The Emergence of Footballer Nicknames from a Socio-cognitive Onomastics Perspective

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor of Linguistics Department, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Department of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences in Sport,, Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Onomastics is a branch of social linguistics and names play significant roles in cognitive organization of people in different communities with various languages. Therefore, taking a Socio-cognitive Onomastics perspective can shed lights on the production and perception of footballer nicknames. Which cognitive mechanisms do evoke the creation of footballer nicknames? How does the multi-level view of metaphor explain the conceptual metaphors? Furthermore, how football context-as a socio-cultural situation- does influence the kind of metonymic and metaphorical processes and the kind of selected sources? To achieve the goals, the corpus including phrasal/ Homeric nicknames of famous footballers was extracted from the internet. The results show that in conceptual metonymies, the features and actions of footballers are selected as their nicknames. Moreover, eleven types of metaphors were involved in the nickname emergence; two of the most frequent ones are FOOTBALLER AS ANIMAL and AS THE HIGHEST PERSON OF A SOCIAL POWER SYSTEM. This paper shows that the metonymies and metaphors being primed by football context and leading to the emergence of nicknames are activated at the mental space level. The type of nicknames is influenced by situational factors like socio-cultural situations including strength, movement, management values governing football.

Highlights

 

Ainiala, T. & Ostman, J. O. (2017). Socio-Onomastics: The Pragmatics of Names. Amsterdam: John Benjamin's Publishing Company.

Asadi, S. A., Badakhshan, E., Dastgoshadeh, A., & Naghshbandi, Z. (2020). A Cognitive Socio-Linguistic Study of Choosing Names for Children in (1985-2015); A Case Study: Kalatarzan Region of Sanandaj, Kurdistan. Journal of Western Iranian Languages and Dialects, 8 (28), 1-18. [In Persian]

Crystal, D. (2008). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (6th ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.

Holland, Theodore J. (1990). The Many Faces of Nicknames. Names: A Journal of Onomastics, 38(4), 255-272.

Jinge, M. Xiaolong. L. (2023). A Cognitive Study on Naming Mechanisms of QQ Nicknames. Communication and Linguistics Studies, (9)2, 20-26. doi: 10.11648/j.cls.20230902.1

Kennedy. K. & Zamuner, T. (2006). Nicknames and the Lexicon of Sports. American Speech, (81) 4, 387-422.  Doi 10.1215/00031283-2006-026

Kövecses, Z. (2010). Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. Oxford University Press.

Kövecses, Z. (2020). Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. University Chicago Press, Chicago.

Langacker, R. W. (1987). Foundation of Cognitive Grammar 1. Stanford, California, Stanford University Press.

Langacker, R. W. (1991). Foundation of cognitive grammar 2. Stanford, California, Stanford University Press.

Langacker, R.W. (1993). Reference-Point Constructions. Cognitive Linguistics, 4(1), 1–38.

Leslie, P.  & Skipper, J. (1991). Toward a Theory of Nicknames: A Case for Socio-Onomastics. Names: Journal of the American Society, 38(4), 273-282.

Littlemore, Jeannette (2015). Metonymy: Hidden Shortcuts in Language, Thought and Communication. Cambridge Studies in Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge University Press.

Matsevich, S., Kuzmichenko, A., & Korenetskaya, I. (2021). Nicknames of Politicians through Conceptual Metaphors in English. In Man, Society, Communication, Vol. 108. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (219-226). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2021.05.02.27

Rababah, L.M., Ali Rababah, M., Haddad, M.T., et al., (2024). A Linguistic and Cultural Analysis of British Football Club Nicknames. Forum for Linguistic Studies. 6(6): 1164–1174. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v6i6.7495

Reszegi, K (2023). Proper Names in Cognitive Onomastics: Meaning and Categorization of Proper Names. Onomástica desde América Latina, 4 (1), 1 - 32.

Sharifian, F. (2011). Cultural Conceptualizations and Language: Theoretical Framework and

Applications. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Shulska, N., Hromyk, Y. & Yavorskyi, A. (2018). The Cognitive Nature of Ukrainian Nickname Construction. Cognitive Studies, 18, Article 1544. https://doi.org/10.11649/cs.1544

Taylor, J. R. (2002). Cognitive Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Zandi,B. and Ahmadi, B. (2016). Cognitive Socio-Onomastics; A New Domain in Interdisciplinary Studies. Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities, 9(1), 99-122. doi: 10.22631/isih.2017.2571.2972 [In Persian]

Zandi, B., Motesharrei, S. M. and Yousefi Rad, F. (2021). The Roadmap of Onomastics Studies: From Traditional Approach to Socio-Cognitive Approach. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 4(2), 11-28. doi: 10.30473/il.2021.57361.1432. [In Persian]

Zandi, B., Tusi, M. (2017). A Sociolinguistic Study of Giving Nickname among the Students in Meshgin Shahr. Language Related Research, 8(7): 53-70. [In Persian]

Zvereva, E., Chilingaryan, K., (2016). Linguacultural Specifics of Non-Official Names of Football (Soccer) Clubs Used by Spanish-Speaking Sports Reporters in Edulearn16. 8th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies. Barcelona, Spain.7726-7733. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21125/edulearn.2016.0007

 

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

 
Ainiala, T. & Ostman, J. O. (2017). Socio-Onomastics: The Pragmatics of Names. Amsterdam: John Benjamin's Publishing Company.
Asadi, S. A., Badakhshan, E., Dastgoshadeh, A., & Naghshbandi, Z. (2020). A Cognitive Socio-Linguistic Study of Choosing Names for Children in (1985-2015); A Case Study: Kalatarzan Region of Sanandaj, Kurdistan. Journal of Western Iranian Languages and Dialects, 8 (28), 1-18. [In Persian]
Crystal, D. (2008). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (6th ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.
Holland, Theodore J. (1990). The Many Faces of Nicknames. Names: A Journal of Onomastics, 38(4), 255-272.
Jinge, M. Xiaolong. L. (2023). A Cognitive Study on Naming Mechanisms of QQ Nicknames. Communication and Linguistics Studies, (9)2, 20-26. doi: 10.11648/j.cls.20230902.1
Kennedy. K. & Zamuner, T. (2006). Nicknames and the Lexicon of Sports. American Speech, (81) 4, 387-422.  Doi 10.1215/00031283-2006-026
Kövecses, Z. (2010). Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. Oxford University Press.
Kövecses, Z. (2020). Extended Conceptual Metaphor Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. University Chicago Press, Chicago.
Langacker, R. W. (1987). Foundation of Cognitive Grammar 1. Stanford, California, Stanford University Press.
Langacker, R. W. (1991). Foundation of cognitive grammar 2. Stanford, California, Stanford University Press.
Langacker, R.W. (1993). Reference-Point Constructions. Cognitive Linguistics, 4(1), 1–38.
Leslie, P.  & Skipper, J. (1991). Toward a Theory of Nicknames: A Case for Socio-Onomastics. Names: Journal of the American Society, 38(4), 273-282.
Littlemore, Jeannette (2015). Metonymy: Hidden Shortcuts in Language, Thought and Communication. Cambridge Studies in Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge University Press.
Matsevich, S., Kuzmichenko, A., & Korenetskaya, I. (2021). Nicknames of Politicians through Conceptual Metaphors in English. In Man, Society, Communication, Vol. 108. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (219-226). European Publisher. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2021.05.02.27
Rababah, L.M., Ali Rababah, M., Haddad, M.T., et al., (2024). A Linguistic and Cultural Analysis of British Football Club Nicknames. Forum for Linguistic Studies. 6(6): 1164–1174. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v6i6.7495
Reszegi, K (2023). Proper Names in Cognitive Onomastics: Meaning and Categorization of Proper Names. Onomástica desde América Latina, 4 (1), 1 - 32.
Sharifian, F. (2011). Cultural Conceptualizations and Language: Theoretical Framework and
Applications. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Shulska, N., Hromyk, Y. & Yavorskyi, A. (2018). The Cognitive Nature of Ukrainian Nickname Construction. Cognitive Studies, 18, Article 1544. https://doi.org/10.11649/cs.1544
Taylor, J. R. (2002). Cognitive Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Zandi,B. and Ahmadi, B. (2016). Cognitive Socio-Onomastics; A New Domain in Interdisciplinary Studies. Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities, 9(1), 99-122. doi: 10.22631/isih.2017.2571.2972 [In Persian]
Zandi, B., Motesharrei, S. M. and Yousefi Rad, F. (2021). The Roadmap of Onomastics Studies: From Traditional Approach to Socio-Cognitive Approach. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 4(2), 11-28. doi: 10.30473/il.2021.57361.1432. [In Persian]
Zandi, B., Tusi, M. (2017). A Sociolinguistic Study of Giving Nickname among the Students in Meshgin Shahr. Language Related Research, 8(7): 53-70. [In Persian]
Zvereva, E., Chilingaryan, K., (2016). Linguacultural Specifics of Non-Official Names of Football (Soccer) Clubs Used by Spanish-Speaking Sports Reporters in Edulearn16. 8th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies. Barcelona, Spain.7726-7733. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21125/edulearn.2016.0007
 

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