THE ROLE OF THE INTENSITY IN THE SPEECH OF SPORTS COMMENTATORS (ON THE MATERIAL OF HORSE RACE COMMENTARIES)

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the investigation of an English TV horse race commentary. The material of the research is horse race commentaries broadcast by BBC and commented by male representatives. Such prosodic parameters as maximum (Imax) and minimum (Imin) intensity, mean intensity (Imean), intensity range (ІΔ) are measured by Praat software (version 6.0.37). All the dynamic characteristics are measured at three phases, namely: 1) at the beginning of a sports commentary; 2) in the middle (the moment of an emotional increase); 3) at the climax of the finish. The total duration of audio material is 8 ’ 20’’. The main aim of a sports commentary is the impact on the audience; therefore the commentator deliberately (or subconsciously) chooses a set of certain prosodic means in order to achieve the most effective result. The conducted instrumental analysis allowed revealing that the distinctive features of the speech of the commentators is an increase in the mean intensity accompanied by an F0 increase, as well as a decrease in the articulation rate at the end of a horse race.

Keywords

• спортивний коментар
• динамічні характеристики мовлення
• метод інструментального аналізу