THE BRIDGE METAPHER IN THE GERMAN CHANCELLOR'S POLITICAL LANGUAGE

Abstract

     Metaphors structure our everyday life, not only our language, but also our thinking and acting (Lakoff, Johnson 2011: 11). Due to their characteristic of “highlighting and shading” (ibid: 18), metaphors are particularly well suited to enforcing a certain point of view on a factual or problematic situation and to obscuring other aspects. This article uses the example of the bridge metaphor in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's usage to show how she tries to “make the addressees complicit in her point of view” (Strauss et al. 1989: 664). First of all, the various ways in which the bridge metaphor can be used and their potential for meaning are reconstructed. The second step illustrates which linguistic strategies the Chancellor is pursuing with this metaphor. The third step shows how semantic battles can be carried out with metaphors. Conceptual metaphor theory and political linguistics provide the theoretical and methodological framework.