Critical Metaphor Analysis Of Xi Jinping’s Diplomatic Speeches

Diplomatic speeches play an essential role in the international affairs.They are effective means of achieving the speakers’ political purposes.In this process,the use of language contributes a lot.Metaphor is frequently used in diplomatic speeches.Based on the theory of Critical Metaphor Analysis(CMA),the thesis studies the metaphors in Xi Jinping’s 15 diplomatic speeches.Specifically,the research questions of this thesis are as follows:1)Which types of metaphors exist in Xi Jinping’s diplomatic speeches?2)What are the realization forms of these metaphors? How do these metaphors construct ideology?3)What are the ideological functions of the metaphors used in Xi Jinping’s diplomatic speeches? What are the factors that influence the choice of certain metaphors?Based on CMA,the present research conducts a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the conceptual metaphors in the English version of Xi Jinping’s 15 diplomatic speeches.According to the three-step procedure of CMA,the research is conducted in the following three stages.The thesis first identifies the metaphors in the corpus,then describes these metaphors in detail,including the classifications,the realization forms and the process of ideology construction.At last,the research explores the functions of metaphors as well as factors influencing the choice of certain metaphors.Through critical metaphor analysis of Xi Jinping’s diplomatic speeches,it can be concluded:1)There are five major metaphor models in the selected corpus.Among them,journey metaphor is most frequently used,followed by family metaphor,construction metaphor,organism metaphor and war metaphor.2)The thesis interprets the realization forms of these conceptual metaphors through analyzing the concrete mapping process of each conceptual metaphor.Moreover,the process of ideology construction reveals the viewpoints of our government,such as independence,peaceful development,harmony of justice and interest,harmonious coexistence and so on.These metaphors guide and strengthen the ideology of the public.3)Metaphors in Xi Jinping’s diplomatic speeches have three functions: political ideas/policies explanation,information filtering and emotion stimulating.The choice of metaphors is influenced by cognitive factors,pragmatic factors and social factors.The study enriches the research on critical metaphor analysis of diplomatic speeches.It is conducive to revealing the values,political ideas of the speakers,as well as the philosophic ideas and connotation of the whole discourse.It is helpful in raising people’s critical awareness and sensitiveness of the political language.