The use of metaphor in Georgian and American political discourse

Abstract

The twenty-first century turned out to be quite difficult in many ways. Accordingly, the role of television political talk shows has greatly increased. Interest in political discourse is growing. Speaking on this issue, it is important to define speech behavior. The study of speech strategies and tactics is currently quite relevant, as they allow to identify the speech behavior of a person. However, it should be noted here that despite the common features, the political discourse of all countries is different. A similar type of discourse is characterized by the ability to express culture. The difference between media discourses in different languages is due to the difference in histories, socio-cultural contexts and journalistic activities. It is in this kind of discourse that politicians use various metaphors in order to influence the voters or degrade the opponent. Metaphor is a tool that is heavily used in politics. It is considered a powerful tool that politicians often use in their speeches to manipulate the feelings and opinions of listeners, and even to control the values of others. Metaphor has persuasive power because it combines pragmatic, cognitive, and linguistic knowledge with culture, ideology, and history (Charteris-Black 2004). According to Levinson, the interpretation of metaphor must derived from our general ability to think in analogies. According to Friedrich, "metaphor is only one type of analogy and part of a much larger context of analogical devices and associational thinking".There are also local metaphors common in the Georgian political society, which are understandable only to our society. For example, "Political Kiku". Everyone knows that Kiku is the hero of Chabua Amirejibi's novel “Data Tutashkhia”, who sells her body for money.