The aim of this paper is to find out more about how certain metaphors are used in newspaper articles. The study is based on Lakoff and Johnson’s theory of conceptual metaphors and their concept ARGUMENT IS WAR, meaning the use of words and phrases connected to war in arguments or discussions. This concept will be the base of the investigation. English today is filled with metaphors of different kinds and that gives us not only a richer language, but also a sense of togetherness in our social and cultural groups. The investigation is qualitative and quantitative. The conceptual, general metaphorical and literal usage of words from the concept in question will be compared and analysed. A few examples of the usage of conceptual metaphors in our daily life having to do with Argument is War according to Lakoff and Johnson are the following: Your claims are indefensible, He attacked every weak point in my argument, His criticisms were right on target, I demolished his argument, I’ve never won an argument with him, You disagree? Okay, shoot!, If you use that strategy, he’ll wipe you out, He shot down all of my arguments. The goal is to get a picture of the usage of conceptual metaphors in the press by combining qualitative and quantitative information, meaning finding out how often conceptual metaphors are used and in which sections of the newspaper they appear. The use of metaphors from the concept ARGUMENT IS WAR vary from word to word or phrase to phrase. The percentage of the use was as high as 50 to 60 % in some cases and almost zero in others. Lakoff and Johnson claim that the metaphor is a natural part of our daily life and our everyday speech. The instances found in the corpus gives us a picture of the usage of conceptual metaphors in newspapers and articles and the instances show that the metaphor really is a part of our everyday language. The investigation might not be large enough to be a precise indicator of the use of conceptual metaphors in our western society, but it shows that Argument really is War, in many cases.

The aim of this paper is to find out more about how certain metaphors are used in newspaper articles. The study is based on Lakoff and Johnson’s theory of conceptual metaphors and their concept ARGUMENT IS WAR, meaning the use of words and phrases connected to war in arguments or discussions. This concept will be the base of the investigation. English today is filled with metaphors of different kinds and that gives us not only a richer language, but also a sense of togetherness in our social and cultural groups. The investigation is qualitative and quantitative. The conceptual, general metaphorical and literal usage of words from the concept in question will be compared and analysed.A few examples of the usage of conceptual metaphors in our daily life having to do with Argument is War according to Lakoff and Johnson are the following: Your claims are indefensible, He attacked every weak point in my argument, His criticisms were right on target, I demolished his argument, I’ve never won an argument with him, You disagree? Okay, shoot!, If you use that strategy, he’ll wipe you out, He shot down all of my arguments. The goal is to get a picture of the usage of conceptual metaphors in the press by combining qualitative and quantitative information, meaning finding out how often conceptual metaphors are used and in which sections of the newspaper they appear. The use of metaphors from the concept ARGUMENT IS WAR vary from word to word or phrase to phrase. The percentage of the use was as high as 50 to 60 % in some cases and almost zero in others. Lakoff and Johnson claim that the metaphor is a natural part of our daily life and our everyday speech. The instances found in the corpus gives us a picture of the usage of conceptual metaphors in newspapers and articles and the instances show that the metaphor really is a part of our everyday language. The investigation might not be large enough to be a precise indicator of the use of conceptual metaphors in our western society, but it shows that Argument really is War, in many cases.