Conceptual Integration And Social Functions Of War Metaphors In American Sports Reports

War vocabulary has a high frequency in sports reports.It is common that the conceptual system of sport is metaphorically constructed on the basis of the conceptual system of war.War metaphors have long drawn scholars' attention,but the studies on war metaphors in sports reports are still insufficient.This thesis attempts to interpret the mechanism and the hidden cognitive process of war metaphor construction in American sports reports(ASR) from the perspective of conceptual integration,and disclose their effects on society.In this study,expressions of war metaphors are collected from 45 sports reports selected from The New York Time,and the VOA news website www.voanews.com.And five typical war metaphors:BASKETBALL IS WAR, TENNIS IS WAR,RUNNING IS WAR,GYMNASTICS IS WAR,and DIVING IS WAR are generalized from them.The conceptual integration network model is applied to Interpret these typical war metaphors to reveal the hidden cognitive process of war metaphor construction.According to conceptual integration theory,the conceptual integration network is composed of four mental spaces:input space 1,input space 2,generic space, and blended space.The integrating process of the mental spaces is the cognitive process of metaphor construction.It is mainly operated through mapping, projection,and blending.This study finds that in war metaphor construction,the conceptual system of war constitutes input space 1,and the conceptual system of sport constitutes input space 2.Elements shared by both of the input spaces,such as participants,goal,result,etc.are projected onto the third space,generic space,which defines the cross-space mapping connecting counterparts between the input spaces. Then,the generic structure and some other necessary elements from the input spaces are projected onto the blended space.In the blend,all the structures and elements are not simply juxtaposed,but a new specific structure is produced through blending. The metaphorical concept is finally achieved.In addition,depending on the social influences of metaphors,three major social functions of war metaphors are revealed, which are modifying sports spirit,reinforcing collective identity,and accelerating the politicalization of sportThe conceptual integration interpretation of war metaphors offers a better and deeper understanding of war metaphors in ASR.And the study of their social functions helps warn readers to take war metaphors with caution to eliminate their negative effect.