An Analysis of the WAR AGAINST THE DISEASE-metaphor in Selected 2011 Presidential Speeches of Felipe Calderon with the Application of the Neural Theory of Metaphor

Abstract

An Analysis of the WAR AGAINST THE DISEASE-metaphor in Selected 2011 Presidential Speeches of Felipe Calderon with the Application of the Neural Theory of Metaphor

The following paper describes the background of the neural theory of language by Jerome Feldman and provides a set of related research tools by George Lakoff. It also offers an example of its application to metaphor analysis based on 2011–2012 speeches by the Mexican President, Felipe Calderon. A complex WAR AGAINST THE DISEASE-metaphor is decomposed and explained with respect to cognitive patterns involved. In its envoy, the article goes back to a famous linguistic question, whether one can judge from linguistic research onto the mental and neural processes involved in language creation and processing. It is also an attempt to indicate possible future directions in the interdisciplinary field of metaphor research.