Metaphor Analysis Of Report On The Work Of The Government(2007～2016)

Metaphor, as a common linguistic phenomenon, has been the focus of attention for most linguists. In recent decades, as metaphor highly concentrated in the political discourse development, more and more linguists have begun to emphasize on metaphorical use in politics. Charteris-Black(2004) proposed the theory Critical Metaphor Analysis(CMA) based on the rhetorical metaphor theory, marking on a new metaphor analysis approach which integrates Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA), cognitive linguistics, pragmatic linguistics and corpus linguistics with intention to reveal the hidden ideology, attitude and beliefs concealed in discourses. Comparing to saturate English political discourses, the research on Chinese governmental discourses is even less, which started late.The thesis puts forward a study on metaphorical expressions in the Report on the Work of the Government(2007~2016) from the perspective of CMA. Considering the high frequency of metaphorical use in discourses, it is impossible to review every metaphorical expression in the linguistic data. The purpose of the research focuses on dominant metaphors and specific metaphors in the data, finding out the metaphorical function as well as revealing the hidden ideology and the governing ethics of China. In the meantime, the thesis attempts to identify multiple motivations hidden in the choice of certain metaphors, such as cognitive factors, pragmatic factors, cultural and historical factors, etc. This thesis aims to explore the emergence of metaphorical expressions in the reports, by combining the research method of quantitative analysis with qualitative analysis as well as the CMA in the guidance. The metaphorical key words are identified with Word 2007. Then by using some bar charts, the rule of development is illustrated. After figuring out standardized frequency with Excel 2007, the proportion of metaphorical use of words is established.The thesis has proved that there are six types of metaphors existing in the reports, including building metaphor, journey metaphor, war metaphor, family metaphor, plant metaphor and circle metaphor. Building metaphor, journey metaphor and war metaphor are the three major types with abnormal frequency. These metaphors indicate that China’s situation as a developing country, facing the current development task that raising the standard of living, maintaining peace and stability of the external environment as well as strengthening exchanges between developed countries. Equally, other three specific metaphors interpret the government’s domestic and foreign policy, adhering to people-centered development philosophy as well as the fundamental purpose of servicing of the people wholeheartedly.As one of the attempts in exploring the relationship between conceptual metaphor and political discourses, the thesis aims at discovering the political metaphorical use as well as the covert ideology. Meanwhile, the present study is supposed to provide a fresh perspective and to lend support to the theoretical research in the area of CMA. Besides, it is expected that the research will assist the government to promote its political opinions and help the populace understand the policies of the government.