A Contrastive Study Of Conceptual Metaphors In News Reports On Rio Olympic Games

This study takes the sports news reports of Rio Olympic Games,which were held between 5^th August and 22^nd August,as the source of data.The 110 pieces of Chinese reports are selected from People's Daily with a size of 98,172 words and the 110 pieces of English reports are chosen from Washington Post with a size of 102,459 words.The combination of quantitative and qualitative methods is adopted to study the distribution of the conceptual metaphor between Chinese and English reports,the similarities and differences,and the deep reasons that cause the similarities and differences by counting the frequencies and types of the metaphorical expressions in both reports and analyzing the working mechanism of conceptual metaphor.Results of the study show:First,the conceptual metaphor is abundant in both Chinese and English sports news reports,because the reporters often use conceptual metaphor to vividly indicate the violent competition of the game,the condition of the athletes,the excitement of the victory and so on.The percentages of metaphors in Chinese and English data are:the structural metaphor accounts for 82.8%in Chinese sports news reports and 89.6%in English reports;the orientational metaphor accounts for 1.1%in Chinese reports and4.6%in English reports;the ontological metaphor accounts for 16.1%in Chinese reports and 5.8%in English reports.Second,the percentages of the structural metaphor are highest in both reports,of which the war metaphor is the most dominant one.The gamble metaphor,ghost metaphor and special culture metaphor only occur in Chinese sports news reports,while the building metaphor only occurs in English reports.There are great differences in metaphorical expressions in both reports.Chinese reports have more metaphorical expressions under the same metaphor.Third,the similarities of conceptual metaphors of Rio Olympic Games in People's Daily and Washington Post are attributed to the similar culture,physical experiences and thinking cognition between China and America.The differences result from different history,geography and language features.With relatively more data and more sports reports,this study helps the English and Chinese learners to have a better understanding of the conceptual metaphor in sports news reports.Meanwhile,it provides hints for the study of conceptual metaphor in other discourses.