A Study Of Xi Jinping’s Discourse On Clean-Governance From The Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphors

Since the advent of Lakoff and Johnson’s Metaphors We Live By,metaphor is no longer simply seen as a linguistic phenomenon,but as an important part of people’s cognitive mechanism.The ubiquitous nature of metaphor makes the entire human conceptual system implicitly metaphorical.Political discourse is highly purposive,propagandistic,and ideological.Traditionally,political commentators have often studied political discourse(or utterance)from the rhetorical function of metaphor,ignoring the cognitive function that metaphor has.To make up for the lack of research on political discourse from the perspective of conceptual metaphor theory,as well as to help ordinary people better grasp the political ideas and value behind Xi Jinping’s discourse on clean-governance.This study is guided by theories related to conceptual metaphors and takes Xi Jinping’s discourse on clean-governance as the object.Through a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis,the resonance values of different metaphorical keywords were calculated by using the theory of resonance of source domain,and their realization methods and functions were analyzed by combining the characteristics of Xi Jinping’s thoughts on clean-governance.This study mainly discusses the following three questions:(1)What types of conceptual metaphors are in Xi Jinping’s discourse on clean-governance?(2)How are the conceptual metaphors realized in Xi Jinping’s discourse on clean-governance?(3)How do conceptual metaphors function in Xi Jinping’s discourse on clean-governance?The study concludes that there are a large number of conceptual metaphors in Xi Jinping’s discourse on clean-governance,with a total of 1,116 metaphorical expressions;the conceptual metaphors in Xi Jinping’s discourse on clean-governance include orientational metaphors,ontological metaphors,and structural metaphors,among which structural metaphors are most frequently used,mainly are organism metaphors,war metaphors,and disease metaphors.The conceptual metaphors in Xi Jinping’s discourse on clean-governance have three functions: cognitive,persuasive,and rhetorical.Cognitive function,revealing the ideology behind political discourse,making abstract political strategies tangible,and providing new perspectives on cognition;persuasive function,spreading the ideology of clean-governance to the public,increasing its infectiousness and realizing the persuasive discursive intent of political metaphors;rhetorical function makes the discourse on clean-governance more vividly,freshness and easy to understand.In terms of theoretical value,this study further verifies the applicability and explanatory power of conceptual metaphors in political discourse and enriches the research scope of conceptual metaphors.In terms of practical value,the study of conceptual metaphors of Xi Jinping’s discourse on clean-governance helps the public to better understand Xi Jinping’s clean-governance thinking in a new era and firmly establish the consciousness of action to reject corruption and prevent change.