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Sports announcer talk: Syntactic aspects of register variation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Charles A. Ferguson
Charles A. Ferguson
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, Stanford Univeristy
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Abstract

The language of sports casting is analyzed in terms of register variation. 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.)

Type
Articles
Information
Language in Society , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , June 1983 , pp. 153 - 172
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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