A Study On War Metaphor Of Chinese Official Anti-epidemic Political Discourse

During the COVID-19,the national leaders issued many important speeches on epidemic prevention and control.The texts contain many kinds of metaphors,among which WAR metaphor is the most significant,providing sufficient corpus support for this thesis.The thesis collects 43 important speeches on epidemic prevention and control(English version)delivered by national leader Xi Jinping from January 20,2020 to September 23,2020,and the white paper Fighting against COVID-19: China in Action(English version)issued by The State Council Information Office on June 7,2020.Therefore,this thesis interprets the phenomena of WAR metaphor in Chinese official anti-epidemic political discourse based on the Conceptual Metaphor Theory,and it tries to answer the following three research questions:(1)What are the conceptual metaphors of WAR mainly embodied in President Xi’s important speeches on epidemic response and the white paper Fighting against COVID-19: China in Action?(2)How does the source domain WAR and the target domain EPIDEMIC map under the different conceptual metaphors of WAR?(3)What are the main purposes of using WAR metaphor in such official political discourse of Chinese epidemic response based on the mapping between the source domain WAR and the target domain EPIDEMIC?Major research findings are concluded as follows:(1)The basic conceptual metaphor of WAR in President Xi’s important speeches on epidemic response and the white paper Fighting against COVID-19: China in Action is THE EPIDEMIC IS A WAR,which is derived two types of conceptual metaphors of WAR: THE DOMESTIC EPIDEMIC IS A WAR and THE EPIDEMIC IS A GLOBAL WAR respectively,which are also a reflection of the fact that China is fighting the epidemic on both domestic and international fronts during the COVID-19;(2)In the domestic anti-epidemic front,the cross-domain mapping in the target domain EPIDEMIC is mainly realized through six source domain concepts: war type,battlefield,participant,equipment,strategy and result.In the international anti-epidemic front,the cross-domain mapping in the target domain EPIDEMIC is realized mainly through five source domain concepts: war type,participant,equipment,strategy and result;(3)There are three purposes of using WAR metaphor in this kind of official political discourse of antiepidemic.1)it aims to understand the political intention behind the epidemic events: the use of WAR metaphor is to strengthen the core leadership of the CPC Central Committee on epidemic prevention and control,grasp the overall situation of anti-epidemic,explain the basic facts of anti-epidemic to show the political position;2)it aims to better publicize China’s excellent traditional culture: that is,the people-oriented thought of attaching importance to people’s life safety and health and the thought of collectivism of collective action and collective participation;3)it aims to achieve the purpose of communication:namely,to stimulate the positive feelings of the public,mobilize people to actively participate in epidemic prevention and control,respond to the public opinion of the international community,show China’s firm attitude and position towards its own and global epidemic resistance,seek the recognition of the international community and safeguard the international voice.