NUMERAL COMPOUND WORDS WITH COMPONENTS ON, FOR, AND IN MODERN AMERICAN SPORTS MEDIA DISCOURSE

Abstract

American sports media discourse is characterized by an extensive use of compound words that contain numerals. Such lexemes not only express quantitative parameters, geographical location, names of athletes, but also form a specific lexical meaning, sometimes with stylistic coloring and can perform the function of a noun or adjective.

Six major types of compound word with numerals were defined in our previous research. In this paper, compound words with numerals that contain components ‘on, for, and’ have been studied. The analyzed lexical units containing component ‘for’ are characterized by fixed notions expressed by each numeral. The left (first) numeral component expresses the number of successful attempts, shots, points scored, goals. The right (second) component expresses the number of attempts made, shots taken etc. It has been determined that the whole compound word either describes a person or expresses certain statistical data.

The analyzed lexical units containing component ‘on’ are also characterized by fixed notions expressed by each numeral. The left (first) numeral component expresses the number of attacking players, while the right (second) numeral component expresses the number of defending players. The whole compound word denotes a plying situation that develops in a specific moment of speech.

The analyzed lexical units containing component ‘and’ do not have fixed meaning of each component. Eight structural types of such lexical units have been pointed out in the study. Numeral components can express a variety of notion most common being quantitative indices related to the playing situation (attempt made and left, shots taken, distance covered, and points). The meaning of each numeral depends on the kind of sport while the compound word may perform the functions on a noun, adjective and even be a wholophrasal compound.