Control Questions

1. What is broadcast media discourse? What are its major characteristics?

2. What is the basic difference between television and radio discourse as constituent parts of the broadcast media discourse?

3. Name the factors determining the current state of the British broadcast media discourse.

4. What lexical features does broadcast media discourse posses?

Practical Tasks

Task 1. Take a look at the word list below and get prepared to work with Video 15.

to draw up (plans)	to bring something to an end
to top up somebody’s savings	to be entitled to something
decent retirement
means testing (tested) system of social benefits

Task 2. Watch Video 15 and say what genre it is. Watch the clip again and say what the numbers below stand for.

£6 bln £97.65 £140 £156.15 £132

Task 3. Watch Video 15, fill in the gaps below to analyse grammatical features of the sentences you have restored.

1. Ministers …… plans

2. The government says its aim ……

3. ……. under the overhaul every pensioner will be entitled

4. …1… means testing to an end …2… produce…

Task 4. Watch Video 16 (at home). Say:

1. What genre is it?

2. What sphere of life does it reflect? Make up a list of special terms that you come across while watching the clip.

3. What are the clichés in the clip?

4. How many genitives do you hear?

Task 5. Take a look at the word list below and get prepared to work with Video 17.

Fire and Rescue Service

derailment

to be precariously balanced over (something)

Task 6. Watch Video 17 and answer the questions.

1. What genre is the piece?

2. How many parts can you divide the material into? What are the criteria for this?

3. How does the news presenter cope to maintain such a high tempo of reading the news?

Task 7. Watch Video 17 again say what grammatical tenses are used in the piece. In some cases traditional grammatical rules are broken? Why is it the case? Fill in the gaps below.

1. I just bring you some breaking new that …1-2… in to us from StrathClyde Fire and Rescue. They …3-4… tonight they…5-6… the derailment of a train that was running to Oban in Scotland. Two carriages, we …7-8… , are precariously balanced over a 15 meter embankment. We …9-10… this is in a mountainous region. Police say the accident happened near Somefalls.

2. We …1-2… to get more information about this particular area.

3. But we …1-2…, as you can see there, the two carriages are precariously balanced.

4. We …1-2… the impression that certainly, this line …3-4…and this train carriage …5-6...over there.

Task 8. Make up a list of words typical of spontaneous discourse (e.g. pause fillers, repetitions, etc.) you came across in Video 19. Write them down.

Task 9. Say how the journalist passes over to reading the next news item. What word does he use?

Task 10. Watch Video 18 and define its genre. Listen attentively to the reporter’s talk. There are some lexical means in the piece indicating that it is spontaneous talk. What are they? Fill in the gaps in the sentences below to get the idea.

1. Last week she had to miss out on her 85th birthday party held at …1… …2… because she was suffering from the flue. We understand she hasn’t …3… recovered …4… from that illness yet.

2. Lady Thatcher has …1… been in good health, suffered some minor strokes, she still has been attending public events like a recent visit of the …2… .

Task 11. Why does the reporter begin her talk with We understand she hasn’t… ? What does the verb understand imply here?

Task 12. What grammatical constructions can you identify in Video 18? Which of them are typical of newspaper articles? Fill in the gaps in the sentences to get the idea.

1. They recommended that she come to hospital really as a precautionary measure for checks …1… that she stays in overnight.

But …2… that she will be allowed home in a day or so.

2. So …… she will recover from this illness, thought to be flue infection that she is suffering from last week, as I say.

Task 13. Watch Video 18 and find more colloquial words in it. Write them down.

Task 14. What grammatical tense is widely used in Video 18? What is the role of the word meanwhile in this piece?

Task 15. Prove that Video 18 is emotionally charged (find several lexical and grammatical means to state it).

Task 16. Watch Video 19 and say what the report is about.

Unravel the its lead with 5W and 1H pattern.

There are two grammatical constructions in the lead of Video 19 that are widely used in television discourse. What are they?

Task 17. Watch Video 19 again and highlight its major idea.

1. What …… ?

2. Why……?

3. Editor-in-Chief’s view ……?

4. Critics say (what?) ……?

Task 18. Fill in the gaps with phrases below. Try to make lexical, grammatical and stylistic analysis of the sentences. What does the idiom to cut to the chase mean? Can you find its Russian equivalent?

1. It came …… the presses this morning.

2. …1… is aimed at people who are …2… but still want to read a quality newspaper.

3. So, …… , stories in here will cut to the chase.

4. But at 20p it’s also …… than its mother paper.

5. “They are in …… parts of the market.”

6. “So, we’re catering for two groups of needs for two …… different papers”.

7. But The Independent, now priced at a pound, …1… its circulation …2… steadily.

8. The editor says that makes this new offering …1… , something …2… could not be said of footballers.

Task 19. What conclusions do you come to on completeting the analysis?

Task 20. Watch Video 20 and determine its genre. Is there anything specific about the video compared with BBC Words News and Sky News news bulletins?

Task 21. Watch Video 20 again and highlight its contents using 5W and 1H pattern.

Task 22. Watch Video 21.1 and Video 21.2 and say what genre is in question. What newspapers are represented on the panel?

Highlight the issues that are on the programme’s agenda:

a) ……

b) ……

c) ……

What issue is being discussed in Video 21.2?

Task 23. Watch Video 22.1 and Video 22.2, and answer the questions.

1. What genre are the pieces?

2. What problem is being discussed?

3. What are the panel’s posts?

Unit 11

LEXICAL PROPERTIES OF BROADCAST MEDIA DISCOURSE

Broadcast media discourse is characterised by the lexical features similar to those of the print media language. These features fall into two large groups: standardising and expressive ones.

The standardising lexical units of television and radio discourse embrace:

- neutral literary lexical units;

- book style words (or bookish words);

- special or topical lexicon referring to a particular sphere of use (business, politics, law, military, science, education, ecology, culture, sports), including the names of organizations, establishments, parties and other associations in their full or abbreviated form;

- neologisms;

- culturally marked words (realia);

- collocations (clichés). They take intermediate position between idioms and free collocations¹:

to be too little too late – слишком поздно и в недостаточном объеме

to be on the increase – увеличиваться

to be under threat – быть под угрозой

to claim lives – стоить жизней (вести к потерям)

to go ahead – продолжать

in earnest – всерьез, старательно

to lag behind – отставать, запаздывать, волочиться

to make one`s way – двигаться вперед

to make headlines – стать объектом внимания прессы / попасть в газеты

to pin hopes on – возлагать надежды на

to pose threat – представлять угрозу

to take to the streets – выйти на улицу (для выражения протеста, несогласия)

safe heaven – надежное, безопасное место

to voice concern – высказывать озабоченность

in the run up (to) – в преддверии чего-л

in the wake of – по пятам, следом / в кильватере

The expressive lexical units of television and radio discourse embrace idioms, colloquial words (including colloquial phrasal words; colloquial idioms, former slang words, words with a reduced stem), intensifiers, and emotively charged literary words (epithets, metaphors, similes, etc.).

British broadcast media does not use many proverbs, as they are considered to complicate the discourse, deprive it of its individual originality. The so-called deformed proverbs², however, do occur in the broadcast media discourse quite frequently. For example, the proverb to make hay while the sun shines used spontaneously by a journalist has been transformed into while the sun is shining or making hay out of something:

a) But the Conservatives are bound to do whatever they can while the sun is shining (Sky News);

b) The Tories should be making hay out of it (Sky News).

Sometimes both parts of a proverb undergo changes, as they may be subject to transformations or even to total replacement:

a) A curry a day keeps arthritis at bay (Sky News);

b) This is a haystack. Now try to find a needle (Sky News)

Below are listed some colloquial idioms