Cultural “Signs of life” in politics : A case study of eulogistic idioms for Taiwanese politicians
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| Year of publication | 2020 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
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| Description | This chapter presents a Cognitive Linguistic analysis of Mandarin eulogistic idioms used for politicians as a sub-genre of political communication. The entire collection of idioms is taken from the online eulogy request system in Taiwan and contains 16 idioms. In the analysis of the idioms, it is shown that in addition to conceptual metaphor and metonymy, Cognitive Grammar is another useful theoretical construct in analysing political eulogies. The analysis, in addition, explicates how various cultural conceptualizations and allusions are involved as a basis for understanding the eulogistic expressions. At the social level, a comparison between the Taiwanese political eulogies and data from Western cultures shows that the social role played by the deceased and the mourner is another important sign of life in Taiwanese culture. |
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