What’s in a metaphor? : the use of political metaphors in the Conservative and Labour parties

Abstract

This thesis investigates Conservative’s and Labour’s use of metaphors in their 1997 manifestos. Using Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Lakoff’s Strict Father and Nurturant Parent models as framework, we look for conceptual metaphors as well as possible relations to underlying morality and family based reasoning, as predicted by the SF and NP models. The hypothesis is that the ideological differences in Conservative and Labour politics will not only surface in their language use, and thus in the metaphors they employ, but that the metaphors we find in the manifestos will prove to reveal underlying conceptual differences in the two parties