Classification of sports terms: Thematic approach

Sports terminology is one of the most active terminologies in modern society. However, the systemic nature of sports terminology takes shape only in recent decades, which is related to the awareness of sport as a type of professional activity that is greatly being developed, as well as to the emergence of sports science. Sports terminology, like any other terminology, represents a system because it has systemic features and includes a whole set of concepts from the field of sports, reveals a hierarchical structure, and reflects logical connections between the elements of the system of concepts. The connection between the elements of the system of concepts is clearly represented in the relations of antonymy and gradation, in the relations of logic, in the relations of the whole and parts, as well as in the formation of terms according to the nest system. Just as there is no unified definition of a term/terminological unit, there is also no single way of classifying terms. At this stage of studying terminology, linguists has not yet developed certain norms for the classification of terms used in different areas of life, thus for the time being we can judge the presented classifications in terms of their detail and how effective they are when considering sports terminology. Terminological classifications suggest that division should take place on the basis of important characteristics. From a linguistic point of view, terms are most often classified based on the criteria of form, function, meaning and origin, with the fact that the mentioned criteria are not mutually exclusive. Apart from this classification, there are other ways and criteria by which the division is made, and in this research they are considered by the sphere (area) of use and based on the division into broader thematic groups that have characteristics that determine them.