Conceptual Metaphors in Political Discourse: Evidence from the Speeches of King Abdullah II of Jordan

Abstract

This paper reports on the findings of a study that aims at exploring conceptual metaphors in the political speeches of King Abdullah II of Jordan which are delivered at the Plenary Sessions of the United Nations General Assembly. Eight political speeches of the King, downloaded from his official website, are analyzed by adopting the cognitive metaphor theory (CMT) proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). The study reveals that there are four dominant themes in these speeches: (1) the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, (2) the Syrian crisis, (3) terrorism, and (4) reform in Jordan. To express these themes, twenty three source domains were adopted in the King's speeches. The findings show that the most frequently used source domains are journey, war, hero, building, and human. The study concludes that King Abdullah II relies on the use of conventional conceptual metaphors to present the main themes in his political speeches.