Comparison of 3 Gram List

To build the 3 gram lists, the present study selected all the 896 types of 3 grams from the basketball English teaching material to form the teaching material 3 gram list and the most frequently appearing 2,000 types of 3 grams from the basketball English web corpus to form the web corpus 3 gram list. After the comparison was finished, the present study found 166 common items in the web corpus 3 gram list and the teaching material 3 gram list. For the exclusive items in the web corpus, there are 1,834 types of 3 grams appearing only in the web corpus. From the 1,834 types of 3 grams, the present work first eliminated meaningless items such as to be a and it was a. After that, 3 grams of general English such as be able to were also excluded. As shown in Table 13, the present study utilized the concordance tool to select 49 items of 3 grams related to basketball English.

Table 13 : Basketball English 3 Grams Appearing only in the Web Corpus but not in the Teaching Material.

3 grams(49 items) Chinese Translation Frequency

1.the second half 下半場 15,919

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15.the defensive end 防守方面 2,559

16.beyond the arc 在三分線後 2,513

17.minutes per game 平均每場上場時間 2,329

18.assists per game 平均每場助攻 2,246

19.field goal percentage 投籃命中率 2,127

20.en route to 前往…的路上 2,123

21.at the half 在中場時 2,086

22.take a lead 取得領先 1,883

23.from three-point range 在三分線後的距離 1,806

24.at the buzzer 每一節或比賽結束時，蜂

In table 13, 3 grams related to basketball English appearing only in the web

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corpus are listed. In addition, Chinese translation and the frequency of each phrase in the web corpus are provided. Ten items are selected by the present work to investigate how those phrases are used in basketball English. They are on the road, down the stretch, at the half, at the buzzer, from the line, play at home, off the dribble, back and forth, field goal attempts and the starting five. Example sentences will be provided for reference.

The first phrase discussed is item number 4 on the road which appears for 12,454 times in the web corpus. In basketball English, on the road means to play games in other teams‟ home court. Playing games on the road often requires taking flight to another city and thus becomes a more exhausting challenge for the players. For example, “The Thunder has been very solid on the road in recent weeks. They've recorded wins in four of their last five games away from Chesapeake Energy Arena.”

From that sentence, it can be inferred that the thunder played very well in their last five games away from their home court, Chesapeake Energy Arena.

The second 3 gram discussed by the present study is item number 12 in the table down the stretch. As the sentence from the corpus goes, “Oklahoma City's two offensive monsters combined for 58 points and made several huge plays down the stretch.” The phrase down the stretch indicates the process where competitive and intense competition in a game is happening.

The third item is number 21 at the half. It is a prepositional phrase often used in the basketball game. At the half indicates the 10 minutes break between the first half and the second half. Take a sentence from the web corpus for example, “this game was tied at the half, before Chicago outscored Miami 55-34 in the second half.”

The fourth phrase is item number 24 at the buzzer which appears for 1,784 times in the web corpus. At the buzzer refers to the time when a quarter or a game reaches the end, which is the last moment the offensive team can shoot the ball. For instance,

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“Jeff Green hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to lift the Boston Celtics to a 111-110 victory over the Miami Heat on Saturday night.”

The fifth phrase discussed is item number 26 from the line. Among so many lines on the court, from the line here means from the free throw line. For instance, “Dwight went 3-11 from the line. Our team missed 18 total free throws in losing that game 100-92.”

The sixth phrase is item number 31 play at home, which appears for 1,288 times in the web corpus. In basketball English, play at home means to play the game on the home court. A sentence generated from the web corpus can serve as an example.

“With Miami playing at home, which puts the odds of winning very much in their favor.”

The seventh phrase is item number 38 off the dribble which appears for 1,068 times in the web corpus. This phrase indicates the moment when a player stops dribbling and holds the ball in his hand to pass or to shoot. Take a sentence from the corpus for example, “what made Gordon so successful was his ability to make pull-up jumpers off the dribble.”

The eighth 3 gram discussed is item number 41 back and forth. In a basketball game, back and forth means a situation where two teams can score and thus the lead changes very often and it is hard to tell which team will win the game. For instance,

“the second half was back and forth as both teams exchanged the lead and neither team could gain more than a two basket advantage.”

The ninth phrase is item 45 field goal attempts. In basketball game, field goal attempts means the total shots a player makes. For example, “in 29 minutes off the bench, he scored 30 points on 14 field goal attempts, including hitting 8 of 10 from downtown.”

The last 3 gram discussed in the present study is item number 46 the starting five.

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In the beginning of every game, this phrase is often used to represent the five starters of a team on the court. For example, “he's put Matt Barnes onto the starting five. He's examined how certain combinations of players work together.”

After the comparison of the 3 gram lists, the present study found that the web corpus 3 gram list has 49 items related to basketball English. They not only appear frequently in the corpus but also have special meaning in basketball. It would be beneficial for the teaching material to list those 3 grams.