Table Of ContentDecoding Political Discourse
DOI: 10.1057/9781137309907
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DOI: 10.1057/9781137309907
Decoding Political
Discourse: Conceptual
Metaphors and
Argumentation
Maria-Ionela Neagu
Petroleum-Gas University of Ploieşti
DOI: 10.1057/9781137309907
© Maria-Ionela Neagu 2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-30989-1
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
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permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
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Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
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in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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ISBN: 978–1–137–30990–7 PDF
ISBN: 978-1-349-45648-2
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www.palgrave.com/pivot
doi: 10.1057/9781137309907
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Tables viii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction
Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Political
Discourse Analysis
2.1 Cognitive linguistics theory of
metaphor: an overview 13
2.2 The cognitive and argumentative nature
of political discourse 18
2.3 Conceptual metaphors as defeasible
arguments 31
Decoding Conceptual Metaphors
3.1 Conceptualizing the financial crisis 40
3.2 POLITICS IS CONFLICT, POLITICS
IS VISION 43
3.3 The Stars and the Dogs of the company
called America 55
3.4 POLITICS IS ETHICS 67
Symbolic Power and Argumentation
4.1 Sound moves or political leverage? 77
DOI: 10.1057/9781137309907 v
vi Contents
4.2 Politeness, argumentation schemes, and ethos
construction 90
4.3 Argumentation on war 102
Concluding Thoughts
5.1 Horizons of truth and the moral victory 111
5.2 Contributions of this study 114
Appendix: Corpus
Bibliography
Index of Conceptual Metaphors
General Index
DOI: 10.1057/9781137309907
List of Figures
2.1 The correlational pattern between policy
and ideology through discourse 19
DOI: 10.1057/9781137309907 vii
List of Tables
2.1 Aspects of meaning and their
operationalization concepts 22
3.1 McCain’s metaphorical reasoning in the first
presidential debate 47
3.2 Obama’s metaphorical reasoning in the first
presidential debate 53
3.3 Obama’s PRODUCT LIFE-CYCLE
metaphorical reasoning 66
4.1 Metaphorical reasoning and argumentation
in the third presidential debate 94
4.2 Ending the war in Iraq: argument
reconstruction 104
viii DOI: 10.1057/9781137309907
Acknowledgments
Research in any field involves a lot of sacrifice but it
also lays the foundations of special relationships and it
definitely nourishes old friendships. Therefore, it is high
time that I do my duty and grant recognition to all those
people who have assisted me and have encouraged me to
undertake this project.
First of all, I am deeply indebted to my son and my hus-
band because without their support I would have never
managed to defend two doctoral dissertations and to write
three books and dozens of articles in the past 12 years.
I owe a great debt of gratitude to all researchers in cogni-
tive linguistics and argumentation studies whose works and
lines of thinking have guided my humble attempt, which
hopefully will shed new light on some debatable issues. In
particular, I would like to thank Isabela Fairclough, whose
pieces of advice and kind thoughts have accompanied my
work from the outset of critical discourse analysis (CDA)
in Romania.
Special thanks are due to Professor Mihai Zdrenghea at
Babeş-Bolyai University, who was helpful and supportive
at all stages in the development of my doctoral dissertation
from which part of this book stems, and also to Arleen
Ionescu and Adina Nicolae and to all my colleagues in
the Philology department of Petroleum-Gas University of
Ploieşti for the time they have invested in supporting me
in my career.
Last but not least, I am indebted to Palgrave Macmillan
for the great opportunity they provided me to publish
original work in the form of a short-monograph focused
DOI: 10.1057/9781137309907 ix
