ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the ‘strategic functions’ of political discourse proposed by Chilton and Schaffner and Chilton in an analysis of a political speech and will also set out the parameters of conceptual metaphor theory. It introduces the classic way to analyse political discourse given in Aristotle’s Rhetoric and considers how rhetoric operates in an important written document. For many, vegetarianism or veganism could be considered political – part of the process of ‘lifestyle politics’ – whilst choosing to walk or to take public transport instead of driving one’s own vehicle might play a part in ‘environmental politics’. In short, whole myriads of complex networks of power, politics and policy affect the citizenry of anywhere. To be a part of society, any society, is to be amidst politics. Thus metaphor, whilst undoubtedly important for persuasion and creativity, should not be thought of as exclusive to politics or to literature, but recognised as a natural part of human conception.
