In modern society, a lot of people read sports news every day. After the investigation and statistical analysis of lexical density English sports news, It is useful for us to discuss some lexical features of English sports news.
Using brief and expressive vocabulary
One of the distinguishing features of English sports news is using brief and expressive vocabulary (powerful word). Contrary to the long, complex words, the sports news prefers to use short, specific vocabulary. Especially, the headlines of the news are much more prefer the brief and the expressive vocabulary.
Following is a sports news from Xinhua English website: Here, we see a China Daily from the English website: Chinas Gao wins women’s pole vault title(Xinhua)Updated：2006-12-13 09:01 Chinese Gao Shuying excelled to bag the women’s pole vault crown at the Asian Games athletics finals here on Tuesday. The Asian record holder，27，beat the first two heights of 3.80 and 4.00 meters and then cleared 4.30 meters on her first attempt of the height for the title，while the eventual silver medalist Samsu Roslinda of Malaysia followed to failthe 4.40 height．Japan’s Ikuko Nishikori and Chinese ZhaoYingying shared the bronze medal in 4.15 meters．
We could calculate that there are totally 104 words and most of them are very short and have specific meaning. Using this vocabulary helps to quickly access and understand information.
High frequency use of “acronym”
The acronym are used in a lot of sports news, in order to save the paper, quick to seize the reader’s attention. There for the news reports require to convey as much information as possible in the limited space. Therefore, acronyms become an important character in English sports news. For example: FIFA(Federation International Football Association), IAAF(International Association of Athletics Federations),CTA(Chinese Tennis Association), CIsS(International Committee of Silent Sports)；NASL(North American Soccer League), and so on.
The high frequency appearance of terminology
Concerned with English Sports News figures, events, time, place And everywhere, so the sports star’s name, the name of sports events Say, sports organizations and institutions such as name of proper nouns in English Sports It is often seen. In news discourse, a paragraph has enumerated the many body Name of educational institutions and events
The words which concerned with sports figures, events, time, place of the English sports news could be seen everywhere, and the terminology of the sports stars, sports events could be seen in the English sports news. We have listed a lot of sports institutions and events in the last paragraph, now let’s see some more examples:
China defeated defending champion South Korea on Tuesday to be crowned in the badminton men’s team event at the 15th Doha Asian Games． (China Daily 2006-12-06) Defending champions China won a final re—match over South Korea at the Asian Games in Doha on Sunday to claim their seventh Asian Games men’s table tennis team title．(China Daily 2006-12-04)
Accurately use of figure
There are so many kinds of sports games and all the games are different. Some games compete speed, some games compete distance, some games compete degree of difficulty or quality of execution or performance, and so on. Generally, every kind of sports needs to use a specific figure to represent the process or results. On the other hands, the figure could also measure the value of the news.
Therefore, the figures in the sports news should be accurate. For example, in a 160 words sports news in page97-98 of “A Textbook of English-Chinese Translation”, there’re 25 figures describing the scores and rankings, and there’re 24 figures in another sports news in page 99 in this book. All the examples could show that the figures are very important to the sports news.
In order to avoid repeating, to make the sentence vivid and add interests to the reports, the synonyms are extensively used in the English sports news. There’re many kinds of narrative style and vivid words in English, and they are extensively used in the sports news. For example, it would use conquer，overcome，outclass，outplay，down，oust，crush，knock off，triumph over，prevail over in the news to express the meaning of victory.
Conclusion
The typical vocabulary style features, but also has its one’s own knack in. Through the survey found, lexical density English Sports News The large, but also has to use short words, using acronyms,
Proper nouns and terminology appeared in large numbers; accurate use of digital, a lot of This series of lexical features using synonyms, neologisms emerging. Understanding these characteristics, can help us better understanding and learning English sports news, and fully appreciate the splendid sports event
Generally speaking, the English sports news should not only transfer information, but also should quickly grasp the attention of the readers. All the words must be brief, accurate, specific and expressive. The sports news has its typical style and features. We could find that short words, terminology, acronyms are extensively used in the sports news, and the digital in the reports must be accurate. Through understanding the characters of the English sports news could help us to better understand and
learn the sports news and to fully appreciate the splendid sports events.
