Sports Terminology as a Source of Synonymy in Language: the Case of Czech

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Sports Terminology as a Source of Synonymy in Language: the Case of Czech
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Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses · December 2019
DOI: 10.14198/raei.2019.32.07
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Charles University in Prague
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A
licante Journal of English Studies 32 (2019): 163-186 
 
 
 
 
 
Sports Terminology as a Source of Synonymy in 
Language: the Case of Czech* 
Aleš Klégr 
Ivana Bozděchová
Charles University, Prague 
[e-mail]; http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7760-6631 
[e-mail]; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5902-2031  
ABSTRACT 
Modern sports and their terminologies in European and other languages 
have been strongly influenced by English. The reason is that some of the 
most popular sports originating in Anglophone countries have been 
exported to other countries together with established terminology. There are 
several possibilities of how to transfer terminology into recipient languages: 
to borrow and adapt original English terms, to use vernacular terms, or to 
do both. For the purposes of the study, 100 essential terms were selected for 
three different Anglophone sports, association football, tennis and golf, and 
all their Czech equivalents were gathered using available sources. It was 
assumed that a typical development involves the adoption of an Anglicism 
which is subsequently either replaced or supplemented by a vernacular term 
or terms. It was found that the 300 English terms are matched by the total of 
540 equivalents. Thus, the results confirm the Anglicism-to-vernacular shift 
as a potent source of synonyms, though other intervening factors such as the 
length of time since the introduction of the sport, the general and social 
media popularity and accessibility of the sport for the general public play an 
important part and explain alternative patterns.
Keywords
: sports terminology development, synonymy, association 
football, tennis, golf

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Alicante Journal of English Studies