政治演讲概念隐喻

An Analysis of Conceptual Metaphors in Obama’s Political

Speeches

Abstract: This article focuses on the application of Conceptual Metaphors in Obama’s Political Speeches. Pointing out the significant role Conceptual Metaphors played in Obama’s Political Speeches. The aims of this paper are 1)to introduce the relationship between Conceptual Metaphors and Political Speeches; 2) elaborate the definition and classification of Conceptual Metaphors on the basis of Lakoff and Johnson’s great work Metaphors We Live By;3)Take Obama’s Political Speeches as background information, analyze the Conceptual Metaphors used and relevant functions in his Political Speeches. this research aims to study the metaphors in political speeches systematically and reveal how metaphors work in the political world. At the same time, through the analysis of metaphors, this research can help people know the American politics and understand its culture.

Key words: Political Speeches; Conceptual Metaphors; Application

奥巴马政治演讲的概念隐喻分析

摘要:本文着重研究了概念隐喻在奥巴马政治演讲中的使用,指出概念隐喻在奥巴马的政治演讲中发挥的重要角色,本文旨在:1)简要介绍概念隐喻与政治演讲之间的关系;2)根据莱考夫和约翰逊合著的《我们赖以生存的隐喻》,来阐述概念隐喻的定义、分类;3)以奥巴马的政治演讲作为背景材料,分析其中所使用的概念隐喻,以及这些隐喻对其演讲的辅助作用.本文试图对所选语料中的隐喻进行系统研究,揭示隐喻在政治演讲语篇中的特殊作用,并且通过分析隐喻,帮助人们了解美国的政治和文化.

关键词:政治演讲；概念隐喻；应用

Contents

1.Introduction

Metaphor has always been the hot topic which gets much attention from linguists, it has been studied as long as 2000 years. In traditional metaphor theories, metaphor was only regarded as a kind of rhetorical devices, but with the springing of cognitive linguistics, a growing number of scholars begin to study this linguistic phenomenon.from the point of cognitive. Lakeoff and Johnson put forward the theory of conceptual metaphor theory the first time, they think A metaphor (or figurative comparison) in which one idea (or conceptual domain) is understood in terms of another, and metaphor is the cognitive tool. The domestic scholar 束定芳had done some researches on the psychology and language caused by metaphor, and proposed the goal of building modern science of metaphor, she also elaborate the study objectives and ways of modern science of metaphor. The purposes of this paper are to analyze the conceptual metaphors used in political speeches, and reveal the significant functions of conceptual metaphors in political speeches.

2 .The conceptual metaphor theory

2.1. The Definition of conceptual metaphor theory

I n cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, or cognitive metaphor, refers to the understanding of one idea, or conceptual domain, in terms of another “In cognitive linguistics, the conceptual domain from which we draw metaphorical expressions to understand another conceptual domain is known as the source domain. The conceptual domain that is understood in this way is the target domain. Thus the source domain of the journey is commonly used to explain the target domain of life”.(Lakeoff and Johnson,1980,p.1).

2.2 The Classification of conceptual metaphor

By studying , it can be found that conceptual metaphors occupy a high frequency in political speeches. Generally speaking, in order to gain support and understanding from public, and fulfill their political goals, the statesmen will instill their political views into the listeners and make them more acceptable and understandable with the help of conceptual metaphors.

Lakeoff divided conceptual metaphors into three categories: orientational metaphor;