Contrastive analysis of weather metaphors in Russiand and English sport discourse

The study aims at describing the mechanism of weather metaphors formation and functioning in sport discourse in the Russian and English languages. The problem of the nature of metaphor is presented for the purpose of introducing conceptual foundation of the phenomena. Weather as a conceptual area appeals to human cognition as a natural phenomenon and forms particular conceptual connection with human activity. Conceptual Blending Theory is utilised in the study to demonstrate particular result of weather metaphorisation that is blended or integrated conceptual structure –mental space. Blended spaces in weather metaphor are regarded as a unique conceptual structure with their own frames and scenarios inherited from the basic mental spaces. Russian, British and American sport media sources have provided material for the study. Several types of metaphors are distinguished, each with particular blending mechanism. Allomorphic and isomorphic features are identified in the blended space and analysed in terms of their conceptual and verbal representation.