Metaphor, myth, and ideology in election headlines of Iran newspapers: an analysis based on critical metaphor theory of chartris – black (2005)

Critical Metaphor Theory is an approach to the study of metaphors in order to identify the intentions and ideologies behind language use. Chartris-Black (2005) believes that metaphor, myth, and ideology have persuasive function in discourse, especially in political texts. The systematic use of metaphor is part of an ideology because metaphor mediates between myth and ideology and facilitates the persuasive objectives of political discourse. Metaphor is an important characteristic of persuasive discourse because it mediates between cognition and emotion to create a moral perspective on life. Hence, it is a central strategy for legitimization in political discourse. This research is devised to discover how conceptual metaphors in political texts prompt political myths and communicate ideologies via language used in Iran''s Political Newspapers headlines. To do so, the Chartris-Black (2005) is utilized as the theoretical background of the research.

Taking this approach (Chartris-Black 2005) into account, this article aims at the study of the role of conceptual metaphors in the creation of myth and ideology. The research objective is to explain the relationship between conceptual metaphor, myth and ideology in political discourse of election. The question is how the existing metaphors in newspapers election headlines can create political myth and ideology and legitimate the SELF and illegitimate the Other, and persuade the readers to elect the Self candidate. The research data were extracted from the election headlines of 12 political newspapers during a two-month period of 2017 presidential election in Iran. Having analysed 12 selected newspapers (belonging to the Conservatives and Reformists political trends in Iran) during two months advertisements of 2017 presidential election, this research found a number of conceptual metaphors like MORALITY, RELIGION, WALL, HERO, and KEY according to metaphor identification procedures of Pragglejaz Group (2007). Then, the research explores how these conceptual metaphors create imaginative unreal narrations about the Self and the Other. It is hypothesized that the emergence of metaphors in language can evoke the audiences'' feelings by narrating the myths instead of making them aware by telling the truth. In other words, metaphors can mediate myths and ideology and guarantee the favorite actions of discourse makers.

The metaphorical expressions analyzed here represent a number of metaphors, including MORALITY, RELIGION, WALL, HERO, and KEY metaphors, all of them prompt a mythical unreal story about the SELF and the OTHER which cannot be verified. In other words, this research found that conceptual metaphors can create political myths for evaluating the SELF and the OTHER presidential candidates. As Chartris- Black (2005) predicts leaders employ ethical language as a basis for emotional invitation to share a perception of what is right and wrong. In the headlines evaluated here, mostly the quotations of politicians, they try to show the SELF ideology as the right one and the OTHER ideology as the wrong one through metaphors like POLITICA AS MORALITY/RELIGION and POLITICAL ACTIVITIES ARE MORAL/RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES (like Jihad). WALL metaphor creates a myth about the gender discrimination. A myth that pave the way to legitimate the SELF (as its opponent) and the OTHER as its very proponent. In both types of political newspapers, HERO metaphor creates a space in which SELF is a a brave hero. By Using KEY metaphor, the discourse makers create a myth of a country with lots of problems and the SELF savior who opens the doors and solve the problems. In all these cases metaphor act as a linguistic or rhetorical tool  for myth creation, then replace the real facts of election by the unreal story –like events to evoke the readers emotions instead of expressing knowledge and social awareness.   The resulting myths evoke the discourse makers'' favorite emotions in the readers, like making them interested in the Self and hatred from the Other, and eventually lead to the creation of the wished ideology of that medium. This is along with legitimating the Self and illegitimating the Other and persuading the addressees to elect the Self ideology.

This analysis illustrates that the emergence of cognitive metaphors in language can evoke the audiences'' feelings by narrating the myths instead of making them aware through telling them the truth. In other words, metaphors can mediate myths and ideology and guarantee the favorite actions of discourse makers. Therefore, metaphor can be used in different ways at the service of legitimating the SELF and illegitimating the OTHER as two competing ideologies. Critical Metaphor Analysis present a methodology for the analysis and interpretation of ideology and exhibits how legitimisation is performed linguistically.