ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates how the political metaphor is accommodated and recontextualized in media discourse. Drawing on the recontextualization principles in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (Fairclough, 2003, Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. London: Routledge) and the engagement system in Appraisal Theory (AT) (Martin & White, 2005, The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. Houndmills Basingstoke: Palgrave/Macmillan), an analytical model is proposed to examine the recontextualization of the Chinese political metaphor from a political speech to English media reports. The authors analyse how a metaphor used by Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Nepal generated a great deal of media coverage and how the metaphor was removed from its original context, translated, quoted and recontextualized in the English news discourse of both major Chinese and Anglo-American media. The chapter also illustrates how the strategies of discursive practices can be employed to identify the positioning and evaluation of the translation and quotations of the political metaphor in the recontextualization processes in media discourse.
