'You 're a Little Rabbit in a Pack of Foxes': Animal Metaphors in Chinese Political Discourse
中文政治言谈中的动物譬喻
Sai-hua Kuo 郭赛华

Abstract 摘要
Based on video-taped data from five televised 1998 Taipei mayoral debates, this paper aims to illustrate and discuss the use of animal metaphors in Chinese political discourse from pragmatic and sociolinguistic perspectives. My analysis has found that animal metaphors in my data, although different in their degree of conventionalization, are overwhelmingly used to characterize one's opponent in a negative light. I suggest that the different uses of animal metaphors found in the five debates and among the three debaters show distinctive interactive goals and strategic choices. On the one hand, the largest number of negative metaphors concentrating in the final debate indicates the increased antagonism and confrontation with the approach of the election day. On the other hand, because of the indirect nature of metaphor, the debater who resorts to this strategy is able to create and maintain a positive public face while at the same time attacking that of his political opponents.

本论文以语用学与言谈分析的角度探讨一九九八年台北市长电视辩论中动物譬喻使用的情况及功能。我们的分析发现，在这五场辩论当中，绝大多数的动物譬喻都是被候选人用来批评或攻击其对手。此类譬喻在最后一场辩论出现最多，而三位候选人使用的频率也大不相同。这样的结果显示并反映了各场辩论不同的互动目标和各候选人不同的言谈风格。候选人在辩论时采用譬喻这种间接的语言策略批判对手，不仅能增加语言本身的趣味性，而且相较于直接攻击，也更能维护了本身的正面形象。

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