Situational conditioned dynamics of the metaphorical image of Mikhail Saakashvili in the British media

Abstract

The article is devoted to the diachronic research of the metaphorical portrait of a political leader. The principle of focus fragmentation is used in this research: two fragments of political reality are considered. The diachronic analysis helps to identify constant and variable characteristics for each synchronic slice (a period of time). The present article examines the development of the metaphorical image of Mikheil Saakashvili in the British media. The metaphors of two time periods are compared: the period of Saakashvili’s tenure as the President (2004-2013) and the period after the resignation. The research is based on the British media texts devoted to Mikheil Saakashvili and his activities, which were published in the period 2004-2019. According to the analysis, the number of metaphors with a negative assessment increases, especially during Saakashvili took part in the political struggle in Ukraine. These are metaphors with the sphere-source “War”, “Game / Sport”, “Theater”. The analysis shows that the quantitative indicator of some metaphorical models changes: the number of metaphors with the sphere-source of “Theater” increases in the second synchronic slice, the number of metaphors with the sphere-source of “Monarchy”, “Physiology”, “Mechanism”, etc. decreases. This may indicate a certain connection between the political changes and the frequency of metaphorical models. It is also worthwhile to pay attention to onomastic metaphors characterizing the ex-president of Georgia. The analysis shows that the changes of semantic shade depends on the political situation. The study contributes to better understanding of the general pattern of the dynamics of metaphorical images. The perspectives of our study are comparison of metaphorical images of political leaders in the media of Great Britain, Russia, the United States and other countries.