Metaphor, Politics and Gender: a Case Study from Germany

Abstract

In this chapter, we analyse the use of metaphor in a corpus of interviews and speeches given by the former and current chancellors of Germany, Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel. More generally, we will introduce a theoretical and methodological framework for analysing metaphor in discourse which informs both this and Chapter 3. The theoretical background relies on the notion of metaphor as both a conceptual and a linguistic phenomenon, which is combined with a social constructivist view on gender and language. While attention has been given to how female and male politicians are represented in the media (for example Hellinger 2006, Hercberg 2007), there are fewer studies addressing the potentially gendered language use of politicians themselves, a scarcity which this book, and indeed our chapters, are poised to remedy.KeywordsGender IdentitySource DomainHegemonic MasculinityMetaphoric ExpressionSocial Constructivist ApproachThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.