The Role of Metaphorical Language in the Critical Discourse Analysis of Western Political Texts

The present study was carried out with the purpose of examining the role of metaphorical language in the critical discourse analysis (CDA) of political texts based on the CDA framework and attitudinal model of appraisal theory. According to CDA, the categories of deception, power relations, manipulation, authority, legitimation, and ideology were considered in the analysis of the texts and, concerning attitudinal resources, judgment, appreciation, and affect were gauged. The corpus of this study consisted of different editorial articles in Western political magazines on the relations between the I.R. of Iran and the West in the time span of 2010-2017. The results of both content analysis and chi-square test tended to approve the significant use of metaphors in the texts with regard to both discursive and attitudinal resources. Regarding the former, deception, power relations, manipulation, and authority gained the highest frequency while with respect to the latter, judgment and appreciation were implemented more frequently. The significance of the findings is discussed in light of CDA and appraisal theory and relevant implications are presented in the paper.