A Study On Metaphor And Ideology Construction In Speeches Of "Belt And Road" By Xi Jinping In Light Of Frame Theory

In recent years,with the rapid development of China's economy and the increasing frequency of foreign exchanges and cooperation,the speeches delivered by national leaders on diplomatic occasions have attracted more and more attention.Among them,President Xi Jinping's speeches are the most distinctive,which use a large number of metaphors,proverbs,stories and so on.These speeches are plain and easy to understand,which integrate Chinese and Western cultures,and convey Chinese voice.Five years ago,President Xi Jinping put forward the “Belt and Road” initiative.It links China's development with the development of other countries in the world and creates a community of shared future.The study of metaphor has a long history.Metaphor is more commonly used in political discourses,because the main feature of political discourse is that it contains the ideological tendencies of the speaker(Lakoff,1996).Relevant studies have shown that besides rhetorical and explanatory functions,metaphor also has the ideological construction functions and is realized through the frame structure(Ungerer & Schmid,1996).Therefore,this study will analyze the ideology construction through metaphor in Xi Jinping's “Belt and Road” speeches in light of frame theory.This study mainly answers two questions:(1)What metaphors are used by President Xi Jinping in his “Belt and Road”speeches?(2)How are ideologies constructed through metaphors in these speeches?The corpora used in this study are the speeches delivered by President Xi Jinping from 2013 to 2018 on different diplomatic occasions,including speeches at the Congress and universities during the state visits,and keynote speeches of APEC Leaders' Summit,G20 Leaders' Summit,BRICS Business Forum,Boao Forum for Asia,World Economic Forum,“Belt and Road” International Cooperation Summit,and other occasions.There are 42 original texts of these speeches.This study mainly adopts the qualitative method,and metaphors are classified and interpreted through simple quantitative statistics.Based on frame theory,the process of ideology construction is analyzed and conclusions are drawn.Through careful identification and classification,this study finds that 547 metaphors were used in these speeches.According to their source domains,they are classified into 12 types,including human body metaphor,implement metaphor,journey metaphor,building metaphor,vehicle metaphor,water metaphor,plant metaphor,relationship metaphor,art metaphor,nature metaphor,animal metaphor,food metaphor.etc.These metaphors form three kinds of frames,including positive frames,negative frames and neutral frames.They not only are guided by ideologies,but also shape ideologies.With information added or deleted,the source domains form new target domains.By presupposing,highlighting and constructing political stories,they express the idea that the construction of “Belt and Road” requires joint efforts of all countries.The basic idea of building a community of shared future has been formed,and the ideological construction functions of metaphors have been realized,which further activate the feelings and values of the audience,and realize the interpretation and dissemination of ideology.This study complements the functional study of metaphor in political discourse,enriches the research results of conceptual metaphor theory,excavates the explanatory power of frame theory in the construction of metaphorical ideology,and expands the application of frame theory.This study explores the ideological construction functions of metaphor.Through research,it is found that President Xi Jinping has always shared the concept of sharing the responsibility and building a community of shared future.The “Belt and Road” follows the trend of the times and contributes Chinese solution to the problem of development.