The Strategic Use of Conceptual Metaphors in the Inaugural Addresses of US Republican and Democratic Presidents (2001-2021): A Critical Discourse Analysis

Metaphors are linguistic, rhetorical devices that have the ability to increase effectiveness of the perception by adding comprehensibility and relatability, thus boosting persuasion. Strategic manoeuvring by means of metaphor in political speeches is quite common, yet, only little awareness exists on the subject, especially in the political realm, which is why it is crucial to increase knowledge on this subject. The general purpose of this study is to increase knowledge of the strategic use of metaphors of US Republican and Democratic presidents’ inaugural speeches in the past 20 years, employing Critical Discourse Analysis to address how the strategic use of metaphors compares between the (first) inaugural addresses of President G.W. Bush, President Obama, President Trump, and President Biden, and how these metaphors function. The metaphors in the speeches were identified using existing literature and Lakoff’s Master Metaphor List (1991). Findings revealed that all four presidents’...Show moreMetaphors are linguistic, rhetorical devices that have the ability to increase effectiveness of the perception by adding comprehensibility and relatability, thus boosting persuasion. Strategic manoeuvring by means of metaphor in political speeches is quite common, yet, only little awareness exists on the subject, especially in the political realm, which is why it is crucial to increase knowledge on this subject. The general purpose of this study is to increase knowledge of the strategic use of metaphors of US Republican and Democratic presidents’ inaugural speeches in the past 20 years, employing Critical Discourse Analysis to address how the strategic use of metaphors compares between the (first) inaugural addresses of President G.W. Bush, President Obama, President Trump, and President Biden, and how these metaphors function. The metaphors in the speeches were identified using existing literature and Lakoff’s Master Metaphor List (1991). Findings revealed that all four presidents’ most frequent conceptual metaphors were the journey, object, building, and war metaphors, which may be explained by both their high rate of conventionalisation and their exceptional rhetorical properties. Furthermore, the Democratic presidents used more different types of metaphors than the Republican presidents did. The Democratic and Republican Presidents used roughly the same number of metaphors relative to their speeches’ word counts. A follow-up analysis may help gain insights on whether voters’ perceptions of presidents are influenced by the inaugural addresses and the role of metaphors and other rhetorical tools in the political genre.Show less

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The Strategic Use of Conceptual Metaphors in the Inaugural Addresses of US Republican and Democratic Presidents (2001-2021) A Critical Discourse Analysis