Page 354 - Gabrijela Kišiček and Igor Ž. Žagar (eds.), What do we know about the world? Rhetorical and argumentative perspectives, Digital Library, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana 2013
P. 354
What Do We Know about the World?
3. Results and Discussion 7
Using the described methodological approach we gathered a total
number of 640 instances of classical antonomasia and in the ensuing
analysis we will refer to this number as tokens. Of course, many instanc-
es were repeated during the observed week so we needed to find out how
many different antonomasias appeared in the analyzed corpus. After re-
ducing tokens to a single headword (for example antonomasia Bijeli =
The Whites (Hajduk F.C.) appeared 80 times), we came up with 154 dif-
ferent antonomasias. There were only 3 different Vossian antonomasias,
which is not so extraordinary because antonomasia occurs primarily in
its classical form in sports discourse. The instances of Vossian antono-
masia were therefore not included in the further analysis.
After the tokens were reduced to headwords they could be clas-
sified according to their target domain (name of the athlete, club etc.),
source domain (kit color, sponsor, emblem etc.), sport and type of an-
tonomasia (metaphoric, metonymic or combined8). Secondary informa-
tion was attached to each token concerning the position of the specific
token in the text (headline or body text). This information was neces-
sary to better understand the specific use of antonomasia in sports dis-
course as it was obvious that in written discourse antonomasia occurred
frequently in the headlines (especially on the front covers).
3.1. Target Domains of Sports Antonomasias
The question about target domains of sports antonomasia was not
difficult to answer. After classifying headwords by their target domain,
we constructed the following chart with twelve categories.
The categories with the largest number of different antonomasias
were club, athlete and national team. Examples in these three categories
constituted 87 % of all the headwords. As it is evident from the chart,
many categories were represented by only a single example. It is some-
what surprising that clubs and national teams are so frequently substi-
tuted by antonomasia in comparison to individual athletes. However,
this is very logical: clubs and national teams are durable in contrast to a
career of an individual athlete and, consequently, their figurative name
7 Since the examples were collected from the Croatian media, in this paper they will be always pre-
sented in Croatian with the English translation the first time when they appear. The target of the ex-
amples discussed or used for illustration will also be explained the first time (unless they were already
explained in the Introduction).
8 We needed to differentiate the combined type from the classical and Vossian since those examples
could not be strictly classified as metaphoric or metonymic in origin.
3. Results and Discussion 7
Using the described methodological approach we gathered a total
number of 640 instances of classical antonomasia and in the ensuing
analysis we will refer to this number as tokens. Of course, many instanc-
es were repeated during the observed week so we needed to find out how
many different antonomasias appeared in the analyzed corpus. After re-
ducing tokens to a single headword (for example antonomasia Bijeli =
The Whites (Hajduk F.C.) appeared 80 times), we came up with 154 dif-
ferent antonomasias. There were only 3 different Vossian antonomasias,
which is not so extraordinary because antonomasia occurs primarily in
its classical form in sports discourse. The instances of Vossian antono-
masia were therefore not included in the further analysis.
After the tokens were reduced to headwords they could be clas-
sified according to their target domain (name of the athlete, club etc.),
source domain (kit color, sponsor, emblem etc.), sport and type of an-
tonomasia (metaphoric, metonymic or combined8). Secondary informa-
tion was attached to each token concerning the position of the specific
token in the text (headline or body text). This information was neces-
sary to better understand the specific use of antonomasia in sports dis-
course as it was obvious that in written discourse antonomasia occurred
frequently in the headlines (especially on the front covers).
3.1. Target Domains of Sports Antonomasias
The question about target domains of sports antonomasia was not
difficult to answer. After classifying headwords by their target domain,
we constructed the following chart with twelve categories.
The categories with the largest number of different antonomasias
were club, athlete and national team. Examples in these three categories
constituted 87 % of all the headwords. As it is evident from the chart,
many categories were represented by only a single example. It is some-
what surprising that clubs and national teams are so frequently substi-
tuted by antonomasia in comparison to individual athletes. However,
this is very logical: clubs and national teams are durable in contrast to a
career of an individual athlete and, consequently, their figurative name
7 Since the examples were collected from the Croatian media, in this paper they will be always pre-
sented in Croatian with the English translation the first time when they appear. The target of the ex-
amples discussed or used for illustration will also be explained the first time (unless they were already
explained in the Introduction).
8 We needed to differentiate the combined type from the classical and Vossian since those examples
could not be strictly classified as metaphoric or metonymic in origin.
