LANGUAGE CIRCLE: Journal lof Language and Literature X/2 (April 2016) p-ISSN 1858-0165 Available online at http://journal.unnes.ac.id e-ISSN 2460-853X __________________________________________________________________________________________ 161 THE USE OF METAPHOR IN BARACK OBAMA’S INAUGURATION SPEECH Faizal Risdianto faizrisd@gmail.com STAIN Salatiga Received: 10 April 2015. Revised: 10 August 2015. Accepted: 10 March 2016 ABSTRACT This study is aimed to elaborate the uniqueness of Barack Obama‘s inaugural speech when he has been sworn in as the 44th US president at 20 January 2009. This research is a (qualitative) bibliographical study. The object of the study is the analysis of the use of metaphor in Barrack Obama‘s speech. There are 23 sentences chosen to represent all the metaphorical sentences of Obama‘s speech being the object of the study. Having analyzed the data by the perspective of George Lakoff and Johnson‘s conceptual metaphor, the researcher can draw a conclusion that Obama has effectively and creatively used metaphorical expressions in convincing his people about his future plans. His remarkable speech discussing how to solve the great scale of the economic mess that now confronts the US and the common feeling of the loss of national self-confidence. Keywords: metaphor, source domain, target domain, inauguration speech. How to Cite: Risdianto, Faizal. 2016. The Use of Metaphor in Barack Obama‘s Inauguration Speech. Language Circle: Journal of Language and Literature, X/2. INTRODUCTION One of interesting problems in language study is the use of metaphor in all walks of life. One of its mysteries is the public confusion in encountering metaphorical expression that says something that is different to what it really means. Hawkes says ―Language which doesn‘t mean what it says‖ (1980:1). This fact creates the impression that the user of metaphor looks like a liar or deceiver. When Juliet said to Romeo ―The lights that shines from your eyes‖ she did not mean to say that from Romeo‘s eyeballs radiating or shining on the chamber they stayed. When a poet says,‖ A poem is a bird‖, he did not mean to state that the poem can flap its wings and tail. Those two instances is only part of many examples that creates the impression of metaphor as the expression full of ―absurdity‖ and ‗falsity‖ (Max Black in Ortony, 1993:21). One of the interesting studies of metaphor is the use of metaphor in political discourses. The outstanding feature of metaphor in this case lies on it uniqueness and specification that very different to other genre of writing like business, literary of arts, science and technology. Such uniqueness refers to the poetic function of literary wok to convey message or ideas to its readers (Culler, 1975:55). Culler says, ―By showing what properties of language were being exploited in particular texts and how they were extended or organized‖ (1975:55). Politics is a struggle for power in order to put certain political, economic and social ideas into practice. In this process, language