Study On Coherent Function Of Metaphor In Political Discourse

Traditionally, metaphor has been considered merely as an elegant rhetorical device or even a linguistic quirk. It seems that the study of metaphor at discourse level from a cognitive perspective has been neglected by most of the scholars in a comparatively long period of time. However, the year 1980 witnessed a cognitive turn in metaphorology with the landmark publication of Lakoff and Johnson's works, Metaphors We Live By. By which they put forward the conceptual metaphor theory which makes a breakthrough in the traditional metaphor study and brings metaphor study into the cognitive field. They hold that metaphor is a way of thinking and cognition. Since then, metaphor is no longer taken just as a matter of language but a kind of thought. It is the cognitive mechanism that helps to construct a conceptual world with its own principles.There are two parts in a conceptual metaphor: the source domain and the target domain. Its working mechanism is the mapping from the source domain to the target domain and the mapping is partial. In a metaphorical expression, there can be either of the two domains alone, with the other domain omitted from the surface; there also exists the case that both of the two domains appear at the surface. That is to say, a domain, either the source domain or the target domain, can be overt or covert. It is believed that there are mainly three kinds of conceptual metaphors, namely, structural metaphors, orientational metaphors, and ontological metaphors. And container metaphor is a special kind of ontological metaphor. These three kinds of metaphors are not complementary. Behind a sole metaphorical expression, there can be one or two or even three kinds of conceptual metaphors. Moreover, even when there is only one kind of metaphor behind a metaphorical expression, the number of conceptual metaphors which belong to the same kind of metaphor may be more than one. In other words, behind a metaphorical expression, there may be several conceptual metaphors of the same kind.Discourse coherence has long been a focus of concern in the field of discourse analysis, for it has to do with the question about how and why a passage can be considered as a discourse. Previous research on coherence, both semantic and pragmatic, has contributed greatly to our understanding of this phenomenon. Professor Zhang Delu generalizes 3 networks relevant to coherence. They are the network of discourse as a linguistic unit which includes discourse meaning and cohesive devices, social cultural network which includes cultural context and context of situation, and cognitive psychological network which includes cognitive patterns and ideology of participants. For this study, and from the above mentioned networks the author takes three aspects as the theoretical support, namely, the cohesive devices, the user or receiver's cultural context, as well as the cognitive context.Based on the conceptual metaphor theory and coherence theory, the present study intends to discuss the coherent function of metaphor in political discourse. Three authentic political speeches are taken as the research data and the empirical analysis is done from three angels. Specifically, they are: the coherence displayed by the cohesive devices at the surface level, the coherence between metaphor and cultural context at the deep level, and coherence between metaphor and cognitive context at the deep level. Through the empirical analysis and discussion, it is found that in political discourse coherent function can be achieved by the conceptual metaphor, besides, the use of conceptual metaphors has powerful pragmatic significance. For metaphorical expressions can, in one way or another, achieve the effect of the persuasiveness and encouragement. Further, certain social and political connotations can be generated through conceptual metaphor analysis in political discourse.Thus, through the analysis and exploration of the present study, it is evident that metaphor is not just a figure of speech from the traditional viewpoint but a cognitive pattern, and it displays coherence both inside and outside the linguistic expression. Inside the linguistic expression, the coherence is displayed by the cohesive devices which make a discourse a meaningful whole by itself. Outside the linguistic expression, a discourse is coherent if the producer's choice of metaphorical expression matches with the receiver's cultural context and cognitive context. It is found out that knowledge of a conceptual metaphor and that of the user or receiver's cultural and cognition contexts are mutually beneficial. On one hand, the recognition of conceptual metaphors in a discourse is very useful in understanding the discourse. On the other hand, the knowledge of metaphor producer or receiver's cultural context and cognitive context is helpful in recognizing and understanding a metaphor. Besides, from the various applications of conceptual metaphors and their realization in various expressions, the effectiveness and quality of metaphor's application and the different overt and covert coherent devices can indicate different metaphor users'language ability and the level of their familiarity with the society they are living in.Given the small sample size of this study, its findings should be considered tentative and should be interpreted with caution. Further studies are needed for a clearer picture of conceptual metaphor and coherence discussion. However, it is sincerely hoped that this study will shed light on the importance and significance of metaphor in the political discourse understanding and its unique coherent function in political discourse. Moreover, the present study puts forward some suggestions to teachers in the area of language learning and teaching.