The Use of metaphors to represent national identity in the speeches of the presidents of the Baltic States
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Baltijos šalys (Baltic states); Konceptualioji metafora; Nacionalinis identitetas; Prezidentinių kalbų retorika; Prezitentinė retorika; Tautinė tapatybė; Conceptual metaphor; National identity; Presidential rhetoric; The Baltic States.
ENThis research aims to investigate the use of conceptual metaphors in the rhetoric of the presidents of the Baltic States as well as to compare how metaphor use helps to represent national identity of the countries in the speeches of their presidents. The research object is a corpus consisting of 30 presidential speeches given on Independence Days of the Baltic States. The research has shown that there is a tendency of metaphor use to increase statistically through years 1991-2009 and to decrease slightly since then. The most frequently applied target domains are state, independence, war, history, European Union, and politics, and the corresponding source domains are person, garden, gift, book, theatre, family, and building. Accordingly, the most frequently used metaphors are HISTORY IS BOOK, COUNTRY IS PERSON/INDEPENDENCE IS BIRTH, COUNTRY IS MOTHER. [From the publication]
