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.
2.1 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.
2.2 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