Metáfora conceptual y el marco ESPECTÁCULO en el discurso político de los medios de comunicación

Abstract

Our research lies at the point of confluence of Cognitive Linguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis, two disciplines that contribute in a complementary way to the study of texts by integrating on the one hand, their social and ideological dimension and, on the other, their individual and cognitive aspects. Supported by this theoretical framework, our study explores the way in which political discourse in the media categorises public figures by drawing on delegitimising conceptual metaphors which are rooted in the cognitive domain of THEATRE and SPECTACLE with the aim of focalising the characteristics of deception and of pretence of what one is not. Through analysis of the metaphoric mappings established between the conceptual structure of this domain and the topic of politics, we find a dynamism that is consubstantial with the processes of categorisation that depend largely on the conceptual representation of individuals who, influenced by their mental and cultural models, select the specific frames on which to map the discourse topic and consequently establish the elements relevant to their particular interpretation of a category. Finally, we demonstrate that the metaphoric conceptualisation of politics as imitation or deception constitutes a socially shared representation. In our corpus, it exercises a dual role, acting at the same time as a general framework providing discourse coherence, and also contributing to creating a narrative, a circuit of negative emotions, that has repercussions on the ethical status of the entity