英语动物隐喻在政治社论中的语用分析-以《经济学人》为例_英语论文

Pragmatic Analysis Of Animal Metaphors In Political Editorials：A Case Study Of Political Discourse In The Economist

摘要

社论在新闻文章中占据着重要地位，往往反映出新闻媒体的立场和思考深度。社论较多以政治评论形式出现，而动物隐喻作为常见的政治隐喻也在政治社论中出现。在西方的政治社论中，这些动物隐喻不仅反映着西方独特的政治生态，也在社论中发挥着重要的语用功能。在不同的语境下，动物隐喻也有着不同的隐含意义。

英语是世界上使用最广泛的语言。英语新闻媒体，尤其是英美发达国家的英语新闻媒体对世界新闻媒体的影响越来越大，在塑造世界公共舆论方面发挥着极其重要的作用。《经济学人》作为西方政治经济类的领袖杂志，长期是西方政治精英的喉舌，在西方政治舆论影响极大。本文选取了2015年到2016年《经济学人》的政治社论文章，对其中使用到动物隐喻的124篇进行数据统计和文本分析，旨在发现动物隐喻在西方政治社论使用特点，基于关联理论和合作理论得出了动物隐喻的三个语用功能——明示刺激功能，合作功能和暗示功能。

关键词：动物隐喻；语用功能；政治社论

Abstract

The editorial occupies an important position in the news articles. It usually reflects the standpoint and thinking depth of the media. The editorial focuses more on political events and animal metaphors as common political metaphors often appear in political editorials. In the western political editorials, the animal metaphors not only reflect the unique political ecology of west countries, but also give rise to significant pragmatic functions in the editorial publication. Also, animal metaphors have different connotations in different contexts. 

English is the most widely used language in the world. English news media, especially those in developed countries make more and more profound impact on the world and play a great role in shaping the world public opinion. As a leading political and economic magazine, The Economist is the mouthpiece of the western political elite for a long time. The paper selects political editorials in The Economist of 2015 and 2016 and then does a statistical survey and makes a statistic and textual analysis of animal metaphors in 124 political editorials. The paper aims to find out the characteristics of animal metaphors in the western political editorials. Based on Relevance Theory and Cooperative Principle，the author figures out three pragmatic functions of the animal metaphor : ostensive stimulus function, cooperative function and implicating function. 

Key words：animal metaphor；pragmatic function；political editorial

Contents

Acknowledgments i

Abstract(Chinese) ii

Abstract(English) iii

Contents I

Introduction 1

Chapter I Literature Review 3

1.1. Previous Studies on Animal Metaphor 3

1.2. Previous Studies on Political Discourse 4

Chapter II Theoretical Framework 5

2.1. Cooperative Principles 5

2.2. Relevance Theory-Metaphor in Context 6

Chapter III Characteristics of Animal Metaphors in Political Editorials 8

3.1. An overview of the Editorial and the Animal Metaphor 8

3.1.1 The Editorial as a Genre 8

3.1.2 Metaphor and Animal Metaphor 9

3.2. An Analysis of Characteristics of Animal Metaphors in Samples 10

3.2.1 Close Relationship with Human being 11

3.2.2 Preference of Derogatory Senses 12

Chapter IV Pragmatic Functions of Animal Metaphors in Political Editorials 16

4.1. Ostensive Stimulus Function 16

4.2. Cooperative Function 17

4.3. Implicating Function 18

Conclusion 20

Bibliography 21