A Diachronic Study On Conceptual Metaphor In The State Of The Union Address

This thesis attempts to conduct a diachronic research on conceptual metaphors in the State of the Union Address to explore the role that conceptual metaphor play in cognizing and understanding political discourses, in expectation of providing answers to the following questions:(1) What are the main types of metaphors in the State of the Union Address?(2) How do these types change diachronically?(3) What are the reasons for these changes and what governing concepts are reflected by changes in metaphor category?Under the guidance of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory, an analysis is made of the mapping relationship between the source domain and target domain of metaphors, and stable categories of metaphors are found. By observing metaphors of these categories diachronically, their changes comes into view. Political and economic reasons domestically and internationally are taken into account in analyzing reasons for the changes of metaphor and the governing concepts reflected by these changes.Research results are as follows:(1) There are six main categories of conceptual metaphors in the State of the Union Address such as construction metaphor, journey metaphor, machine metaphor, water metaphor, organism metaphor, war metaphor, and other conceptual metaphors like family metaphor.(2) Their diachronic changes are as follows:Slight fluctuations took place in the number of construction metaphor and organism metaphor; Wide fluctuations took place in the number of water metaphor; Machine metaphor enjoyed a sustained increase; Journey metaphor underwent a change trend from fall to stabilization; War metaphor changed from rise to fall.(3) Changes in their frequency chiefly bear influences from America’s domestic and international politics and economy and its presidents. Meanwhile their changes reflect the three different period during which changes took place in America’s governing concept. The first period, namely the Cold War period, lasted from1961to1991during which priority was given to consolidating the country. The second period spanned from1991to2000during which strong tactics and policies were adopted to tackle internal and external affairs. The third period extended from2001to2011during which an increasingly mild governing tactic was adopted to comply with people’s pursuit of peace.