Presidents and Their Speeches at National Commemorations

Abstract

Presidents, prime ministers, and similar leaders occupy a special place among heroes and celebrities. They are special in many ways, not least because their privileged position, attained through a general or parliamentary elections, already places them at the center of public discourse. This allows them—and at the same time requires them—to express their opinions on a broad range of topics, events, and other issues. A previously “ordinary” individual suddenly becomes a central figure that determines which topics take priority, which discourses are politically correct, and so on. This article mainly focuses on analyzing the conceptual metaphors found in the speeches of four Slovenian presidents and selected leaders of other countries at various events, especially those involving state-building.

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Med heroji in slavnimi osebnostmi imajo posebno mesto predsedniki držav, vlad ipd. Posebni so na več načinov, npr. s tem, da jih že njihov privilegirani položaj, na katerega so prišli po splošnih volitvah ali volitvah v parlamentu postavlja v središče javnih diskurzov. Na ta način jim omogoča in hkrati od njih zahteva izjavljanje o najrazličnejših temah, dogodkih ipd. Včerajšnji “navadni” posameznik naenkrat postane osrednja figura, ki določa, katere teme so prioritetne, kateri diskurzi so politično korektni itd. Osrednji fokus besedila avtorjev je analiza konceptualnih metafor v govorih nekaterih tujih in štirih slovenskih predsednikov ob različnih, predvsem državotvornih ritualih.