Zoomorphic Metaphor in Political Discourse

The usage of zoomorphic metaphors has long become a familiar occurrence in the speech of many people, even gaining popularity in political debates. A considerable amount of literature has been published on zoomorphic metaphors, describing their functions and areas of use (Agafonova 2011; Andreeva 2008). The inclusion of knowledge about the animal kingdom in the system of figurative means of characterizing a person, the search for similarities with images of the realities of the natural world is an important stage in the development of human knowledge (Shakhovsky, 2008). Nevertheless, there is a lack of studies paying close attention to political sphere. This article shall concentrate on analyzing and describing the meaning behind applying zoomorphic metaphors in this area of speech. As it is well-known, in many cases metaphors contain evaluation. In those cases when zoomorphic metaphor implies a person, it often contains a negative assessment (Frolova, 2008). We tend to agree that negative features are being indicated in discussions between political opponents more often than positive sides of one or the other, which is most likely to be found in the data for this study which mostly consists of colloquial speech, including debates, speeches of politicians, news releases and articles.