A Study of Metaphors Employed in the Bangkok Post Newspaper

Abstract

A metaphor is considered as a rhetorical language that we normally use it as entertaining purposes. So, many researchers dedicate their time studying this figurative language (Klinnamhom, 2008; Intawong, 2016) In Thai educational culture, the metaphor is perceived as the subject that can promote the way people live and learn, so this inspires the researcher to look at its proportion and how it is used. Ultimately, the retrieved metaphor is used for developing the subject materials in the school lecture. In order to achieve these purposes, the theory of Lakoff and Johnson (1980) was employed as the basic consideration of the language and implemented to the 4 sections in the Bangkok Post newspaper. Each section consists of 10 articles. Consequently, the dry version was analysed based on the Goatly (1998) theory which categorized the language into 3 functions: ideational function, interpersonal function, and textual function. The results showed that the metaphor was mostly found in the Opinion section of the newspaper (53.66%) while it could be relatively seen in the straightforward statements of both General and Business sections (17.07%). The Travel section was the smallest location of the metaphor (12.20%). In the newspaper, majorities of the metaphor were used as the textual function aiming to create a new ideology and exaggerate the discourses (80.49%), and the rest was responsible as the substitutions of the new identities (19.51%).