| Contemporary cognitive linguistics holds that metaphor is not only a kind of linguistic phenomena, but also a kind of cognitive phenomena. Lakoff&Johnson first make a systematic study of metaphor from a perspective of cognition in their co-published book Metaphor We Live By. The theory of conceptual metaphor proposed by them has been widely applied to metaphor research in many different disciplines and has brought about fruitful results. In recent years, theses and articles concerning the research on metaphor emerge in an endless stream, covering many areas such as politics, economy, science and technology, etc. However, metaphor study in regard to sports news is comparatively limited. Besides, sports now play an indispensable role in people’s social and cultural life. People all over the world not only participate in sporting activities, but also show a keen interest in various sports news. In order to enhance the vividness and attractiveness of the news, abundant use of metaphor is a significant feature of Chinese sports news.This research is based on a self-made Chinese sports news headlines corpus, which is composed of approximately13,000Chinese sports news headlines taken from the specialized sports website Titan (www.titan24.com) during the period of August1-31,2011. It employs both qualitative and quantitative approaches, making an integrated use of literature analysis, statistical measurement, questionnaire and some other methods. This research attempts to explore the basic types and functions of metaphor in Chinese sports news headlines, and then make a comparative analysis of metaphor in the news headlines of three major sports categories-track and field, swimming as well as ball games. On the one hand, this research attempts to explore the regularity of metaphor in Chinese sports news headlines from the perspective of cognition, and the means of the realization of metaphor in Chinese sports news headlines. On the other hand, it intends to summarize the merits and demerits of metaphor used in Chinese sports news headlines, and then provide some suggestions for sports news reporters, which can contribute to the practical application of metaphor in Chinese sports news headlines.The analytical results of the research show that conceptual metaphor has been applied to Chinese sports news headlines in large quantities, covering all of orientational metaphor, ontological metaphor and structural metaphor. In the corpus, there are two major types of orientational metaphor:UP-DOWN metaphor (8.21%) and HIGH-LOW metaphor (4.03%). Ontological metaphor mainly involve two types of entity-substance metaphor-OPPORTUNITY metaphor (0.27%) and BREAKTHROUGH metaphor (0.24%) as well as two types of container metaphor-BODY metaphor (9.91%) and PERIOD metaphor (1.47%). As for structural metaphor, there are six major types:WAR metaphor (43.20%), JOURNEY metaphor (7.17%), DRAMA metaphor (6.61%), SCHOOL metaphor (6.47%), PLANT metaphor (3.37%) and COMMERCE metaphor (2.24%).There are mainly three points on the similarities of metaphor used in three major sports categories-track and field, swimming as well as ball games. First, in all these three sports categories, the employment of WAR metaphor has played a significant role in each metaphor’s use. Second, the employment of entity-substance metaphor is comparatively the least in each metaphor’s use. Third, the percentage and distribution of orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor in these three sports categories are close to each other. As for the differences, first, WAR metaphor, SCHOOL metaphor and COMMERCE metaphor have been applied to the news headlines of ball games far more than the news headlines of swimming and track and field. Second, JOURNEY metaphor is applied to the news headlines of swimming less than the news headlines of ball games and track and field. Third, DRAMA metaphor has been applied to the news headlines of track and field more than the news headlines of swimming and ball games. Fourth, ball games news headlines apply more PLANT metaphor "ATHLETE (OR COACH) IS PLANT (OR GROWER)" while swimming and track and field news headlines apply more PLANT metaphor "ATHLETIC CAREER IS GROWING PROCESS".Based on all the above analytical results, a questionnaire is designed in order to investigate readers’acceptance of metaphor used in Chinese sports news headlines, and200people are invited to fill it out. Statistical results of the questionnaire indicate that in the same pair of Chinese sports news headlines, the majority of readers prefer the headline within entity-substance metaphor or DRAMA metaphor. And most readers take a negative attitude towards certain metaphorical expressions derived from WAR metaphor, which seem to be cruel and violent, as well as those metaphorical expressions derived from COMMERCE metaphor, which are under suspicion of insulting athletes. In these headlines, the employment of metaphor can not attract more readers but asserts an adverse effect. Thus, sports news reporters are supposed to make better use of entity-substance metaphor and DRAMA metaphor, and avoid using such metaphorical expressions derived from WAR metaphor or COMMERCE metaphor, which can improve the quality and mass appeal of Chinese sports news headlines. |
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