“Leftie snowflakes” and other metaphtonymies in the British political discourse

Abstract

The present paper deals with the use of deliberate metaphors in the political discourse. The potential of dehumanising metaphors to create derogatory descriptions used to disparage one’s political opponents is analysed. Also, metaphorical descriptions prove to be very productive in creating polysemy in previously monosemous items which are used in a new capacity in order to create an effect of novelty and surprise. This function appears especially useful in the language of politics in general, and the language of British politics in particular. The paper is maintained within the methodological framework of cognitive linguistics, focusing on the theories of conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy.