Publications

Publication details [#34923]

Smith, Michael K. and Michael B. Montgomery. 1989. The semantics of winning and losing. Language in Society 18 (1) : 31–57.

Publication type

Article in journal

Publication language

English

Keywords

creativity | language use | meaning | semantics1 | sports language

Place, Publisher

Cambridge University Press

ISBN

0047-4045

Journal WWW

journals.cambridge.org/

Annotation

This paper analyzes the way American newspaper sportwriters describe in headlines the outcomes of football games: what kind of playful language do they use; is there a limit to the descriptions; and what might be the effect of this creative language use on the English language in general.