The Politics of Climate Change Metaphors in the U.S. Discourse : Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Analysis From an Ecolinguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis Perspective

This book uses critical metaphor analysis to show from a cognitive perspective how climate change is conceptualized in the USA. The author enriches his linguistic analysis with cognitive aspects such as source-target domain mapping and metaphor opposition to explain how metaphor works in terms of framing this issue, drawing on a Critical Discourse Analysis-informed framework to demonstrate how politicians represent the climate crisis in their attempts to trigger social change. Using a data set of speeches given by US-based politicians, governors and mayors speaking in the context of the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement, the book categorizes metaphors on different conceptions such as war, construction, unfairness, journey, and cleanliness to bridge the gap between ecolinguistics and critical metaphor analysis. This book will be of interest to students and scholars in fields including applied linguistics, political communication, ecolinguistics, and cognitive linguistics and psychology. Othman Khalid Al-Shboul is Assistant Professor at Jadara University, Jordan. He holds a PhD in applied linguistics from the University of Memphis, USA. He has 12 years of teaching experience at different universities in the USA, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, and his work has been published in international journals. Preface Acknowledgment Contents List of Figures List of Tables 1: Introduction Overview An Overview of Climate Change Paris Climate Agreement Political State of Affairs Between 2015 and 2017 in the United States Levels of the U.S. Government References 2: Climate Change Discourse/Politics in Linguistic Studies Climate Skepticism CDA Analysis into Climate Discourse Experimental Research into Climate Discourse Aims and Objectives References 3: A Detailed Overview of Theory: CDA, Ecolinguistics and Metaphor The Theoretical Foundations: Critical Discourse Analysis The Theoretical Foundations: Ecolinguistics The Theoretical Foundations: Metaphor Main Types of Research Investigating Metaphor References 4: Methods and Strategies of Sampling Methods Strategies for Sampling The Governors Senators The Mayors References 5: Analyzing Politicians’ Metaphors Supporting the U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris agreement Types of Metaphors Impediment Metaphor The Cognitive Understanding of Impediment as a Conceptual Metaphor Source-Target Mapping Metaphor Opposition (Impediment) Unfairness Metaphor The Cognitive Understanding of Unfairness as a Conceptual Metaphor Source-Target Mapping Metaphor Opposition (Unfairness) War Metaphor The Cognitive Understanding of War as a Conceptual Metaphor Source-Target Mapping Metaphor Opposition (War) Journey Metaphor The Cognitive Understanding of Journey as a Conceptual Metaphor Source-Target Mapping Metaphor Opposition (Journey) Cleanliness Metaphor The Cognitive Understanding of Cleanliness as a Conceptual Metaphor Source-Target Mapping Metaphor Opposition (Cleanliness) Construction Metaphor The Cognitive Understanding of Construction as a Conceptual Metaphor Source-Target Mapping Metaphor Opposition (Construction) Theft Metaphor The Cognitive Understanding of Theft as a Conceptual Metaphor Source-Target Mapping Metaphor Opposition (Theft) Conclusion References 6: Analyzing Politicians’ Metaphors Opposing the U.S. Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement Types of Metaphors Journey Metaphor The Cognitive Understanding of Journey as a Conceptual Metaphor Source-Target Mapping (Journey) Metaphor Opposition (Journey) War Metaphor The Cognitive Understanding of War as a Conceptual Metaphor Source-Target Mapping (War) Metaphor Opposition (War) Cleanliness Metaphor The Cognitive Understanding of Cleanliness as a Conceptual Metaphor Source-Target Mapping (Cleanliness) Metaphor Opposition (Cleanliness) Construction Metaphor The Cognitive Understanding of Construction as a Conceptual Metaphor Source-Target Mapping (Construction) Metaphor Opposition (Construction) Conclusion References 7: The Politicians’ Use of Mixed Metaphors in the U.S. Climate Discourse Mixed Metaphors Metaphor as a Trigger for Social Change References 8: A Corpus-Based Analysis of Climate Discourse in the Web News Introduction Section One: Aspects and Actions That the Media Focuses on About Climate Change Section Two: Debate on Climate Change in the Media Conclusion References 9: Ecosophy Ecological Philosophy (Ecosophy) Classification of the Politicians’ Perspectivization Based on My Ecosophy References 10: Contributions Contribution to Metaphor Theory and Analysis Contribution to Studying Climate Change Debate in the U.S. Contribution to Ecolinguistics Summary and Further Research References Appendix A: The Paris Agreement Appendix B: The Letter to the UN on Withdrawing from the Paris Agreement Appendix C: The Governors’ Environmental Activities Index