A Corpus-Based Study of Nominalizations in the Sports News of Shanghai Gazette (1919–1920)

Abstract

With the theory of grammatical metaphor in systemic functional linguistics as the theoretical basis, this study explores the nominalizations used in the sports news of Shanghai Gazette (1919–1920), an English-language newspaper. By retrieving the nominalizations with a self-written Python script and by analyzing the phenomena in context, we found that the resource of nominalization is employed in the reporting of sports events for various purposes, including demonstrating sports variety and vitality, establishing a positive image of Western athletes, and building up emotional bonds with western residents in Shanghai, in particular, the Americans. Based on the corpus results and historical investigation, it may be concluded that the nominalization strategy adopted in sports news not only helps improve cultural publicity but also carries rich ideological implications.