DUALITY OF MEANING IN SPORTS SPECIFIC TERMINOLOGY: TOWARD BETTER COMPETENCE IN “PLAYING THE GAME”

Given the prevalence of sports culture and terminology in individuals’ lifestyle as well as semantic and pragmatic aspects of sports jargon, the application of sports terms is becoming a major part of the culture and communication in many countries. Consequently, research in this area can reveal systems which have many instructive applications in different cultural, semantic and pragmatic settings. Accordingly, this study examines the issue of duality of meaning at the interface of semantics and pragmatics in sports specific terminology. The main objective is to explore whether terms used in sports context could be associated with and/or interpreted at distinctive dual (sport vs. non-sport) situations. Another objective is to seek out how a deeper understanding of linguistic and pragmatic experience of sports terminology can help make learners more effective communicators. Eventually, it is attempted to remedy the communicative situation by enhancing individuals' communicative competence and so make hints on how to “play the game” well in different contexts. For this purpose, 114 frequently-used sports expressions from seven different fields were selected through convenient sampling and were then sorted and analyzed. Following the content analysis, it was revealed that the terms used in sports context could be interpreted as not only being related to the sports events but also could be associated with non-sports situations such as business or social interactions. In the same vein, considering the duality of meaning, gaining a mastery of sports jargon is indispensable for learners to enhance their communicative competence in “playing the game”. Regarding the implications, since one of the major goals of linguistic research into meaning is to illuminate the knowledge involved in communication, studying the rules governing the composition of word meanings into sentences and discourses allows individuals to build systems which can interact with their users in deeper communicative situations. The result of this investigation can provide a more profound understanding of the elegance and complexity of sports jargon in the uniquely human system of linguistic communication. This page is in English Translate to Persian AfrikaansAlbanianAmharicArabicArmenianAzerbaijaniBengaliBulgarianCatalanCroatianCzechDanishDutchEnglishEstonianFinnishFrenchGermanGreekGujaratiHaitian CreoleHebrewHindiHungarianIcelandicIndonesianItalianJapaneseKannadaKazakhKhmerKoreanKurdish (Kurmanji)LaoLatvianLithuanianMalagasyMalayMalayalamMalteseMaoriMarathiMyanmar (Burmese)NepaliNorwegianPashtoPersianPolishPortuguesePunjabiRomanianRussianSamoanSimplified ChineseSlovakSlovenianSpanishSwedishTamilTeluguThaiTraditional ChineseTurkishUkrainianUrduVietnameseWelsh Always translate English to Persian Never translate English Never translate espeap.junis.ni.ac.rs