more sportspeak

Greg Pulliam pulliam at IIT.EDU
Wed Jul 5 21:52:20 UTC 2000


Another usage (besides _tonight_ for _this afternoon_) in
sportscaster speak is the zero possessive in basketball, as when
possession of the ball changes and an announcer says "Chicago ball,"
meaning "Chicago's ball."  This has been discussed  here before, but
I don't recall what the general consensus was about its origin--I had
assumed that it was an AAVE feature picked up by these announcers,
but I don't think the group agreed with that.  (I don't think this
usage has crossed into football.)

Does anyone recall that thread?
--
-

Greg
greg at pulliam.org



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