The Comparative Study Of Cognitive Metaphoric Thinking In English And Chinese Political Speeches

The study of metaphor has a long history.Since Aristotle,metaphor has become one of the hottest topics in the field of linguistics.In the traditional study of metaphor,metaphor is regarded as a means of rhetoric.However,in 1980,Lakoff &Johnson published a masterpiece called Metaphors we live by which marks the study of metaphor realizing the transformation from the traditional rhetoric research to cognitive study.Cognitive linguists hold that metaphor is not only a rhetorical device,but also a way of thinking.Metaphors are used,consciously or unconsciously,all the time,and exist in various fields such as politics,economy,literature,science and technology etc.Political discourse is one of the main literacy stylistics and plays a vital role in western political life.In order to achieve some political purposes,politicians tend to deliver discourses to express their ideas.However,the political terms are rather abstract and obscure for the general public.To persuade people to accept their political values and form a common ideology,most political orators choose vivid and simple ways to express abstract and complex political concepts.Thus,it is natural to put the metaphor into the first place.In the article Politics without Metaphor is like a Fish without Water,Thompson(1996:185)points out politics without water is just like the fish left the water,metaphor is to politics is what water is to fish.In the political field,politicians often use metaphor,this kind of special form,to reach a consensus on the cognition and realize their own ruling intentions.The thesis attempts to apply metaphor theory to political discourses.English corpora are selected from Ban Ki Moon's ten political discourses which ranged from2006 to 2013.While ten Chinese corpora from Wang Yi's political discourses delivered from 2013 to 2016.From the perspective of cognition,the thesis has identified the different types of conceptual metaphors,analyzing similarities and differences between English and Chinese and illustrating the causes of choosing these conceptual metaphors according to the conceptual theory of Lakoff &Johnson.From this thesis,the universality and cultural coherence of conceptual theory are verified through the contrastive analysis of English and Chinese political discourses.Furthermore,abstract and complicated political terms and concepts can be understood by metaphors.Lots of conceptual metaphors are found in both English and Chinese political discourses.The five dominant conceptual metaphors in English political speeches are: Journey Metaphor,War Metaphor,Building Metaphor,Family Metaphor and Human Metaphor.In addition,there still exist some subtle metaphors,such as Illness Metaphor,Physical Environment metaphor,Art Metaphor and Book Metaphor.while the five dominant conceptual metaphors in Chinese data include Journey Metaphor,War Metaphor,Building Metaphor,Family Metaphor and Human Metaphor.Circle Metaphor and Machine Metaphor are unique in Chinese political discourses.Different ideologies and traditions result in the different use of conceptual metaphors in political discourses of different languages.What's more,with the comparative study of cognitive metaphoric thinking in English and Chinese political speeches,this thesis also provides a new perspective of studying cross-cultural communication,translation and English teaching and learning.