Abstract

   Political speech can demonstrate governmental views and expectations and persuade the public to agree with the delivered opinions on politics. Political speech has its significant features. It can not be very direct and concrete, so metaphor becomes the rhetorical tool which politicians adore. Metaphors can make the speech more contagious and more persuasive so as to achieve the desired objectives of the speaker. Metaphor is not only a figure of speech, but also a way of thinking. This thesis takes the former US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton’s political speeches as material and analyzes the application of conceptual metaphors in her political speeches. It mainly analyzes Hillary Clinton’s speeches from three perspectives: ontological metaphor, structural metaphor and orientational metaphor. The analyses of Hillary Clinton’s political speeches demonstrate that there is a close relationship between conceptual metaphor and political speech.

Key Words: metaphor  conceptual metaphor  political speeches  cognitive        

摘 要

  政治演讲可以表明政府的观点和期望，并且让公众认同自己的观点。政治语言有其显著的特点，其语言不能特别直接和具体，所以隐喻成为政治家们所崇尚的语言工具。隐喻能使演讲更有传染力和说服力，从而达到政治家预期的目的。它不仅是一种修辞手法，更是一种思维方式。本文以美国前任国务卿希拉里•克林顿的政治演讲为材料，分析概念隐喻在政治演讲中的应用。本文从本体隐喻，结构隐喻，方位隐喻三个角度对希拉里的演讲进行分析。希拉里政治演讲中概念隐喻的分析表明了概念隐喻与政治的密切关系。

关键词：隐喻 概念隐喻 政治演讲 认知

1 Introduction
The concept of conceptual metaphor was firstly put forward in Metaphors We Live By written by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson in 1980. They consider that metaphor is not only a figure of speech, but also reflects the way of thinking which can guide people’s actions. As political language can not be very direct and concrete, metaphor becomes a language tool which politicians adore.
So far there have been many studies about metaphor. Turner published More Than Cool Reason: A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor with Lakoff in 1989. He tends to illustrate that basic metaphor is the source of poetic metaphor. Metaphor and Emotion is written by Zoltan Kovecess, focusing on the study of metaphor and emotion. Ning Yu published Metaphor, Body and Culture: The Chinese Understanding of Gallbladder and Courage, applying conceptual metaphor theory on the study of Chinese, and obtaining a conclusion that Gallbladder is the container of courage.