The Yutong Bus: Representations of a New Ghanaian Political Metaphor

Abstract

Over last decade, the Ghanaian political discourse has been characterized by insults. This has been of major concern to media commentators, civil society, and other stakeholders in governance in Ghana. One fundamental key in Ghana’s political discourse has been the use of metaphor. Using Lakoff and Johnson’s (1980) theory of metaphor, the study examines a bus metaphor in recent Ghanaian political speeches. The analysis of the metaphor reveals that the use of metaphors can minimize direct vilification in Ghanaian political communication. The analysis also demonstrates that features of conceptual sources can be manipulated by politicians to achieve positive rhetorical ends. Furthermore, the study supports the fact that positive or negative associations of source domain over a period of time can become a natural part of any given source domain The study has implication(s) for the relationship between political language and human cognition.