Critical Metonymy Study on Institutional Identity Construction: WHO Speeches on COVID-19

Abstract

Our world has been plagued by COVID-19 since 2020. The World Health Organization （WHO） has been active in fighting this pandemic and its global identity constructed by discourse is a key to victory. With the help of the metonymy theory by Mendoza and Ottal, this paper analyses speeches on COVID-19 by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, secretary-general of WHO, and tries to describe and explain what kind of institutional identity he constructed for WHO and how he succeeded. The result shows that the secretary-general used both High-level metonymy and low-level metonymy in his speeches constructing various significant identities for WHO, such as “the backbone”,“the pioneer”, “the leading goat”, “the safeguard” and “the glue”. This paper proves a wider use of the theories of critical metonymy analysis and shows a successful example of constructing an identity for Chinese medical institutions.