Constructing Political Identities Through Characterization Metaphor, Humor And Sarcasm: An Analysis Of The 2012 Legislative Council Election Debates In Hong Kong

This chapter examines how politicians use metaphor, humor and sarcasm to construct favorable political identities for themselves and unfavorable ones for their rivals. Data for analysis come from five televised debates during the 2012 Hong Kong Legislative Council Election. The chapter adopts Fauconnier and Turner's (2002) Conceptual Blending framework and analyzes how rival candidates spar with each other using characterization metaphors, and pays special attention to how politicians make use of metaphors as verbal indirectness strategies that mitigate the negative impacts of their face-threatening acts and in this way help them enhance, or at least maintain, their positive image with the general public.