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

[Captain]

Clearly the sport is Aussie Rules and the competition is AFL.

Who cares how the AFL marketed it in NSW/QLD, it is still Aussie Rules.

[The Big Cat]

It's Aussie Rules. I played Aussie Rules, but I never got even close to playing AFL. I played basketball but never close to playing NBL. I played tennis, but never Australian Open Men's singles.

[Matty10]

I think the debate actually needs to take another step back. The game is football. The code is Australian rules football. The biggest league is the AFL.

[liz]

That's the gist of my point. The first sentence can be factually true, but also have an ambiguous (incorrect?) second meaning, that they played Aussie Rules. The second statement cannot be factually true (except for Dani Laidley plus possibly a small number of others who haven't announced a gender change or changed gender as yet) but could be an incorrect reference to playing Aussie rules.

They have different meaning/ambiguity when stated by men/women.

Let me put it another way.

- Man says I played AFLW
- Woman says I played AFLW

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.

Clearly the sport is Aussie Rules and the competition is AFL.

Who cares how the AFL marketed it in NSW/QLD, it is still Aussie Rules.

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.

[i'm-uninformed2]

I can be a real pedant when it comes to language, grammar, spelling, punctuation and so on, but I find this last page or so draining.

I better go watch another replay of Heeney’s surge run from the wing to the goal square for Bud’s final goal to distract myself.

[Bloods05]

I can be a real pedant when it comes to language, grammar, spelling, punctuation and so on, but I find this last page or so draining.

I better go watch another replay of Heeney’s surge run from the wing to the goal square for Bud’s final goal to distract myself.

This is far more important than mere pedantry. It is about who owns our language, and who decides how we express ourselves. If you're happy to hand that over to marketing people, knock yourself out. I'm not.

[andy0414]

It's Australian Football

[Agent 86]

Search.

I DuckDuckGo.

[Ludwig]

This is far more important than mere pedantry. It is about who owns our language, and who decides how we express ourselves. If you're happy to hand that over to marketing people, knock yourself out. I'm not.

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

“the meaning of a word is its use in the language.”

? Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations

[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.