engleski

Metaphor in Political Discourse: Toward a Metaphorical Reconceptualization of the EU’

Cognitive linguistics has increasingly focused on the use of conceptual metaphors in political discourse in recent years. According to G. Lakoff (2008) our future depends critically on which metaphorical conceptions predominate since these conceptions influence our thoughts, actions and worldviews. Recognising the power of metaphors, the main focus of this research is to find a conceptual model on which the political integration of the EU is based. The following issues will be discussed: (1) What conceptual metaphors are used in political discourse related to the political integration of the EU and accession of Croatia to the European Union and? (2) What is their frequency in the data? (3) How to develop a framework for the classification of conceptual metaphors? (3) Are there any strategy (semantic engineering) in the choice of mental images in political discourse? Cognitive theory is outlined (Lakoff & Johnson (1980), Kövecses (2002), Goatley (1997) and is applied to the lexical database of political discourse as found in the 'Euro-speak' and Croatian political debate. This study provides an overview of the most frequent metaphor clusters used in a selected corpus. Examples are chosen from different sources, such as political debates, public media, EUROVOC, EUROMETA, database of the Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics, etc. It consists of 1150 conceptual metaphors. The results of the analysis show that a small set of 'conceptual frames' underlies the principal political metaphors, e.g. Europa=person/body, Europa=process/movement, Europa = house/home/family, Europa=space, etc. The body was the predominant metaphor through which the European state was understood (Europe=person/body parts> e.g. Political and economic Europe do not live in separate rooms). At the same time, in the candidate countries (e.g. Croatia) the alternative schemas emerge. This paper provides a contrastive overview over the dominant metaphors of Euro-debates. It highlights the characteristic differences of the EU's 'image' within and outside the EU. Synthesis of our results shows that cognitive linguistics offers a solid framework for the identification and analysis of linguistic strategies for manipulation in political discourse.

political discourse; conceptual metaphors; European Union

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