A Comparative Analysis Of The Metaphors And Framings Between English And Chinese Political Discourses

The use of political metaphor is a hot topic in the dimension of metaphor study. With the development of cognitive linguistics, the focus of political metaphor study has been switched from the metaphor itself to the people’s cognitive models behind metaphors. It is suggested that in political discourses, the frame of metaphor is usually based on a certain moral model.The author gives the literature review on the existing studies on political metaphors, from the rhetorical perspective to Cognitive view. Then a brief introduction to Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Framing Theory has been given in Chapter Three. This thesis selects four American presidents (Herbert Hoover, Franklin D Roosevelt, George W. Bush and Barack Obama) from both Republican Party and Democratic Party, to analyze the metaphor use in their speeches on economic policies in the two largest economic downturns in America, the1929and the2008economic crises (13speeches,30,532words). Republicans construct their metaphors on "the strict father model", while the Democrats base their metaphors on "the nurturant parent model". President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao’s speeches on economy in recent years have been chosen to analyze the metaphor use and the moral model behind.(9speeches,52,189words)The major findings of the thesis are as followed. Firstly, framing theory is the effective tool for analyzing the moral models behind American politics discourse. Secondly, Chinese Framings in political discourse construct on Strict Father Model, due to the2000-year feudal society. However, Chinese framings in political discourse also have some distinctive features, such as using Balance Frame and Natural Force Frame frequently. It is because those framings base on Chinese philosophies and ethics, especially the ecological ethics.