Political speeches
Conceptual metaphor meets text worlds and gestalt psychology’s
shifts in profiling
This chapter offers a principled theoretical
suggestion on the basis of which political speeches could be
(re-)defined and the multiple simultaneous functions performed by a
political speech could be analyzed. The chapter addresses issues
concerning (a) the main types of functions a political speech can
perform, (b) the cognitive explanation of the presence of these
specific types of functions, and (c) the cognitive explanation of
the simultaneous operation of these specific types of functions.
The main line of argumentation supports a view in
which at least three cognitive mechanisms need to be taken into
account in order for us to be able to explain what a political
speech is and how it functions. These cognitive mechanisms include
conceptual metaphoric transfer, TW and DW construction and overlaps,
and gestalt shifts in profiling.
The theoretical model proposed derives from two
questionnaire-based studies reported here. The model is subsequently
verified against a dataset of 50 speeches by British and American
politicians delivered within the span of the last 80 years.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The starting point: Two studies and a double mapping of the source – path –
goal schema
- 2.1Study 1 and study 2
- 2.2The double mapping of the source – path – goal
schema in political speeches
- 3.Adding Text Worlds and Discourse Worlds to metaphoric
mappings
- 4.Adding profiling shifts to metaphoric mappings and World
overlapping
- 5.Conclusion
-
References
-
Appendix
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