A Conceptual Metaphor Analysis Of The Report Of The 19th CPC National Congress

Cognitive linguistics believes that people understand abstract concepts through conceptual metaphor.Through the metaphorical mapping,the target domain receives similar attributes of the source domain and the abstract concepts become vivid and easy to understand.In the genre of political discourse,the pragmatic function of conceptual metaphor becomes more apparent due to the abstract and professional nature of political concepts.Therefore,this research targets at conceptual metaphors in the Report of the 19 th National Congress of Communist Party of China(henceforth CPC and Report),describing both the orientational metaphor and structural metaphor,analyzing their contextual meanings and exploring their relationship with political discourse and the Party images.Based on the previous studies,this research proposes a Conceptual Metaphor Analysis Model as a new approach for conceptual metaphor analysis.Different from metaphor identification,interpretation and explanation,the new Conceptual Metaphor Analysis Model includes metaphor recognition and metaphor explanation two layers and five detailed steps,which gives specific instructions in doing conceptual metaphor analysis.Using the Conceptual Metaphor Analysis Model as the theoretical framework,the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the Report leads to the following findings: Two pairs of orientational metaphors,OUTSIDE and INSIDE metaphor and FRONT and BACK metaphor,and 17 structural metaphors including BUILDING metaphor,JOURNEY metaphor,WAR metaphor and BODY metaphor have been recognized.To expand the research further,it has been noted that the choice of conceptual metaphor is closely related to the political tradition of China and the collective memory of the Chinese people.It has also been found that both orientational metaphor and structural metaphor have a strong persuasive and constructing power.The use of conceptual metaphor simplifies the political concepts and bridges the gap between readers and the authority.What’s more,both orientational and structural metaphor contribute to the positive images of the CPC which has been constructed as a faithful inheritor of excellent historical traditions,a powerful leader,a stable supporter of the world peace,a planner and the guardian of the happiness of all the Chinese people.