Referential and evaluative strategies of conceptual metaphor use in government discourse

Ahrens, Kathleen; Dr. ZENG Huiheng, Winnie

doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.11.001

Referential and evaluative strategies of conceptual metaphor use in government discourse

Author(s)

Ahrens, Kathleen

Dr. ZENG Huiheng, Winnie

Date Issued

2022

Journal

Journal of Pragmatics

ISSN

1879-1387

0378-2166

Citation

Journal of Pragmatics, Jan 2022, Vol. 188, pp.83-96.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.11.001

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11861/8025

Type

Peer Reviewed Journal Article

Abstract

We undertake a corpus-based diachronic analysis in order to explore how leaders in China and Hong Kong have employed metaphors of EDUCATION in major governmental speeches and reports both before and after Hong Kong's handover from Britain to China. The results of this study demonstrate that Hong Kong SAR Chief Executives have similar patterns of source domain selections with Chinese Premiers as compared with Hong Kong Colonial Governors, indicating that the change in sovereignty brought about different ways of referring to education for the people of Hong Kong, with evaluative effects remaining positive overall. These findings demonstrate that diachronic and synchronic comparative analyses of metaphors within small, specialized corpora are useful in uncovering potential sociopragmatic shifts in how political leaders frame social issues.

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Referential and evaluative strategies of conceptual metaphor use in government discourse

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