A Steep and Rocky Path to Brexit: Creative Metaphors in British Political Discourse on Brexit

Abstract

This paper examines the emergence of metaphorical creativity from the creative elaboration of the single walking journey metaphor, which is used in British political discourse for the conceptualisation of Brexit. Using the cognitive linguistic theory of conceptual metaphor, three instances of creative metaphors are analysed at the level of conceptual domains and metaphor scenarios, as well as metaphorical stories activated by those metaphors, which, according to Ritchie (2017), seem to be crucial for the complete comprehension of creative metaphors. Special attention is given to contextual factors that motivate the emergence of creative instances of the walking journey metaphor, as well as the rhetorical force with which they shape political reality.

Keywords

• metaphorical creativity
• conceptual domains
• metaphor scenario
• metaphorical story
• rhetorical goals
• contextual factors
• Brexit
• WALKING JOURNEY metaphor