Dr. Jan Chovanec, Englische Sprachwissenschaft, Masarykova Univerzita, Brno/Tschechien

Sports commentary is a well-established media genre that places specific requirements on sports journalists. Among other, commentators use a lot of formulaic language in order to provide a coherent running coverage on the ongoing sports event during time pressure, or to obtain information from the sports people in post-match interviews. This talk documents a several situations when, for various reasons, the sportscasters’ commentary goes wrong and deviates from the expected patterns, resulting in the production of unintended humour. The talk suggests that while such humour appears as a momentary disruption of the otherwise serious commentary, it does have a place in this genre because it provides an additional level of enjoyment of the event by the audience.

Jan Chovanec is professor of English linguistics at the Department of English and American Studies, Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. His research interests include media discourse, sports commentary and humour in public and social media interactions.