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DOI: https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2024.75.03.2

How to Cite:

Kharabara, M., & Dyakiv, K. (2024). Football live text commentary as a speech genre (Based on materials in English and Ukrainian

languages). Amazonia Investiga, 13(75), 20-31. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2024.75.03.2

Football live text commentary as a speech genre

(Based on materials in English and Ukrainian languages)

Текстовий онлайн-репортаж футбольних матчів як мовленнєвий жанр

(на матеріалі англійської та української мов)

Received: January 14, 2024 Accepted: February 28, 2024

Written by:

Mariia Kharabara1

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0804-852X

Khrystyna Dyakiv2

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2196-738X

ABSTRACT

This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the

speech genre “live text commentary” within the

football discourse. The analysis procedure covers

seven criteria, with the help of which the

communicative-pragmatic genre aspects are

examined in English and Ukrainian languages. The

addresser’s communicative goal and the recipient’s

corresponding model have been identified. The

narrative content of the communicative event has

been clarified. Potential preceding and subsequent

speech genres have been identified. The peculiarities

of the verbal realization of the author's

communicative goal have been taken into account.

The results of the research have assisted in

determining the leading characteristics of the hybrid

genre. Common and distinctive features in the

represented languages have been established.

Keywords: speech genre, live text commentary,

football match, English language, Ukrainian

language.

АНОТАЦІЯ

У статті представлено комплексний аналіз

мовленнєвого жанру «текстовий онлайн-

репортаж» в межах футбольного дискурсу.

Процедура аналізу охоплює сім критеріїв, за

допомогою яких розглянуто комунікативно-

прагматичні жанрові аспекти в англійській та

українській мовах. Виявлено комунікативну

мету адресанта та розглянуто відповідну

модель адресата. З’ясовано подійний зміст

комунікативної події. Ідентифіковано

потенційні попередні та наступні мовленнєві

жанри. Враховано особливості вербального

втілення комунікативної мети автора за

допомогою мовного аналізу. Результати

дослідження допомогли визначити провідні

характеристики гібридного жанру.

Встановлено спільне і відмінне у

представлених мовах.

Ключові слова: мовленнєвий жанр,

текстовий онлайн-репортаж, футбольний

матч, англійська мова, українська мова.

INTRODUCTION

Research in linguistic genology is mainly

concerned with scientific, everyday and official

business discourses. Within the football

discourse, such a new genre as Football Live

Text Commentary has emerged among

interviews, reports and other genres. Its nature,

1

Postgraduate student, Intercultural Communication and Translation Department, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Lviv,

Ukraine. WoS Researcher ID: KBA-7333-2024

2

Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor, Intercultural Communication and Translation Department, Ivan Franko National

University of Lviv, Lviv, Ukraine. WoS Researcher ID: AAS-8833-2021

functioning, communicative-pragmatic and

linguistic characteristics in the comparative

aspect still remain unexplored. The relevance of

the research topic is due to the applied and

anthropocentric focus of modern linguistics on

the study of cognitive and discourse phenomena,

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especially those that reflect various aspects of

intercultural interaction between speakers of

unrelated languages (English and Ukrainian)

related to the nature of the genres of such

communication.

The purpose of the study is to identify the

communicative and pragmatic organisation of

the speech genre ‘Football Live Text

Commentary’ and the peculiarities of its means

of implementation in English and Ukrainian.

The object of the study is the speech genre

‘Football Live Text Commentary’, in which the

corpus of selected texts is a complex combination

of a text segment, an image, a time stamp and

their chronological sequence.

The article consists of an introduction and a

literature review and theoretical framework,

which include an overview of recent research.

The methodology section covers the stages of the

study and the methods used to present the

research results. The main material is presented

in the Results section, followed by the

Conclusions section and the list of references.

LITERATURE REVIEW

On the one hand, a football match consists of a

relatively small number of repetitive events, such

as actions on the field, coaches’ tactic

maneuvers, intensity increase, and decrease,

adherence to the rules, etc. The discussion

revolves around specific cases of genre-creation,

which are structurally and compositionally

manifested in multiple texts, namely, sports

interviews, sports (football) notes, post-match

reports, oral commentaries, etc.

At the stage of selecting the materials of online

match broadcasts, we analysed the corpus of

texts that ‘fill’ the webpage of the publications in

English and Ukrainian. Football and the media,

media and discourse: emotions and

multilingualism in football are presented in the

linguistic study by Eva Lavric (2008). The

language of sport, in particular regarding the

language of football, is presented in a study by

Taborek (2012).

This is an attempt to analyse and highlight the

peculiarities of the language of sport and to offer

scientific perspectives on the language of

football. The research corpus is represented by

examples from Polish, German and English. The

linguistic specificity of sports texts in

contemporary online journalism is presented in

the scientific research by Kolupaieva (2016).

The genre of football live text commentary in

linguistic explorations is characterized as

relatively new and classified as a genre of news

commentary (Chovanec 2006, 2008a, 2008b,

2018) in terms of functioning on web pages of

online publications. Werner (2016) conducted a

cross-cultural analysis which was based on

material in English and German languages to

determine register features of live online

commentaries.

A study by Krone (2005) contains an empirical

comparison of the syntactic behavior of verbs in

a certain register, namely television football

commentary. This study provides a contrastive

aspect, showing the use of verbs in English and

German spoken football commentary, and is

significant for complementing comparative

studies of written texts. Batsevych (2005)

presented a linguistic study on live sports TV

commentary as a genre of television discourse

from the communicative perspective. Sports

video interviews in Ukrainian and German

languages are introduced in a study by Dyakiv

(2022). The author identified genre peculiarities,

as well as the causes of communicative failures,

considering the interviewer and interviewee’s

positions, along with the influence of

communication noise and structural aspects of

the genre.

Taking into account the literature review and

existing linguistic research in the field of

linguistic genology and pragmalinguistics, we

have established the following. Already at the

stage of comparative analysis of English and

Ukrainian language materials, it becomes clear

that reporters, working with the texts in English

“embed” readers’ comments, thus making the

description of the match not a one-person voice

but a heteroglossic text, an interactive text

presentation. As for Ukrainian live text

commentary, we concluded that it is a canonical

monologic genre, a type of text commentary,

most readers are likely to be familiar with.

There are two key points relevant to the concept

of “new genre” that will determine the nature of

“genre analysis”:

− “…genres do not exist in isolation, but form

complex, intertwined relationships”

(Yakontova, 2009, p. 125).

− “Along with traditional types of texts, purely

online web genres are emerging in online

publications… certain genre fragments are

modifying, and complicated genre forms are

appearing.” (Leshko, 2018, p. 250).

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The first criterion incorporates recognition of

various typological genre characteristics. The

second criterion explains why, alongside

traditional genres, we observe the existence of

similar but modified forms of information

coverage. The above reflects all the complexity

of the presented genre of football live text

commentary as a relatively new hybrid genre.

Jucker claims that live text broadcast of a football

match, which comes down to the concept of live

text commentary of a football match, can be

defined as “written narratives that give a minute-

by-minute account of a sports event while it is

actually unfolding.” (Jucker, 2010, p. 58).

According to Meier-Vieracker, “live text

commentaries compositionally consist of a series

of entries listed in reverse chronological order

with the final moments of the game and the

outcome documented at the top” (Meier-

Vieracker, 2021, p. 277). The author does not

focus on football exclusively, but his statement

that “the single entries are composed of a) a time

stamp indicating the minute of the match in

which the described scene took place and b) the

description” is completely suitable for defining

and identifying a football match as a game with

a predetermined duration.

The speech genre of “football live text

commentary” is primarily realized through

communication between a journalist-reporter and

readers-commentators. A determining feature of

football live text commentary is a kind of

“presence effect” (live), which is recognized in

linguistic explorations as the “present of

commentary” – a specific commentary form

(Batsevych, 2005).

METHODOLOGY

The methodological base of the study, which is

an important criterion for the introduced

scientific results and conclusions, involves the

implementation and combination of different

methods in stages. The comparative-typological

method has been used to establish the regularities

of communicative organisation and differences

in the lexical and grammatical means of

expression of of the speech genre “live text

commentary”; the intent analysis technique has

been used to analyse the communicative purpose

of the warning in both languages; and the

transactional analysis has been used to

characterise the models of the addressee and the

recipient.

The study developed a comprehensive

methodology for comparing the speech genre

“live text comentary” in English and Ukrainian,

which was carried out in four stages.

At the first stage, the corpus of analyzed texts

was selected by the method of continuous

sampling to identify text comments published on

the Internet. This analysis is based on live text

commentaries in the English-language online

newspaper The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk)

and the Ukrainian-language sports news website

Sport.ua. (https://sport.ua/uk ). The popularity of

these materials is evidenced by the results of a

search analysis. Search engine algorithms that

take into account the number and quality of links

to rank pages help explain why certain resources

appear higher in search results. Other factors are

taken into account, including those related to

readership statistics. In particular, in Google

search results, The Guardian ranks first for the

search query “min-by-min report”, while

Sport.ua appears as a result for the search query

“текстова трансляція матчу”. The covered

events include the broadcasting period of the

2023 UEFA Champions League, the 2023

Women’s World Cup, as well as the 2023

English Premier League. The materials for

analysis were extracted and reformatted into

plain text, including basic data, such as the date

of publication and basic information about the

match. In addition, active hyperlinks allow

access to the original text and its multimodal

content, such as photo and video supplements,

Twitter feeds, tables and graphs. The potential

for influencing the main text is not overlooked in

the analysis presented here. In this way, we have

identified the formal, external structure of the

text: the volume, the formal division of text

segments, and the presentation of textual

material.

At the second stage of the study, the pragmatic

features of the speech genre “live text

commentary” of a football match are identified

and described. The purpose of the genre, an

image of a generalized addresser and recipient as

genre users, content of an event, the factor of

communicative past as well as the factor of

communicative future were analyzed. At this

stage, the channel of communication, a webspace

of online publications, was taken into account.

The theoretical and methodological basis for the

study of the speech genre is the expanded and

‘modified’ questionnaire by Florii Batsevych and

the parameters of the linguistic expression of the

speech genre, as well as the model of the

analytical formulation of semantic primitives by

A. Vezhbytska.

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At the third stage, language means of

implementing the communicative orientation of

the genre were identified. The analysis of

individual structural elements of live text

commentary, such as the commentator’s

explanations and specifications, and the use of

colloquial, evaluative, and emotional

vocabulary, forms linguistic structures for

expressing key moments of the game.

The final fourth stage contains the identification

of the commonalities and differences in the

context of communicative-pragmatic and

linguistic characteristics. English-speaking and

Ukrainian-speaking text commentaries

document and correlate the commonalities and

differences, which makes it possible to track

patterns of functioning of the analyzed genre

through a comparative method.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this section, we analyse in detail the

communicative and pragmatic organisation of

the speech genre ‘Football Live Text

Commentary’ and the peculiarities of the means

of its realization in English and Ukrainian.

I. THE COMMUNICATIVE AND

PRAGMATIC ORGANIZATION

The analysis is based on a model in which seven

parameters have been analyzed. From our

perspective, these parameters are adequate for

identifying live text commentary as a speech

genre.

1. The author’s communicative goal

The author’s communicative goal in the live text

commentary is comprehensive, since before

“immersing” readers-commentators into the

course of a football event the author analyzes the

immersing environment, the course of a sporting

event — …minute-by- minute or play-by-play

reporting. It should be understood, that speech

events in question are text comments, in which

the author’s verbal commentary is supplemented

or accompanied by verbal comments of other

authors and readers. (1) and (2) are examples of

live comments in English:

(1) Mikel Arteta tells Sky you can feel the emotion

on both sides and, in classic footballese, notes

that both sides “are in a good moment”.

(arsenal_spurs_guar) – other authors’

comments.

(2) Oh man, this is fantastic. Football is the

greatest. – the author’s commentary.

YOUNG FAN OF TURKISH CLUB

SAMSUNSPOR waves to team bus as it passes

each week, before it eventually makes surprise

stop to say hello. Love to see clubs being mindful

of these connections. Also love to see

Goalkeepers Union looking out for their own.

(arsenal_spurs_guar) – an “embedded”

comment by the author of a Twitter post

(“another author”)

@ReckersLive Sep 25 He will never forget that.

Frankie Salmon @frankiesalmon87 Sep 24 Think

these could learn a lesson or two (Leeds United

players ignore young fans) (arsenal_spurs_guar)

– reader’s comment.

In the provided excerpts of live comments, we

observe that the author takes on a certain role —

either as an author of the post or a commentator-

reader expressing opinions or engaging in verbal

disputes. Consequently, the communicative goal

is a personalized form of self-expression, not a

mere description of football match events.

At the “immersion” stage, in the preamble of the

English-language live text commentary, the

author sets the tone and thus “encourages” the

establishment of communication with the

anonymous audience:

(3) Rishi Sunak and the people of Islington don’t

agree on much, but they’re all adamant it’s a

time for change. Sunak wants to fix 13 years of

Conservative governance; Arsenal are desperate

to end eight years of Manchester City

dominance. (arsenal_man city_guar).

As for the preamble, it is worth highlighting that

the author of Ukrainian live text commentary

aims to inform about the date, location, and time

of the communicative event, and assess the level

of preparation and analyze the course of the

previous matches (communicative past):

(4) В неділю, 24 вересня, відбудеться

поєдинок 6 туру Англійської Прем'єр-ліги, в

якому гратимуть лондонські «Арсенал» та

«Тоттенгем». Гра пройде в Лондоні (Англія)

на полі стадіону «Емірейтс», початок – о

16:00 за Києвом.

Команди йдуть врівень зі старту

чемпіонату, в п'яти матчах здобувши по

чотири перемоги і раз зігравши внічию.

Краща різниця забитих і пропущених в

«Тоттенгема» (13:5 проти 9:4 в

«канонірів»), тому вони знаходяться на

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другому місці, а підопічні Артети – на

четвертому. Очна зустріч якраз дозволить

залишити опонента позаду і наблизитися до

лідера «Ман Сіті», який в цьому сезоні очок

ще не втрачав. (arsenal_tottenham_sport)

For both languages, it is crucial to create an

emotional and symbolic background, that would

correspond with the “reader’s” request to be

present and involved in the “cheering” and to

evaluate what the journalist has expressed.

2. The general communicative sense.

The general communicative sense serves as a

criterion for differentiating genres, that have a

common communicative goal. In this case, the

communicative sense of the speech genre can be

identified through the model of analytical

formulation of semantic primitives by

A. Wierzbicka (1985, p. 494). That is,

considering it as a frame, dissecting intentions

into elementary illocutionary components,

constitutive motives, emotions, and positions. In

summary, the nature of the communicative sense

of football live text commentary in the Ukrainian

language can be expressed as follows:

“I, a sports commentator, describe the unfolding

events on sports platforms in this way.”

As for the English-language football live

commentary, we note the following:

“I, a professional sports commentator,

‘broadcast’ the course of the sporting event in

this way”.

3. The concept of the addresser.

In both languages, the concept of the addresser

can be generalized and presented as a

professional sports journalist, who

predominantly constructs texts about football.

Data on professional achievements are publicly

available, sometimes directly on the website.

The addresser of the Ukrainian live text

commentary is a journalist, an expert in

conducting live text commentaries, a specialist in

team sports, involved in sports journalism since

2012

1

, or a news editor

2

. English-language

football live text commentary is comprised of the

posts of a commentator, who professionally

could be a columnist and a nominee for a

prestigious award among sports journalists

1

Oleksandr Snitko «Sport.ua»

(British Sports Journalism Awards) or a sports

journalist, freelancer, or writer (Daniel Harris,

Rob Smyth, Michael Butler «The Guardian»).

4. The concept of the recipient.

The model of the recipient is often about an

unknown audience, interested specifically in

reading about a certain sporting event. If we can

identify the reader who left a comment, we

consider this audience as non-anonymous fans —

this is precisely what we notice in the Ukrainian

live text commentaries:

(5) AlexSem 19.09.2023 23:44 1. …Я не

розумію, як можна випускати фактично нову

команду Шахтар, в 1 грі ЛЧ грати у

відкритий футбол проти добре зіграного,

досвідченого Порту??? 2. Що за

експертменти зі складом у матчі ЛЧ….? Дл

чого це??…жесть… (shakhtar

donetsk_porto_sport)

It is worth noting, that in English-language live

text commentary, the author “presides”,

formulates their text, and determines who will

have access to it, and decides whether to include

voices that provide feedback.

(6) Email! “Rice is clearly overrated, as you

intimate,” says Titan Tempura. “For that money

you expect silk, not just iron, sort of pun semi-

intended.”

I think he can get there if he adds goals because

his ball-carrying can compensate for his lack of

a killer pass. Either way, though, playing against

him must be a hateful experience.

(arsenal_spurs_guar)

We differentiate readers-commentators,

categorizing them into those watching a football

match in all the possible formats and those who

did not choose the television or radio broadcast

of a football match. “Those who have watched”

the football match will rely on the

communicative past, referring to the previous

viewing experience, like in the following

comment:

(7) AKIN @Akinjoshua2017 Oct 8

Arsenal is winning the league (arsenal_man

city_guar)

“Those who have not watched” a football match,

in a sense, are not biased, without the intrusive

idea of “disputing” the covered material:

2

Serhiy Rypiuk «Sport.ua»

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(8) Viktor Shuper 19.09.2023 13:48

буде виніс тіла, насправді не думаю що у

Шахтаря будуть хоч якісь шанси. ми бачили

кілька днів тому як вони мучились із

Оболонню, граючи у більшості. і при цьому

Оболонь навіть в меншості на фоні такої

Шахти дуже пристойно виглядала. тут буде

виніс тіла, це 100% (shakhtar

donetsk_porto_sport)

In either case, it involves a specific group of

people, who are familiar with the game rules, and

the specifics of its functioning, who interpret the

means of language code used by a addresser

correctly and without additional effort. What

unites the types of readers presented above is that

they are interested in a game itself more than in

its result.

5. The narrative content.

In the speech genre of football live text

commentary, the narrative content is shaped by

the structural-compositional elements of the

published material, serving as a communicative

“event”. We can observe that football live text

commentary contains a conditional division of

the narrative content of a television journalist’s

commentary, as proposed by Batsevych (2005),

into three thematic groups: introductory, actual

game, and concluding. The author characterized

the thematic blocks of each presented group in

detail, which entirely aligns with the text

commentary. However, we conducted the

analysis of a live text commentary, taking into

account the “canonical” structure of the speech

genre. According to Chovanec (2018, p.102),

“the ‘canonical’ form of live text commentary

includes the textual segments that describe the

events of the game appear online in time-stamped

posts, most typically arranged in a reversed

chronological order, with the most recent posts

appearing at the top of the screen”. “It is known

that one of the most important roles in sports-

oriented materials is played by the header with

the main information about the match (names of

football teams, the current score, and further

elements indicating players and characteristics of

goals scored in the match), since, besides

attracting the reader’s attention, it expresses the

journalistic intention (Kolupaieva, 2016, ст.

245)”. (Premier League, The transcript of the 6th

round match of the English Premier League):

(9) Arsenal

Cristian Romero 26 o.g.

Bukayo Saka 54 Pen

Spurs

Heung-Min Son 42

Heung-Min Son 55 (arsenal_spurs_guar)

(10) Арсенал – Тоттенгем – 2:2. Текстова

трансляція матчу

(арсенал_тоттенгем_spor)

The thematic block “introductory informative

part” in English-language live text commentaries

contains the introduction, known as “Preamble”,

followed by information about the opposing

teams, several messages, and sometimes

commentaries by other publications or

commentators. In the Ukrainian-language live

text commentaries, this thematic group does not

involve a clear definition, but it is from this short

message that an “event” of commentary starts.

A commentary of the actual game consists of

cohesive text segments that relate to the specific

moment of the match. They are usually identified

by a time stamp indicating the minute in which a

certain describable action took place. In both

languages, addresser generate the mentioned text

segments, which are not an uninterrupted

verbalized product, allowing the author to

maintain silence. “Silence” refers to the absence

of a post with a time stamp, which means no

noteworthy action is taking place on the field.

A concluding part may be thematically related to

assessing the actions of the teams and their

individual players, analyzing the events that

occurred during the game. Also, evaluations of

specific moments of the game, performances of

individual players, and the tactics of the teams. In

the Ukrainian-language live text commentaries,

the mentioned thematic blocks are absent; we

observe the announcements of the end of the

sporting event (the 2nd round match of the group

stage of the Champions League):

(11) 03 жовтня о 23:55

ОлександрСнітко МАТЧ ЗАВЕРШЕНО!

(inter_benefika_sport)

6. The factor of the communicative past.

We interpret the factor of communicative past for

a specific speech genre as events that concern

“those who have watched” the football match. In

this sense, such interpretation determines

previous speech genres as potential ones and

those related to the recipient. Additionally,

previous speech genres may also be related to a

addresser who relies on previous experience of

“familiarity” with information about the match.

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7. The factor of the communicative future.

In both languages, everything related to lively

“discussion” of the results of a football game is

recognized as a factor of a communicative future,

which also has a potential nature. Clearly,

communicative future is not limited to a mere

“discussion” but involves a thorough analysis of

a match. In English-language online

publications, it is produced upon the end of the

match and reflects a comprehensive view of the

event that has been “commented on” before.

Fig. 1. Premier League Report Arsenal – Spurs

Source: The Guardian (2023)

In Ukrainian publications, we identified the

following speech genre in the “reports” section,

which is also quite potential and in terms of

content is a deep analytical analysis of the match.

Fig. 2. Match report the Netherlands – Italy

Source: Sport.ua (2023)

II. THE PARAMETERS OF LINGUISTIC

REALIZATION.

It is reasonable that “commentary” of a football

match as a communicative event involves using

a significant amount of lexical and grammatical

means through which the game process is

embodied in the text. Among the main problems

of language in sports texts, the following can be

distinguished: the emergence of numerous

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linguistic clichés and jargon, inaccuracy in

presenting information, and oversaturation of

hyperbolic language structures to express key

moments in the game or main tendencies

(Kolupaieva, 2016).

Very often, we appeal to the genre-specific

features of football live text commentary, namely

the combination of the elements of spoken and

written language. We consider the peculiarities

of their verbal embodiment on various linguistic

levels — from the choice of vocabulary and

syntactic structures to the discourse organization

level.

Lexical means of linguistic realization are

presented with the use of colloquial, emotional-

evaluative vocabulary. According to Batsevych

(2005), a significant part of communicative units

of language code in Ukrainian-language

commentaries consists of professionalisms. He

adds that the language of sports publications is

frequently characterized by sports jargon, which

is emotional, expressive, and figurative. The

researcher of football vocabulary, Struhanets

(2016), claims that there is hardly any clear

differentiation between professional terms and

professional jargon, but he attempts to

distinguish them. The author points out that the

term “professional jargon” is used to denote

figurative-expressive concise words that have

neutral equivalents and function in the spoken

language of representatives of certain professions

or occupations, united by common interests or

belonging to a social-professional community

(Struhanets, 2016, p.63).” In the football live text

commentary author's language, sports jargon

dominates and serves as a means of emotionally

expressive expression and self-expression of the

speaker. The use of sports jargon, in our opinion,

can be explained by the author’s aim to establish

a “connection” with a multimillion readership

and to convey the course of events on the football

field as clearly as possible.

Lexical and grammatical means embodying

the communicative goal of the addresser are:

1. Football jargon.

The features of football jargon functioning are

determined within a classification that takes into

account the multidimensionality of a football

match. This includes names of teams, players’

nicknames, characteristics of footballers’

professional skills, names of equipment, and

characteristics of players’ actions on the field.

The most common jargon in football

communication is anthroponymical jargon,

serving to name a player’s surname:

(12) 17 min: What a let-off for Raya! (David

Raya) (arsenal_man city_guar)

(13) 90’

Назарина зіграв грубо. (Yehor Nazaryna)

(shakhtar donetsk_porto_sport)

The atypical model in players’ names proposed

by Struhanets (2016)

“Players’ name ← characteristic features of the

football club’s location” is represented in the

names of English football teams:

(14) 27 min Spurs have a big problem now, and I

hate to say this so soon into proceedings, but

their best bet now is to keep it at 1-0 till 75

minutes. Spurs ← FC Tottenham Hotspur

(Tottenham, also Tottenham district in London,

historically an important center of the equestrian

sport, where sportsmen used sours as part of

their equipment). (arsenal_spurs_guar)

The names of Ukrainian football teams also

correspond to the format of the model “Players’

name ← characteristic features of the football

club’s location”:

(15) 40’+3

Гірники контролюють м'яч. The Miners ←

FC Shakhtar Donetsk (Mining industry of the

region)

In this case, the presented model is “Players’

name ← FC emblem”:

(16) 7’

Дракони володіють мячем. The Dragons ←

FC Porto (Portugal) (shakhtar

donetsk_porto_sport)

A group of terms related to the description of

tactical actions of players on the field and their

characteristics can also be classified as the

football jargon:

(17) 2’ НЕБЕЗПЕЧНО!

Після навісу з правого флангу Таремі головою

пробив у протихід Різнику, і голкіпер

зреагував! (shakhtar donetsk_porto_sport)

28

www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307

(18) 32 min AND HE’S MAKING IT NOW!

Odeghaard presses Vicario, he feeds a short,

straight pass to Maddison, who takes a touch …

and Jesus nails him, only to lash over the top!

that is very scruffy finishing, characteristically

so, and is exactly why I think Arteta will replace

him next summer. (arsenal_spurs_guar)

2. Negatively coloured vocabulary.

In English, negatively coloured vocabulary is

expressed by an adjective defining the quality of

a football goal. One of the characteristics of

Ukrainian live text commentary is the use of

adverbs and verbs indicating the intensity of the

actions on the football field, and giving an

emotional tone to certain moments of the football

game.

(19) It was a crap goal, befitting the game, and

Arsenal will not care one bit about that.

(arsenal_man city_guar)

(20) 1’

Господарі одразу почали агресивно

пресингувати. (shakhtar donetsk_porto_sport)

3. Emotional-evaluative vocabulary.

Emotional-evaluative vocabulary is focused on

expressing an opinion on the course of the game

and evaluating a specific player’s participation.

In English-language text commentaries, we

observe the use of adverbs and adjectives. In

particular, adverbs serve to intensify the degree

of the adjective and noun phrases, helping

identify a specific player. Ukrainian-language

text commentaries also utilize noun phrases to

characterize maneuvers on the field, particularly

those considered successful in terms of

technique.

(21) 90+2 min Gvardiol overhits a pass to Doku.

City have been very poor in the final third; in fact

Raya still hasn’t had a save to make, though Rice

– the player of the match IMO – did head off the

line in the first few minutes. (arsenal_man

city_guar)

(22) 78’

Чалханоглу у класному підкаті зупинив Ді

Марію, який мчав до штрафного майданчика

Інтера. Аргентинець залишився на газоні.

(inter_benefika_sport)

4. Informal and colloquial vocabulary.

In English-language text commentary, the phrase

“(to) break a hoodoo” describes the team’s

attempts to outplay the opponents and break a

“curse”. The player managed to stop a negative

tendency. In Ukrainian-language text

commentary, “one-on-one” describes a situation

when a player is in direct physical contact with

another player or a goalkeeper.

(23) GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Man City (Martinelli

87)

Gabriel Martinelli has broken the hoodoo!

(arsenal_man city_guar)

(24) Лаутаро вийшов сам на сам з Трубіним,

обіграв його та пробив по воротах - захисник

вибив м'яч. Але був офсайд.

(inter_benefika_sport)

At the syntactic level, elements of colloquial

language manifest in the choice of sentence

types. An author interacts with the readership by

posing questions (interrogative sentences),

reproduces moments of emotionally charged and

symbolic atmospheric background (exclamatory

sentences), and accompanies the reader

(audience), satisfying the community’s need to

“find out more” (imperative mood).

5. Interrogative constructions

(25) 88 min As per the below, this hasn’t been a

game of great quality, but are you not absorbed?

(arsenal_spurs_guar)

(26) 90’

Як ви гадаєте, скільки додав арбітр?

(arsenal_tottenham_sport)

In both examples, an author interacts with the

audience. At the core of the English-language

question, there is an affirmative statement, at the

end of which we observe the interrogative phrase

“But are you…”, addressed to the reader. The

text commentary on the Ukrainian website

includes an example of a complex interrogative

sentence, in which an interrogative construction

“How much do you think…” is also addressed to

the reader. The author seeks an opinion and

expects an assessment of the current situation on

the football field.

6. Exclamatory sentences.

Exclamatory sentences as a means of

representing tense moments of the game

Volume 13 - Issue 75

/ March 2024

29

http:// www.amazoniainvestiga.info ISSN 2322- 6307

(27) 17 min: What a let-off for

Raya! (arsenal_man city)

(28) 90’+2

Момент!

Вікаріо витягнув низовий удар Сака під праву

штангу метрів з 18! (arsenal_tottenham_sport)

English exclamatory sentences are constructed

based on certain models of expressive syntax. In

the example provided above, the structure

includes the exclamation “What a/an…”, which

is a clear marker of an exclamatory sentence,

adding a strong emotional tone. As for the

Ukrainian-language commentary, the sentence

(38) is complex, where an independent clause is

“Vicario pulled off a low shot by Saka under the

right post”, and a subordinate clause is “from

about 18 meters.”

7. Imperatives.

As mentioned earlier, an author very frequently

accompanies readers, attracts their attention, and

calls for certain actions. For example, an author

may say, “read this material”, which

characterizes it as an additional syntactic

construction “expressed” by an author, beyond

the main narrative presented in the text segments.

We managed to find similar constructions in

English-language text commentaries:

(29) 24 Sept 2023 17.07 CEST

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