The aim of this study is to contrast the use of metaphors by the two presidential contenders in the runoff of the Brazilian presidential race of 2006, Luís Inácio Lula da Silva and Geraldo Alckmin, in order to establish if Lula, who was victorious, actually used metaphors in a more effective way than his opponent on the television debates. Metaphor use by both candidates was compared, and the analysis revealed that there were few differences between the two candidates. Both used similar quantities of them. The main difference was stress. Alckmin scattered his metaphors, by putting in place a greater number of them, with few occurrences of each. Lula, on the other hand, was more selective and neutralized his opponent, thus being able to stress metaphors that were better suited to his needs.
metaphor; Corpus Linguistics; Brazilian presidential debates