SOURCE DOMAIN ‘SPORT’ AND TARGET DOMAIN ‘POLITICS’ IN AMERICAN NEWS MEDIA DISCOURSE

Abstract

Conceptual metaphor with source domain SPORT is one of the most common metaphors used in American news media discourse. In conceptual metaphor model POLICTICS IS SPORT, it can be found many words related to source domain SPORT such as ‘run for’, ‘jockey for’, ‘running neck and neck’, ‘knockout punch’, etc... which are used in news media discourse in target domain POLICTICS. In this metaphor model, political election is conceptualized as sport competition; the politicians correspond to the athletes in sport; the electoral results are seen as the results of sport competition; and winning the election is conceptualized as winning the championship. The findings show that there are some cultural and linguistic differences between American and Vietnamese news media discourse. Many kinds of sport which are extremely famous in the US are lesser-known in Vietnam such as basketball, horse racing, baseball, car racing. This fact confirms that the conceptualization of the surrounding physical world can vary between different cultures.