Hello!

A thousand pardons for my short hiatus from making new blog posts. At the end of the academic year, I normally get too busy with my teaching schedule to do much work on my blog. I was behind the 8 ball trying to do all my testing (billiards anyone?), up to my knees in grading (was there a flood?), and buried in paperwork (was there an avalanche?). We have also been doing some field testing of some new standardized tests (corn or wheat?) and crunching some numbers (with a nutcracker?) from an experiment related to some new reading strategies for our students. But allow me to get back on track with my blog…

When I first began my research into political metaphors, no other languages seemed to have the great frequency of metaphors as in English. The other day, however, I came upon some interesting political metaphors in French and Spanish. I am not fluent in either language, but I have a medium-level reading ability in both. I have the apps for Le Monde (from Paris, France) and El Pais (from Madrid, Spain) on my phone. I can brush up on my French and Spanish by reading the free newspaper articles on those apps. I was a bit surprised when I noticed a few political metaphors in both newspapers worthy of mention. Many of these metaphors would be considered dead metaphors by most linguists including even Lakoff and Johnson. However, as I have explained many times on this blog, I take a broad view of metaphor. Any example of a physical action begin used to describe an abstract process can be classified as a metaphor. I will try to explain each of these metaphors in turn. Some combinations of metaphors are explained as they appear in the sentences in the article. If you are not familiar with either French or Spanish, I will mark each word as being “F” or “S.” The translations in parentheses below are my own. My apologies if there are any errors.

You can read the entire French article here and the Spanish article here.

 

support/soutient (F)/apoyo (S)

race/course (F)

I may be wrong but I assume that the physical meaning of support, as in a wooden beam supporting a building, is a primary meaning, while the abstract meaning of helping someone through a difficult time is a secondary meaning. In either case, I believe the notion of supporting a presidential candidate is a metaphorical expression. I was interested to see that the word is used similarly in both French and Spanish. The word race, as in the race for the president, is also used in French as the word course.

Example: “Barack Obama soutient Hillary Clinton dans la course à la Maison Blanche.”

(Barack Obama supports Hillary Clinton the race for the White House.)

Example: “Barack Obama anuncia su apoyo a Hillary Clinton.”

(Barack Obama announces his support for Hillary Clinton.)

campaign/campagne (F)/ campaña (S)

Another common metaphor in American English is the notion of a presidential campaign. This word has a tortuous history – it originally meant a field or the countryside, but then evolved to mean a military battle that took place on an open field. Later it was used metaphorically to mean the process of winning a nomination or an election.

Example: “« Je suis à ses côtés, je suis enthousiaste, j’ai hâte de m’y mettre et de faire campagne pour Hillary », ajoute M. Obama…”

(“I’m with her. I’m fired up and I cannot wait to get out there and campaign for Hillary,” added Mr. Obama…)

Example: “El presidente se ha declarado impaciente por entrar en la campaña.”

(The president has impatiently declared his entrance into the campaign.)

Example: “En 2008 se disputaron la nominación del Partido Demócrata, y la campaña fue feroz (la que ahora termina, entre Clinton y Sanders, sin anuncios negativos entre ellos, ha sido una campaña plácida en comparación).”

(In 2008, the Democratic nomination was disputed, and the campaign was fierce (that which just ended, between Clinton and Sanders, without negative attack ads between them, was a peaceful campaign in comparison)).

behind/ derrière (F)

weight/poids (F)

battle/bataille (F)

Another way to indicate support is to say that one is behind a certain candidate as if one is pushing the person up a hill. We can also say that a person puts his or her weight behind someone. In French, we can find the words derriere for “behind” and poids for “weight.” Another common military metaphor is the concept of a battle. We find the same word bataille in French with a similar meaning. In one long passage from the Le Monde article, we find all three of these metaphors used together.

Example: “Il [Obama] a attendu de recevoir à la Maison Blanche le rival malheureux de l’ancienne secrétaire d’Etat, Bernie Sanders, jeudi 9 juin, pour annoncer officiellement, en tout début d’après-midi, qu’il mettra tout son poids dans la bataille à venir, derrière Mme Clinton…”

(He has waited to receive at the White House the long-time rival of his Secretary of State, Bernie Sanders, on Thursday, June 9, to officially announce in the early afternoon, that he will put all of his weight in the battle to come behind Mrs. Clinton…)

have an influence/mesure de peser (F)

A slightly different way of indicating support is to have an influence on someone, but it French this is translated as a mesure de peser, literally “a measure of weight.”

Example: “M. Obama est en mesure de peser sur la campagne cet automne.”

(Mr. Obama will have an influence on the campaign this autumn.)

side/ côté (F)

Yet another way of indicating support is to say that a person is on the side of the candidate. In French, we can say that a person is a ses côtés. Interestingly, Obama’s phrase of “I’m with her” is translated in the French newspaper as “I am at her side.”

Example: “ Je suis à ses côtés…”

(I am at her side.)

 

 

family/famille (F)

In English we speak of political parties. In Spanish, this word is usually translated as partidos, but in French, at least in one case, a party is referred to as a famille.  Here is a long quotation from the French article.

Example: “Les principaux responsables démocrates, qu’il s’agisse de la représentante Nancy Pelosi (Californie), du sénateur Harry Reid (Nevada), ou encore du vice-président Joe Biden, ne cessent d’insister sur le respect avec lequel doit être traité M. Sanders, ne serait-ce que pour faciliter la réunification de la famille démocrate après une course à l’investiture aussi disputée que huit ans plus tôt.”

(The principal responsible Democrats, who are under the guidance of Representative Nancy Pelosi (California), of Senator Harry Reid (Nevada) or again of Vice President Joe Biden, do not cease insisting on the respect that must be given to Mr. Sanders, who would not be able to facilitate the reunification of the Democratic family after a race for the nomination also disputed eight years earlier.)

spokesperson/porte-parole (F)

This term is an example of a word being literal in one language and a metaphor in another. The meaning of the term spokesperson is fairly indicating a person who speaks on behalf of a large organization. In French, the term is porte–parole. The term parole means “speech,” while the term porte is a noun form of the word porter which means “to carry,” as in our English words, portable or porter. Thus, in French, a spokesperson is one who “carries the words” to someone else.

Example: “Dans ce message enregistré mardi, selon le porte-parole de la Maison Blanche, Josh Earnest, M. Obama loue avec insistance les qualités de l’ancienne secrétaire d’Etat.”

(In the message delivered on Tuesday, according to the White House spokesperson, Josh Ernest, Mr. Obama insisted on the qualities of the former Secretary of State.)

orbit/ órbita (S)

team/equipo (S)

Two other examples from the article in Spanish are orbit and team. In Spanish, these terms are órbita and equipo. Both of these metaphors illustrate the need for an expression that relates who people work together in a group, saying they are either on the same team or in the same orbit.

Example: “Obama y Clinton pertenecen a la misma órbita ideológica: el centroizquierda pragmático. Y parte del equipo de Clinton trabajó con Obama.”

(Obama and Clinton belong to the same ideological orbit: the pragmatic center left. And a part of the team of Clinton worked with Obama.)

weapon/arma (S)

In a final example from Spanish, we find the usage of the metaphor of a weapon as a something that helps someone achieve one’s goals. In this case, President Obama is described as an effective weapon or arma to be used by Mrs. Clinton to defeat Trump.

Example: “Obama, además de uno de los presidentes más populares en las últimas décadas, es un político con un talento extraordinario en campaña. Puede ser una de las mejores armas de Clinton ante Trump.”

(Obama, in addition to being one of the most popular presidents of the last few decades, is a politician with an extraordinary talent for campaigning. He can be one of the best weapons of Clinton against Trump.)

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As you can see, some of the most common political metaphors used in English can also be found in French and Spanish. I do not know enough about these languages to know how extensive the usage of metaphors really is. If any of my readers can add more clarity to this issue, please let me know. Comments and questions are always welcome. Thanks!