thE MEtAPhor of thE
4. RESEARCH FINDINGS
The most striking difference was the presence of multiple well-defined conceptual metaphors in Orbán-speeches (conservative side), in opposition to rather vague metaphors in the rest (social-liberal side).
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4.1. Source domain
I found three major source domains: vehicle, building, and people.
4.1.1. Vehicle
Conservative speeches in most cases specified the kind of vehicle used, stressed the need of getting somewhere, and examined the characteristics of the given vehicle:
whether or not it is in good condition, etc. Examples include:1
ship (sodródó hajó – ‘a drifting ship’; Magyarország hajója […] ne legyen kiszol-gáltatva a változó széljárásoknak – ‘the ship of Hungary will not be left to the mercy of changing winds’)
racket (hogyan indul útjára egy rakéta – ‘as a rocket leaving ground’)
car (defektes gépkocsink már a felniken fut – ‘our car is running with a burst tire’) bus (csakhogy itt most nem magánautóról van szó, hanem egy buszról, amelynek
tízmillió utasa van – ‘we are not talking about a private car, but a bus with ten million passangers’)
train (előfordulhat, hogy a világgazdaság […] szerelvényéhez nem tudjuk odakapc-solni Magyarország vasúti kocsiját – ‘it might happen that we cannot attach our wagon to the train of the world economy’)
I did not find specific instances of the vehicle as source domain in speeches by social-liberal politicians, although the concept of getting somewhere was present:
a nemzetnek együtt kell Európába érkeznie – ‘the nation has to arrive in Europe together’; váltsunk irányt és váltsunk sebességet – ‘let’s change direction and change gear!’
4.1.2. Building
This source domain appears both in general and with specifications on the con-servative side:
In general (ha nem tudjuk felépíteni ezt az államot – ‘if we cannot build this state’) a house (zsugorítja ennek a háznak az értékét, hogy szolid családi házból utcavégi,
ártéri odúvá minősítették – ‘the house lost value, as the once modest family home is requalified as a last-on-the-row, floodplain cottage’)
Like the vehicle domain, references to this source domain lack specifics on the social-liberal side, even to the point that the concept of building becomes as vague as making or creating. Another emerging aspect here is that this act often shifts from the present to the future:
1 The examples are followed by my translation.
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csináljunk egy nagyszerű országot – ‘let’s make a wonderful country!’
lehet teremteni egy új, egy jobb Magyarországot – ‘a new, better Hungary can be created’
4.1.3. People
This source domain includes both unique groups of people or certain individuals on the conservative side, specifying major characteristics as well:
family (a szülők kis vonással jelzik az ajtófélfán, mennyit nőtt, gyarapodott gyer-mekük – ‘the parents mark the door post to see how much their children have grown’)
team (az erős ország azonban olyan, mint egy erős csapat – ‘the strong country is like a strong team’)
athlete (Magyarország is benevezett egy versenybe – ‘Hungary also signed up for a contest’)
steward (valójában sohasem az állam, hanem mindig a kormány a rossz gazda) – ‘in reality it is never the state, but the government as a bad steward’)
I found only two instances of this source on the social-liberal side:
steward (előrelátó gazdájaként az országnak – ‘a far-sighted steward of the country’) family (úgy van ez, mint otthon: ha a jövedelmünkből többet költünk, mint amennyi van, a hónap végén a szomszédba szaladunk, vagy szalajtjuk a gyereket kölcsönké-rni – ‘it is just like at home: if we spend more of our income than what we have, we go to our neighbour or send the kid over for a loan at the end of the month’).
4.2. Morality
On the textual level, the Nation As Family conceptual metaphor did not appear often enough to draw a clear picture of whether either side of the political spectrum could be characterized by one family model or another. Still, models of morality do emerge, and can be depicted by examining the character traits of the target-domain (the state, the nation, or the government as its head), directly personalized or appearing through the above mentioned sources.
4.2.1. Orbán
In conservative speeches, the state is independent (ezt a hajót közös akaratunk szerint magunk kormányozhassuk – ‘this ship is to be steered by our common con-sent’), strong, responsible (erős, felelős és cselekvő kormányzás – ‘strong, responsible and active government’)
and does the following:
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Holds rights to oversee and controll (erősíteni kell az államok irányítási és ellenőrzési jogait – ‘we have to strengthen the controlling and overseeing rights of the states’)
Provides protection (meg tudja védeni az embereket – ‘can protect the people’) Sets moral boundaries (mégiscsak szükség van valamilyen erkölcsi abroncsra – ‘some
kind of a moral rim is still needed’)
Preserves agency but helps nevertheless (az állam melléjük áll … bizonyos szabad-ságokat bátran meghagyhat az embereknek, akik eldönthetik – ‘the state stands by them […] leaving some freedoms with the people, who can decide’) Provides opportunities (lehetőségeket adni a tetterős embereknek – ‘giving
oppor-tunities to people ready to act’)
Serves (hatalmaskodás helyett szolgálatot – ‘service instead of dominance’) This is more like the Strict Father model, but traits of the Nurturant Parent appear
in it as well. Nevertheless, independence seems to be very important.
The character traits in social-liberal speeches often vary by time and by speaker, making it hard to identify specific trends or themes.
4.2.2. Medgyessy The state –
Gives protection and provides (minden polgárát megvédi – ‘protects all of its citizens’; felelősek vagyunk azokért, akik a maguk erejéből nem tudtak feljebb kapaszkodni – ‘we are responsible for those who cannot climb up on their own’).
Counts on the help of a larger unit (Európa segít – ‘Europe helps’).
Serves, helps out, lends support (sokat tettünk azokért, akiknek eddig túl kevés jutott – ‘we have done much for those who do not have much’; azokat kell segíteni, akik valóban rászorultak – ‘we need to help those truly in need; állami támogatás – ‘support from the state’)
The Nurturant Parent model dominates through both years of his administration, but this parent is not necessarily the state; it could be Europe or the European Union as well.
4.2.3. Gyurcsány The state –
Does not necessarily provide (nem igaz, hogy a gondoskodó állam helyettesíti a telje-sítményt, hogy a gazdaságban a versenynél fontosabb a kormányzati támogatás – ‘it is not true that a providing state can replace achievement, that state support
is more important than competition in economy’) 158
Counts on members of the community (a köztársaság ereje és cselekvőképessége a polgárok hozzájárulásán múlik – ‘the strength and capacity of the republic depends on the contribution of its citizens’)
Serves, protects, helps (a köztársaság ereje és cselekvőképessége a polgárok hozzájáru-lásán múlik – ‘that the state will be better and more just in serving us’; az államnak határozottabban kell védeni a gyengét –. ‘the state has to protect the weak with more determination’; sokan csak az államtól várhatnak és kaphatnak segítséget – ‘there are many who can hope for and receive help only from the state’),
But cannot help all the time (az állam később fenntarthatatlan mértékűnek bizonyult szociális szerepvállalása – ‘the social undertaking of the state that proved to be unsustainable’),
The 2005 speech uses the Nurturant Parent model critically, and shifts the respon-sibility of providing to the family, the community as a whole. Character traits of the Strict Father model are expected from members of the community, the children in this metaphor. Speeches between 2006 and 2009 at times bring back a spotlight on the responsibility of the state as a provider, shifting to criticizing the same again in 2010.
4.2.4. Bajnai
There is little metaphorical content in these speeches, the state is mentioned mainly in connection to its size, debt, expenditures and frugality. There is one characteristic metaphor that emerges as new, however:
The state is a company
(én a köztársaság „alkalmazottjaként” szeretnék ma szólni – ‘I would like to address you as an „employer” of the republic’)
4.2.5. Kóka
The Strict Father model can be clearly observed in his speeches:
krónikusan óriásira duzzadt állam eltartásának terhei – ‘the cost of providing for a state that has become chronically large’;
a válságból csak úgy tudunk kilábalni, ha […] végre az öngondoskodást, a fele lős ség-vállalást, a verseny kultúráját támogatjuk – ‘we can get out of this crisis only if we support self-reliance, responsibility, and the spirit of competition’.
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4.3. Near synonyms of the target used by the speakers
The word Hungary is more often used by the social-liberal side, while the conserva-tive side prefers the use of the word Hungarians (much more often than the other side). The social-liberal side often uses the word Republic, while it did not appear at all in the conservative speeches, where the world homeland is used instead. The word community appears more often on the social-liberal side, but it is most likely due to context, as these parts of the speeches talk about responsibilities of the people (mentioned in connection with morality in Gyurcsany). The conservative side, on the other hand, used the word people, which is much less frequent in social-liberal speeches.
The most striking difference between the two sides is that while the conserva-tive side talks from a personalized perspecconserva-tive, and frequently uses a possessive adjective (e.g. our), the social-liberal side distances itself from the target, and uses the definitive article (the).
4.4. Words attached to the target
The social-liberal side often uses the following words in connection with the target:
modern, strong, European, new, successful, democratic, just, and better.
The conservative side does not attach attributes to the target this way; there is only one that appears here and there: strong.
5. CONCLUSIONS
Orbán (conservative) uses many well-developed metaphors, specifying the char-acteristics of the concept in question. Social-liberal talks contain fewer metaphors overall and these are less developed. Unlike Orbán, social-liberal speakers employ general source domains and do not specify characteristics.
The two sides use different synonyms in reference to the target domain and its elements, and while the social-liberal side uses various attribute signals, the conservative side emphasizes our relation, an attachment to it.
The Nation/state is a family conceptual metaphor and its mappings rarely appear on the level of the text (more in the right-wing, less in the left-wing talks), but its metaphorical entailments abound. Thesecan be discovered through examin-ing the background morality and the metaphor is clearly present in the reasonexamin-ing.
Conservative talks tend to rely on the Strict Father model, although traits of the Nurturant Parent model can be discovered as well. Social-liberal talks switch 160
back and forth between dominant qualities of either model. The prototype is not clear and it changes over time and between speakers.
The presence of „The Hungarian Twist” can be observed, but is not a simple, rather a multiple twist.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cienki, Alan 2005: Metaphor in the „Strict Father” and „Nurturant Parent” cognitive models: Theoretical issues raised in an empirical study. In: Cognitive Linguistics, Jul 2005, Vol. 16. No. 2, Pages 279–312.
Kövecses Zoltán 2009: Hol is állunk most politikailag? Avagy mit taníthat nekünk, magya-roknak a kognitív tudomány. In: Frank Tibor–Károly Krisztina (szerk.): Anglisztika és amerikanisztika: Magyar kutatások az ezredfordulón. Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó.
Lakoff, George 1996: Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know that Liberals Don’t. 2nd edi-tion (2002) published as Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think. Chi-cago: University of Chicago Press.
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PArt 6
r ELIGIon
In: Cognition and culture. Eds: Sonja Kleinke – Zoltán Kövecses – Andreas Musolff – Veronika Szelid Budapest, 2012, Eötvös University Press /Tálentum 6./ 165–179.