Semantic generation in sport: the possibility of expanding experience and its moments

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to examine semantic generation related to experiences associated with sports activities, and to clarify the moments at which semantic generation occurs. Although Yano and Kubo did not discuss the issue of expanding experience, they acknowledge the possibility of semantic generation in dissolved experience, which is similar to expanding experience. Grupe perceived the achievement of voluntary and autotelic play following the rules of the game as the general semantic of sports, and mentioned several derived semantics, i.e. physical and self-personality experiences, health and well-being, excitement and tension, connections with others, involvement with nature, aesthetics and drama, and play-related motivation. Studies in this area have confirmed that semantic content other than play-related motivation is derived from either dissolved experience or expanding experience. Dissolved experience should therefore be interpreted as generation and expanding experience as semantic generation. Next, focusing on the expanding experience to which Yano and Kubo have not referred, a problem has arisen regarding the meaning of semantics and how to investigate the momentum of semantic generation. The results derived so far suggest that semantics refers to primary semantic actions, rather than content, and that in order to achieve semantic generation, recombination of already formed concepts is needed. In this regard, ”flesh” may be considered an opportunity for recombination, or a type of denial. With regard to situations in which semantic generation can be experienced, or more concretely, situations in which aspect modifications can be experienced, it can be considered that these represent a state of double bind as one form of communication, and the present study considers situations involving such experiences in sports. For example, when passing the ball in soccer or running a crucial leg of a long-distance race, athletes may experience an adverse situation and change their views and mind-set to overcome it. Such experiences will prompt a conversion of interpretation schema of the athlete him/herself.