| The concept of conceptual metaphor was first proposed by Lakoff and Johnson in their book Metaphors We Live by in 1980 and as a language phenomenon it can reflect people's different cognitive styles in various cultures.With the increasing international sports communication,the studies on sports news discourse have become the focus of linguistics.These studies are mainly focused on vocabulary,stylistics,functional linguistics and translation field.But little attention is paid on conceptual metaphor.As one of the most popular international sports games,international basketball league gains widespread attention and affection of people around the world.Against such background,this thesis analyzes both Chinese and English basketball news discourse systematically from the perspective of conceptual metaphor.Three questions will be answered in this study:(1)What are the major conceptual metaphors in the English and Chinese basketball news discourse?(2)What are the similarities and differences between the conceptual metaphors in English and Chinese basketball news discourse?(3)What functions are reflected from the conceptual metaphors in English and Chinese basketball news discourse?The corpus is selected from the two most influential medias,Titan(http://www.titan24.com/)and New York Times(http://www.nytimes.com/).There are 50 pieces of English basketball news with total 52111 words and 50 pieces of Chinese basketball news with total 54459 words.All the news was published during January to February in 2019.Under the guidance of conceptual metaphor theory,this thesis identifies and classifies the conceptual metaphors in English and Chinese corpus respectively adopting both qualitative and quantitative methods and using the corpus tool BFSU-Qualitative Coder 1.0.By analyzing the different types of conceptual metaphors and their working mechanism,this study explores the reasons behind the similarities and differences and then concludes the linguistic functions of conceptual metaphors in basketball news discourse.In this thesis 11 main types of conceptual metaphors are found in the two corpora,War metaphor,Journey metaphor,Up-down metaphor,Container metaphor,Human metaphor,Drama metaphor,Fire metaphor,Animal metaphor and so on.Due to different cultural traditions,Fire metaphor only appears in Chinese text.Main types are both found in two corpora,which reflects the commonness of people's cognitive way.But the percentages of them are different,which is caused by historical,cultural and political factors.The functions of conceptual metaphors in basketball can be categorized into simplifying,highlighting and attracting.These conceptual metaphors simplify language in basketball news discourse,highlight the atmosphere in basketball games,and attract reader's attention.By analyzing the conceptual metaphors in basketball news discourse systematically and concluding their functions,this study provides a new insight for readers to understand the news and for sports news writers to improve their writing.The reasons behind the similarities and differences of conceptual metaphors in two languages can make people have a better understanding of cultural differences,which is helpful for deepening the international sports communication.Meanwhile,this research provides a new approach to study sports news by analyzing Chinese and English basketball news discourse from the perspective of conceptual metaphor. |
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