美国政治辩论语篇中的情态隐喻研究

A Study on Modality Metaphor in American Presidential Televised Debate Discourses

情态隐喻也和情态一样,作为人际功能的语义载体,它反映了说话人对阐述内容的评价或态度,体现了说话人话语的主观性。该研究基于2008年美国总统电视辩论为语料库,以Halliday的情态系统为理论依据,研究政治辩论语篇中的情态隐喻。研究发现,总统候选人在辩论中运用情态隐喻表示显性主观和显性客观,体现了辨者的情态责任和讲究礼貌策略,能够与观众缩短距离,建立人际关系,最后赢得辩论和选举的胜利。

Modality metaphor, as a semantic carrier for interpersonal function, demonstrates the speakers' appraisal or attitudes towards their utterance and their subjectivity. Based on the corpus of the presidential televised debate in 2008, this paper, with Halliday's Modality System as its theory, studies modality metaphor in American presidential televised debate discourses. The study shows that the candidate displays explicit subjectivity and objectivity by applying modality metaphor in the debate, indicating the debater's modality responsibility and politeness principle, which shortens the distance with audience, builds interpersonal relationship and finally wins the debate and the whole election.