Control Questions

1. What tropes are predominantly employed by broadcast media discourse?

2. State the difference between parallel constructions and repetition.

3. What television and radio genres are devoid of stylistic expressive means?

4. Why are euphemisms used in television and radio discourse?

Broadcast media discourse: syntactical features

The psychological peculiarities of perceiving spoken discourse determine the structure and the word order of sentences used in broadcast media discourse. A sentence usually opens up with the subject (or the subject group), then comes the predicate, to be followed by the object, the attribute and the adverbial modifiers of place, time and manner. These peculiarities are considered to be the standardising syntactical features of broadcast media discourse:

Officials showed smuggled video footage matched against earlier aerial photos set to show that Serb forces had killed over a hundred Kosovar villagers (EuroNews);

But there was a more cautious response from business leaders who said more had to be done to encourage growth, and from the Labour Party which said public spending cuts would put the recovery in jeopardy (BBC Radio 4 LW).

Simple, compound and complex sentences are typical of broadcast media texts, with sentences being connected:

- by coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, else, etc.), e.g. syndetically:

... Burton-on-the-Waters is a typical Cotswold collection of pubs, cottages and a church. And it`s up for sale at what face value looks like an extremely reasonable price (Sky News);

They haven’t been around in Britain for a while but now the beaver is back (Sky News);

- by conjunctives, including conjunctive adverbs (otherwise, how, however, nevertheless, yet, still, since, that, therefore, until, unless what, whether, which, who, where, etc.):

But on the streets of Northern Ireland an overwhelming majority of the population do not want to see a return to the bloody sectarian conflict that has caused some 3,500 lives (EuroNews);

In a referendum 21 of the 22 Welsh counties backed the change which will allow the Assembly to make laws in devolved areas without seeking permission from Westminster (BBC News);

- asyndetically (e.g. without conjunctions or connectives):

Well, we’ve yet to feel the worst of the cuts, it puts the fear of a double-dip recessionon on a backburner for now (Sky News);

Money worries and Christmas rows mean this week is expected to be biggest ever for divorce lawyers (Sky News).

Complex sentences in broadcast discourse cannot exceed three clauses, with the depth of the complex sentence is determined by the psychological peculiarities of perceiving broadcast texts:

As Dermott and his colleagues leave their home to the sea gulls and the wind, they say it’s these brief moments of tranquillity that they will miss the most (Sky News);

The softly spoken 56-year-old law professor lacks the charisma and popular appeal of other opposition leaders but he’s the only major opposition figure of his generation who has never joined the communist party (EuroNews);

Whilst today is essentially a Christian festival, there are millions of people of other faiths who’ll celebrate Christmas as a secular event (Sky News).

Expressive syntactical means of broadcast texts list:

- inversion(break away from the direct word order):

But wet it will become later (Sky News);

Once inside the square, they have to hold it. And hold it they did (Sky News);

- elliptical sentences:

– [ If you ] Mention the euro on the streets of Marlow, and you get a reaction that sums up, why Britain remains undecided over the single currency (Sky News);

… Time for a change in how they do things … (Sky News);

- nominative sentences:

Swapping boxing gloves for handcuffs again (EuroNews);

Protests and discontent over the train carrying nuclear waste (Sky News);

Behind the lines. When you range up to 30 miles into enemy territory … (Sky News);

- the introductory attributive clauses foundeither at the beginning or in the middle of the sentence:

Once again, like yesterday thundery showers will be bubbling up mainly through the eastern part of England (Sky News);

Now forced to depend on social welfare the couple are bracing themselves for the next round of cuts (Sky News);

The West Midlands, long seen as a heartland of British manufacturing, is now going through a bit of an identity crisis (Sky News);

Voeslav Koshtunitsa, the man who has led the wave of protests against Miloshevich and now looks set to become the president himself, has risen rapidly to international prominence (EuroNews).

The stated above peculiarities give emotional colouring to broadcast media texts, likening them to fiction texts.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14