Conceptual Scenarios in Contemporary American Political Discourse: (Not) Going It Alone

Conceptual Scenarios in Contemporary American Political Discourse: (Not) Going It Alone

MUHIC, Emir

Key words: conceptual scenarios, political discourse, conceptualization, hope, morality, polymorphous theoretical platform ABSTRACT American political discourse is oft-held up as the genuine article of the conceptualization of metaphorically structured discursive scenarios. The interplay of hope and morality is a prevalent lexical constituent giving rise to imperceptibly inculcated pan-societal mores and normative benchmarks within the bounds of which conventionalized patterns of semanto-pragmatic behavioural tendencies emerge and institute a desired constellation of values and mindsets emblematic of the American political arena. This micro-level study aims to identify and conceptually analyse the conspicuous and prominent discursive strategies employed to construct, restructure and deconstruct multilayered perceptions and embodiments from the standpoint of hope and morality scenario-predicated textual samples. Weight will be primarily attached to Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff, 2008 and Kovecses, 2005) in conjunction with purposefully selected facets of Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 1989) in the hope that this polymorphous orchestra echoes a present-day U.S. metaphorical portrait and sheds light as to how to combine the aforementioned theoretical platforms and morph them into analytically workable sync.

Article
PeerReviewed

IBU Publishing

2013-05-03

1753