VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ****************** LÊ THỊ PHƯƠNG LAN METAPHORS IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE MADE IN THE TWO DIFFERENT CULTURAL CONTEXTS (Ẩn dụ trong diễn ngôn chính trị được thực hiện ở hai bối cảnh văn hóa khác nhau) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201.01 HÀ NỘI- 2018 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES ****************** LÊ THỊ PHƯƠNG LAN METAPHORS IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE MADE IN THE TWO DIFFERENT CULTURAL CONTEXTS (Ẩn dụ trong diễn ngôn chính trị được thực hiện ở hai bối cảnh văn hóa khác nhau) M. MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Linguistics Code: 8220201. Nguyễn Thị Thu Hà HÀ NỘI- 2018 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like to express my sincere and profound gratitude to my supervisor, Dr.
Nguyen Thi Thu Ha, for her much appreciated feedback, intellectual and enthusiastic guidance and all the work she did. Without her help, I could not have completed my study. Among the people whose contributions I would like to acknowledge gratefully are my parents, who were always by my side during the time I carried out this study. I would also like to thank my husband, who constantly encouraged me to undertake research for a long time.
I am also thankful to all my classmates and colleagues for their discussion and support in the writing process. i LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Abstract This study explored the use of metaphors in four political speeches by two U. presidents: Barrack Obama and Bill Clinton made in two different cultural contexts namely Vietnamese context and American context. The metaphors found in four speeches were categorized basing on Lakoff and Johnson (1980) conceptual metaphor’s framework and then compared across the contexts to see the similarities and differences.
The study went on to interpret the possible cultural influence of those similarities and differences. One of the interesting findings was that although many of the conceptual metaphors used in the speeches seemed to be universal, i. they were found in both contexts, specific metaphorical expressions appeared to be different across the contexts. This might be due to the different life experiences in the source domain only exposed to the people of a specific context.
ii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments. ii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .2 Aims of the study .3 Objectives of the study .5 Scope of the study .6 Method of the study .7 Organization of the study .3 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND5 2.1 What is conceptual metaphor? .3 Classification of conceptual metaphor .4 The relationship between metaphor, political discourse and cultural context .1 Process of data collection. 2 Data analysis procedures .15 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION .1 The socio-political situations of the speeches .1 The American context. The Vietnamese context .2 An overview of metaphor use in the four speeches .3 The similarities and differences of conceptual metaphors made in American and Vietnamese cultural contexts .20 iii LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.4 Recapitulation of findings .3 Limitations and suggestions for further study.
VI APPENDIX III. XIII iv LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale Language comprises a stock of vocabulary that helps fulfill users‟ communicative purposes, and language becomes flexible by the use of metaphors. In any discourse, it is undoubted that metaphors express meaning and emotions in a faster way and more elegantly, especially regarding negative feelings and sensitive matters, unhappiness, disappointment, anger, etc. Language in political discourse is a complex issue which includes many strategies of rhetorical figures to influence the receiver toward a desired attitude or thought, so politicians often resort to metaphor as a “safe” way to deal with unpleasant subjects and criticize their opponents without giving a negative impression to their audiences.
Politics is a struggle for power in order to put certain political, economic and social ideas into practice. In this process, language plays a crucial role, thus, the politicians must be careful before their language. Like other figurative use of language, metaphor may be conditioned by the social settings, and specifically the cultural contexts. According to Levinson (1983), “metaphors are usually associated with the intended meaning of the speaker/writer, the context in which a metaphor is used seems to be more important than its formal linguistic information, that is, metaphor is more associated with pragmatics than semantics”.
However, few studies have pointed out the influence of cultural contexts on the use of figurative language in particular discourse. This study, hence, attempts to find out how different cultural contexts may influence the use of metaphors in political discourse. This study explores the use of metaphors in four political speeches by two U. presidents: Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama, as listed below.
Among the four speeches, two were inaugural speeches by the mentioned presidents delivered in America and the other two were speeches given by the same presidents during their visits to Vietnam. 1 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail. The speech of President Bill Clinton's Inaugural Address (1993) in America. The speech of President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address (2009) in America.
President Bill Clinton‟s speech (2000) on his visit to Vietnam, delivered at Vietnam National University, Hanoi. President‟s Barrack Obama‟s speech (2016) on his visit to Vietnam, delivered at National Convention Center Hanoi, Vietnam Because the study aims to find the possible impact of cultural contexts on the use of metaphors in political speeches so we deliberately choose two speeches delivered in the United States of America and two others in Vietnam. Other than the contexts where the speeches were made, the speakers and the main communicative functions of the two pairs of speeches are the same. Before interpreting the possible influence of cultural contexts, metaphors found in the four speeches are classified based on Lakoff and Johnson (1980) conceptual metaphor‟s framework, which will be presented in detail in the theoretical background.2 Aims of the study The study attempts to find out how the cultural context may influence the use of metaphors in political discourse.
To be specific, the study hopes to see how the Vietnamese cultural context and the American cultural contexts may have influenced four political speeches made by President Obama and President Clinton on similar occasions in terms of metaphor use.3 Objectives of the study The study is intended to: List and categorize all the metaphors in the four speeches. Compare the metaphors used in the Vietnamese context and the American context. Interpret the differences and similarities based on the features of the two cultural contexts.4 Research questions 2 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com The study is to answer the following questions: 1. What are the similarities and differences in the use of metaphors in the political speeches made by president Obama and president Clinton in America and Vietnam? 2.
How does the cultural context possibly influence the use of metaphor in those speeches? 1.5 Scope of the study This study is among the first attempts to explore the possible influence of cultural context on the use of metaphors in political speeches so the findings will be more exploratory rather than conclusive. Moreover, the data will be limited to only four speeches, made in two different cultural contexts so the interpretation will be tentative and not to generalize. This is thought to be excusable for the scope of an MA thesis. More vigorous conclusions will apparently need much more research in the topic with more extended data.6 Method of the study The study employs a qualitative method in which the language use in the speeches will be closely studied, sorted out and categorized for the purpose of comparison.
In particular, to categorize metaphors, Johnson (1980)‟s conceptual metaphor classification is used in this study. Some quantitative analysis will also be employed to facilitate qualitative interpretation. The conceptual metaphors and the number of words in each speech will be counted to determine the percentages of words used metaphorically relative to the overall speech texts. This method is salutary for the processing of the comparison in each context and the results of the investigation.7 Organization of the study This study consists of five chapters.
Chapter 1, Introduction, presents the rationale, aims, objectives, research questions, scope, methods and organization of the study. 3 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Chapter 2, Literature review and theoretical background, gives a review some recent studies about metaphor use in political discourse, followed by a representation of the theory by G. Lakoff (1980) on conceptual metaphors. Chapter 3, Methodology, describes the process of data collection and data analysis procedures.
Chapter 4, Findings and discussions, presents the main findings from the data analysis and some interpretation of the possible cultural influences on metaphor use. The final chapter, Conclusion, recapitulates the major findings, implications, limitations and suggestions for further studies. 4 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This chapter will start with a review of what has been done in some recent studies about conceptual metaphors in political discourse, followed by the theoretical background of the study in which knowledge of CMT (Conceptual metaphor theory) will be presented with the classification of metaphors being used in the study. The relationship between metaphor, political discourse and cultural context will also be discussed at the end of chapter to show the importance of culture in political metaphor use.1 Literature review The topic of metaphor use in political discourse has been of interest for long, and the following is a review of some recent studies.
Vestermark (2007) studied metaphors in politics, namely a study of the metaphorical personification of America in political discourse. She focused on how the metaphors were used and interpreted in the first inaugural addresses by Ronald Reagan (1981), George H. Bush (1989), Bill Clinton (1993) and George, W. In her findings, she discovered that four presidents used metaphors to personify the nation to make Americans identify with and understand their beliefs and goals for America.
Metaphors in speeches were difficult to detect and they were highly intentional. On the other hand, she also focused on the features of conceptual sources. She found that metaphors could be manipulated for positive rather than negative rhetorical ends. Taiwo (2010) carried out metaphors in Nigerian political discourse.
The study used the methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with that of Cognitive Linguistics. He focused on the identification of the metaphors and three target domains as sources of conceptual metaphors in his data: the nation, politicians and politics. In his findings, he indicated that the metaphors of sociopolitical- experiences were found frequently in political discourse in Nigeria. 5 LUAN VAN CHAT LUONG download : add luanvanchat@agmail.com Hanne Penninck (2014) carried out the study “An analysis of metaphor used in political speeches responding to the financial crises of 1929 and 2008”.
The study examined the metaphors in 35 speeches about financial crises of 1929 and 2008 in both US and UK context. This study analyzed the metaphor density, the conceptual metaphor themes and how they characterized crisis rhetoric. The findings indicated that there were a higher number of metaphor used in American context than British, and most politicians used oversimplifying metaphor themes in their speeches. The six inaugural addresses of six different famous presidents were chosen for conceptual metaphor study: Richard Nixon (1969), Ronald Reagan (1985), George Bush (1989), Bill Clinton (1997), George W.
This study focused on the classification of metaphors, then explaining metaphors and describing them. This study found several specific conceptual metaphors such as journey, human, war metaphors. In addition, these metaphors in politic speeches reflect three main functions of simplification, persuasion and motivation. Mai Oanh (2011) carried out the study “Metaphors used in inaugural addresses made by the US presidents”.