Analysing Media Discourse: The Case of Conceptual Metaphors in Football News Headlines in English and Arabic

This study explores the use of conceptual metaphors in football news headlines in English and Arabic. It aims to find the similarities and/or differences between English and Arabic in respect of the identified metaphorical concepts. The corpus of the study consists of two samples: one in Arabic (n = 200) and another in English (n = 200). The metaphor identification procedure of Pragglejaz Group (2007) was used to identify the metaphors in the corpus. Two native speakers of Arabic and two native speakers of English assessed the researchers’ categorization and classification in the two samples. The findings revealed that the most predominant conceptual metaphor used in the English and Arabic headlines was FOOTBALL IS WAR and that there is a great similarity between the two languages in respect of the use of conceptual metaphors. The findings also indicate that the Arabic headlines tended to include a more metaphorical tune than the English ones. The study concludes with some implications for a better understanding of the connection between the two languages and their respective cultures.