Metaphor analysis of Dr. Mahathir’s business speeches

Abstract

Dr. Mahathir is one of the most prominent characters in Malaysia. He transformed Malaysia’s economy into an industrialized and modernized economy during his 22 years as its Prime Minister. Considering the country’s economic achievements, very few studies have been conducted on the role of discourse in his achievements. To bridge the gap in the literature, this study focused on metaphor as one of the recent discourse features missing in the literature on Dr. Mahathir’s discourse. Metaphors are one of the common discourse tools used by orators to persuade, communicate with, and convey ideologies to their audience via creating a picture of a concept in the audience’s mind. The objectives of the study were to identify the types, functions, and purposes of metaphors as well as how differently metaphors were used across national and international audience. The theoretical frameworks behind this study were Cognitive Theory of Metaphor; Class Inclusion Theory; and Dialectical-relational Approach. The applied methodological approach was Critical Metaphor Analysis of 25 business speeches delivered by Dr. Mahathir in the year 2000. The findings revealed that the main conceptual metaphor in Dr. Mahathir’s speeches is economic challenges are diseases. The main purposes of his metaphors are persuading national unity and international solidarity with the main functions of image-making (national audience) and creating a sense of alarm (international audience). In addition, there is a close relationship between types and functions of metaphors based on ideologies and power relations across the audience. The findings of the study also revealed that there are different aspects of metaphors used as a communication strategy by Dr. Mahathir, a successful political leader, who created impressive speeches to address his audience without losing meaning.