Haydon School English Faculty

English Language | AQA

B
ENGB4 Investigating Language
Title: How does gender affect the language used in sporting
commentary, specifically in the world cup?
Good practice is to have a two part title. The first part acts as the main title and
the second gives a more specific insight into the area of the work. These are
normally split with a colon. E.g. Growing Up With Potter: How language
changes from Philosophers Stone to Deathly Hallows reflect a more
sophisticated audience.

Name: Harrish Nathan

Candidate No.:
Teacher:
Haydon School: 12924
Submission Date:

1 Front Matter1
1.1 Abstract
Summary of your report

1.2 Key Words

Goal: when a player puts the ball in the back of the net this is called a goal, the
more goals the more chance of winning.
Shot: to score a goal you need to shoot the ball
Pass: this is when a player from one team kicks the ball to another player on the
same team.

1.3 Contents
1Front Matter......................................................................................................... 3
1.1

Abstract..................................................................................................... 3

1.2

Key Words................................................................................................. 3

1.3

Contents.................................................................................................... 4

1.4

List of Tables and Figures..........................................................................5

1.5

Acknowledgements................................................................................... 6

1.6

Abbreviations............................................................................................ 6

1.7

Definitions................................................................................................. 6

Introduction..................................................................................................... 7

Methodology.................................................................................................... 8

3.1

Design....................................................................................................... 8

3.2

Participants / Data (delete as appropriate)...............................................8

3.3

Ethics........................................................................................................ 8

3.4

Methods.................................................................................................... 8

3.5

Procedure.................................................................................................. 8

Analysis........................................................................................................... 9
4.1

Research Question 1................................................................................. 9

4.2

Research Question 2................................................................................. 9

4.3

Research Question 3................................................................................. 9

1 Front Matter is not included in the overall word count

Conclusion and Evaluation............................................................................10

Bibliography.................................................................................................. 11

Appendices.................................................................................................... 12

1.4 List of tables and figures

Word Type Used

Noun
Verb
Adjective
Pronoun
Adverb
Preposition
Connective

Male
Commentator
181
131
91
86
36
107
36

Female
Commentator
128
51
35
50
30
72
18

1.5 Acknowledgements
Thanks to youtube.

1.6 Abbreviations
No abbreviations

1.7 Definitions
stereotype: a simplified and standardized conception or image invested with special meaning
Mean length utterance (MLU): the mean number of morphemes produced in a
sentence..
Pauses: this are silences in live speak, this can be done with purpose or
completely by accident, but it can show hesitation in someones speech.
Lexis: this is the terminology the commentators use, for my investigation it
would be footballing lexis.
Vocal expression: this is used to show emotion even when the listener cant see
the person talking, in this case commentator using emotion to describe a goal.
Etc.

2 Introduction
Hypothesis: How does gender affect the language used in sporting
commentary, specifically in the world cup? I have done this
investigation because I like sport and would like to see how gender
affects the language we use in sport. I am very interested in
football and language + gender, so I decided to combine the two. The
field of academic linguistic research would be gender as I am
investigating how gender affect the language we use in sport. The
style of my research will be longitudinal. I will explore how
genderlect affects commentary in sport. The main purpose of my
investigation is to find out if what type of gender we are affects
the way we portray football. The second purpose of my investigation
is classification as I want to find out whether there is huge evidence
to show female features of language my investigation will help to
make this doubt clearer. To support my investigation will use some
of the theories and approaches of different types of theorists,
for example: Lakoff, Tannen, and Grice.

3 Methodology
Design: I will be using cross sectional and comparative
research as my means of gathering my data (design). This is
because I am comparing the language used when
commentating over a mens football match and a womens
football match.
Participants/Data: I will be using a transcript as I am
analysing commentary which is being spoken so therefore I will
need to use a transcript as part of my work. I will use more than
one commentator to make the investigation reliable and wide
scaled; they will also be chosen at random to reduce the
chance of bias affecting the investigation.
Ethics: my data will come from the public domain as it is
commentary that we all can hear or have heard. So there is no
worry about ethics as my text is a commentary transcript and
also has no bias.
Methods: I will be using focus groups as I am comparing the
focus groups of men and women in football commentary. I will
also be using statistical analysis to find out how language used
in commentary is affected by the gender playing the sport.
Procedure: I will do all this over the summer holidays as that
is my time frame, I will be sorting my data into tables, with two
headers men and women. I will take notes of my findings and
put them on a word document and then eventually upload
them onto my blog.

4 Analysis
Sources:
Female commentator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=RmghPQOXxnw
Male commentator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=65lOUU6mEPs
Both commentators use a lot of nouns due to the fact that they
are talking about football so words such as ball goal and
player names are used. Both commentators use verbs such as
Shoot and cross due to the nature of what the commentators
are commentating on.
The female commentator uses less lexical terms than the male
commentator maybe showing that gender affects the
knowledge of vocabulary of the sport. The female commentator
also doesnt react as wildly as the male commentator when the
team has a chance, the male commentator tends to be the
more lively of the two maybe also indicating that men have
more passion for football than women.
The female commentator also speaks the more formal of the
two, this may suggest that females take commentating over
football more professionally and the males use less formal
language to indicate their passion for the game. The Male
commentator also uses more descriptive language to describe
the football match.

5 Conclusion and Evaluation

to conclude gender does affect language used in sport but only
slightly as the only factors affecting this are the amount of
descriptive language used, the amount of lexical terms used,
the expression of voice, the tone of voice and formality of the
speech.
I feel my investigation hasnt been as much of a success as I
have hoped for as I was hoping to find more differences in the
language used my males and females when commentating
over a football match, but never the less a decent investigation.

6 Bibliography
A full list of all sources of material (web pages, books, journals etc).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmghPQOXxnw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65lOUU6mEPs

Female commentator transcript

This is the first home game in nine and a half years in which Chris
Coleman has not been part of Fulham Football Club, thats the first time
this afternoon weve heard the roar around Craven Cottage, Home fans
desperately urging their side on. Six foot six Zac knights in there, Papa
Bouba Diop and its Diop whos in there and its flicked in at the far post
and its Montella with the goal for Fulham nine minutes played and what a
crucial goal that could be. Davies with the corner, Diop with the head
down, and it came off the thigh of Montella; it was Dunne on the line who
could do nothing about it, and the Italian on loan from Roma who has sent
Craven Cottage into raptures.
Fulham fans a little more relaxed in the sunshine now after that perfect
start from their side, Mokuwena is in there with a challenge but so is
Michael brown, will it fall for Jason Roberts? Its Benny McCarthy and
Bentley in towards McCarthy again, Fulham determined to get it away but
a slip at the wrong time from Radwinski and its Bentley again but it was a
late challenge from Michael Brown and this is gonna be the first yellow
card of the afternoon, you can hardly dispute that. You get the feeling that
Morten gamst Pedersen might just fancy it from this angle its
Pedersen and he wasnt far away, in fact Niemi got a touch to that!
Mark Hughes full of confidence that his side can get back on track for their
bid for a Uefa cup place, proved their determination from their midweek
victory over Watford Bentley finding space, good ball in from Bentley
looking for McCarthy Rosenior has work to do, its almost an own goal and
its hacked away by Zac knight, thats the greatest threat to Fulhams goal
so far, didnt deal with it initially, Niemi scrambling to get across.
Nelson with a ball forward, heres Roberts and hes onside and hes clean
through Jason Roberts and Zac knight is there to save the day for
Fulham, excellent chance for Jason Roberts, Fulham caught totally square
at the back.
Sanchez looking for his first win as Fulham manager after that defeat at
Reading last week Rosenior, bride in a bit of space for once, nicely done,
heres Davies, Montella, looks for support and he finds it in the shape of
diop and it was Brown in there who forced a save from Brad Friedel.
Key NOUN VERB PRE MODIFIER PREPOSITION ADVERB PRONOUN
RHETORICAL QUESTION PUNCTUATION DETERMINER CONNECTIVE

Male commentator transcript

Michael Oliver young referee big game for him, free kick in favour of Suarez, in
by Gerrard, its got a touch, its in! In next to no time Martin Skrtel! Stunning
start at Anfield! Less than a minute! Theres just no stopping them at home right
now. Skrtel all broad and muscle, big man right time right place. You know I just
looking at that it looks like Skrtel might have just strayed, he might have been a
fraction offside, but hes gotten away with it, and once this comes back off
Szczesny he cant do an awful lot about the first one, it just comes at him so
quickly from Skrtelss feet, not the greatest contact but who cares its a dream
start.
Another Gerrard delivery Skrtel two! Match it double it! Arsene Wenger has a
mountain to climb, Brendan Rodgers keeping himself in check. Well Ive seen
them concede quite a few from this zonal marking system this season, and its
curled away from them and its Arteta I think and Koscielny in fact is the one
trying to get to him and just doesnt make it, how about this for a header its
an absolute peach, to keep the elevation on it and get the direction so spot on to
get it above Oxlade chamberlain, thats fabulous well he didnt keep himself in
check to start with did he? Two nil up against the leaders in the Barclays premier
league
Ozil well Hendersons done a job on him, Suarez one way Sturridge through the
middle, sterling free, Henderson drove on, Suarez played it in aaand Sterling
scores! Beyond their wildest dreams! Liverpool three the leaders nil and weve
barely begun And again its brilliant pressing from Liverpool that began the
move and Jordan Henderson he did a job on Mesut Ozil. And Arsenal are shell
shocked here, they really are, they dont know whats hit em. Its been one wave
after another. Theres the harrying the hustling from Jordan Henderson and now
Liverpool go back and look at them just surging forward, Arsenal venerable, how
about this from Luis Suarez, just to play it in, I think meant for Sturridge, but
sterling thought hang on I can get a piece of that, and hes just been too quick
round the back and its a simple tap in, nothing Szczesny can do wow nobody
saw this coming, and for a youngster about whom the only complaint has been
the absence of calm finishing.
Four against West Brom, four against Fulham five against Norwich, four most
recently against Everton, three already against Arsenal, and whats more
Sturridge is onside here its four! How many do you want? How many do you
want? Its not lunchtime yet! Do not adjust your set this is real at this moment
in time Liverpool football club look just about the best side on the planet and
Arsenal have been made to look like a pub team, watch this from Coutinho
absolutely superb the weighted pass couldnt have been better, it gives him time
then to be able to get his head up and pick his spot and look to see where the
goalkeepers positioned and guide it wide of him, this is just exceptional,
exhibition football, were seeing from the home side. Twenty minutes Jim, four

goals, Suarez has hit the post, one bounced of Kolo Toure wide admittedly the
same event and Sturridge has also missed a very presentable chance.
Toure flag has stayed down, sterlings onside Raheem sterling Now! For
Five! Look at the number and dream, dream come true Raheem sterling goal in
front of the kop. The would be champions put to the sword, a fistful of goals for
Liverpool, and it was Kolo Toure who began all that with a lovely ball because
sterling was onside, Sturridge might have been off but it was all about sterling
once he got clean through, Szczesny does extremely well, exposed once more
the Arsenal goalkeeper, but it very kindly came back to sterling change of feet,
and pretty much a tap in again like his first goal, didnt manage it against
Everton but theyve managed a fifth against arsenal, least to say theyre gonna
stop there. Bit of a lucky break for Raheem sterling this time, do you think hes
worried? As Jim rightly remembers, a couple got away from the party night
against Everton here just a week and a half ago, its fallen for him this time a tap
in, and second time round a second bite at the cherry and look at those arsenal
faces.
Key NOUN VERB PRE MODIFIER PREPOSITION ADVERB PRONOUN
RHETORICAL QUESTION PUNCTUATION DETERMINER CONNECTIVE