A Study Of American Presidential Debates From The Theoretical Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor

Conceptual metaphor theory was firstly initiated by Lakoff and Johnson in theirfamous book Metaphors We Live By. It freed metaphor research from the traditionalrhetoric perspective, which treated metaphor only as a figure of speech and as thedeviation of literal language. According to Lakoff’s theory, metaphor does not onlyexist at language level, but is pervasive in our thought and action.This thesis applies the theory of conceptual metaphor and five-step procedure formetaphor identification to the study of American presidential debates. Throughcareful analysis, the major conceptual metaphors in American presidential debates arefound out: human metaphor, construction metaphor, family metaphor, war metaphor,journey metaphor, drama metaphor and sport metaphor. Religion metaphor, businessmetaphor, machine metaphor and plant metaphor are also employed in debates. Byusing those metaphors, the speakers really gained a lot. The functions of thoseconceptual metaphors in American presidential debates can be generalized aspersuading audience, highlighting or simplifying information and motivatingaudience.The result of this thesis may offer some help in further understanding ofAmerican presidential debates, as well as American politics and culture. It is alsouseful to broaden the study of conceptual metaphor into other types of politicaldiscourses, and into the contrastive study of conceptual metaphor between Chineseand American debates in other fields.