Conceptual Metaphor and Ideology: Based on the Study of H1N1 Discourse

Based on the social constructionism, which maintains a two-way relation between language and social reality, this paper applies the achievements in cognitive linguistics to analyze the conceptual metaphor in China Daily's H1N1 discourse.It is found that H1N1 is conceptualized as a metaphor complex: H1N1 is a greedy and sly murderer threatening the lives of entire human being.This arch-metaphor consists of four daughter metaphors.This paper further discusses the reasons of conceptualizing H1N1 in the way as it is.It is maintained that through the metaphor complex an implicit statement has been implanted among readers.The significance of this paper includes: (a) advancing the relevant discourse studies through furthering van Dijk's Ideology Square, and (b) demonstrating the relation between ideology and conceptual metaphor in media discourse.