La metáfora genérica y el lenguaje político periodístico

Abstract

Lakoff and his collaborators (Lakoff, 1990 y 1993; Lakoff & Turner, 1989), have postulated the existence of at least the following generic metaphors: The Event Structure Metaphor, The Great Chain of Being, GENERIC IS SPECIFIC and EVENTS ARE ACTIONS. In this article we will try to prove that most metaphors used to talk about politics belong to either The Great Chain Metaphor or the Event Structure Metaphor. However, only the latter functionally structures the whole domain of politics while the Great Chain Metaphor only affects partial aspects of the field. We shall try to elucidate why this is so and how it affects the cognitive approach to metaphor in general. We shall then try to explain the possible role of the other generic metaphors: GENERIC IS SPECIFIC and EVENTS ARE ACTIONS. Furthermore, we have considered three metaphors of generic level: ACTIONS ARE EVENTS, ACTIONS ARE ACTIONS and ACTIONS ARE STATES. Finally, the conceptual connection between structural and ontological metaphors is relevant to certain issues dealing with Cognitive Linguistics, namely, conceptual interaction and continuum.