Grammatical properties of broadcast media discourse

The morphological peculiarities of broadcast media discourse, as well as its lexical and syntactical features, are subdivided into standardising and expressive (emotive) ones. The following grammatical means make up the first group:

1. Constructions with the introductory It (It is alleged; believed; estimated; said; known; thought; understood; reported; revealed, etc.) to do something:

It’s understood the 45 year old suffered severe abdominal pains after a party at his house. He was reportedly taken by ambulance from his home on a stretcher (Sky News);

It’s estimated 240,000 people in Britain are suitable for surgery under those guidelines (Sky News);

It has been revealed t hat a team of detectives will lead the investigation in Jill Dando`s killing (BBC World News).

2. Constructions with the introductory There is; There are; This is (and their equivalents in the past tense forms):

This is a strange time for the Liberal Democrats and indeed, for British politics in general (BBC Radio 4 LW);

There’s only one paper you will not find anyone reading at the Labour Party conference (Sky News).

3. Complex Subject:

The vote is expected to pick up a bit (Channel 5);

None would appear to have found a key to take a peace out of danger (BBC World News).

4. Complex Object and its variant – causative construction to have something done:

The charity wants the government to initiate a process of positive action though it stopped short of demanding quotas (Sky News);

The people who work in social care and charities for the elderly are desperate for the government to accept these proposals (Sky News);

The last Queen of Scots had her head chopped off (Channel 5);

He’s trying to put on more weight so he can qualify for an operation to have a gastric band fitted (Sky News).

5. Absolute Nominative Prepositional Construction:

With the temperatures firmly below zero, and the snow coming down yet again, most of the villagers here in Four Elms are doing what sensible people would do under these conditions – they are staying in and staying warm (Sky News).

6. Verbs to see / to witness in the Active Voice with an inanimate subject in the meaning “to eyewitness the event”:

Throughout Europe almost 13 cities witnessed spontaneous protests (BBC World News);

The day saw new Muslim riots on the streets of London (BBC World News).

7. The Infinitive as an attribute, object and adverbial modifier of purpose:

In Brussels NATO Secretary General J. Solana is looking at where it will be safe for troops to enter the region (EuroNews);

The plans to close coast guard centres around the UK could raise serious safety concerns, according to a cross party group of MPs (BBC News);

“The Invincible” was diverted to the Adriatic to strengthen NATO forces lining up against Yougoslavia (Sky News).

8. Wide use of progressive tenses to denote an ongoing action or event. One of the most frequently used verbal forms is the -ing form of the verb to be as part of the Passive Voice (to be being done) and as part of the participial construction:

And passengers say they are already being charged over the odds (Sky News);

Opponents of the Welsh Assembly being given more law-making powers have begun their campaign for “No Vote” in the referendum on the issue being held in March (BBC Radio 4 LW);

London is being found to release the lowest rush hour carbon emissions of any region in the UK (BBC Radio 4 LW).

Such an extensive use of a significant amount of verbs in the progressive tense in media discourse is determined by the specific nature of news, i.e. to report events which just took place, continue to happen or will happen in the near future.

9. The infinitive without particle to after the verb to help and its derivatives:

Australia’s PM is being urged to raise the minimum price of alcohol to help __tackle addiction amongst the country’s aboriginal population (Sky News);

In his hay day he was a national hero, helping Manchester United__ become the first England club to win the European Cup in 1968 (Sky News).

10. The omission of the auxiliary verb should in subordinate clauses of condition after the verbs expressing obligation, request, order, etc. (Subjunctive Mood):

NATO demanded that the withdrawal … begin in 24 hours (EuroNews);

Tonight they are not buying “the sorry, Sophie”, instead insisting that the Press Complaints Commission… investigate this whole matter (Sky News).

11. Grammatical means to express a premeditated action or event (the Infinitive as part of a compound verbal predicate): to be (about) to do something; to look set (to be set) to do something; to be bound to do something; to be to do something; to be due to do something, etc.:

Military presence in Kosovo is to scale down (EuroNews);

The 26 year old was to set off from Teleri this morning on her 100-day trip (Sky News);

The government looks set t o carry on raising prices (Sky News);

The Territorial Army is likely to be trimmed from 56,000 force to 40,000 (Sky News);

Farm ministers are due to meet in Brussels today to try to get to grips with the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (BBC World News).

It should be noted that the future action is also reported in broadcast media texts by the following grammatical means:

- Future Continuous Tense (will / shall be doing something):

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said today that NATO will not be stopping its campaign any time soon (Sky News);

– When we return we’ll be bringing you the very latest on the situation in south Omagh where they fear the worst on the foot and mouth (Sky News);

Then we’ll be starting to collect physical evidence from the scene (Sky News);

- the construction to be going to:

The main battle ground are going to be tax, education and the health service (Sky News);

– Well, in an hour’s time we’re going to be speaking to Mark Lewis who is the lawyer to Milly Dowler’s family (Sky News);

- the modal verb could, expressing a remote or problematic action:

This alarming survey could put crime high on the agenda on the next election,

revealing that England and Wales are at or near the top of the crime league table among developed countries (Sky News);

- the modal verb will to report a less problematic or remote event:

– We will find out about job losses at this factory in about an hour’s time, we’re told (BBC News).

But tonight there are reports the former News of the World editor Andy Colson will be arrested tomorrow under suspicion of knowing about or directing phone hacking while working at the paper (Sky News).

12. The Genitive Case with the names of countries, cities, regions, institutions, firms to indicate time, distance, etc. instead of the use of corresponding adjectives or the of-Genitive prepositional form:

British Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrats leader Nick Clegg is due to address his party’s annual conference (BBC Radio 4 LW);

Today’s figures show the UK economy grew by 0.8 per cent from July to September (Sky News);

– Good morning! Another fine, warm summer’s day today (BBC News).

The Genitive is so widely used in media discourse that sometimes it acquires the form of the so called group genitive:

That’s going to be a so-called crime plan unveiled by Jack Straw in a week or so’s time (Sky News).

13. Specific means to depersonalise and make neutral the source of the news, to distance it from the news studio, to make the report sound impartial. Such means include phrases: The BBC / Sky News learned / has learned / understands (that) … Sky sources say (that) …

Sky News learns the boss of Barclays is to receive a massive payout on top of his 1.3 m salary (Sky News);

Sky News understands that Britain’s biggest banks are poised to agree a deal which will see them reveal the pay and bonus packages of the most highly paid employers below the board level (Sky News).

The group of expressive grammatical features

The emotively charged group of grammatical peculiarities used by broadcast media tends to make it resemble colloquial discourse, as such means list some colloquial style grammatical features.

1. The use of was instead of were in conditional clauses:

If hunting with dogs was stopped it would actually cause more cruelty to foxes (Sky News);

It would be a tragedy if peace Treaty was abandoned (Channel 5).

2. The use of to get instead of to be as an auxiliary verb in the Passive Voice and in combinations to get something done and to get +Ving:

So, to get nominated with that kind of competition is very special, anyway (Sky News);

Isn`t that the job for the government, though, the NATO got this campaign going? (EuroNews).

3. The use to get instead of to become:

It’s getting a bit lonely in our virtual shopping centre (Sky News);

As the voting age gets lower, the stakes get higher (BBC News).

4. Grammatical reduction – the omission of auxiliary words in a sentence (relative pronouns, auxiliary verbs in interrogative sentences, verbs in a compound nominal predicate, prepositions, articles, conjunctions) as well as some notional words (or ellipsis, if we talk about the syntactical peculiarities of broadcast media discourse):

The Prime Minister has been to the north east but could offer little more than sympathy to a group of workers [who are] about to lose their jobs (Sky News);

– [Do you] Fancy a cup of tea? (Sky News);

The next morning some of the Serbs [are] dead. There were no prisoners (Sky News).

5. The use of some stative verbs (to see, hear)1 to express the action unfolding at the moment of speech:

– We are hearing of small quakes here (BBC World News);

– So, we’ll be seeing how they are reporting this story at 10.30 (Sky News).

6. The use of the colloquial form to be gonna to instead of to be going to (predominantly in the spontaneous discourse):

– We can confirm that on Tuesday they’re gonna talk to Andy Heiman and former police chief Peter Clark (Sky News);

– What I am concerned about is how this system, which has been facing another direction for 10 years, is gonna turn itself and catch up (BBC Radio 4 LW).

7. The use of the colloquial form to have got in the meaning ‘to have or to possess’ instead of to have, as well asthe colloquial expression to have got to do in place of to have to in the spontaneous discourse:

– You ’ve got the feeling that the Chancellor gives a very plausible explanation as to why he feels he’s on a right track for digging Britain out of the mire of the economic crisis (Sky News);

– And you ’ve got to help people out there but [you’re] unable to get into the country (Sky News);

The country is so divided that they’ ve got to sort out their international affairs first (Channel 5).

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