A Study Of Conceptual Metaphor In Sports News On Olympic Winter Games In Light Of Frame Theory

Conceptual metaphor is an important cognitive tool of discourse construction.It is pervasive in everyday life.Lakoff(2004)further pointed out that frames are the extension of conceptual metaphor.The mappings between frames construct conceptual metaphors.Frame Theory can be used to explore attitudes and values contained in discourse.Previous studies of conceptual metaphor in sports news mainly adopt the Conceptual Metaphor Theory as the theoretical framework.It is necessary to apply Frame Theory to explain the cognitive processes in sports news.Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games,as one of the most significant events in the world,are successfully held and attract people’s attention.Many of them obtain the latest progression of various matches from mass media,which contain a lot of metaphors facilitating people to understand matches.It is worth studying the metaphors used in related sports news for smooth reading.Therefore,in light of Frame Theory,this thesis attempts to study the conceptual metaphor in winter Olympic sports news,especially in Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games,analyze the classification and distribution of metaphors and explore the functions of metaphors and frames.This thesis aims to answer the following research questions:(1)What types of conceptual metaphor are used in 2022 Olympic Winter Games news? What are the distributions of different types of conceptual metaphor?(2)What deep frames are activated by conceptual metaphor in 2022 Olympic Winter Games news?(3)What are the functions of conceptual metaphor based on activated frames in2022 Winter Olympic Games news?The research data are collected from Beijing 2022 sports news in Washington Post to build a research corpus,with 60927 words in total,including 63 pieces of news.Metaphorical expressions in the corpus are identified with the help of Metaphor Identification Procedure(MIP).Anno Tool is used to annotate the identified conceptual metaphors.The number of conceptual metaphors is retrieved and counted by the corpus tool Ant Conc 3.5.9.This study adopts quantitative method to count the frequency and distribution of conceptual metaphors,while qualitative method is used to explore the functions of conceptual metaphors.This thesis finds out the following results:First,metaphors in Beijing 2022 sports news reports are classified into structural metaphor,orientational metaphor and ontological metaphor according to Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory.The distribution of different types of conceptual metaphors is as follows: structural metaphor can be further classified into war metaphor(47.04%),drama metaphor(13.09%),journey metaphor(10.61%),business metaphor(7.90%),nature metaphor(2.02%),throne metaphor(0.48%)and dream metaphor(0.12%)in order of frequency.Ontological metaphor can be classified into human metaphor(6.01%)and container metaphor(3.31%).Up-down metaphor(9.42%)is the more frequently used orientational metaphor.Second,there are four deep frames activated by conceptual metaphors in Beijing2022 Olympic Winter Games news: excitement frame,encouragement frame,dream frame and unity frame.Third,the activated frames can be used to explore the attitudes and values contained in discourse and reveal the functions of conceptual metaphors.Functions of them include explaining information,evoking emotions towards games and athletes and highlighting Olympic theme.The function of explanatory is reflected on the use of distinct metaphors simplifying professional concepts into daily words and experience,which helps to people’s understanding.When the activated deep frames fit the readers,emotional resonance can be evoked,which encourages people to support the event and Olympic athletes.The function of highlighting Olympic theme is also reflected on deep frames activated by metaphorical expressions.Dream frame and unity frame can reveal two values: “the combination between personal dream and national dream” and the Olympic theme “together for a shared future”.This study analyzes the conceptual metaphor in Olympic winter sports news in light of Frame Theory.It can enrich the metaphorical study in sports news discourses and expand the application of Frame Theory.By analyzing the frames activated by conceptual metaphors,the functions realized by conceptual metaphors in discourse can be better revealed.In addition,this study helps people comprehend the abstract concepts in sports news and appreciate sports news.They can also notice the attitudes and values behind the words.