A Functional Stylistic Approach To The Study Of Impromptu NBA Commentaries

NBA, as the biggest National Basketball Association in the United States, is drawingattention from all over the world. Impromptu NBA commentary is as interesting, vivid andwonderful 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 varietyfrom the functional perspective has not been well attempted. Based on a synthetical mode forforegrounding feature analysis, this thesis just offers a functional-stylistic approach toimpromptu NBA commentary.This study recognizes that language is constructed and also exists in the social reality. Theformation of the discourse is restricted by context of situation and social functions. The socialfunction of impromptu NBA commentary is to report the important information of thecompetition in a quick, objective and not boring way, which determines the linguistic featuresof the discourse.Based on the five videos downloaded from the NBA official website, the present thesisadopts both the qualitative and quantitative approaches and analyzes the foregroundingfeatures of impromptu NBA commentary at the phonological, lexical, grammatical andsemantic levels.This paper employs the top-down method, gives an analysis of the context of situation ofimpromptu NBA commentary first, then puts forward the social functions and thensummarizes the macroscopical linguistic features of this discourse: vividness, concisity,objectivity, rapidity, definiteness, precisity, simplicity, compactness, clarity, action-packednessand looseness. In terms of the macroscopical linguistic features, this paper makes a detailedanalysis about how they are realized at the four levels through the two foregrounding devices—deflection and incongruity. In terms of the study, the author finds that at the phonological level, vividness is realizedby the flexible use of stress and loudness, rapidity is realized by the fast tempo and the shortpauses; At the Lexical level, simplicity is realized by the frequent use of short words and lowvocabulary intensity, precisity is realized by the technical terms and jargons, objectivity isrealized by the frequent use of numerals, action-packedness is realized by high proportion ofaction verbs, clarity is realized by the frequent use of proper nouns, concisity andcompactness is realized by the high frequency of ellipsis, definiteness is realized by the feweruse of the pet phrases, vividness is realized by the subjective use of adjectives and adverbs; Atthe grammatical level, action-packedness is realized by the overwhelming majority ofmaterial processes, objectivity is realized by the great majority of statements and little use ofmodality, simplicity is realized by the majority of active voices, simple present tense andunmarked themes, looseness is realized by the single use of the conjunction “and”, clarity isrealized by the semantic cohesive ties; At the semantic level, precisity is realized by theavoidance of using vague reference.The study divides all these linguistic forms into two large categories, one is quantitativeprominence, i.e. deflection and the other is qualitative prominence, i.e. incongruity. All thesefeatures relate closely to the functions in the context of situation, and as a result, become theforegrounding features of this variety.This thesis is intended for a better recognition of the foregrounding features of impromptuNBA commentary and making some constructive suggestions on the English learning and thecultivating of the professional commentators, which can help the students get the knowledgeof the linguistic features on a macro point, and then promote their capability for appreciatingand commentating.