Comparative Study of Political Metaphors in the Speeches of Iran’s Presidents (Hashemi Radsanjani, Khatami, Ahmadinejad, and Rouhani)

Charles Lindblom‎ argues that the relationship between rulers and people is possible by the three ways: coercion, exchange, and persuasion. Imaginary schemata are important in cognitive linguistics. Therefore, three 'DISEASE', 'WAR', and 'PATH' schemata have been studied. Thus, conceptual metaphors such as "Politics as a war", "Politics as an illness" and "Politics as a PATH" have been analyzed. Studies showed about political metaphors used by Iran’s presidents, from all political factions including conservatives, reformists, moderate, and fundamentalists, that all emphasize the inseparability of religion and politics. In other words, the moderation slogan from Rouhani’s view, dialogue among civilizations from Khatami’s view, justice and spirituality from Ahmadinejad’s view all refer to the concept of “religion is politics” and “politics is a religion”.