[Lexicog] Re: Sports Sprachgef ühling

[Richard Rhodes]

Scott,
	This is a nice list. And think you're 
categorizing it well. But at some point you need 
to divide it into true technical vocabulary used 
by the practitioners and the borrowings of those 
usages into or from the standard language. Take 
touch.
	In soccer, for example, touch has two specialized senses:
1) The phrase in(to) touch means out of bounds 
along the sidelines (probably because the next 
play is to throw the ball in, i.e., you can 
legally touch it with your hands).
2) Touch is a special case of pace. Pace is the 
amount of force you put on the ball when you kick 
it. It applies especially to passes. Touch is the 
amount of pace that gets the ball to its intended 
location quickly enough w.r.t. the game 
situation, but without so much pace that an 
appropriately skilled player has to work to 
control the ball on receiving it. In this sense 
it often occurs in the phrase with touch. It's 
easy to see the affinity of this usage with the 
standard language usage in a phrase like He has a 
light touch, which I suspect is not a sports 
metaphor at all.

Also

	ball sense is about reaction to the path of the ball
	ball skills are about abilities to make the ball do things

They aren't synonyms at all. (It looks like you 
mean that the way you wrote your first example.)

Rich


>Hi, people: Speaking of sports-related 
>sprachgefühl, I thought I'd add my two sense.
>The following idioms/expressions are from my db 
>of field-specific idioms. They represent some, 
>but perhaps not all, of the possibilities of 
>expressing sports superiority, and some are 
>indeed not true idioms. I wrote before about the 
>difficulty in classifying a particular idiom 
>(non-literal) from a simpe expression or saying 
>(literal). All that can be said is that idioms 
>are a special type of expression/saying (a 
>technical and immaterial difference to 
>native-English speakers). The purpose here is to 
>simply demonstrate the varieties of grammar and 
>stylistics that American English speakers use to 
>express `athletic prowess', with the current 
>thread geared toward sprachgefühl, and 
>athleticism/sports being the field used to 
>illustrate the concept.
>The change in prepositions, noun numbers, 
>auxilliaries are examples of the difficulty of 
>mastering (sprachgefühl), English or, any 
>language for that matter (e.g. have an instinct 
>for...something; play by instinct; play golf 
>with (or by) his instincts || quick on the 
>draw/quickest to the draw/sometimes `quickest on 
>the draw' || He could (can do something) with 
>one hand (arm) tied behind his back.; He could 
>(can do something) with both hands tied behind 
>his back.
>
>I broke my list down into four categories:
>
>SKILLS (based on experience)
>Natural ABILITY (genetic)
>PERFORMANCE & ACHEIVEMENT (demonstrated)
>Instinctive Athletic MOTIVATION/DESIRE
>ENTERTAINMENT Value (Popularity-Based)
>
>1) Skills (based on experience)
>
>(have) (good) ball sense/skill
>
>have (get/develop) a feel for (something -- eg. 
>kicking a soccer ball early in life.)
>He has kicking field goals (it/something) down to a science.
>
>Look ma, No hands!
>
>He really stays on the ball.
>
>He plays (works/calculates) (all) the angles.
>Practice makes perfect.
>
>His eye is trained (for something) (to do something).
>He has a trained eye (for something) (to do something).
>
>2) Natural ability (genetics)
>
>He's athletically inclined.
>
>He's a diamond in the rough.
>
>He has a nice touch (on the green/bunting/at the net, etc.).
>(he has) a soft touch
>(he has) a light touch
>(he has) a/the golden touch
>(he has) a (good) touch
>(he has) the magic touch
>
>He still has his touch.
>He still has the (old) touch.
>He's not lost his touch.
>
>He's light-handed.
>
>He plays by instinct.
>He goes with his instinct.
>He plays by his instinct/instincts
>
>He plays by his guts.
>
>He has razor-sharp eyesight.
>
>He has reflexes like a cat. (cat-like reflexes)
>
>It's his strong suit.
>
>a born athlete
>born to be an athlete
>a natural athlete
>a born winner
>He takes to sports.
>He takes to swimming (tennis, etc.) like a duck takes to water.
>
>He's quick on the draw.
>He's quickest to the draw.
>
>He's the go-to guy (gal).
>the go-to person
>
>You can't beat a man at his own game.
>3) Performance &Acheivement (demonstrated)
>
>(an) all-American
>an all-star (center/first baseman, etc.)
>He's all-pro.
>an all-pro football player (/basketball player, etc.)
>
>No one can touch him.
>You can't touch him.
>
>He plays in a league of his own.
>He's in his own league.
>He plays in a different league.
>
>a (very) hard act to follow
>a tough act to follow
>a difficult act to follow
>
>a heavy hitter
>a long-ball hitter
>
>He's the odds-on favorite.
>He won against all odds.
>
>
>He can run circles around (someone).
>He's a triple threat.
>at the peak of (one's game/performance)
>at/reach one's peak
>He can do it (do something) blindfolded.
>
>It ain't braggin' if you kin do it.
>have (win/maintain/claim/retain) bragging rights
>He knows how to get it (things) done.
>
>He can (do something) standing on his head.
>
>He took top honors.
>
>Pro-bowlers are the best of the best.
>
>They brought in the heavy hitters.
>
>He could (do something) with one hand (arm) tied behind his back.
>He could (do something) with both hands tied behind his back.
>with one arm tied behind one's back;
>could do something with one hand tied behind one's back;
>He could (can) (do something) with his eyes closed.
>He can (do something) with the best of them.
>
>4) Instinctive Motivation/Desire
>go/went for the jugular
>have a taste for the jugular
>have an instinct for the jugular
>
>He has a killer instinct.
>
>He plays with reckless abandon.
>
>5) Entertainment Value
>
>He's larger than life.
>
>He can bring the crowd to its feet.
>
>He draws a crowd.
>He can (really) draw a crowd.
>know how to draw a crowd
>He's a crowd pleaser.
>He pleases the crowd.
>He plays to the crowd.
>
>He can silence a crowd with his play.
>
>Hi, Rudy, et al.
>--- On Mon, 2/23/09, rtroike at email.arizona.edu 
><rtroike at email.arizona.edu> wrote:
>
>
>From: rtroike at email.arizona.edu <rtroike at email.arizona.edu>
>Subject: [Lexicog] Re: Sprachgefühl
>To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
>Date: Monday, February 23, 2009, 1:15 PM
>
>
>Howdy, all,
>
>My understanding of 'Sprachgefühl' (although it may have traditionally
>been applied philologically to puristic or artistic aspects) has always been
>that it is essentially what Chomsky originally had in mind in invoking
>'linguistic intuition' as the source of judgments of grammaticality,
>including such issues as whether 'bnick' or 'tlot' is a possible word of
>English. But as suggested in other posts, it can certainly extend to other
>areas of contextual, stylistic, gender (in the sociological sense), age, and
>regional appropriateness ('felicity', to use Austin's term).
>
>Rudy
>
>
>
>


-- 
******************************************************************
    Richard A. Rhodes
    Department of Linguistics
    University of California
    Berkeley, CA 94720-2650
    Voice (510) 643-7325
    FAX (510) 643-5688

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