Framing the War. The Use of Metaphors in US Political Discourse

Download or read book Framing the War. The Use of Metaphors in US Political Discourse written by Simon Brandl and published by GRIN Verlag. This book was released on 2016-08-01 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject American Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,7, University of Marburg, language: English, abstract: When it comes to framing the war linguistically, metaphors have always been key for many politicians in conveying their message and distinguishing in a simplistic manner between good and evil. Employing metaphors in political discourse helps politicians simplify their content and make the audience understand their message more clearly, as Lakoff notes: “Abstractions and enormously complex situations are routinely understood via metaphor” (1991: 25). Lakoff further describes the use of metaphors as something not necessarily good or bad, but rather depicts it as a stylistic device that is widely common even in everyday language. Therefore, it seems highly interesting to look even closer at how metaphors are being used in the context of war-related speech in the United States. The focus of this paper will be on metaphors used in the State of the Union Address, since I assume that the latter is perfectly suited for an exemplary analysis of how war-related metaphors are constructed and which specific purpose they serve.