A Critical Cognitive Metonymy Analysis of Electoral Headlines in Iranian Newspapers

This study investigates the relationship between political ideology in media discourse and conceptual metonymies in Iranian newspaper headlines. In this research, by adopting the Critical Metonymy Analysis approach (Zhang 2014), cognitive metonymies extracted from Iran's newspapers headlines were analyzed critically, in order to know which conceptual metonymies have been used in their electoral headlines. Moreover, it aims to study how political ideologies of Reformists and Conservatives newspapers have influenced the selection of conceptual metonymies in electoral headlines. The data were extracted from electoral headlines of 12 available Conservative and Reformist newspapers, which were published during two months, from 15 Farvardin to 15 Khordad, 1396 (N=289 issue). The metonymies were identified, categorized, and analyzed based on availability and according to the principles of Conceptual Metonymy Theory. The results show that both metonymies of WHOLE FOR PART (3 types) and PART FOR WHOLE (2 types) have been used for highlighting and extension functions, respectively. The results reinforced the idea that ideology affects the formation of metonymy, and metonymies are appropriate tools to reproduce ideology in media. Therefore, the study of conceptual metonymy, along with other cognitive mechanisms, contributes to realize the objectives of Critical Discourse Analysis.