Morality, ideology and metaphorical family roles in Obama's political speeches

This study considers the relation between politics and morality by exploring American political ideology from a cognitive linguistic perspective. The investigation is aimed at demonstrating the extent to which Obama’s rhetoric during his first presidential election campaign is in line with Lakoff’s (1996) predictions about political morality. In particular, it will concentrate on a representative sample of Obama’s 2008 election campaign speeches in order to identify the type of values he evoked and to describe how they can be related to Lakoff’s description of nurturant parent morality. The study will also account for a potential connection between the expression of moral values and the use of metaphorical language