The Linguistics of Football

The first interdisciplinary collection of articles on this topic is as international and varied as football itself. The publication covers media discourse, an online-dictionary of football terms, metaphors, the grammar of football commentary, emotions, football chants and football teams as multilingual eco-systems. Contributions from Sweden to Nigeria show how Language operates in football. Would you know where footballing terms in Arabic come from? How does the German coach Otto Rehagel communicate with the Greek players? Which Language did Materazzi use when insulting Zidane? Which special words do German, Polish and Igbo have for running, dribbling, penalty area and foul? In which country do the Canaries play the Roaring Lions? Where are famous footballers enshrined in a 'Hall of Fame'? Which metaphors do Swedish, German and Russian football commentators tend to use? Are the British really less emotional than the Spanish when it comes to football commentating? And why are commentators from Russia to Italy speechless as soon as emotions really run high? That and much more is covered in this first wide-ranging compilation on the topic of football and Language. Timed to coincide with EURO 2008, this book puts football on the map of current linguistics.

Autorentext
Eva Lavric ist Professorin am Institut für Romanistik der Universität Innsbruck. Sie hat vorher von 1983 bis 2003 am Institut für Romanische Sprachen der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien als Assistentin, später Dozentin gearbeitet und so umfassende Erfahrungen im Unterricht von französischer Wirtschaftssprache erworben, die sie auch in zahlreichen Publikationen reflektiert hat. Ihre weiteren Forschungsschwerpunkte sind Semantik, Textlinguistik, Pragmatik und Soziolinguistik. Sie ist Trägerin zahlreicher Preise und Ehrungen, darunter der Elise-Richter-Preis des Deutschen Romanistenverbandes 2001 für die beste Habilitation sowie die französischen "Palmes académiques".