Language is replete with sports metaphors and metonymies that are used to conceptually frame abstract aspects of daily life while the reverse is also true: talk of and about sports is permeated with metaphors. These can stem from prevalent source domains such as fight and war in ball games while more creative images exist that capture beautiful or well-rounded performances in figure skating, rhythmic or apparatus gymnastics. Athletes attract linguistic imagery ranging from being framed as the Hulk underlining strength to representing them as playful children as it was done in the case of depicting Diego Maradona’s specific playing style in football. Teams are framed as dream teams or as walls in hockey hard to play and be beaten. Also political implications exist when the French national team is framed as united in diversity reacting to recent swings to the right while characteristics of investors, officials and sports associations have metaphorically been captured as a mafia, criminals or greedy wimps only interested in money and power. Moreover, sports metaphors are also used for conceptualizing processes and aspects of our everyday life. Companies are on the run trying to make profits while students aim to reach the finishing line at the end of the semester. Cooperative work is often metaphorically conceptualised as a team effort while some players in these teams are team players important to keep the whole team running or going. As it stands, sports and their metaphorical and metonymic structuration seem to mirror socio-cultural perspectives and developments while at the same time everyday life appears to be – at least metaphorically seen – quite sports-driven as well.

These aspects form the starting of this special issue of metaphorik.de that is motivated by an interest in the relation of metaphor, metonymy in sports and sportive imagery in daily life. Against the background of the European Football Championship and the Olympic Games in Summer 2024, we think that it is timely to engage with, investigate and reflect on this type of of linguistic and conceptual imagery in the two discursive realms. Questions could address – though not exclusively – the following aspects:

• How is a certain type of sport or event metaphorically framed and what does that mean? Do the metaphors used refer back to a diachronically established metaphorology?

• From which domains of discourse do sports metaphors used in the everyday life originate?

• Do certain metonymies in both discursive domains hold political, social or gendered implications worth a critical inspection?

• What are the playful moments in the metaphors used?

• What are the modalities addressed and how do they contribute to developing a focus on certain issues while hiding others?

• Are there specific domains of discourse in the everyday in which specific sport metaphors are prevalent?

In brief, we invite contributions that engage with these and other questions. There is no restriction to the type, place or cultural context and papers are free to focus for example on imagery-driven gender issues in karate, political dimensions of track and field athletics while others may concentrate on the sports metaphors in political debates or the news coverage on economic developments.

Next steps If interested, we kindly ask you to submit an abstract with no more than 400 words of your envisioned contribution to info@metaphorik.de by 15th^th of October 2024. Your abstract will be assessed and the notification of acceptance will be sent by 31^st of October 2024. The special issue is estimated to be published in Summer 2025 which means that papers should be submitted by 28^th of February 2025 latest for review also leaving enough time for revisions and amendments to be made. For further information please contact the editorial board via info@metaphorik.de and take a look at https://www.metaphorik.de. Accepted languages of publication are German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. Targeted languages can stem from all over the world but linguistic examples require a translation into the publication language chosen.

We are looking very forward to receiving your abstracts and are confident to gather an interesting and exciting special issue on a timely topic!

With best regards, the editorial team of metaphorik.de