الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract This study intends to examine metaphors in the discourse of the American President Barack Obama with respect to the Arab Spring uprisings. The main aim is to indicate how metaphors are utilized by Obama in his political speeches as a powerful tool to manipulate the Arab people, and to convince them that it is inevitable to fight for freedom, change and democracy. The study then proceeds to manifest the significant ability of metaphor to evoke an evaluative judgment of particular elements of Obama’s political discourse. Hence, the primary purpose of this study is to examine how metaphors are used to give a clear insight into the way Obama’s audience can conceptualize the Arab Spring issue. It also aims at showing how his ideology could affect the Arab people in order to accept his beliefs and viewpoints, which represent the US view. The study further seeks to demonstrate who is the villain, and who is the victim, and whether the Arab uprisings are justifiable or invalid. In this way, the study attempts to piece together a comprehensive and coherent picture of the situation in the Arab world. Accordingly, several research questions are raised in an attempt to uncover these primary objectives: 1- Which types of metaphors occur in Obama’s political speeches concerning the Arab Spring issue? What are the most common source domains he uses? 2- What are the probable purpose behind using these metaphors? What images does Obama try to picture? 3- How do the conceptual metaphors represented in Obama’s speeches have influential rhetorical effect on his audience? What emotions does Obama seek to evoke? |