Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo’s Inaugural Address: Conceptual Metaphors, Metonymies and Values to Celebrate a Presidency

Abstract

This paper analyses the inaugural address by Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana with the aim to show the coherent conceptual organization underlying some of the expressions in the address. The study is conducted within the framework of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), put forward by Lakoff and Johnson. Political discourse has been found to be rich in metaphors. The paper sought to identify any conceptual metaphors and metonymies, and how these inform us about aspects of the values and beliefs of the President and of Ghanaians in general. Among other things, three structural metaphors -the journey metaphor, the construction metaphor and the war metaphor were identified. The metaphors and metonymies were found to be based on images built from information derived from the socio-cultural environment.