The word formations and meaning of basketball jargons

Human never gets loose from language in communication. Language can deliver message from communicator though there are some special terms, which are not commonly understood. It is caused by word formation that can influence meaning. Commonly it is called as jargon. Jargon is used in many sectors as economics, politics, sport, etc. Formation of jargon evolves morphology, morphological syntax and semantic processes. Morphology includes morphemes, words and part of speeches. Morphological syntax includes complex words, compound words and phrases while semantics only includes meaning. This thesis describes one of sports, Basketball. There are two problems analyzed by the researcher: word formation and meaning. The researcher uses descriptive method for describing in detail. At the same time as technique of data collection, the writer uses literary study taken from Jerry Krause’s National Association of Basketball Coaches Drill Book. Some Basketball jargons have same meaning as in dictionary. While some others have special meaning because of word formation influences. For example player in dictionary has the same meaning as in Basketball; ‘a person who plays a specified game or instrument’. Otherwise fast break in dictionary has not meaning just fast: quick and break: cut relation with. But, in Basketball fast break is a counter-attack move when the ball is passed out quickly to team-mates who then sprint to the basket and shoot before their opponents can catch up to stop them. From the analysis of this thesis, the researcher concludes that Basketball jargons in word formation consist of 16 complex words, 8 compound words and 22 phrases. Other wise, the meaning of some jargons are commonly unknown because they do not have literal meaning.