The article discusses conceptual metaphors and their types in political discourse, determines their role in speech of politicians.
Keywords: metaphor, conceptual metaphor, political discourse, cognitive metaphor.
В статье рассматриваются концептуальные метафоры и их виды в политическом дискурсе, определяется их роль в речи политиков.
Ключевые слова: метафора, концептуальная метафора, политический дискурс, когнитивная метафора.
The concept of studying metaphors in political discourse is still topical and studied. Political figures express their mind in any way possible with linguistic means in order to express the intention better.
As for discourse, it has no distinctive definition. It is approached by linguistics and scholars in many ways. Teun van Djik views discourse as verbal structures that are spoken and written and any semiotic aspect of communication process that sustains such events as sound structures and visual structures, gestures and facework [1, 117]. Therefore, political discourse is a study of spoken and written texts of political study. Van Djik simply puts it as discourse of politicians [1, 20]. We may see and detect certain unique rhetoric features as metaphors, euphemisms, hyperboles, etc. and metaphors falls into types and one of them being conceptual metaphor.
What is exactly conceptual metaphor? Conceptual metaphor, also known as cognitive metaphor, is a metaphor in which one concept is understood by another concept. According to Lakoff and Johnson and their co-work Metaphors We Live by our cognitive system is largely metaphorical, however, we are not normally aware of it [2, 4].
In metaphoric transfer, knowledge in a certain domain, for example journey, is mapped to a main domain, for example life, producing life is a journey. Other common conceptual metaphors that are used widely include metaphors, as love is war, love is a journey, and social organizations are plants.
Cognitive function of metaphors are of four varieties [3, 33]:
1) nominative-estimated variety. In this, metaphor is used for new domains or for creating domain instead of those, which already exist.
2) Modelling variety. In this variety, a system of interconnected metaphors from another conceptual field is used to create a model of political reality.
3) Instrumental variety. In this variety, the metaphor represents itself as “tool of thinking”. It determines the direction of thought and contributes to the adoption of a specific decision.
4) Hypothetical variety. The metaphor allows us to imagine the possible development of events, to suggest the essence of the characterized object.
In order to appeal persuasive, political figures are keen to use some linguistics means during speeches, debates and press conferences. Using rhetoric features of discourse in their speeches, politicians try to catch attention of the audience and persuade it in anything that is being presented. Conceptual metaphors fall into such categories: structural, orientational and ontological.
Structural metaphor is when a concept is metaphorically constructed by another concept. Going back to life is war, we can say that it is a structural metaphor. Life concept is structured by war concept. Therefore, the concept of life is war, love is war, time is money is a product of having structural metaphors in the speech and that has been normalized over a span of development. If we take an example from an actual speech from a political figure who actively expresses himself through rhetoric means, it is probably Donald Trump nowadays. The 45th president of United States of America is a passionate speaker who uses all linguistic means possible in his speech to represent himself as someone who relates with every fellow American. In his 2017 Congress speech, Donald Trump have spoken about many issues concerning United States, immigration, borders, federal issues, economy and healthcare. Structural metaphors as defend our Constitution, providing a voice, enrich the mind and the souls, build bridges of cooperation and trust can be heard in Trump’s speech [4], and these metaphors represent on how he pictures the frame of issues concerning US in his mind and produces it. These kind of metaphors are comprehended to be seen as promising and a way to receive the support.
As for orientational metaphor, Lakoff and Johnson presents it as a metaphorical concept that organizes an entire system of concepts with respect to one another [2, 15]. It has a physical basis and vary according to culture. Orientatinal metaphor is related to what is called spatial orientation as up-down, in-out, on-off, high-low. The up and down orientation is explained as up being something with positive impact and down is an opposite of it. For example, physically, if we feel ‘up’, we tend to hold our heads up and signify boosted spirit. Here, boosted spirit is and orientational metaphor we have. As for orientational metaphors that can be detected in a political speech, I would like to take a historic speech given by Bill Clinton, which is 2000 State of the Union Address. He addresses such topics as economy, crime, health care, trade, living standards, etc. In his speech, we can detect such orientational metaphors concerning this up-down orientation as it lifts both our living and our values, the Senate faced down the gun lobby, stood up for the American people [5]. In addition, it has to be pointed out that the orientation of up-down metaphors are so broad, since it does not only apply to physical traits as posture or size of someone, but also mental traits and state, social status and cultural traits. Orientational metaphor as Iam feeling down or low hints to a mental instability of the speaker and metaphors as she is at the peak of her career or climbing that social ladder or is on top/bottom of the hierarchy hint to a social status of somebody. As for culture basis orientational metaphors, they are associated with conceptual metaphors one cultural society relates to, for example, Muslim community associating with peace, Americans with freedom or Japanese with etiquette.
The last type of conceptual metaphor that would be mentioned is ontological type. Ontological metaphors serve different purposes, and the various types of metaphors reflect different goals [2, 25]. Here, a concept is seen as an entity and it can be qualified, the classic and still topical example is inflation. We are still dealing with inflation, inflation worsens our standard of living, inflation is harming our living, etc. Lakoff and Johnson give us kinds of purposes that ontological metaphors have as referring, quantifying, identifying aspects and causes, setting goals and motivating actions [2, 27].
Ontological metaphor there implies us to deal rationally with issues that are present. In our case, the issues that deal with politics. If we take a speech conducted by Donald Trump on February 28, 2020, where he addresses the problems of the coronavirus, African-American voter, abortion and Democratic Party. While carrying out his speech, Trump makes us of such ontological metaphors as alot of respect for your president, he turned out to be a total catastrophe and every child is a sacred gift of God [6]. Why these metaphors are ontological? As it was mentioned, quantifying is one of the purposes of ontological metaphors, which applies to alot of respect for your president, since respect in this context is an entity. As for heturned out to be a total catastrophe, Trump identifies that he (in this case it is ‘Mini Mike’, Mike Bloomberg) as atotal catastrophe, which is an aspect of the person. In addition, there is again an identifying aspect of ontological metaphor in the phrase every child is a sacred gift of God, where a child is associated as a gift from an entity, in this case, God. All of these metaphors are used in the speech for a more distinctive speech for the audience.
To conclude, it has to be said that metaphors, especially conceptual ones that are used illustrate the mind and point of view of a speaker. It is important for any politician to present themselves as good and promising speakers. Especially using linguistics mean as rhetoric features as metaphors, euphemisms, hyperbole and other features. Those might be an indicator of how a speaker is feeling about a certain situation or how this situation’s progress has been.
References:
- Teun A. van Dijk. Discourse and Context a Sociocognitive Approach. — New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. — 267 с.
- Lakoff G. Metaphors we live by / Lakoff G., Johnson M.. — Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1980. — 242 c.
- Свинаренко Н. В. Метафора в политическом дискурсе как средство формирования образа политического деятеля в англоязычных средствах массовой информации и способы ее передачи на русский язык: дис.... канд. филол. наук. Институт межкультурной коммуникации и международных отношений, Белгород, 2017.
- U. S. President Donald Trump full speech to Congress // Youtube. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54Q9TYO3X-M (дата обращения: 12.04.2020).
- The 2000 State of the Union (Address to a Joint Session of the Congress) // Youtube. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vg_qI3yzCLk (дата обращения: 12.04.2020).
- Donald Trump rally in North Charleston, South Carolina — Replay // Youtube. — URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8P3aE21OKUw (дата обращения: 14.05.2020).
