Analysis Of Functions Of Metaphors In Political Discourses

Metaphor is a very common phenomenon in human languages. Researches on metaphor can be traced back to Aristotle. Though there was discontinuity, metaphor has been a hot topic since the 1980s. Researchers in the fields of psychology, philosophy, cognitive science, neurotics and pragmatics, etc. are all studying it from different perspectives. However, previous studies in political discourses have limitations in terms of research method and theoretical frameworkWith a critical discourse analysis approach, this thesis applies pragmatic, cognitive and text linguistic theories in order to do a systematic study of the functions of metaphors and how these functions are realized in political discourses. The results show that metaphors can be used by politicians to explain abstract political ideas and make these ideas condense and more memorable, to persuade audience via providing new perspective, conceptualizing ideology, and evoking emotions. Metaphors can also be used to provide common ground between the speaker and the audience, to show politeness, or to save face and also can establish semantic coherence of the discourse.Presidential election manifestoes from both the Republicans and the Democrats are used as linguistic materials for case analyses. The results of case analyses indicate that dead metaphors, conventional metaphors, and unconventional metaphors are all used in the speeches of the politicians. Dead metaphors and conventional metaphors are used to persuade people into accepting their views unconsciously and to attack the opponents through concepts familiar to the audience. Unconventional metaphors are used to impress people by creating tension between source domain and target domain. In addition to analyzing functions of metaphors, the thesis probes into the cognitive, social and historical factors that affect metaphor choice.In international communications, concepts reflected in metaphors used in speeches by some foreign politicians will inevitably do harm to our country's interests, hence we propose reactive strategies at linguistic level, including changing the source domain, manipulating elements in the source domain, and exploiting metaphorical entailments. These strategies can help Chinese people to reject negative influence of some metaphors as well as to counter back and protect our country's interests.