A Study of Lexical Relations in Selected Sport News from Nigerian National Dailies

This study investigated the lexical relations in selected sports news articles from Nigerian daily newspapers. The primary aim was to examine how lexical relations contribute to the construction of meaning and engagement in the context of sports journalism. Specific objectives included identifying and classifying the types of lexical relations present in the articles, analyzing their role in constructing meaning, and exploring the influence of code-switching on lexical relations. The study adopted a qualitative research design, utilizing a linguistic approach grounded in Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). Data were drawn from sports news articles published in Nigerian daily newspapers within a specified time frame. The analysis focused on various types of lexical relations, including synonymy, antonymy, hyponymy, meronym, and polysemy, alongside the phenomenon of code-switching. Findings revealed that lexical relations significantly enhanced the communicative effectiveness of sports news by emphasizing key ideas, creating contrasts, and categorizing information. Synonymy and antonymy were predominantly used to emphasize competitiveness and highlight significant events, while hyponymy and meronym provided detailed categorization of sports and their components. Code-switching, a common linguistic feature in Nigerian sports journalism, was observed to blend English with indigenous languages, adding cultural depth and fostering reader engagement. This study contributed to linguistic scholarship by illuminating the role of lexical relations in sports journalism and underscored the influence of Nigeria’s multilingual context on language use in the media. It provided practical insights for journalists, media practitioners, and educators on the strategic use of language to shape audience perception and engagement in a multicultural setting.