Metaphors in political discourse: A corpus research
Start Date
27-3-2021 2:45 PM
End Date
27-3-2021 3:00 PM
Description
The study of metaphor has long been considered as pertaining solely, or mostly, to the realm of literature, and, more recently, of linguistics. During the past decades, nevertheless, it has become clear that this field of studies is deeply connected to many other disciplines, such as Cognitive and Neurological Sciences, Social Studies, Statistics or, due to the wide range of fields where metaphor can play a significant role, even Economy, Politics, Theological Studies or Health Care. In this presentation, I will focus on the role of metaphor in the political discourse, with implications reaching Social Studies and Psychology. The corpus of the research is based on the traditional New Year speeches of the former Italian president Giorgio Napolitano, delivered between 2006 and 2013. I will identify the conceptual metaphors offered by the corpus, following the line of research proposed by Lakoff and Johnson, aiming to go beyond the strictly linguistic analysis to catch the political, social, psychological and cognitive implications of the identified metaphors, in an attempt at showing that all these apparently different fields of research are in fact interconnected, and together they can shed some light on the structure and characteristics of today’s society. Moreover, I will use statistical methods and visual support, such as graphs and diagrams, to present the quantitative conclusions of the research, which, I think, will allow for a clearer understanding of the overall results.
Recommended Citation
Boghiu, M. (2021, March). Metaphors in political discourse: A corpus research. Presented at the Postgraduate Conference on Interdisciplinary Learning: Re-Imagining Postgraduate Studies in the 21st Century and Beyond. Lingnan University, Hong Kong.
Metaphors in political discourse: A corpus research
The study of metaphor has long been considered as pertaining solely, or mostly, to the realm of literature, and, more recently, of linguistics. During the past decades, nevertheless, it has become clear that this field of studies is deeply connected to many other disciplines, such as Cognitive and Neurological Sciences, Social Studies, Statistics or, due to the wide range of fields where metaphor can play a significant role, even Economy, Politics, Theological Studies or Health Care. In this presentation, I will focus on the role of metaphor in the political discourse, with implications reaching Social Studies and Psychology. The corpus of the research is based on the traditional New Year speeches of the former Italian president Giorgio Napolitano, delivered between 2006 and 2013. I will identify the conceptual metaphors offered by the corpus, following the line of research proposed by Lakoff and Johnson, aiming to go beyond the strictly linguistic analysis to catch the political, social, psychological and cognitive implications of the identified metaphors, in an attempt at showing that all these apparently different fields of research are in fact interconnected, and together they can shed some light on the structure and characteristics of today’s society. Moreover, I will use statistical methods and visual support, such as graphs and diagrams, to present the quantitative conclusions of the research, which, I think, will allow for a clearer understanding of the overall results.