A Functional Stylistic Approach to the Study of Impromptu NBA Commentaries

NBA即席解说词的功能文体学研究

A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of Henan University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts

By Gaojinmiao Supervisor: Prof. Zhang Ke March, 2013 Acknowledgements I am truly grateful to all those people who have been instrumental in bringing this thesis to fruition. Without all sorts of invaluable encourage, guidance and support, I could not have successfully accomplished it. First of all, I would like to present my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Zhang Ke, whose patient instructions, painstaking efforts, enlightening guidance and constant encouragement have contributed immensely to the completion of this thesis. Her valuable advice and direction have drawn my attention to a number of deficiencies for improvement and have made many things clearer for me. The most precious treasure I gained from her is the precision in doing research, which I believe will continue to benefit me in my future research. Secondly, I feel deeply indebted to all those teachers who have instructed and enlightened me during my post-graduate studies in the School of Foreign Languages, Henan University. I also owe my friends, who have shared my happiness and frustrations during this research. Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their support and encouragement. I

Abstract NBA, as the biggest National Basketball Association in the United States, is drawing attention from all over the world. Impromptu NBA commentary is as interesting, vivid and wonderful as the game itself, and it is very different from other spoken varieties such as news, speech and so on. However, at present, a comprehensive and in-depth study of this variety from the functional perspective has not been well attempted. Based on a synthetical mode for foregrounding feature analysis, this thesis just offers a functional-stylistic approach to impromptu NBA commentary. This study recognizes that language is constructed and also exists in the social reality. The formation of the discourse is restricted by context of situation and social functions. The social function of impromptu NBA commentary is to report the important information of the competition in a quick, objective and not boring way, which determines the linguistic features of the discourse. Based on the five videos downloaded from the NBA official website, the present thesis adopts both the qualitative and quantitative approaches and analyzes the foregrounding features of impromptu NBA commentary at the phonological, lexical, grammatical and semantic levels. This paper employs the top-down method, gives an analysis of the context of situation of impromptu NBA commentary first, then put forward the social functions and then summarizes the macroscopical linguistic features of this discourse: vividness, concisity, objectivity, rapidity, precisity, simplicity, clarity, action-packedness and looseness. In terms of the macroscopical linguistic features, this paper makes a detailed analysis about how they are realized at the four levels through the two foregrounding devices — deflection and incongruity. II

In terms of the study, the author finds that at the phonological level, vividness is realized by the flexible use of stress and loudness, rapidity is realized by the fast tempo and the short pauses; At the Lexical level, simplicity is realized by the frequent use of short words and low vocabulary intensity, precisity is realized by the technical terms and jargons, objectivity is realized by the frequent use of numerals, action-packedness is realized by high proportion of action verbs, clarity is realized by the frequent use of proper nouns, concisity is realized by the high frequency of ellipsis, definity is realized by the fewer use of the pet phrases, vividness is realized by the subjective use of adjectives and adverbs; At the grammatical level, action-packedness is realized by the overwhelming majority of material processes, objectivity is realized by the great majority of statements and little use of modality, simplicity is realized by the majority of active voices, simple present tense and unmarked themes, looseness is realized by the single use of the conjunction ―and‖, clarity is realized by the semantic cohesive ties; At the semantic level, precisity is realized by the avoidance of using vague reference, vividness is realized by the appropriate use of humorous remarks and rhetorical devices. The study divides all these linguistic forms into two large categories, one is quantitative prominence, i.e. deflection and the other is qualitative prominence, i.e. incongruity. All these features relate closely to the functions in the context of situation, and as a result, become the foregrounding features of this variety. This thesis is intended for a better recognition of the foregrounding features of impromptu NBA commentary and making some constructive suggestions on the English learning and the cultivating of the professional commentators, which can help the students get the knowledge of the linguistic features on a macro point, and then promote their capability for appreciating and commentating.