Analysing Linguistic Metaphors in the Political Speeches of President Muhammadu Buhari

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue VII, July 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Analysing Linguistic Metaphors in the Political Speeches of President Muhammadu Buhari

Abdullahi Kaigama, Ali Mohammed Also
The Federal Polytechnic, Damaturu, Yobe State, Nigeria

I. INTRODUCTION

Background to the study

Politicians carry a heavy burden on their shoulders during election time. The promise they make to the electorates and their struggle to win the elections are some of the weights they have to bear. The speech they deliver to address their supporters and the nation in general can have a great impact during the election. As part of their strategy to entice people to vote for them, these politicians use different rhetorics in their speeches (Hart & Tindall, 2009). Metaphors are considered as one of the essential forms of rhetoric that these politicians often use. The way in which politicians make use of metaphors in their political speeches can tell more about the character of their struggle (Pennick, 2014). The use of metaphor in political speech aims to assist the listener to visualize what is meant by an expression or a phrase. Politicians use language to convince people and their thoughts, targets and ideas are equitable to make their points vivid to the people. The speaker needs to use various language tools in order to make his message persuasive and understandable to the audience. They seek to comply with the emotions and desires and needs of the listeners. The use of metaphor is one of the essential tools for persuasion and an instrument for propaganda in rhetorical language (Vestermark, 2007).
Beard (2002) contends that the purpose of political speeches is to manipulate listeners so that the speaker will gain and control their power. But the goal of politicians is not primarily restricted to that, they also present facts and sometimes hide truth in order to appeal to their audience’s emotions and to affect them. The purpose is to emphasise suitable issues and hide others and one of the basic language tools to do that is the use of metaphor (Vestermark, 2007). Sometimes the speaker does not have to distort the facts when using metaphoric language, the response to address depends on the interpretation in the mind of the listener.

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