The conceptual domain of sport in the formation of delegitimating metaphors in the Spanish ultraconservative discourse

Abstract

Starting from a theoretical framework which uses the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff y Johnson 1980), the Narrative Paradigm (Fisher 1984, 1985) and concepts taken from Critical Discourse Analysis (Van Dijk 2011), this paper examines the way in which political discourse categorize through conceptual metaphors a complex event such as the legalization of the Spanish Communist Party, which occurred during the period of the Spanish Transition. It can be seen how the ultraconservative press, whose ideology was against the legalization, places the news within their readership’s system of knowledge, beliefs and judgments. The author achieves this using a continued metaphor whose source frame is sports, particularly football subframe, and a series of cognitive processes that generate a mini-narrative that tells the story of treason. These mechanisms contribute to the establishing of the discursive identity of the protagonists of this event and subsequently to the delegitimization of what happened as a result of the inclusion of this party in the Register of Political Associations.