A Study Of The Naming Mechanism Of Metonymy In Nicknames Of Soccer Teams

Almost every soccer team has its own nickname. These special nicknames vividlystand for different soccer teams. According to mapping, a nickname is based on a personor a thing’s highlighted part. In this thesis, the naming mechanism of metonymy operateson the nicknames of soccer teams. Therefore, the phenomena of nicknames aremetonymies. With the development of cognitive linguistics, most linguists tend to studymetaphor, and ignore the cognitive functions of metonymy. Till now, a lot of scholarsstudy metaphor, metonymy and nickname from different angles, such as the name ofcountry, person, place, animal, etc. However, seldom scholars involve the research fromthe perspective of metonymy, and no articles relate on and analyze the nicknames ofnational soccer teams and club soccer teams. This thesis attempts to analyze namingmechanism of metonymy in nicknames of soccer teams, which is based on cognitivelinguistics, and the ICM theory is regarded as theoretical framework.This thesis consists of five chapters.Chapter One is mainly about an introduction of this paper, which includes foursubcategories: significance of the study, motivation of the study, methodology of thestudy, and layout of the thesis.Chapter Two makes a review of both the definitions and classifications of traditionaland cognitive linguistics, and working mechanism of metonymy.Chapter Three establishes the theoretical framework. ICM will be applied to analyzethe naming mechanism of nicknames. This chapter also introduces distinction betweenmetaphor and metonymy. The process of naming a nickname is metonymy, and ICM isapplied to analyze nicknames.Chapter Four establishes the corpus of nicknames of soccer clubs, and makes astatistical analysis of nicknames via ICM. This thesis sums up six factors, whichinfluence nicknames, and four functions of nicknames are concluded in this chapter.Chapter Five brings the thesis to a conclusion by summarizing the main findings:(1) It is first attempt to analyze nicknames of national soccer teams and soccer clubsfrom the perspective of metonymy, and regards ICM as theoretical framework of this thesis. Through analysis and explanation, the thesis finds that metonymy operates onnaming nicknames of soccer teams.(2) It is first attempt to establish corpus of national soccer teams’ nicknames andsoccer clubs’ nicknames, and analyze these nicknames according to category. On the basisof analyzing, the author finds that the naming mechanism of nickname is related to thehighlighted part that stands for the whole team. Through the corpus analysis, the authorsums up six factors that influence the process of naming a nickname: geographicallocation, the color of a flag or the pattern of a badge, history, culture, the color of jerseys,and standings.(3) This thesis sums up four functions of nicknames for soccer teams:1. intuitivelyreveal the characteristics of soccer teams;2. understand soccer teams’ history and culture;3. simplify complex original names;4. encourage the morale of team players.This shows that the naming mechanism of metonymy in nicknames of soccer teamsis more than a language phenomenon, and it is not a simple rhetoric. It reflects the way ofhuman thought, an expression of wisdom, spirit and culture of a country.In addition, this thesis also points out the limitation of the study and puts forwardsuggestions for further study. The author hopes that the study of metonymy and nicknamecan arouse the interest of other scholars.