Full Description
Far from being rhetorical ornaments, metaphors play a central role in public discourse, as they shape the structure of political categorisation and argumentation. Drawing on a very large bilingual corpus, this book, now in paperback, analyses the distribution of 'metaphor scenarios' in more than a decade of public discourse on European integration, elucidating differences in UK and German attitudes and argumentation. The corpus analysis leads to a refinement of cognitive metaphor theory by systematically relating conceptual, semantic and argumentation levels and incorporating the historical dimension of metaphor evolution. Finally, drawing on examples of metaphor negotiation and on a reassessment of Hobbes' concept of metaphor in Leviathan, the book highlights the ethical dimension of metaphor in politics.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Metaphor and Politics
Conceptual Domains and Scenarios
Analogical Argument in Political Discourse
Corpora and the Semantics of Metaphor
Europe as a Body Politic
Discourse History in a Metaphor Corpus
Metaphor Negotiation
Metaphor as Deception
Open and Closed Metaphor Scenarios
References
Index
