A Comparative Analysis Of Conceptual Metaphors In Rio Olympic Sports News Headlines Between English And Chinese

Sports news headlines need to vividly reflect the results of sports events and appeal to the general reader.Metaphor is one of the frequently adopted operational techniques in sports news headlines.Previous researches mainly concentrate on WAR metaphor and the working mechanisms of conceptual metaphors.Little focus is put on the relationship between sports news language and thoughts.There are even fewer thorough comparative studies between English and Chinese.Taking these into account,this thesis is designed to make a systematic comparative analysis and cognitive interpretation of conceptual metaphors between English and Chinese sports news headlines.Myriads of sports news has sprung up during Rio Olympics.Metaphors are extensively employed in both English and Chinese news reports.Based on a study of English and Chinese Rio Olympic sports news headlines,this thesis will explore the following questions:(1)What are the typical conceptual metaphors in Chinese and English Rio Olympic sports news headlines?(2)What are the similarities and differences of conceptual metaphors' frequencies of occurrence between Chinese and English Rio Olympic sports news headlines?What is the distribution rule of these conceptual metaphors?(3)What are the Idealized Cognitive Models(ICMs)behind the similarities and differences of these conceptual metaphors?To address these issues,this thesis adopts both the quantitative and qualitative methods based on Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Idealized Cognitive Model.All the headlines are collected from 6th August,2016 to 22nd August,2016.The Olympics columns of Sky Sports,the Guardian,Titan Sports Weekly and Sohu Sports,four websites of the mainstream media,have each randomly contributed one hundred headlines with nearly 8,370 words.Metaphors are sorted out and categorized one by one,followed by a comparative analysis in which similarities and differences,and ICMs contributing to such similarities and differences are explored in detail.The conclusions are as follows:(1)There are WAR,JOURNEY,NATURE,BUSINESS,DREAM,PERFORMANCE,ANIMAL,SCHOOL,LOVE,UP/DOWN,CON'TAINER,PERSONIFICATION and CULTURE-SPECIFIC metaphors in Rio Olympic sports news headlines;Chinese headlines have exclusive use of ANIMAL,LOVE and SCHOOL metaphors,and the other ten types are shared by the two languages.(2)As for the frequencies of conceptual metaphors in the two languages,WAR metaphor is dominant followed by JOURNEY metaphor though the latter shows significantly different frequencies in the two languages;in terms of the distribution rule of these conceptual metaphors,there is a considerable similarity between English and Chinese in terms of metaphorical expressions,though WAR and NATURE metaphors differ greatly concerning types of metaphorical expressions in the two languages.(3)Based on Idealized Cognitive Model,the present study has found that three image-schematic models including SOURCE-PATH-GOAL schema,CONTAINER schema,and UP-DOWN schema are shared by both languages,but words and specific images used in the SOURCE-PATH-GOAL schema in the two languages are different;the similarities of conceptual metaphors in English and Chinese sports news headlines arise from the common ICMs based on human beings' common bodily experience of sports events.However,differences also exist because ICMs are influenced by historical cultures,geographical features,customs and values.Hopefully,the present study will facilitate the understanding of Olympic sports news and shed light on the study of metaphors in sports news.