Page 357 - 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. 357
the cowboys, the poets, the professor...
– antonomasia in croatian sports discourse 357
While there are 16 % of metaphor-based headwords in the collected list,
those antonomasias were used more often during the examined week (26
%) than those of the combined type.9 There are two possible explana-
tions for this. The first one would be due to the economy of language
which prevents frequent use of longer or complex expressions and fa-
vours shorter ones. Metaphorical antonomasias in most cases consist of
a single word (e.g. Barakude, Furija = Fury (the Spanish national team),
Kauboji, Vukovi = Wolves (BC Cibona) etc.), whereas those of the com-
bined type by their definition need to be phrases (e.g. Crveni vragovi =
the Red Devils (Manchester United F.C.), Argentinski čarobnjak = the
Argentinean Wizard (Lionel Messi), Rukometni Mozart = the Hand-
ball Mozart (Ivano Balić), Švicarski čarobnjak = the Swiss Wizard (Rog-
er Federer) etc.).
Second reason for this discrepancy could be found in Chart 4.
Chart 4: Top 10 antonomasias
Here are the top 10 antonomasias10 in regard to all the tokens. These
332 instances make one half of all the tokens, therefore, it is interest-
ing to look closer at the metaphor-metonymy ratio. As it was shown in
Charts 2 and 3, the metonymically based antonomasias are in light gray,
metaphor-based in dark gray and combined-type in white. The meta-
9 Many combined-type instances of antonomasia appeared only once during the week (e.g. Majstori
s mora = the Masters from the Sea (Hajduk F.C.), Rukometni Jordan = the Handball Jordan (Ivano
Balić) or Briljant s istoka = the Brilliant from the East (Victoria Azarenka)).
10 We are aware that this is not the list of the most frequent or the most common sports antonomasias
in the Croatian media. These results largely depend on the matches or tournaments played in the
analyzed week. Nevertheless, they are all highly recognizable and generally used in the Croatian
sports discourse.
– antonomasia in croatian sports discourse 357
While there are 16 % of metaphor-based headwords in the collected list,
those antonomasias were used more often during the examined week (26
%) than those of the combined type.9 There are two possible explana-
tions for this. The first one would be due to the economy of language
which prevents frequent use of longer or complex expressions and fa-
vours shorter ones. Metaphorical antonomasias in most cases consist of
a single word (e.g. Barakude, Furija = Fury (the Spanish national team),
Kauboji, Vukovi = Wolves (BC Cibona) etc.), whereas those of the com-
bined type by their definition need to be phrases (e.g. Crveni vragovi =
the Red Devils (Manchester United F.C.), Argentinski čarobnjak = the
Argentinean Wizard (Lionel Messi), Rukometni Mozart = the Hand-
ball Mozart (Ivano Balić), Švicarski čarobnjak = the Swiss Wizard (Rog-
er Federer) etc.).
Second reason for this discrepancy could be found in Chart 4.
Chart 4: Top 10 antonomasias
Here are the top 10 antonomasias10 in regard to all the tokens. These
332 instances make one half of all the tokens, therefore, it is interest-
ing to look closer at the metaphor-metonymy ratio. As it was shown in
Charts 2 and 3, the metonymically based antonomasias are in light gray,
metaphor-based in dark gray and combined-type in white. The meta-
9 Many combined-type instances of antonomasia appeared only once during the week (e.g. Majstori
s mora = the Masters from the Sea (Hajduk F.C.), Rukometni Jordan = the Handball Jordan (Ivano
Balić) or Briljant s istoka = the Brilliant from the East (Victoria Azarenka)).
10 We are aware that this is not the list of the most frequent or the most common sports antonomasias
in the Croatian media. These results largely depend on the matches or tournaments played in the
analyzed week. Nevertheless, they are all highly recognizable and generally used in the Croatian
sports discourse.
