Shaping Value Systems by Means of Conceptual Metaphor – American Inaugurals

This paper tries to give an insight into political reasoning through the theoretic framework of cognitive linguistics. Through an analysis of conceptual metaphors used in the corpus of inaugural speeches of American presidents, we will show how the American value system was constructed and for what purpose. This analysis will show the importance of conceptual metaphor as a rhetoric device and how it can be used. It will eventually be claimed that American presidents have deliberately used conceptual metaphors as a uniting linguistic element. Along with conceptual metaphor we will also make use of two other fundamental parts of cognitive linguistics – image schemas and semantic frames