Gap-Fillers in Russian and English Football Commentaries

The increased popularity of sports TV coverage has aroused considerable scientific interest in sports discourse, particularly in the register of Sports Announcer Talk (SAT) and football commentary. The present thesis project aims to identify the specific features of using gap-fillers in Russian and English football commentaries. A number of studies on football linguistics are addressed within the theoretical framework of this research in order to define the concept of a gap-filler and establish its main functions. In this respect, special focus is placed on the division of football commentary into the play-by-play announcing (PP) and color commentary (CC). The present work regards a sports commentator as the basic producer of sports discourse and tries to establish a connection between a commentator’s language personality and their choice of gap-fillers. When introducing a gap-filler, commentators need to preserve the semantic and syntactic unity of the text, so, this study applies discourse analysis to investigate the ways to successfully incorporate prepared elements into spontaneous speech. Since the research is conducted in the context of Russian and English commentaries, it reveals the similarities and differences of these sportscasting traditions. The research also evaluates the quantity of gap-fillers in the analyzed football commentaries, which is supposed to stress the significance of prepared elements in game coverage. Although limited in scope, the study may add to the body of research on the topic and contribute to training future linguists, journalists and sportscasters. Key words: gap-fillers, sports discourse, football commentary, play-by-play, color commentary, language personality