COMMON SOURCE DOMAINS IN BARACK OBAMA’S INAUGURAL SPEECH

Nguyen Xuan Hong1,
1 Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

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Abstract

This article investigates Barack Obama’s inaugural speech delivered on January 20, 2009, to systematically identify, describe, and analyze several prominent conceptual metaphors grounded in frequently occurring source domains. The Metaphor Identification Procedure by Pragglejaz Group (2007) was adopted as the primary analytical instrument for the identification of conceptual metaphors. The identified metaphors were subsequently described, classified, and interpreted within the theoretical framework of the relationship between thought, language, and culture. The findings demonstrate that the common source domains employed include HUMAN, JOURNEY, BUILDING, WAR, ANIMAL and PLANT, and WEATHER. These findings provide insights into how source domains shape the processes of conceptualization and categorization in political discourse.

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References

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