CONCEPTUAL METAPHOR “PANDEMIC IS A FIRE” IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE POLITICAL DISCOURSE

DOI: 10.18173/2354-1067.2025-0041

Abstract

In global health crises such as AIDS, H1N1, and COVID-19 pandemics, conceptual metaphors have served as essential cognitive tools for shaping behavior and perception. The study focused on examining the conceptual metaphor PANDEMIC IS A FIRE in thirty-six political discourses in both English and Vietnamese. The theoretical framework is grounded in Conceptual Metaphor Theory initiated by Lakoff and Johnson (1980), combined with the Critical Metaphor Analysis approach proposed by Charteris-Black (2004). The analysis revealed that metaphorical expressions “spread” / “lan rộng” and“outbreak” / “bùng phát” occurred with the highest frequency. Notably, the research elucidates the mapping mechanism of semantic attributes from the source domain Fire onto the target domain Pandemic, thereby identifying eight characterized semantic aspects.