REPRESENTATION OF CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS IN AMERICAN AND CHINESE PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHES ON COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic struck the world on a large scale and no nation could skip out from. Conforming to this, the authorities worldwide made their concerns public, measuring out those undertaking which were directed toward tackling the consequences of the pandemic. On that account, they delivered speeches and voiced their thoughts on the events in the wake of pandemic judiciously. The article goes through conceptual metaphors by analyzing metaphoric concepts used to describe the events and consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic by American and Chinese presidents. The article briefly introduces the theoretical basis of the study from the cognitive approach. Then, the analysis of the chosen material provides the means to evaluate the areas of knowledge that served as a source domain for metaphorically expressing the pandemic. The data accessed prove the pervasiveness of metaphors in two superpower countries’ presidential discourse and their importance for understanding tough situations, effectively influencing the audience. The findings revealed that the most common used source domains in both political discourses are Unity Metaphors, Spatial Metaphors, Object Metaphors and War Metaphors. Nonetheless, American political discourse is much more persuasively and metaphorically expressed than Chinese political discourse.