The 9 th Language For Specific Purposes Seminar’ and ‘The 6 th Global Advances In Business Communication Conference (LSP-GABC2014) Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia May 27 - 29, 2014 A CASE STUDY ON CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS USED IN A SPEECH BY YAB DATUK SRI NAJIB TUN RAZAK Zurina Mohamed Nil, Zalina Mohd Kasim, Mohd Sharifudin Yusop, Rosya Izyanie Shamshudeem Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia Serdang, Malaysia zurinmn@yahoo.co.uk, zalina_mk@upm.edu.my, mmosy@upm.edu.my, rosya@upm.edu.my) ABSTRACT The notion of metaphor is often used for aesthetic purposes in creative texts. Over the years, various studies (Ahrens 2009; Musolff and Zinken 2009; Semino 2008, Charteris-Black 2009, 2011) have looked at metaphors in political discourses and examined how metaphors were used by Western politicians. This case study investigates how the current Prime Minister YAB Datuk Sri Najib Tun Razak uses metaphor in his opening speech of the 17 th Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers (17CCEM) Education in the Commonwealth in 2009. The analysis of this study was based on the Conceptual Metaphor theory by Lakoff and Johnson (2008) which stated that metaphors are in fact, a mode of thought. More specifically, metaphors are a cognitive mechanism which is employed to help people make sense of their experience. As pointed out by Lakoff and Johnson: “the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another” (Lakoff and Johnson 2008:5). Findings from the study show a number of conceptual metaphors such as FORCE, JOURNEY and PERSONIFICATION. KEY WORDS: Metaphor; Conceptual Metaphor; Metaphorical Linguistic Expression. INTRODUCTION Political speeches are prime examples where ideas, information, ideology, political myth, agenda-setting etc. are transmitted through the use of metaphors which in fact are ordinary words and/or phrases. According to Muller (2005), the pervasiveness of metaphor in political discourse is inevitable. Studies on the language used in political speeches have shown that metaphors play a fundamental role in the conveyance of the politicians’ ideology and aspirations. Charteris-Black (20011) explained that a pure metaphor is a word or phrase that undergoes a change of use from a common or basic sense to another sense that is contrary to the common use. He had investigated the rhetoric of four British (Winston Churchill, Enoch Powell, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair) and five American politicians (Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama) and argued that metaphor is essential to their persuasiveness. Among his assessment was that to understand how political language becomes persuasive, it is necessary to understand the metaphor choices that were made. In his opinion, language is the essence of politics. Through language, metaphor becomes an effective tool of persuasion because metaphor gives politicians a way to find a common ground (shared experience and familiarity) with their audience to present new ideas or political issues. Therefore, “under appropriate circumstances, conceptual metaphors may well be accessible and used for production or comprehension purposes” (Glucksberg, Brown, & McGlone, 1993) To avoid public consumption of politics is inescapable because it is everywhere i.e. printed media, new media, social media etc. To understand at least one political speech which happened to use metaphors in its content is a good reason to bring social awareness to the general public on grasping the meaning of one political agenda (i.e. economic transformation). The analysis of this case study would enable us to understand how the economic transformation is communicated to a broad audience. Based on Alkhirbash (2010), aside from his study, there are a handful of studies on local politicians and their speeches; an unpublished 1985 PhD paper by Abdul Hamid on Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, the first Prime Minister and five other scholars; Ahmed (1997), Khoo (2003), Sumon (2003), Kamila (2004) and Mua’ti (2004), on Tun Dr.Mahathir Mohammad, the fourth Prime Minister. Samsudin et al. (2013) had observed that the Prime Minister had clearly stated the goals and aspiration of the economic transformation that he envisioned during his tenure as the Prime Minister through his speeches. Kumaran (2013) generally examine the conceptual metaphors in regards to the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) based on the Prime Minister’s Foreword in the ETP Report and his periodic Progress Updates released between 2010 and 2011. This case study looks at another aspect or domain of ETP’s National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) which is Education. The data analyzed in this study is the speech given by the Prime Minister, YAB Datuk Sri Najib Tun Razak at the 17 th CCEM in 2009, a year before ETP was officially introduced. Its audience consists of Malaysians and foreigners. The 17 th CCEM took place at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on 16 th June 2009 which makes it among the first platforms where the idea of transformation specifically education was announced in public. In this speech, the idea of educational transformation for Malaysia is shared with all participants and in such a way, also being presented as a beneficial outcome to all members of Commonwealth due to its