Naslov
Metonymy-based euphemisms in war-related speeches by George W. Bush and Barack Obama

Autori
Moritz, Ivana

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Poglavlja u knjigama, znanstveni

Knjiga
Linguistic Taboo Revisited Novel Insights from Cognitive Perspectivess

Urednik/ci
Pizarro Pedraza, Andrea

Izdavač
Walter de Gruyter

Grad
Berlin : Boston

Godina
2018

Raspon stranica
55-77

ISBN
978-3-11-058031-0

ISSN
1861-4132

Ključne riječi
euphemism, conceptual metonymy, political discourse, war-related speeches, metonymic vehicle

Sažetak
In the last two decades, the USA has taken part in conflicts that have not always been supported by the public. Two recent presidents, George W. Bush and Barack Obama had to deliver war-related speeches, and have been in positions to euphemize different topics for different reasons. A particular contextual situation is occasionally a trigger for the creation of new euphemisms as well as new taboo topics, so the presidents make use of euphemisms to avoid addressing certain topics and to achieve their rhetorical and political goals. The paper attempts to show that euphemistic expressions are not merely rhetorical figures, that they have cognitive grounding. Euphemistic expressions were extracted from transcripts of war related speeches, grouped according to concepts euphemized, and further subdivided according to cognitive mechanisms underlying their formation – conceptual metaphor and metonymy. Metonymy-grounded euphemistic expressions were analyzed more thoroughly, their number outreaching the number of metaphor-grounded euphemistic expressions. The analysis also included looking into the choice of the preferred metonymic vehicle for particular examples, following Radden and Kövecses’ (1999) principles for selecting metonymic vehicles. Furthermore, the paper draws inferences regarding most frequently euphemized topics in the speeches, and also attempts to determine the aims of euphemism usage in presidential war-related speeches.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filologija

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