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A Study On Conceptual Metaphors In American Political Discourse Based On Critical Metaphor Analysis

Posted on:2024-08-28Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y ShiFull Text:PDF
GTID:2555307055992089Subject:Foreign Language and Literature
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In the practice of political discourse,politicians usually employ conceptual metaphors to construct their discourse and indirectly convey their values and governing ideas to audiences.This thesis takes American presidential candidates’ discourse in presidential election debates of 2016 and 2020 as the corpus to explore the use of conceptual metaphors.Conceptual Metaphor Theory holds that metaphor is a means of human’s cognition,and can help people understand abstract concepts.However,some scholars doubted that Conceptual Metaphor Theory paid much attention to the cognitive nature of metaphor,and ignored the sociocultural situatedness of metaphor.A new approach of metaphor analysis,Critical Metaphor Analysis,was proposed.This thesis adopts Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Critical Metaphor Analysis and attempts to answer the following three research questions: 1.What types of conceptual metaphors are employed in American Political Discourse? 2.What are the mapping relationships of these conceptual metaphors? And what ideologies are conveyed through the major conceptual metaphors? 3.What are the functions achieved by the use of conceptual metaphors? Firstly,the researcher identifies all metaphorical keywords with the method of Metaphor Identification Procedure proposed by Pragglejaz and classifies them into different categories with regard to source domain.Then mapping relationship of each conceptual metaphor is constructed and is interpreted in detail with examples.Ideologies conveyed through major conceptual metaphors are also explored.Finally,the functions achieved by the use of conceptual metaphors are also discussed.The major findings are as follows.Firstly,seven types of conceptual metaphors are identified,human metaphor,war metaphor,journey metaphor,building metaphor,nature metaphor,machine metaphor and illness metaphor.Secondly,mapping relationships are constructed and ideologies of major conceptual metaphors are revealed.Human metaphor conveys the fairness of American Government.War metaphor transmits the importance of unity.Meanwhile,the use of war metaphors reveals that America is a warlike nation,and indirectly implies American deep-rooted hegemonism.Journey metaphor suggests the brightness of American future.Building metaphor conveys candidates’ policies are the best blueprint.Some nature metaphors imply the potential of American economic growth.Lastly,several functions of the use of conceptual metaphors are identified as well,respectively helping audiences understand discourse,highlighting and hiding information,constructing a positive image and arousing audiences’ emotion.This research analyzes conceptual metaphors in American political discourse based on the approach of Critical Metaphor Analysis,which is conducive to strengthening the ordinary people’s understanding of political discourse,and expands the application scope of Critical Metaphor Analysis at the same time.
Keywords/Search Tags:conceptual metaphor, Critical Metaphor Analysis, political discourse
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