Abstract:As one of the most primitive thinking modes of human beings and a common language phenomenon, metaphor plays an important role in human cognition. It has experienced three stages as follows: the rhetoric study of metaphors before the 1930s; the semantic study of metaphors from 1930s to the beginning of 1970s; the multi-disciplinary study of metaphors after the 1970s. In 1980s, the study of metaphor has a qualitative leap: American linguists put forward Conceptual Metaphor Theory for the first time. They rise metaphor from the so-called “Deviation”, “parasitism” to human’s indispensable mode of thinking. Nowadays, based on the keen interest of metaphor, many scholars both at home and abroad are intensively studying metaphor from Semiotics, Philosophy, Psychology, the Cognitive Science, etc. Speeches, being one main form of western political texts, are usually used by statesmen to reach one certain political purpose. Their speeches perform the persuasive and incentive function through the employment of various rhetoric devices, arousing the resonance of the audience and then obeying the politicians. Metaphor is one of them. Jeffery regards metaphor as solutions of political events. This essay aims to draw out how metaphor achieves its incentive and persuasive function in Obama’s speeches from the cognitive perspective, especially through the Conceptual Theory proposed by Lakoff and Johnson. In the meanwhile, his essay proposes some limitations of the Conceptual Theory in the analysis of metaphor in the hope of helping to establish a more perfect modern Conceptual Theory of metaphor.

Keywords: metaphor, Obama’s speeches, Conceptual Theory, persuasive, incentive

Contents

Abstract

中文摘要

Chapter 1 Introduction-1

Chapter 2 Metaphor-3

2.1 The Definition of Metaphor-3

2.2 The Classifications of Metaphor-4

Chapter 3 The Conceptual Blending Theory-7

3.1 The Explanation of The Conceptual Blending Theory-7

3.2 A Case of Study of Metaphor in Obama’s Speeches-7

3.3 The Weaknesses of CBT in the Analysis of Metaphor-7

Chapter 4 Political Speeches-9

4.1 The Introduction of Political Speeches-9

4.2 The Distinguished Features of Political Speeches-9

4.3 The Persuasive and Incentive Functions of Political Speeches-9

4.4 The Persuasive and Incentive Functions of Metaphor in Obama’s Speeches-10

4.4.1 Politics are conflicts.-10

4.4.2 Politics is a journey.-11

4.4.3 More is up, less is down.-11

4.4.4 Circumstances are weather.-12

4.4.5 Actions are transfer.-12

Chapter5 Conclusion and Expectations-15

5.1 Conclusion-15

5.2 Limitations and Expectations-15

References-17

Acknowledgements-19