LIVE COMMENTARY – PART II

FIELD: Characteristics of the nature of situation (institutional or non-institutional;

its location; participants; purpose) and domain, subject matter, or content.

FIELD IN THIS EXCERPT:

- TV live retransmission of an ice skating final.

- Ice skating specific vocabulary / Compressed language

TENOR: Characteristics of the social relationships of the participants; formality

or informality; social identity; age; sex; power relations.

TENOR IN THIS EXCERPT:

- No visual hints
- Politeness
- Adressing the audience

MODE: Means of transmission: spoken or written; planned or unplanned; the

possibility or impossibility of feedback; closeness of relationship to some
activity; distance over time and space.

MODE IN THIS EXCERPT:

- Spoken
- No possible feedback from the audience
- Unplanned

EXCERPT SCRIPT

00:00 [Applause] <comm.#1, woman> so here now is the leader from Russia after the
short program (.) and she was absolutely flawless in that first outing at these European
Championships (.)
00:16 now with an opportunity to win her first European gold medal (.)
00:30
00:45
01:00 <comm.#2, man> now be patient here because there is not a single jumping
pass until we get to the second half of this program (.)
<#1> keeping the jumps in that second half (.) allows Alina to (.)
01:15 gain even more points on her already very difficult plan, technical content with
that second half bonus (.) factored into the score (.)
01:30
01:43 <#1> and Ryan (.) as we take a look (.) Adelina in these first opening minutes of
her program also an opportunity to assess her skating skills (.) and her program
components scores (.) a place where (.) theoretically she would like behind someone
like a Carolina Kostner (.)
02:00 <#2> absolutely (.) Carolina has that grace in that finish (.) Elina (.) even though
she has nice moments (.) she doesn’t quite finish that extension (.) she never gets to
oppose (.) and lets you see it it’s already moving out of the position (.)
02:15 by the time it gets into it (.) but that’s something that’ll come with maturity (.) we
often forget because of her talent (.) she’s only fifteen years of age <#1> fifteen years
of age Carolina Kostner in comparison thirty years of age so plenty of time to catch up
(.)
02:30 <#2> into the second half of this program the first jumping pass (.) triple lutz triple
loop (.) worth the wait
02:52 double axel triple toe loop
03:06 beautiful triple flip (.) double toe double loop
04:30 <#1> fifteen years old Ryan (.) can you imagine (.) being able to step (.) center
ice and take advantage of a moment like this (.) at that age (.)
<#2> with perhaps the most difficult technical program of all time (.)
04:45 that’s what’s incredible to me (.) is (.) yes it’s back loaded (.) but she’s doing a
triple loop combo and doing a triple toe combo (.) those two things are usually (.)
mutually (.) exclusive (.) you don’t see a lot of skaters comfortable doing both of them
(.)
05:00 and she doesn’t both it’s such a high level (.) even though the strategy (.) is kind
of a waiting game in the first half (.) she ends with so much energy and power (.) and I
like that during the choreo step early in the program (.) she’s not just standing around
and play-acting (.)
05:15 so that she’s doing laps (.) she’s constantly moving (.) she’s keeping the flow up
(.) it really speaks volumes to her endurance (.)
<#1> that base value of her planned technical content (.) sixty six point zero one (.) met
Becky (.) who’s coming next sixty two point three three because of backloading those
programs (.) plus the triple lutz triple loop you mentioned (.)
05:38 <#2> and we saw with the grade of execution scores (.) as they came up (.)
Green Green Green Green Green (.) everything she did (.) was done well (.) she has
that edge in the bonus (.) mid that will have the edge on the components (.) but she
already has one point seven points to work with (.) so she knows (.) that she can put a
lot of pressure on two-time world champion (.) by skating clean (.) and she did just that
(.) this was a spectacular program (.) she came through (.) kept the energy high (.)
stayed (.) in the moment (.) sure we touched earlier on the fact that she doesn’t finish
the lines (.) as well as the other competitors (.)
06:17 but (.) when you do more than anyone else and you do it (.) to the best of your
ability (.) it is very difficult to beat you (.) and this could rewrite the script (.) heading into
the Olympic Games (.)
06:30 <#1> well that’s my next point (.) all the way through the last two seasons the
conversation if Evgenia Medvedeva goes clean (.) no one can touch her (.) will that line
in the script change (.) to replace the name with Elina Sagitova (.)
06:45 can she be beaten (.) when she is this good (.) and that’s we’re about to find out
(.) here these European Championships (.) and I think you’re right Ryan (.) if that’s the
case (.) they will completely change the tone of the ladies event (.) heading (.) into (.)
Pyeongchang (.)
06:58 <#2> but if you look at the technique of jump for jump between Zagitova and
Medvedeva (.) Elina Zagitova is the better jumper (.) she gets tighter (.) she gets
cleaner rotating position (.) she doesn’t wiggle-waggle out of those landings (.) rocking
back to the inside age (.) like we see Medvedeva sometimes (.) and she’s showing that
consistency (.) late in the season (.) picking it up (.) at the Gran Prix Final [07:21]
 QUIZZ

1. The spoken speech is unplanned, and there is no possible feedback from the audience.
With which it corresponds?

a.) Field c.) Tenor

b.) Mode d.) Genre

2. Comparing to soccer live commentary, in skate live commentary they have:

a.) more informal language

b.) more specific language

3. In skate live commentary, comparing to soccer live commentary, speech is:

a.) less spontaneous

b.) more spontaneous

4. The tone of speech is more aggressive in:

a.) in skate live commentary

b.) in soccer live commentary

5. Absolutely, really, just are:

a.) monitoring information flow c.) informal vocabulary

b.) empathic particles d.) fuzziness

6. Low lexical density, contractions, simple clauses are features of spoken live commentary:

a.) true

b.) false