Figurative and literal language in US governor speeches

Abstract This paper examines figurative expressions, such as metaphors, and their association with emotional language in political rhetoric. We compare figurative and literal language employed by US governors by applying a deep learning-based model to their State of the State speeches from 1995 to 2022. Predictions are clustered into nine socioeconomic topics relevant to policy. We then document their use as part of strategic communication. Our results show that partisanship predicts the types of expressions used. Democratic governors are more likely to use highly figurative expressions when discussing environmental issues compared to their Republican counterparts. In contrast, Republicans use them relatively more when talking about moral values such as freedom and liberty. In addition, we show that figurative language on these topics is associated with more emotional language, with significant heterogeneity among them. These results suggest that figurative language may be used as emotional appeals to discuss key political issues.