Conceptual metaphor sport as war in Vietnamese football news

Abstract

Stemming from the widespread appearance of war metaphors in Vietnamese sports news, the article conducts the research on the emergence of metaphors related to the source domain of war in Vietnamese sports news. The International Commentary section aims to clarify the relationship between “sport” and “war” in Vietnamese mind maps. This article analyses the conceptual metaphor sport as war underlying the metaphorically used words and expressions in Vietnamese sports news and explains the mapping scheme between source domain and target domain. Based on the experiential correlations and knowledge mapped from source domain to target domain, the article shows typical thinking of the conceptual construction, which is both universal and typical of Vietnamese people thinking, indicating the hierarchy in conceptual thinking. The primary metaphor sport as war, through mapping scheme, the article proves the appearance of derivative metaphors in sports news such as sports competition as a battle between the warring parties; the footballers as military participants; the main footballers in competition are the weapons in the war; tactics in competing in a sports event as tactics in battle; the actions of footballers are the actions of the warring parties; fouls and misconduct are destroying an opponent in battle; coach as battle commander; winning/losing the match as winning/losing the battle. The current study’s findings are the metaphors grouped into categories: battle activities, battle devices, battle results/consequences, battle tactics. The article’s research results may help journalism students in writing skills and use conceptual metaphors in writing news and articles; suggest to sports bulletin editors how to use conceptual metaphors in news and articles to increase attraction for readers and listeners; and make matches more excited, dramatic and attractive.