Publications

Publication details [#8122]

Müller, Ralph. 2005. Creative metaphors in political discourse: Theoretical considerations on the basis of Swiss speeches. Metaphorik.de 9 : 53–73. 21 pp. URL
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English

Abstract

Starting with a discussion of creativity in political discourse, this article addresses the role of metaphor in a corpus of Swiss political discourses (by two Swiss Federal Councillors, Christoph Blocher and Moritz Leuenberger), and describes six basic strategies of creative metaphor in this context. The strategies of creative metaphor under discussion are: (i) the combination of metaphor with other figures of style; (ii) making the audience aware of metaphor; (iii) the combination with compatible metaphors; (iv) the elaboration of metaphorical mappings; (v) the expansion of metaphorical mappings; and (vi) the creation of novel mappings. The analysis of the data shows that the use of creative metaphors differs not only with respect to the speaker, but it also differs from one speech kind to another. Finally, the author discusses the role of stylistics in the critical assessment of different cases of speech. (Noelia Jiménez Martínez-Losa, Ruiz de Mendoza Group)