How Language Shapes Relationships in Professional Sports Teams: Power and Solidarity Dynamics in a New...

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Dr Kieran File (Kieran File is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick, University of Warwick, UK)

How Language Shapes Relationships in Professional Sports Teams

Power and Solidarity Dynamics in a New Zealand Rugby Team

Dr Kieran File (Kieran File is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick, University of Warwick, UK)

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English

Bloomsbury Academic
30 May 2024

Sociolinguistics; Sports teams & clubs; Ball games

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.

By: Dr Kieran File (Kieran File is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick University of Warwick UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9781350044234
ISBN 10: 1350044237
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 30 May 2024
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

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

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.

Reviews for How Language Shapes Relationships in Professional Sports Teams: Power and Solidarity Dynamics in a New Zealand Rugby Team

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