Abstract
In this study, the background of the change of “number card” to “athlete bibs” and the inconsistencies in the use of “athlete bibs”, “number card” and “zekken” are discussed based on the materials related to athletics and sports and the corpus of media. The results are as follows. It was around 2009, when the world championships and other competitions started to put names in Roman letters on “athlete bibs” worn on the abdomen. On the other hand, until around 2011, it seems that “athlete bibs” worn on the abdomen of the athletes in many local competitions were written in numbers.And, increasingly, marathons in which citizen runners can participate have an option to become an “athlete bibs” with their name written on it for a fee, or a combination of name and number, as in the Berlin Marathon. However, the name was “number card” until March 2020.In the corpus of 4 main papers (Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun) from April 1, 1994 to March 31, 2020, the fluctuations of the use of “athlete bibs” and “number card” was observed. The rules of the game were subsequently revised in April 2020. However, it has not been long since the rules of the game were revised, and as of September 30, 2022, the word “athlete bibs (number card) ” is often used in the game guidelines. On the other hand, in the corpus of the four major newspapers (Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun) from April 1, 2020 to September 30, 2022, there were only four cases of “athlete bibs (number card) ”. Many of them were “zekken.”
