The use of the PATH and FORCE image schemas in Barack Obama’s counterterrorism discourse against ISIL

ABSTRACT

The paper focuses on metaphorical representation of military activities of the US-led international coalition and of ISIL which are construed on the basis of systematic metaphors drawn from the combination of the PATH and FORCE image schemas. The corpus for the analysis consists of 30 political speeches delivered by American president Barack Obama in the period from 2014 to 2016 in which the speaker outlined the actions and military strategies against ISIL. Methodological procedure for the identification of systematic metaphors in the President’s discourse followed the steps specified within Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP) proposed by Pragglejaz Group [2007. MIP: A method for identifying metaphorically used words in discourse. Metaphor and Symbol, 22(1), 1–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/10926480709336752]. The results from the analysis indicate that systematic metaphors drawn from the combination of the PATH and FORCE schemas were employed as a means for the manifestation of progress in the campaign against the organization and they presented power and intentions of both sides involved in the conflict in the area of the Middle East.

KEYWORDS:

• Barack Obama
• force
• image schema
• ISIL
• path
• systematic metaphor

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Marek Hampl

Mgr. Marek Hampl, Ph.D. is an assistant lecturer at the Department of English Language and Literature, University of Žilina in Žilina, Slovakia. His research interests include the analysis of political discourse with the focus on the representation of the ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ groups in political speeches and on the area which is related to the doctrines of American foreign policy in the Cold War period.