This article analyses the use of (deliberate) metaphors in political discourse produced by French-speaking Belgian
regional parliamentarians during non-institutional political interviews. The article first investigates if the use of deliberate
metaphor limits itself to a particular type of political discourse (i.e. public and institutional political discourse) or if
metaphor use is also found in other types of settings (i.e. non-institutional political discourse). Second, the article analyses
the variation of deliberate metaphor use between political actors depending on gender, seniority and political affiliation. To
this end, the article applies Steen’s (2008) three-dimensional model of metaphor
analysis on biographical interviews conducted with French-speaking Belgian regional parliamentarians (RMPs). Our results indicate
that RMPs, when using non-deliberate metaphors, mostly rely on source domains such as construction, battle and
relationships. This is in contrast with the use of deliberate metaphors, where source domains like sports,
nature and container take the upper hand.
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Heinemann, Sabine
2022. The Conceptualisation of EUROPE in the Italian Press since the Early 20th Century. In On the Discursive Deconstruction and Reconstruction of Europe [Linguistik in Empirie und Theorie/Empirical and Theoretical Linguistics, ], ► pp. 47 ff.
Keating, John
2021. Populist discourse and active metaphors in the 2016 US presidential elections. Intercultural Pragmatics 18:4 ► pp. 499 ff.
2021. Pacific Step-Up: Exploring Geopolitical Accountability for Aid in Solomon Islands. Social and Environmental Accountability Journal► pp. 1 ff.
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