PRODUCTIVE MODELS OF COMPOSITE METAPHORS FORMATION AS A SPECIAL TYPE OF COMPOUND NOMINATION IN THE SPORTS DOMAIN (BASED ON THE CORPUS OF CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN ENGLISH – COCA)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32782/folium/2025.6.21Keywords:
composite metaphor, compounding, sports discourse, metaphorical transfer, nomination, sports terminologyAbstract
The article deals with the study of productive models of composite metaphors formation in sports discourse based on the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The paper identifies and analyses the peculiarities of compound nomination functioning in sports terminology, where composite metaphors are of particular interest due to their linguocultural specificity and expressive potential.The methodological foundation of the research is corpus analysis, which made it possible to determine the most productive structural and semantic models of composite metaphors formation in the sports domain. Systematization of morphological types of composite metaphors by structure (N+N, Adj+N, V+N, N+V, etc.) allowed for the identification of the main cognitive mechanisms of metaphorization in the process of compounding and tracking their frequency in sports texts of various genres.It has been established that the most common models are N+N (heavyweight, touchdown) and V+N (knockout, breakpoint), which demonstrate high productivity in the formation of new terms and show a tendency to expand the semantic field through transfer to adjacent discourses. Analysis of the contextual functioning of these units revealed their multifunctionality and capacity for further derivation.The article also examines the pragmatic features of composite metaphors usage in sports texts, their role in forming discourse expressiveness, and culturally specific aspects of perception. Particular attention is paid to the dynamics of semantic transformations of composite metaphors in the process of their adaptation in the media space and everyday speech. It has been established that such nominations not only perform a terminological function but also contribute to the emotional coloration and imagery of sports narratives, forming a specific worldview of the sports community.
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