‘Geography, Ornithology, Physics and Silviculture’: Novel Science-Related Conceptual Metaphors from Written Football Discourse in Nigeria

Abstract

This article sets out to prove the potential existence, or otherwise of football-related conceptual metaphors in domains apart from war, specifically the scientific domain, with the objectives of identifying, categorizing and describing the metaphors, due to the research gap that exists concerning the lack of studies describing conceptual metaphors in non-war domains in football discourse. Both conventional methods of Lakoff and Johnson’s (Source-Mapping-Target) and an exceptional approach of classifying the metaphors into superordinates, subordinates and textual examples. Ten issues of two newspapers/publications in Nigeria: The Daily Trust and SportingSun, five each, were selected for the study. The Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory (1980) and the Metaphor Identification Procedure by Pragglejaz Group (2007) were utilized as the theoretical underpinnings. The identification of the metaphors was via the Revised Metaphor Identification Procedure, and the method of analysis was textual/discourse analysis, guided by the objectives. The results of the study presented four novel, i.e. not previously reported superordinates (or master metaphors), namely: geography, ornithology, physics and silviculture. The study identified the novel metaphors, categorized them into superordinates, sub-superordinates and subordinates, and established thematic domains and overarching implications amongst them. These ten (10) novel conceptual metaphors are, to the best of our research, had not been presented or reported anywhere before. Conclusively, conceptual metaphor discourse analysis is capable of yielding multitudes of novel superordinate, sub-superordinate and subordinate master metaphors. Thus, football-related conceptual metaphors are as novel as they are pervasive and diverse.