A Comparative Investigation Of Conceptual Metaphors In Azerbaijani Vs English Political Discourse: American And Azerbaijani Presidential Speeches

Abstract

There is a recognition in the literature that in political discourse, politicians make ample use of conceptual metaphors to organize their talk, achieve more persuasion, and leave stronger imprints of ideology and action on the minds of their audience. The framework of Critical Metaphor Analysis brings together the theory of Conceptual Metaphors and insights from Critical Discourse Analysis to study the important role of conceptual metaphors in constructing political discourse. Using such insights championed by Jonathan Charteris-Black and Zoltan Kovecses, this study analyzed a similarly sized corpus of speeches spanning the same years by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and of the USA Joe Biden to locate how conceptual metaphors contribute to the construction of particular discourses through different conceptual structures that also emerge upon analysis. The findings point to variation on a lot of levels, shedding light on different patterns and groups of conceptual metaphors used, as well as a lot of variation in the frequency and spread of metaphors. Ultimately, this study probes interesting and insightful differences between the speeches by two presidents , which harks back to differences in the ideologies prevalent in their respective communities and being aimed at, long-term collective histories shaped accordingly, and the group identities forged differentially in the two cultures.