Investigating the lexical syntatic and stlylistic features of television and radio commentaries
For my language investigation I will be examining the structural features of radio and television commentary. My investigation will consider lexical, syntactic and stylistic features in television and radio commentaries on two football matches. I will be looking for ways in which the use of these features reflects the listener’s or viewer’s experience, specifically in terms of being able or unable to see the action. ... The main difference between television and radio commentary is that whilst the television viewer can see what is happening, the radio listener can not. Therefore the radio commentator must provide everything that is necessary for understanding and enjoyment, using only words. ... Two were unable to offer any help, but I did receive a useful reply from John Helm of Yorkshire Television. ... I chose the first two football matches which were available to me and were broadcast on radio and television. ... I transcribed a five minute period from each broadcast on both radio and television. ... Word counts for one radio and television commentary on the following; nouns, pronouns, proper nouns, adjectives and verbs. ... Using Microsoft Word to analyse the data I was able to gain the following statistics: Match (5 minute period) Manchester United v Chelsea (TV) 746 Manchester United v Chelsea (Radio) 1217 England v Belgium (TV) 614 England v Belgium (Radio) 1234 I found the results a little surprising but ultimately helpful. I expected there to be a higher word count in a radio commentary compared to one on the television, but I did not expect such a marked difference. For example, in the England v Belgium game, there was over double the amount of words in the radio commentary compared to the television one. You would predict the radio commentary to contain more words primarily because it has to describe everything as the listener can not see the events that are taking place. But also because if there is nobody is speaking on the radio, what is the point in listening to the radio? thus silence is anathema on the radio. Meanwhile on the television, the commentator can allow himself to be quiet for a short period of time, as the viewer is still aware of what is happening in the match. This is often welcomed by the viewer, however, on the radio it is imperative that this does not happen and that is why there are three commentators on the radio compared to two on the television. On both of the radio commentaries there was never a break in speech and the only reason why there is a difference in the total word count is because of the speed of the commentators speech. ... However, in the case of the television commentaries there was numerous occasions in which there were pauses in the speech, as you can see in the table below. ... The amount of incidents is irrelevant to radio transcripts as the commentator will describe everything that is happening regardless of how important it is. ... The results were the following: ‘Play-by-Play’ Match ‘Colour-Adding’ Total Word Count 746 294 1217 34 Man v Che (TV) 452 Man v Che (Radio) 1183 7 Eng v Bel (TV) 396 218 614 Eng v Bel (Radio) 1084 150 1234 The differences are somewhat clearer if you look at the graph in appendix 8. In television commentary, roughly a third of all speech is ‘colour-adding’, whereas in radio commentary, at best, it makes up a sixth. ... Firstly, on the radio, the primary objective is to describe what is happening and so the only time when the commentator can ‘colour-add’ is whilst there is a break in play. In football, there are very few breaks, hence the short amount of ‘colour-adding’ on the radio. Meanwhile, on the television, it is not necessary for the commentator to describe and comment upon every piece of action that takes place during the game as the viewer can see for themselves. ... This gives him more spare time, and although he does not use it all as indicated in the amount of time lost in pauses, he can now do a lot more ‘colouradding’ For example, in the England v Belgium television transcript10, there is a spell from the end of line 33 to line 47 which is all purely ‘colour-adding’. ... When put together in the context of football, they form a lexical item with a meaning particular to football.