Figures of Speech and Their Application in Political Speeches

Abstract

This diploma paper deals with figurative language in public speeches, namely metaphors. The theoretical part defines figurative language and both historical overview and categorization of metaphors. It also sums up what role metaphors play in our lives. The focus of this part are conceptual metaphors. In the practical part, the theory is applied to recent inauguration addresses of US presidents. Metaphors are located and then their meaning, motivation and other aspect which are mentioned in the theoretical part are analyzed. Moreover, the analysis deals with the occurance of metaphors to find out frequency and also what are the prevailing types of metaphors.