Die studie van sportkornrnentaar in die bree teoretiese raarnwerk van diskoersanalise

Abstract

Kommentaartaal is 'n tipiese voorbeeld van taal wat gemanipuleer word om spesifieke funksies uit te voer. Hierdie artikel gaaii egter oor meer as die beskrywing van kommentatortaal. Dit fokus veral op die ongelykhede in die ‘kwaliteit’ van uitvoering van die kommentaartaak en fokus spesifiek op die persepsie (deur sommige) dat Suid-Afrikaanse kommentators minder professioneel is as hul oorsese ewekniee. Vir duidelikheid is daar besluit om in hierdie artikel slegs op rugby te fokus onidat rugby in hierdie land 'n passievolle ondersteuning deur ingeligte ondersteuners geniet en ook as gevolg van die relatiewe belangrike posisie wat die meer bekende kommentators geniet. Ons doen verslag oor 'n opname wat onder 'n geselekteerde groep gereelde rugbykykers gedoen is, wat almal 'n vraelys voltooi het oor 'n video-opname van uittreksels van kommentaar deur drie verskillende kommentators (een Suid-Afrikaans en twee buitelanders). In die vraelys is hulle versoek om hul gunsteling kommentator te kies en ook om elkeen van die kommentators te evalueer op grond van sy kommentatorstaal. Hierbenewens is 'n diskoersanalise van die uittreksels gedoen met die doel om die rnoontlike keuses van die respondente te ondersoek. In die finale analise ondersteun die studie die navorsingshipotese en maak dit sekere voorstelle vir meer effektiewe en kykerslokkende kommentaar.

The study of sports commentary falls within the broad theoretical framework of discourse analysis. Commentator language is a typical example of language being manipulated to perform specific functions, but this article goes beyond describing commentator language, and focusses on apparent disparities in the ‘quality’ of performance; specifically, it aimed to ascertain whether the perception (held by some) that South African commentators are less professional than their foreign counterparts is a valid one. For the sake of simplicity, rugby was selected as the focus sport in this study, in view of its passionate following of very knowledgeable and highly critical supporters, and because of the relatively high profile of its commentators. We report on a survey of a selected group of regular viewers, who all responded to a questionnaire based on a video recording of excerpts from commentaries by three different commentators (one South African and two foreign). The questionnaire asked them to select their overall favourite and also to rate each commentator on certain aspects of commentator language. In addition, a discourse analysis of transcriptions of the respective excerpts was carried out, which aimed to explore possible reasons for the views of respondents. Overall, the study confirms the research hypothesis, and makes certain suggestions for more effective, viewing-enhancing commentary.