Referential and evaluative strategies of conceptual metaphor use in government discourse

We undertake a corpus-based diachronic analysis in order to explore how leaders China and Hong Kong have employed metaphors of EDUCATION major governmental speeches reports both before after Kong's handover from Britain China. The results this study demonstrate that SAR Chief Executives similar patterns source domain selections with Chinese Premiers as compared Colonial Governors, indicating the change sovereignty brought about different ways referring education for people Kong, evaluative effects remaining positive overall. These findings synchronic comparative analyses within small, specialized corpora are useful uncovering potential sociopragmatic shifts political frame social issues.