By Tweet and By Speech: An Examination of Values in Donald Trump's Metaphor

This Honor’s thesis examines Donald Trump’s use of metaphor and explores how he expresses his values through those metaphors. By examining examples of Trump’s political remarks, I reveal the central metaphor by which Trump operates and consider how American citizens may reestablish their political power by understanding Trump’s metaphors. The time period studied includes the start of Trump’s 2016 Presidential campaign up until the present. First, I discuss the central metaphor Trump uses in his remarks. Then, I classify Trump’s public speeches and tweets into separate categories, which include the ways in which his speech has affected public reaction. In these categories, I apply George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s philosophy of language to Trump’s remarks, and I reveal the values expressed in Trump’s metaphors. After this, and I develop an appeal and course of action that American citizens who are opposed to Trump’s presidency must make in order to expose Trump’s non-egalitarian values. My findings will illuminate the power that metaphors have in contemporary American society and the impact they have made subsequent to the 2016 Presidential Election.

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Philosophy

Grantor

Texas State University

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Garcia, Samantha

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Benedikt, Amelie F.

• Trump
• metaphor
• values
• absolutist
• philosophy
• Lakoff

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10877/6988

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digital.library.txst.edu:10877/6988