A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Metaphor In Selected Acceptance And Inaugural Speeches Of President Goodluck Jonathan And President Barack Obama

📄 Project Abstract

In recent times, there has been a pragmatic shift in the interest of linguists from language form to language functions especially from Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) perspective. Several attempts have been made by scholars to investigate what people do when they use language. The use of metaphor in speeches abounds as studies carried out by Lakoff (1980) and Barbour (1974) suggests that metaphor goes beyond aesthetics and colouration in language use; but performs meaning beyond the surface level. The purpose of this work therefore is to analyse through Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA) which is an aspect of CDA, the metaphoric use of language in President Goodluck Jonathan and President Barack Obama's acceptance and inaugural speeches. The speeches were carefully selected and the study paid attention to the functions and roles metaphors play in speeches and cohesively, the different forms of metaphors used in the speeches. With a total of twelve (12) types of metaphors used, the stu...