Abstract
Metaphor, one of the oldest technical terms in the humanities, has been studied by scholars for at least 24 centuries and been used in political discourse for even longer. The discussion in this article is theoretically based on Conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) (Section 2). A summary of the theory (2.2) is prefixed by an evaluation of the limitations and merits of CMT (2.1). Metaphor-related text types such as allegory are briefly discussed in Section 3. The article then tries to give an overview of the most salient potentials of metaphor in contemporary political speech (Section 4). Section 5 concentrates on some typical functions of metaphors in political speech. Perspectives for further research (Section 6) and a bibliography (Section 7) finish the article.
