The commodification of sport in English sports media: a look through the lens of metaphor
... collocations of trade-related terms with proper and common names denoting sportsmen (e. g., the sale of players, to buy up players, to trade Rogers Hornsby). Signaling a shift in both lexical valency and meaning such word combinations mark the beginning of the devaluation of the sportsman. Having originated in the speech of American sports managers and club owners, the “sportsman is a commodity” metaphor has acquired cultural prominence, becoming integral to Anglo-American sports discourse. In modern media ...
