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Emily Hayes
Linguistics

Eric Pederson, Mentor

The State of the Family: Examining Conceptual Metaphor in Political Discourse

In conceptual metaphor theory, metaphor plays a fundamental role in how we understand our world. Complex metaphorical models govern the organization of ideas and help structure their analyses. George Lakoff’s application of conceptual metaphor theory to political discourse yields an overarching metaphor: The Nation is A Family. This study examines four State of the Union addresses delivered by George W. Bush, covering a period of six years, within the context of conceptual metaphor theory. Specifically, the analysis looks for semantic evidence of the Nation as Family metaphor and two others embedded within it—the Strict Father and the Nurturant Parent models, which operate in defining conservative and liberal viewpoints. In accordance with Lakoff’s current research, the State of the Union addresses are expected to favor the Strict Father model over the Nurturant Parent model.