How Language Shapes Relationships in Professional Sports Teams
Power and Solidarity Dynamics in a New Zealand Rugby Team
Published on 30. May 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-350-04423-4 (ISBN)
Description
While the topic of relationships in professional sports teams is gaining greater attention from researchers and practitioners, the role that coach and athlete language plays in shaping these relationships remains largely unexplored. This book addresses this gap by examining how every day, authentic language patterns used by coaches, captains and players shape relationships in a professional New Zealand rugby team. More specifically, through a discourse analysis of taken-for-granted ritual language practices in training sessions, team meetings and match-day interactions, the chapters of this book illustrate how coaches, captains and players shape particular interpersonal dynamics of power and solidarity between themselves in and through language and, in the process, reflect and reconstruct shared and underlying ideologies about how relationships of power and solidarity work in their team.
Offering an evidence-based discussion of the silent and pervasive ideologies that underpin how relationships work in professional sports teams, this book extends research on this important topic by providing largely missing illustrations of consequential interpersonal dynamics that actively shape professional relationships in sports teams. Written in an approachable style, this book offers linguists, social scientists and sports practitioners a frame of reference for greater understanding of how language directly shapes relationships of power and solidarity.
Offering an evidence-based discussion of the silent and pervasive ideologies that underpin how relationships work in professional sports teams, this book extends research on this important topic by providing largely missing illustrations of consequential interpersonal dynamics that actively shape professional relationships in sports teams. Written in an approachable style, this book offers linguists, social scientists and sports practitioners a frame of reference for greater understanding of how language directly shapes relationships of power and solidarity.
Reviews / Votes
An invaluable resource for scholars and social scientists in linguistics and relationships, showcasing the use of a linguistic lens to understand relationships that could be applied to many different social settings, not just in sport. As a resource for practitioners in sport interested in culture and high-performing teams, it offers value in thinking about the language they use and how it impacts on the team. * International Journal of Sport Communication * A welcome and long-overdue contribution to the burgeoning field of applied linguistics and sport. File's work is ambitious in scope - capturing the range and complexity of spoken language in the context of professional sport. At the same time, his description and analysis is extremely accessible. Anyone with an interest in the role language plays in relationship building in sport should read this book. -- David Caldwell, University of South Australia, Australia Drawing on unique ethnographic data of recorded talk among members of a professional rugby team, this highly insightful study offers a very original and well-informed account of the relational dynamics of communication in contexts where power and solidarity intersect with hierarchy and leadership.This book is an invaluable resource for all scholars working on the linguistic negotiation of relationships not only in sports teams but also in all kinds of transactional social interactions in group-based workplace communication contexts. -- Jan Chovanec, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-350-04423-4 (9781350044234)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Kieran File
How Language Shapes Relationships in Professional Sports Teams
Power and Solidarity Dynamics in a New Zealand Rugby Team
E-Book
10/2022
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€28.49
Available for download
Kieran File
How Language Shapes Relationships in Professional Sports Teams
Power and Solidarity Dynamics in a New Zealand Rugby Team
E-Book
10/2022
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€28.49
Available for download
Person
Kieran File is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick, UK, where he teaches professional communication, qualitative research methodology and sociolinguistics.
Content
List of Figures
List of Tables
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. How Do Relationships Work in Professional Sports Teams? Investigating the Performance of Relationships through a Linguistic Lens
2. Introducing our Toolkit: Discourse Analytical Tools for Locating Relational Dynamics in Social Interaction
3. How Do Coaches Exercise Control over Players? Constructing Asymmetrical Power Relations through Language
4. Exercising Power through Questioning: How Coaches Use their Questions
5. How Does Power-Sharing Work? The Interactional Distribution of Power between Coach and Captain
6. Power Dynamics amongst Players: Establishing Flatter Social Structures in On-Field Problem Solving Talk
7. Bonding before Battle: How the Captain Fosters Togetherness and Belonging in Pre-Match Team-Talk Rituals
8. Maintaining Professional Distance in Interaction: The Nature of Solidarity between Coaches and Players
9. Criticism and Solidarity between Coach and Players: Variation in Critical Feedback Practices
10. Widening the Linguistic Lens: Identifying Cultural Belief Systems Underlying How Relationships Work in Professional Sports Teams
Appendix 1: Technical Rugby Terms Explained
Appendix 2: Contextual Information about Individuals in the Team
References
Index
List of Tables
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. How Do Relationships Work in Professional Sports Teams? Investigating the Performance of Relationships through a Linguistic Lens
2. Introducing our Toolkit: Discourse Analytical Tools for Locating Relational Dynamics in Social Interaction
3. How Do Coaches Exercise Control over Players? Constructing Asymmetrical Power Relations through Language
4. Exercising Power through Questioning: How Coaches Use their Questions
5. How Does Power-Sharing Work? The Interactional Distribution of Power between Coach and Captain
6. Power Dynamics amongst Players: Establishing Flatter Social Structures in On-Field Problem Solving Talk
7. Bonding before Battle: How the Captain Fosters Togetherness and Belonging in Pre-Match Team-Talk Rituals
8. Maintaining Professional Distance in Interaction: The Nature of Solidarity between Coaches and Players
9. Criticism and Solidarity between Coach and Players: Variation in Critical Feedback Practices
10. Widening the Linguistic Lens: Identifying Cultural Belief Systems Underlying How Relationships Work in Professional Sports Teams
Appendix 1: Technical Rugby Terms Explained
Appendix 2: Contextual Information about Individuals in the Team
References
Index