourse

In September and October 2013,President Xi Jinping has successively proposed the cooperative initiatives of “Silk Road Economic Belt” and “21st Century Maritime Silk Road”(hereinafter referred to as Belt and Road Initiative or BRI).As the proposer and promoter of BRI,President Xi has addressed many speeches on it.These speeches have expounded on the guiding principles,rich connotations,goals and paths and other aspects of the Belt and Road Initiative,helping countries and people along the route to better understand it.Research on President Xi’s speeches on the Belt and Road Initiative is of theoretical and practical significance.At present,there are many studies on theoretical connotations and values of these speeches from international relations and economics.But fewer studies analyze them from the perspective of linguistics.Cognitive Linguistics holds that the conceptual system,in terms of which we think and act,is metaphorical in nature.Conceptual metaphor is pervasive,serving as an important cognitive mechanism for humans to understand the world.Political practices are abstract in nature and cannot be experienced directly,so metaphors are often employed to elucidate abstract concepts in political discourses.Therefore,this thesis focuses on analyzing the metaphorical expressions in President Xi’s speeches on BRI from the perspective of Conceptual Metaphor Theory,aiming to reveal their underlying cognitive mechanisms and cultural connotations and illustrate how these metaphorical expressions help to expound on the basic principles of the BRI.This thesis selects 15 speeches of President Xi on BRI as research data,employs MIP(Metaphor Identification Procedure)to identify the metaphorical expressions in the data,and conducts qualitative analyses of them.There are three main findings in this study.Firstly,twelve categories of conceptual metaphor are identified in the Belt and Road Initiative discourse.They are JOURNEY metaphor(15.49%),BODY metaphor(12.39%),ENGINE metaphor(12.39%),FARMING metaphor(9.98%),BUILDING metaphor(9.12%),FRIEND metaphor(8.26%),WAR metaphor(7.40%),RIVER metaphor(5.34%),FAMILY metaphor(2.58%),OBJECT metaphor(2.41%),PAINTING metaphor(2.07%),and WRITING metaphor(1.89%).Among them,JOURNEY metaphor occurs most frequently,and FARMING,RIVER,FAMILY and PAINTING metaphors contain the most characteristic metaphorical expressions in the BRI discourse.Secondly,JOURNEY,FARMING,RIVER,FAMILY and PAINTING metaphors help to interpret two abstract concepts of BRI,namely,the nature of the Belt and Road construction and the relations of its participants.The corresponding conceptual metaphors can be concluded as follows: THE BELT AND ROAD CONSTRUCTION IS A JOURNEY,THE BELT AND ROAD CONSTRUCTION IS FARMING,THE BELT AND ROAD CONSTRUCTION IS A RIVER,THE BELT AND ROAD CONSTRUCTION IS PAINTING and PARTICIPANTS OF THE BELT AND ROAD CONSTRUCTION IS A FAMILY.These metaphors have systematic metaphorical mappings and rich cultural connotations,especially the FARMING,RIVER,FAMILY and PAINTING metaphors.Specifically,the use of FARMING metaphor is influenced by China’s long-standing farming civilization and its intensive farming methods;RIVER metaphor is motivated by the fact that the ancient and modern Chinese civilizations are built along rivers,as well as China’s water regulation principle of guiding;FAMILY metaphor is affected by the Chinese big family tradition and its emphasis on harmony;PAINTING metaphor is influenced by the specific Chinese painting styles,in particular the elaborate-style painting,and the“harmony is beauty” standard upheld by Chinese painting art.Finally,these five metaphors do not exist independently,but are highly related to each other.They jointly help to elucidate the principles of “extensive consultation,joint contribution and shared benefits” of BRI.Employing Conceptual Metaphor Theory to interpret the metaphorical expressions in the Belt and Road Initiative discourse can reveal their underlying cognitive mechanisms and cultural connotations,which can help people to better understand the basic principles of BRI and the Chinese culture underlying them.