TOPIC-TRIGGERED METAPHORS IN NEWSPAPER HEADLINES

Abstract

The paper deals with metonymy based metaphors in sports newspaper headlines. These are mainly novel, unconventional metaphors, in which the choice of a metaphorical source domain is triggered by some aspects of the target domain. We deal with such metaphors where the NICKNAME of a sports club (animal- or bird-related) metonymically stands for the SPORTS CLUB, when the salient attributes of animals and birds are mapped onto the players. We show how these creative metaphors for VICTORY (eating the opponent, taming the opponent, flying, etc.) and DEFEAT (losing the wings, falling, etc.) are based on some conventional conceptual metaphors.