Unit 12 stylistic and syntactical peculiarities of broadcast media discourse

Broadcast media discourse: stylistic peculiarities

Particular stylistic colouring, vividness and associative character of television and radio texts are achieved by special stylistic devices. These devices (or tropes) list:

- lexical units (epithets, metaphors, metonymy, simile, idioms): a miserable prime minister; emotional idiocy; a crushing defeat; poor decisions; busting pay rises; to put a brave face on something).

It comes after another extraordinary public display of faith – 50,000 people gathered in Birmingham (Sky News, epithet).

“The I” is aimed at people who are time poor (BBC News, epithet).

• So, it’s a very moving article (Sky News, an epithet).

BMW faces a major boardroom shake-up (Sky News, metonomy).

The landscape for public bodies needs radical reform (BBC News, metaphor).

A bonfire of quangos we expected, a conflagration of waste and bureaucracy – well may be (BBC News, metaphor).

To sugar a bitter pill, the plan before Miloshevich is set to include that Kosovo remain part of Yougoslavia (Sky News, an idiom).

Like many British seaside resorts, Scarborough has been dying on its feet in recent years (Sky News, simile).

A Halloween parade in New York has given meaning to the expression “dressed up like a dog’s dinner” (Sky News, simile);

– The country has become a laughing stock of Europe (Sky News, an idiom);

- stylistic means (parallel constructions, repetition, inversion):

In Paris they are speaking for peace but in the troubled Serb province of Kosovo they are bracing for war (EuroNews, parallel construction);

– In its current structure, yes, of course it’s doomed. It was always gonna be doomed (BBC News, repetition).

– It was obvious that Ireland, it was obvious that Greece, it was obvious that Portugal weren’t gonna fit it (BBC News, repetition).

– But hang on, could have not they devalued and therefore, sold their problems … (BBC News, inversion).

The stated above stylistic devices are typical mostly of lengthy television and radio texts (the report, the commentary, the extended press review, the talk). Brief news genres tend to be stylistically neutral, devoid of any emotion to convey the news or fact without distracting the viewer’s or listener’s attention to minor details.

Another stylistic feature of the television and radio discourse is the use of euphemisms to avoid mentioning some negative facts of social and economic life of the UK and the US:

strike – industrial action / unrest / work stoppage

capitalist countries – developed countries / market economies

job cuts – redundancies, lay offs

rich and poor – the haves and the have-nots, wealthy, well offs.

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 found either 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.