Metafora w dyskursie politycznym

Abstract

Metaphor is not infrequently madę use of in political discourse as a suggestive means of expressing a meaning and communicating assessments, that is, as an instrument of persu- asion rendering it possible to shape the recipients’ views, opinions and behaviours from the standpoint of interests of a specified political party or social group. This role is best served by metaphors with a simple syntactic structure, highly conventionalised and em- ploying stereotypical content in their vehicle. In her description of metaphor’s me- aning-creating mechanism, the author emphasises the particular status of metaphoric pre- dicate that is suggested by the utterance’s sender and independently produced by the rece- iver using the metaphor vehicle’s connotation. The valuing so expressed is not subject to direct negation and so is quite powerful in terms of persuasiveness. Use of metaphors car- rying different valuing connotations whilst originating from a single notional field, as well as inventive witty transformation of the metaphor carrier practised in order to divert one’s attention from the evaluating content transferred by the same, can serve to neutrali- se an assessment being suggested by a metaphor. Ludic operations, often carried out on metaphors, enhance by themselves the persuasive power of utterances madę by politi- cians