Sports announcer talk: Syntactic aspects of register variation

Abstract

The language of sportscasting is analyzed in terms of register variation. 1 First the register is "located" by successive approximations to a characterization of its occasions of use, then selected syntactic characteristics are identified: simplification (deletion of copula and sentence initial nominals), inversions, heavy modifiers, result expressions (for + noun, to + verb), routines (e.g., giving the "count"). Some of these are discussed in relation to possible communicative functions, but all are seen as register markers. Sports announcer talk (SAT) is described as a promising topic for comparative, historical, and acquisitional studies of register variation. (Register, mass media, performance; American English, Japanese.) 157

Sociolects and Registers – a Contrastive Analysis of Two Kinds of Linguistic Variation

“…It is certainly true that a number of studies have focused on the registers employed by specific groups such as, for example, sports announcers (Ferguson 1983), students (Reppen 2001), researchers (Conrad 2001), or even parents speaking baby talk (Ferguson 1977). Nevertheless, the concept is strongly associated with situations of use rather than with specific groups of individuals, which is why Wardhaugh's definition is difficult to accept.…”

“…There are hardly examples of register taxonomies -a point emphasized by various researchers. Ferguson (1983) in the concluding section of his paper on sports announcer talk argues that it is difficult to delineate particular register types. 'Few people […] hold high hopes that a rigorous typology will appear soon, and fewer still would insist that research cannot proceed without one ' (de Beaugrande 1993: 16).…”

Nicknames and the Lexicon of Sports

“…A heavy noun phrase (Ferguson 1983) is a structure marked by the cooccurrence of a participant's name with one or more modifying words or phrases. These phrases are associated with the head of the phrase through apposition rather than with a relativized or copular construction.…”

“…heavy noun phrases. We illustrate some heavy noun phrases (HNPs) in (6), including broadcast examples from Ferguson (1983) in (6a), print media examples from Romaine (1994) in (6b), and additional examples we have found ourselves (6c). In each example, the appositive modifiers are set in small capitals.…”

“…a. heavy noun phrases in broadcasts (Ferguson 1983) Warren Cromartie, the left handed hitter, swings . (Meyer 2002;2004, 342-47), an anarthrous noun phrase (Pullum 2006, 340-41), and more to its journalistic usage, timestyle (Quirk et al 1985, 276, n.).…”