Metaphorical modeling of the enemy image in the presidential discourse of Javier Milei

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Abstract

Nowadays, the discourse of power has to constantly transform due to the rapidly changing socio-political context. At the same time, metaphors still remain an effective means of speech influence that transmits political views and values, forms public opinion, constructs a positive image of a politician and discriminates against his opponents. The dominant function of a political metaphor is an emotional and expressive impact on the audience, which helps to form a positive or negative attitude towards certain political subjects or phenomena. In the present article we assume the mediating function of language while conceptualizing reality. The struggle for power and its retention is one of the main functions of political discourse. In this process, the conceptual opposition “we – they” plays an important role as it is able to construct the positive image of a politician, transmit his ideological views and denigrate his opponents. This opposition is often expressed by metaphors, which are traditionally perceived as a means of speech influence and as a way of constructing reality in institutional and non-institutional political communication. The purpose of the article is to study the metaphorical modeling of the enemy image in the public discourse of Argentine President Javier Milei based on his official speeches from 2023 to 2025. The linguopragmatic analysis of the texts has shown that socialism and woke ideology, the caste model, corruption and crime represent enemies, while the Argentine president with his radical methods seems to be a “savior”. With the help of traditional as well as new metaphorical models, created by the president, the dichotomous opposition “we – they” achieves the following goals: a) to unify the nation in accordance with common axiological values; b) to create a positive image of the speaker; c) to negatively describe the past and his predecessors; d) to explain the reasons for the country’s backwardness, and e) to restructure the perception of the world.

About the authors

Irina Vladimirovna Zaalishvili

MGIMO University

Author for correspondence.
Email: selivanova-irina@inbox.ru
Moscow, Russian Federation

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