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Abstract

Abstract

Military dictatorships are inherently undemocratic, yet military leaders often frame metaphorically. This raises critical questions: why do they do this, and how do their framings differ from civilian leaders? Existing studies on democratic conception provide limited answers. Addressing this paradox, this study employs mapping principle and discourse-conceptual analysis to examine the metaphorical contestation of in Nigerian political discourse (NPD). Using a corpus of 338 speeches by military heads of state and civilian presidents (1960–2023), the analysis reveals metaphors as tools for legitimation and pre-legitimation. Six dominant source domains (SDs), , and , emerged across both groups, but with notable differences. Military leaders favoured and , while civilian leaders preferred and . Mapping principle analysis highlights how and metaphors create divergent argumentative frames, functioning as strategies of rationalisation, pre-legitimation, and conceptual flip-siding, reinforcing a hegemonic, elite-controlled conception of democracy.

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2025-12-16
2026-01-24

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/content/journals/10.1075/jlp.25104.chi
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keywords: legitimation ; metaphor ; democracy ; mapping principles, discourse-conceptual analysis ; pre-legitimation ; civilian discourse ; Nigerian political discourse ; military discourse ; conceptual flip-siding

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