Journal Article

Metaphor analysis in political speeches : a case of Barak Obama

Qaiwer, Shatha Naiyf

2012

Overview

The role of metaphor in political discourse has received significant attention in recent years. Expanding on the cognitive theory of metaphor developed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), scholars in the fields of sociolinguistics and discourse analysis have examined politicians' use of metaphorical concepts to justify policies and define events. However, political discourse does not limit itself to such lexicalized metaphors, but makes use of new metaphors (or new uses of existing metaphors) as well. This paper presents a detailed identification of metaphors and their pragmatic description in a selected text of Barack Obama's inaugural address. The proposed method applied in this process is called Metaphor Identification Procedure(MIP). The present analysis involves the application of MIP procedure for identifying metaphors , comparing each one with its conceptual meaning and its effect on Obama's audience. The present study is aimed at analyzing metaphors identified in the text ,showing their conceptual equivalents and how they communicate with emotions of the audience following the procedure that is developed by Ferarri (2007 ). It is noted that through the use of metaphor, Obama could create solidarity towards social categories of American people. The selected text has been obtained from www. Obamaspeeches.com/El 1-Barack-obama-election -Night-Speech- Grant-Park-Illinois-November-2008.htm. It is the speech Obama addressed his nation on the night of his crowning the president of the United States. He gave a heavily rhetorical speech which included a good deal of metaphors

• Publisher: جامعة بغداد - كلية الآداب
• Subject: الإستعارة / البلاغة اللغوية / التحليل البياني / الخطب السياسية / النصوص السياسية / باراك أوباما ، رئيس الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية