The handbook brings together a growing body of research that explores the language people use when they are playing, coaching, administering, reporting on and watching sport. In addition to illustrating the variety of research being undertaken at the interface between language and sport, the volume conceptualises, consolidates and distinguishes the exciting and expanding field of sports linguistics that is emerging around these studies.
Grounded in the broader concerns of linguistics, sociolinguistics and discourse analysis, sports linguistics is a field united by an interest in understanding the role of language role in sport and the important ways in which language functions to enable people to engage in sport in its various contexts. It also unpacks the social issues and cultural patterns that are reconstructed through language in the contexts where sport is happening.
The chapters provide a state-of-the-art account of the research missions, methodological approaches, domains of study, key social issues and research applications that have emerged as foundational to the work researchers are doing in this field around the world. Contributors also consider the future of sports linguistics, locating domains, issues and opportunities a linguistic lens on sport might pursue to usefully and impactfully advance and connect the field to wider linguistic theory and social theories of sport.

Kieran File is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick, UK.
David Caldwell is Associate Professor in English Language and Literacy at Adelaide University, Australia.
Lindsey Meân is an Associate Professor in the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences and co-director of the sport, media and culture research group at Arizona State University, USA.