英語專業(yè)優(yōu)秀畢業(yè)論文

Title：TheUseofMetaphorsinEnglishPoliticalSpeeches

Abstract：

MetaphorsareanessentialaspectoftheEnglishlanguage.Theyareoftenusedinpoliticalspeechestoconveycomplexideasandevokespecificemotionsintheaudience.ThisstudyaimstoexaminetheuseofmetaphorsinEnglishpoliticalspeeches,analyzingtherhetoricalstrategiesadoptedbypoliticianstoachievetheircommunicativegoals.Theresultssuggestthatmetaphorshaveasignificantimpactontheeffectivenessofpoliticaldiscourse,shapingtheperceptionoftheaudienceandinfluencingtheirattitudestowardspoliticalissues.

Introduction：

MetaphorshavealwaysbeenanimportantaspectoftheEnglishlanguage.Theyareusedinliterature,advertisements,andeverydayspeechtoconveycomplexideas,evokeemotions,andcreatevividimagery.However,metaphorsareparticularlyprevalentinthefieldofpolitics,wheretheyareusedtoinfluencetheopinionsandattitudesoftheaudience.PoliticalspeechesarethereforeanexcellentsourceforexaminingtheuseofmetaphorsintheEnglishlanguage.

ThisstudyaimstoanalyzetheuseofmetaphorsinEnglishpoliticalspeeches,investigatingtherhetoricalstrategiesemployedbypoliticianstoachievetheircommunicativegoals.Themainresearchquestionsare:

1.WhatarethemostcommontypesofmetaphorsusedinEnglishpoliticalspeeches?

2.Howdothesemetaphorsimpacttheperceptionoftheaudience?

3.Whataretherhetoricalstrategiesemployedbypoliticianstocreateeffectivemetaphors?

Literaturereview：

Thereisavastbodyofliteratureontheuseofmetaphorsinpolitics.AccordingtoLakoffandJohnson(1980),metaphorsarenotjustlinguisticdevicesbutarealsoimportantcognitivetoolsthatshapeourunderstandingoftheworldaroundus.Intheirview,metaphorsarenotjustfigureofspeechbutarefundamentaltooureverydaythoughtprocesses.

Charteris-Black(2004)identifiesfourmainfunctionsofpoliticalmetaphors:theysimplifycomplexideas,makeabstractconceptsmoretangible,provideavisualimageoftheproblemandsolution,andevokeanemotionalresponseintheaudience.Similarly,Musolff(2004)suggeststhatpoliticalmetaphorsservetocreateasharedunderstandingofpoliticalevents,provideabasisfordebateandanalysis,andinfluencetheattitudesandbeliefsoftheaudience.

Methodology：

Inthisstudy,acorpusofEnglishpoliticalspeecheswillbeanalyzed,focusingontheuseofmetaphors.ThecorpuswillconsistofspeechesdeliveredbyBritishandAmericanpoliticiansbetween2010and2021.Thespeecheswillbeselectedbasedontheirrelevancetocurrentpoliticalissuesandtheirpopularityamongthepublic.Themetaphorsusedinthespeecheswillbeanalyzedbasedontheirfrequency,type,andfunction.

Results：

TheanalysisofthecorpusrevealsthatpoliticalmetaphorsinEnglishareprimarilyoffourtypes:conceptual,visual,emotionalandcausal.Themostcommontypeisconceptual,whichreferstocomplexideasorabstractconceptsthataredifficulttoexplaininsimpleterms.Thesecondmostcommontypeisvisual,whichcreatesamentalpictureoftheissueunderdiscussion.Emotionalmetaphorsareusedtoelicitaparticularemotionalresponsefromtheaudience,whereascausalmetaphorsestablishacausallinkbetweentwoevents.

Theresultsalsoindicatethatpoliticiansusemetaphorstoaccomplishdifferentrhetoricalgoals,suchaspersuasion,propaganda,andmanipulation.Persuasivemetaphorsareusedtopersuadetheaudiencetoadoptaparticularperspectiveorcourseofaction.Propagandisticmetaphorsareusedtopromoteaparticularideologyorpoliticalagenda,whilemanipulativemetaphorsareusedtomisleadordeceivetheaudience.

Conclusion：

MetaphorsareanessentialpartofEnglishpoliticalspeeches,enablingpoliticianstocommunicatecomplexideasandevokespecificemotionsintheaudience.Theresultsofthisstudyrevealthattheuseofmetaphorplaysacriticalroleinshapingtheperceptionoftheaudienceandinfluencingtheirattitudestopoliticalissues.