Metaphor in Political Discourse：With Reference to President Xi Jinping’s Speech

劉秧

Abstract： Based on some theories on the conceptual metaphor in cognitive linguistics and on discourse coherence， this paper will analyze the coherent function of metaphor in the political discourse. The sampled case is selected from the speech made by Xi Jinping. This study is carried out on the basis of Lakoff & Johnson's the Conceptual Metaphor Theory （CMT）.

Key words： Conceptual Metaphor Theory； Political Discourse

1. An Overview of the Conceptual Metaphor

In 1980， a revolution in metaphor study took place， which is， Lakoff and Johnson published Metaphors We Live By. From then on， many cognitive linguists claim that metaphor is， in fact， a pervasive phenomenon in daily life and it represents the output of a cognitive process by which we understand one domain in terms of another. According to the conceptual metaphor theory， metaphors are sets of mappings between a more concrete or physical source domain to a more abstract target domain （Lakoff & Johnson， 1980）.

2. The Analysis of Examples

The speech I have chosen named Work Together to Build the Silk Road Economic Belt and The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road， which was speeched by Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony of The Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation.

2.1 Journey Metaphor

Examples：

（1）“一帶一路”建設已經邁出堅實步伐。我們要乘勢而上、順勢而為，推動“一帶一路”建設行穩致遠，邁向更加美好的未來。

（2）世界多極化、經濟全球化、社會信息化、文化多樣化深入發展，和平發展的大勢日益強勁，變革創新的步伐持續向前。

According to the speech， the metaphor of DEVELOPMENT IS A JOURNEY is most frequently used. Journey metaphor ranks first among all metaphor categories in data source， and it shows the tendency and preference of Mr. Xi in using journey metaphors. His journey metaphors indicate that The Belt and Road Initiative is metabolized as a bright journey yet with challenges， and the road towards the development of The Belt and Road Initiative is not always smooth but with setbacks and difficulties； on the other hand， the journey metaphor is full of hope because the overcome of these barriers will lead to a bright future.

2.2 Nature Metaphor

Example：

（3）“一帶一路”建設植根于絲綢之路的歷史土壤，重點面向亞歐非大陸，同時向所有朋友開放。

（4）“一帶一路”建設逐漸從理念轉化為行動，從愿景轉變為現實，建設成果豐碩。

The term “植根” is literally used to describe the plant. The Belt and Road Initiative is regarded as a tree that full of energy， which show us that it is flourishing and booming.

As for “成果豐碩”， there is a conceptual mapping between the source domain of "fruit" and the target domain of "the development of the Belt and Road Initiative". We plant trees and fertilize them， when autumn comes， we will have a good harvest of delicious fruits. The process is the same for the development of a society.endprint

2.3 Personification metaphors

Example：

（5）古絲綢之路打開了各國友好交往的新窗口，書寫了人類發展進步的新篇章。

（6）中國陜西歷史博物館珍藏的千年“鎏金銅蠶”，在印度尼西亞發現的千年沉船“黑石號”等，見證了這段歷史。

Metaphors of this type often regard some lifeless objects as human beings to finish some actions and activities that only can be done by human beings. These lifeless objectives can play the role and make contribution that only can be acted by a real person. The key factor to form a personification metaphor lies in the verb the sentence embraces to coordinate with the subject （Mao， 2015）. Personification metaphors can make the expression to be more vivid and more sincere so the listeners of the speech can understand the contents better.

3. Discussion

From Chinese political speeches， “journey metaphor” is an example of continuity of political metaphor with modern Chinese characteristics. Wang and Chen （2016） have used the term “road metaphor”， but in my opinion the expression “journey metaphor” may be better. Because I think the term “journey metaphor” describes a dynamic progress. For Chinese political speech， the “journey metaphor” is not only the cognitive direction of China's development is the recognition of the achievements and the future direction of the political declaration. The expansion of “journey metaphor” is also reflected in the development of the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics or encountered in the development of various problems. Journey metaphor is proved to be the most frequently used metaphor in the Chinese data. Chinese people are very familiar with the expressions such as “社會主義道路” “發展進程” and “新型工業化道路”. The source domain “journey” is mapping onto the target domain "development”. The development of a society is metaphorical conceptualized as a challenging journey， in which there will be obstacles， progressing and destination.

Obviously， the author has chosen only one piece of Chinese political speech. The sampled discourse selected in this thesis is limited. It would be better to choose speeches both in Chinese and English and make a comparative analysis in the future.

References

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