The development of the journey metaphor in political discourse

Abstract

The present paper focuses on the variation and dynamics of cross-cultural conceptual metaphor national DEVELOPMENT is a journey in Lithuanian political discourse. The paper aims to answer the question: To what extent do we share the same or different understanding of politics as a journey? Employing Critical Metaphor Analysis (CMA) (Charteris-Black, 2005) as methodological background, an attempt is made to look at variation of conceptual metaphor and metaphorical linguistic expressions within one political party, i.e. the Conservative Party, but at different periods of time. It is assumed that linguistic metaphorical expressions underlying the conceptual metaphor NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IS a JOURNEY are likely to have a temporal character. The results show that metaphorical linguistic expressions underlying the JOURNEY metaphor alter significantly within one political discourse before joining the European Union and NATO and after it. Moreover, marked changes in conceptual metaphor have also been observed. Thus, the development of the JOURNEY metaphor shows ideological implications emerging in the political discourse of Lithuania.