Page 355 - 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. 355
the cowboys, the poets, the professor...
– antonomasia in croatian sports discourse 355
remains present in the cultural memory. Moreover, absolute antonoma-
sias like King of Athletics see their referents change in accordance with
the constant breaking of records. Yesterday it was Carl Lewis, today it
is Ussain Bolt, and tomorrow who knows (but there is only one club in
Croatia that is always The Whites).
Chart 1: Target domains by category
One might ask how nicknames like Kauboji = the Cowboys (for the
Croatian national handball team), Vatreni = The Fiery Ones (for the
Croatian national football team) or Barakude = the Barracudas (for the
Croatian national water polo team) can be treated as classical antono-
masia if the definition requires a substitution of a proper name. It is obvi-
ous that the Croatian national handball/football/water polo teams are
not proper names but one has to remember that in sports discourse it is
quite normal to substitute the phrase “Croatian national sports team”
by the proper name Croatia using the metonymic concept the part
for the whole. Therefore, Kauboji, Barakude or Vatreni are antono-
masias that substitute the proper name Croatia which has already been
metonymically used to refer to national sports teams representing the
Republic of Croatia.
3.2. Metonymic or Metaphoric Origin
Although classical antonomasias are used as metonymies because
they unambiguously refer to the substituted name, their origin is not al-
ways metonymic (as it was explained thoroughly in the Introduction).
As is visible in Chart 2, one third of the headwords were not created
through the metonymic process. The same proportion is kept in the to-
kens, but the other third of both the headwords and tokens differs in
the ratio of metaphor-based and combined type antonomasias (Chart 3).
– antonomasia in croatian sports discourse 355
remains present in the cultural memory. Moreover, absolute antonoma-
sias like King of Athletics see their referents change in accordance with
the constant breaking of records. Yesterday it was Carl Lewis, today it
is Ussain Bolt, and tomorrow who knows (but there is only one club in
Croatia that is always The Whites).
Chart 1: Target domains by category
One might ask how nicknames like Kauboji = the Cowboys (for the
Croatian national handball team), Vatreni = The Fiery Ones (for the
Croatian national football team) or Barakude = the Barracudas (for the
Croatian national water polo team) can be treated as classical antono-
masia if the definition requires a substitution of a proper name. It is obvi-
ous that the Croatian national handball/football/water polo teams are
not proper names but one has to remember that in sports discourse it is
quite normal to substitute the phrase “Croatian national sports team”
by the proper name Croatia using the metonymic concept the part
for the whole. Therefore, Kauboji, Barakude or Vatreni are antono-
masias that substitute the proper name Croatia which has already been
metonymically used to refer to national sports teams representing the
Republic of Croatia.
3.2. Metonymic or Metaphoric Origin
Although classical antonomasias are used as metonymies because
they unambiguously refer to the substituted name, their origin is not al-
ways metonymic (as it was explained thoroughly in the Introduction).
As is visible in Chart 2, one third of the headwords were not created
through the metonymic process. The same proportion is kept in the to-
kens, but the other third of both the headwords and tokens differs in
the ratio of metaphor-based and combined type antonomasias (Chart 3).
