Australian Rules/AFL - what's in a name?

[Auntie.Gerald]

I just call it footy

Living in nsw that drives people mad 😠

League
Union
Soccer
Aussie Rules

Which one are u talking about lol 😆

[Aprilbr]

It's Australian Football

Agreed, but the rugby crowd will never concede that term as it recognises that our Code is Australian made whereas theirs is imported from England. Easier for them to denigrate AFL than Australian Football.

[Bloods05]

No one owns a language. Language is a social function.

Precisely. So don't let them take possession of it.

[Captain]

The difference is that 'AFLW' has never been used by the AFL (the governing body) to market Australian Rules Football in NSW and Queensland. 'AFL' has.



To you, maybe. But to all the people who have grown up (or come to know the sport) over recent decades in NSW, they may well call it AFL.

To illustrate, here are the sports schedules from two Sydney schools that I just happened to know off the top of my head offer Australian Rules Football as one of their sports.

Teaching and Learning - Saint Ignatius' College Riverview

Co-Curricular Sport (Senior School) - Waverley College

To refuse to acknowledge what they are referring to because you use different terminology is like me refusing to understand what an Australian means when they say "chips" or "lollies". Lots of words have different meanings, or different words are used to refer to the same thing, in different places around the country, around the world. We are generally aware enough of other cultures to know what is being referred to and to converse accordingly. Where there is ambiguity not clarified by the context in which a word is used, or who the speaker is, or any of the other many cues we use to help us determine the meaning of words, we can politely ask for clarification.

Everyone knows what they are referring too but they are still wrong.

AFL is purely an acronym. You can’t go out and play a game of Australian Football League at Riverview.

[Bloods05]

Everyone knows what they are referring too but they are still wrong.

AFL is purely an acronym. You can’t go out and play a game of Australian Football League at Riverview.

Yep.

[Ludwig]

Precisely. So don't let them take possession of it.

The meaning of a word is determined by social agreement or declaration.

This is from my own writing. I lived in France for several years. There is a ministry with the authority to declare what words are proper French. That's why France has its own words for common words used internationally, like the French use l'odinateur while the rest of the world says computer or something close to it.

Other than declarative meanings, language will just evolve as it will, and as it does. There is no taking possession of it, nor denying someone or some group from taking possession of it.

Australian Football, Aussie Rules and AFL may each have nuances which differentiate them from each other, but may well be evolving into synonyms. Time will tell.

Discussions like the one we are having on this forum are part of the process of the social evolution of language. We are attempting, as a social group, to determine how we should be using certain words, and expressing our understanding of how they are being used today. Maybe some minds will be changed. Maybe the meaning of some words will move in one particular direction or another because of this exchange.

[Bloods05]

The meaning of a word is determined by social agreement or declaration.

This is from my own writing. I lived in France for several years. There is a ministry with the authority to declare what words are proper French. That's why France has its own words for common words used internationally, like the French use l'odinateur while the rest of the world says computer or something close to it.

Other than declarative meanings, language will just evolve as it will, and as it does. There is no taking possession of it, nor denying someone or some group from taking possession of it.

Australian Football, Aussie Rules and AFL may each have nuances which differentiate them from each other, but may well be evolving into synonyms. Time will tell.

Discussions like the one we are having on this forum are part of the process of the social evolution of language. We are attempting, as a social group, to determine how we should be using certain words, and expressing our understanding of how they are being used today. Maybe some minds will be changed. Maybe the meaning of some words will move in one particular direction or another because of this exchange.

Business is always trying to take possession of our language. Its influence on its evolution is disproportionate, and pernicious. I reserve the right to object to that, and to resist it with what little influence I have. In no way does that contradict what you are saying about the evolution of language. We are all participants in that process.

[Maltopia]

Can an admin please move the lexicon related posts to a new thread? I think it is a fascinating discussion, but it doesn’t belong in the Collingwood match thread.

[Ludwig]

Business is always trying to take possession of our language. Its influence on its evolution is disproportionate, and pernicious. I reserve the right to object to that, and to resist it with what little influence I have. In no way does that contradict what you are saying about the evolution of language. We are all participants in that process.

Like business in your example or the French government in my example, or homo sapiens on the evolution of our planet, there will always be disproportionate actors in the process. Some we might call pernicious, from a personal perspective. Nothing wrong with making a contribution to the process but do so with the realisation that any one's individual influence is likely to be minuscule. It's better for the psyche to just go with the flow.

[bloodspirit]

Never mind the Académie Française, Humpty Dumpty said it best:

"When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less."

Scomo may be a more hirsute, latter day relation of Humpty.

[Markwebbos]

Never mind the Académie Française, Humpty Dumpty said it best:

"When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less."

Scomo may be a more hirsute, latter day relation of Humpty.

Latter Rain version more like

[Bloods05]

Like business in your example or the French government in my example, or homo sapiens on the evolution of our planet, there will always be disproportionate actors in the process. Some we might call pernicious, from a personal perspective. Nothing wrong with making a contribution to the process but do so with the realisation that any one's individual influence is likely to be minuscule. It's better for the psyche to just go with the flow.

Speak for your own psyche. Mine is satisfied for its influence to be minuscule. "AFL" in this context is simply incorrect usage, in a similar category to "should of" or " must of" or "the powers to be". As an earlier poster pointed out, you can't play a game of Australian Football League. The point is that this form of usage is entirely contrived, not some sort of natural evolution. It was created by a corporate entity, the AFL no less, for its own commercial advantage. It has no linguistic integrity.