Frequency Of Football Terminology

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

The source of my focus in the investigation comes from my interest in football, I chose this area to look at how foreign individuals interact with the media even though in most cases they are not fluent in english. My investigation title ‘An analysis of how specific football terminology is more apparent in post-match interviews with foreign football players compared to home grown players’ comes from my original idea that foreign players tend to learn the ‘language of football’ ahead of learning the English language as a whole. In preparation, I looked into the topic with some background reading from Kamil Wiśniewski on second language acquisition on areas such inter-language, fossilisation and positive/negative transfer which i believe is relevant as they are common feature of individuals learning English as a second language. I also looked at a book by Eva Lavric containing his thoughts on the ‘language of football’ which gave me further insight into this topic.This is where I found that adults will find it more difficult to acquire a new language which made me think, how do foreign players interact with the media if they are not fluent in English hence the basis of my investigation.

Methodology

In order to investigate whether the frequency of football terminology in foreign player’s/manager’s interviews than home grown players/managers, I had to come up with a suitable method to investigate this.

As for choosing the specific individuals I went for foreign individuals with varying lengths of exposure to English.The method I chose to collect my data, was to transcribe recordings of interviews off sky sports, the BBC sport website and ITV Football. Recording these post-match interviews was very easy as they are readily available as they are made public through the media. Ultimately i chose to transcribe five interviews containing several interviews in some cases, the reason for this is that i wanted to thoroughly analyse data instead of briefly analysing lots of data. As for recording the TV interviews  I utilised the sky+ facility that I have at home and this allowed me the opportunity to rewind  repeatedly allowing me to get an accurate transcription of the recording. My choice of method was based on the fact that there was many opportunities to collect the data and in addition to this, there were no ethical issues surrounding the collection of the data, as consent is already given by the interviewee when giving the interview to the media. The subjects of the interview include Roberto Martinez (English degree and married to Scottish woman), Avram Grant (3 years in England), Javier Hernandez (just arrived in England,apparently fluent in English), Gerard Houllier (been in England for 13 years and had a year in Liverpool as part of his degree)and Carlo Ancelotti (a year in England) enabling to make comparisons and statements about my area of investigation. The method I have used is more valid than other methods such as a questionnaire as it gives a more in depth look into the topic.Another strength of this method is that as well as looking at my specific topic, other features can be discussed in the analysis.

288 Words

Analysis

Experience and Context linked with Linguistical Choices

The first thing that came to mind as I looked through this data is that most of the foreign players/managers transcribed relied heavily on their knowledge of football-based idioms and clichés to guide them through their interviews. I’ve found that this may be for many reasons, for example in the case of Javier Hernandez, he is relatively new to the media and as a result of his lack of experience, he is very limited in his lexical choices, for instance he is shown to be repeating a lot of his utterances like ‘happy’ and ‘away games’. The length of interview reflects how confident the interviewer perceives the person to be with English. Whereas in contrast, Roberto Martinez sounds more confident when speaking, he accurately uses idioms and clichés to give a more in-depth assessment of the game for example he uses idioms like ‘action counter attack’, which is an football-based idiom that is only relevant in a footballing context. In addition he uses certain idioms that are not directly linked to football but ones that are used frequently to describe various events, for instance his use of the lexis like, ‘clinical’ which he uses in the appropriate context to describe the effectiveness of Manchester United’s attacking prowess.

Interlanguage, more hypothetical idioms

However even though he is more experienced with the media he still shows signs of inaccuracy, there are instances of when Spanish overlaps with English, this is called inter language. This is typically shown when he utters ‘iss’ this is when his accent and pronunciation for speaking Spanish is used when speaking English. He still shows signs of uncertainty even though he is quite comfortable, this happens when he uses numerous fillers like, ‘err’ for example even though I have found that it is very common for foreign players/managers to use fillers to give them more time to think, I have found that home grown players/managers use them quite frequently. In their case I think they use them to take the place of punctuation and get their breath back.

One feature that I have noticed is that the idioms and clichés that the home grown players/managers do use are more hypothetical, showing their better understanding of the footballing terminology that they can use them in this way. A good example of this is when Mike Phelan says, ‘lie low a little bit and let the powers that be’, again this idiom is not known specifically for coming from football but used now and again in sport. In addition, Roberto Martinez confidently uses his language when speaking hypothetically, when he states, ‘I feel that if my player would have been involved in that situation I would consider my player’, this shows how much he has interacted with the media as his English has developed enough that he is looking back in retrospect.

Complex Lexical choices

From the Aston Villa-Blackburn, it is clear to see that the home grown individuals are more comfortable with the media as they use more informal language with the occurrences of unusual idioms and complex vocabulary, for example the Blackburn manager Steve Kean uses phrases like ‘nullify’, this shows that because he is fluent in English, he is able to call on more extensive vocabulary. When it comes to describing the game it contrasts to the comparable simple lexical choices chosen by the foreign individuals, for instance lexis like, ‘quality’ and ‘happiness’ which are more abstract and could be categorised as feelings and emotions.

Elision and discourse particles

Another feature that I spotted was that the homegrown individuals were more informal with their lexical choices for instance Ashley Young utters the word ‘gonna’ more than once, in contrast to the foreign individuals where elision is almost non-existent. In addition to this, the appearance of discourse particles such as ‘you know’ in Steve Kean’s interview would not occur in the foreign individuals interviews because a discourse marker/particle does not affect the rest of the sentence and does not mean anything. The foreign individual would not fully understand the concept of them and therefore, avoid using them or use them with caution.

Progressing the interview

Looking at the transcript more closely I found that the there were differences in how the individuals progressed through their interviews. It seemed that Gerard Houllier tended to pause for a few seconds whilst Steve Kean paused only momentarily and Ashley Young tended not to pause for a recordable length of time. The homegrown individuals tended to use fillers to carry on the interview, perhaps this is difference is due the fact that because Gerard Houllier is not fluent in English. He has a relatively small vocabulary to work with and without the want of repeating himself, pauses for thought.

Syntactical Errors

There are many instances in the transcript where determiners are missing for example, ‘after long time’ and when determiners are used when not needed like, ‘we have err a great quality in the team’. In these examples Pablo Zabaleta is confused with the syntactical placements of the lexis in the sentence for it to make sense. For instance in the first example he has treat ‘long time’ as a modifier instead of an hypothetical object. In the second example, he has presumed ‘a great quality’ to be an object itself when in this case it should ‘great quality’ instead.

Ability to Translate

In this transcript, Pablo Zabaleta translates for David Silva this demonstrates that he has quite a high level of understanding of the English language as he understands grammatical rules and is able to speak for DS in the second person narrative effectively. Even when he is translating he still uses lots of football-based terminology to get DS’s point of view across for instance lexis like, ‘team-mates’ and ‘the cross’.

Grice’s Maxims

Although many of Grice’s maxims are flouted throughout most of the transcripts, I think that this is more apparent in this transcript. For instance, when Pablo Zabaleta translates for David Silva he states ‘in the cross so try to be there’, this clearly flouts the maxim of relevance as this clearly is out of the blue as it were and it does not fit into the context of the conversation. Although this is the case, I do believe that he is trying to state an example of their commitment but the way he phrases it, it does not work effectively. Later in the transcript there is an instance of when Gerard flouts the maxim of quality when he uses the lexis ‘but they had you know they thewe are are realistic’ this quotation is very unclear and it is not very apparent what it is that he is trying to say. Perhaps he is trying to state that they are realistic themselves and has got confused with the appropriate pronoun in this eventuality the appropriate pronoun would be the first person plural pronoun, ‘we’.

Grammar

Something that is very apparent in this entire transcript is that the correct tense is often not used properly; there are many examples of this throughout the transcript for instance utterances such as, ‘we did a great game’ or ‘they did a good game’ to name but a few. In these instances there is confusion with the past tense and there is uncertainty in which they use the simple past tense when the more appropriate choice would have been ‘had’.

Uncertainty regarding choosing the appropriate vocabulary

It is very clear in parts of this transcript that Carlo Ancelotti is uncertain about his lexical choices. For instance nearing the end of the interview he utters, ‘I I decide game by ga I will decide game by game’, this repetition could not be a result of his uncertainty but also could be his demonstration of his stubbornness in not directly answering the question. Perhaps he is having second thoughts about using this specific idiom to convey what he wishes to say. In addition to this he also demonstrates his lack of knowledge in English football terminology, this is apparent a couple of times when he is oblivious as to what terms like ‘fluency’ and ‘consistency of selection’. Instances like this highlight the fact that he is relatively new to the English game, however according to reports he is currently having English lessons so he is on the learning curve shall we say.

Differences within the transcript regarding sentence structure

After contrasting the two foreign individuals I discovered that Petr Cech looked more comfortable with English than Carlo Ancelotti did. This was due to the sentence structures that they were effective in using for instance PC regularly used quite complex sentences with a degree of accuracy, occasions like when he states, ‘I don’t mind to be fair if you want to win the champions league you need to beat any opponent which comes erm against you in any stage so (.) I don’t mind.’ PC clearly sounds comfortable when talking in this way, using more complex sentence types with use of conjunctions like ‘so’ shows he is aware of such linguistical rules. Whereas in comparison CA is guilty of mostly repeating a fairly simple sentence structure for example where he says, ‘we didn’t need to score we played well we shot twenty four times err (1) in the goal’. Repetition of simple sentence structures, always starting his utterances with ‘we’ is perhaps trying to emphasise the togetherness of his side after their recent troubles.

Very common and perhaps useful idioms

After looking through all of these transcripts and just listening to football interviews in general I have noticed that particular idioms like ‘nil nil’ have a more useful purpose than just describing an event in football. Terms like this and similar ones like ‘two nil’ are useful in that when describing the score, if you were to look at 0-0 and were read it literally it would probably read ‘no goals scored by either team’ or even ‘zero zero’ now I don’t know about anybody else, but these ways of saying the score are pretty tedious and long-winded, especially if used frequently like they are. So these football idioms allow for long phrases to be condensed into a smaller more manageable phrase. In the Man City-Villa game it is clear to see that the number of football-based terminology is very high in these foreign players/managers interviews, its nearly the case that every sentence contains football-based lexis such as ‘rotation’ or ‘a great game’ this suggests that without the knowledge of these terms then the interviews would be very basic indeed.

Politeness Features

Another thing that I noticed was that another feature of the English interviews and general conversation, that foreign individuals have to pick up on, is politeness. In the context of this transcript, it seems that Petr Cech has demonstrated his knowledge of this discourse feature whereas Carlo Ancelotti doesn’t acknowledge the interviewer’s cue. For example when PC finishes his interview he is thanked by the interviewer and responds by uttering, ‘Your Welcome’ whereas in contrast CA after being thanked by the interviewer simply doesn’t respond. Whether this is done on purpose or by accident it still could be perceived as ignorance on his part for either blatantly ignoring him or not taking time to swat up on decencies of English manners.

Errors with plurals

Having analysed this transcript it is clear to me that Avram Grant is struggling with the concept of pluralisation, examples like, ‘a few monthses’ which I believe is a result of him have problems with him over-generalising the grammatical rule in pluralisation, or maybe perhaps this is just the result of his pronunciation, and maybe he struggles with the phoneme ‘s’ when its at the end of a word, as a plural.

Another instance of his incompetence with plurals materialised when states the lexis, ‘we was on the bottom’ in this case it is concerning the framework grammar as he makes a grammatical error with the first person plural, by using ‘was’ instead of ‘were’. This could be put down to various reasons, which include the fact that the grammatical rules for tense are particularly difficult to pick up for English individuals, never mind foreign individuals acquiring English as a second language so this could be a factor.

Imitation and Assimilation

During this interview, it is clear that Avram has gone through the processes of language acquisition such as imitation and assimilation. For example when AG says, ‘frustatious’, I believe AG has tried to say ‘frustrated’ but has assimilated incorrectly and chosen to add the suffix ‘ious’ which is incorrect and does not constitute a real word. Another feature of language acquisition, imitation, this is apparent in his speech when he utters the lexis, ‘to be the momentum’ here AG repeats the lexis ‘momentum’ but this time he uses it differently he uses it as a subject, this shows that he does not fully understand the lexis ‘momentum’ and therefore instead of choosing vocabulary he understands he tries to improvise and repeats it many times to make it look like he understands. He may feel he has to use this lexis as he it is used in the question and he does not know an alternative.

1953 words

Conclusion/Evaluation

After conducting my analysis about the higher frequency of football terminology such as idioms and clichés, in foreign players/managers interviews in comparison to homegrown players/managers, I have found that indeed this is the case and have also some come across other linguistic occurrences. After looking back on my investigation I can say I did encounter a few problems whilst carrying it out, the main problem was the act of transcribing the interviews itself. As I knew before hand, it was going to be a long and tedious process, which wasn’t the problem; it was in fact the actual transcribing that was difficult as it was sometimes difficult to distinguish the actual lexis used. Looking back in hindsight, I probably should have accessed the subtitles feature on the television to make this process a little easier. As always with analysing your own data, everything you mention is subject to interpretation, although if the analysis was carried out again I believe it would come out with similar results. Another problem with this method is that it is impossible to interpret the data and distinguish all the features, patterns and trends, as someone else is always likely to interpret the data differently. Overall I think the investigation went well and I came out with evidence to support my original title.

Word Count = 217

Transcript 1

Roberto Martinez (Spanish) (RM) (Wigan Manager) after 4-0 defeat to Manchester United

RM: Very unhappy with (.1) eh scoreline obviously it’s disappointing because I felt that (.1) the first half display erm (.) we (2) we played very well, we had two key moments , probably the two one v ones with Victor Moses and James McCarthy that (1) Van der Sar erm dealt with in a in a fantastic manner and (1) obviously one action counter attack that we couldn’t deal well enough and Manchester United showed how clinical they can be.

Javier Hernandez (Mexican) (JH) (Man U Striker) same game

Jonathan Pearce (JP) Commentator and interviewer

JP: How happy are you after your two goals today?

JH: I’m very happy but (2) I’m more happy cos we we improve with with (1) our away games because we want that in the last away games we don’t get we play

very well and we want that and we we demonstrated today.

Back to Roberto Martinez

JP: Big talking point in the game, the early incident with Wayne Rooney erm Manchester United think there was a coming together (.) I gather the referee said much the same thing to you at half-time what’s your view of that?

RM: Well my view is wh when I saw it live, iss it was an elbow erm the referee saw it obviously gave us a free kick that that’s why its strange if you see that incident it’s a red card err I feel that if my player would have been involved in that situation I would consider my player very very luck iss one the incidents that if you don’t see in the game erm its very difficult for the referee but once you see it its clearly its an off the ball incidents for its an elbow it’s a red card.

Mike Phelan (homegrown) (MP) (Man U Assistant Manager)

MP: Well the referee saw what he saw in (.) er he he kept the game rolling an we can’t dispute a referee’s decision he’s he’s er kept the game flowing and we’re happy with that.

JP: Would you hope then that there wouldn’t be some sort of witch hunt after this?

MP: (2) Well I don’t know whether there should be a witch hunt you know we have referees out there on the field to take charge of the situation (.) I thought he was (1) consistent today with all his decisions be it good and (.) bad erm I think we should er (1) lie low a little bit and let the powers that be take the game.

Transcript 2

Gerard Houllier (French) (GH) Aston Villa Manager after 4-1 win over Blackburn

GH: I’ll tell you wha wha what I was very pleased and proud of is the quality (1) er of the reaction of the bench we scored (2) when you have err err people on the bench and they share (1) I would say the positive emotion and the happiness for the players on the pitch (1) (nodding head slightly) this is a good sign for the future.

Steve Kean (SK) Blackburn Manager

SK: I think there was times where we were in possession of the ball today and then as soon as we gave it away you know (0.5) obviously Villa are very good on the counter attack (0.5) and that was the thing that er er we’re trying to nullify and I think we should of done it a little bit better.

Ashley Young (AY) Aston Villa Forward

Unknown Interviewer (UI)

UI: Where do you see Villa going in the rest of the season now?

AY: Er I think that we’ve said that we’ve err erm we’ve gotta start looking up the table now from the games before an and I know it was always gonna be a performance where we’re gonna score more than one goal and we’ve done that today we’ve got 4 and think we could even have got more but erm it weren’t to be but like I said we come here to get the three points that’s exactly what we’ve done today.

Transcript 3

Pablo Zabaleta (PZ) Argentinian Man City Defender after 3-0 win over Aston Villa

David Silva (DS) Spanish Man City Forward

Unknown Interviewer (UI)

Gerard Houllier (GH) Aston Villa Manager

UI: Ok gentleman (.) Pablo the captain David congratulations erm Pablo that was very impressive wasn’t it from the team today.

PZ: Yes we are (.) very happy because I think we did a great game you know ar (1) we knew that before the game that we had a great chance in the FA Cup to try (1) to come back to Wembley after long time err (1) so we’ll have to focus on Reading now err we have a great chance iss we play at home again and er our fans so that will be important for us.

UI: One of the strengths of this team is that so many people can score goals people focus on Tevez, Dzeko, Balotelli but the man there David Silva is showing what he can do as well.

PZ: Yeh of course well I think we have err a great quality in the team we have many players can er score er anytime any moment during the game (1) that is very important for the long season we have many games in a short time so it is ver important when every player will have a rotation during all the games trying to give their best to keep their place.

UI: And of course David we know your English isn’t perhaps good enough to an interview but can you just translate (PZ)?

Can you ask David if he’s playing his best how feeling comfortable in English football? (PZ speaks to DS in Spanish) Good man what he say

PZ for DS: He is very happy in English football he’s adapting very well you know all the teammates, all the people in the club look after him all the time errr he’s (.) good player so (.) arr he say we are very proud to try to come back to Wembley so (.) in the cross so try to be there.

UI: Gerard, a difficult evening erm what positives can you take first?

GH: (2) I think we have to acknowledge first we were beaten by a team that is better than us at the moment and they did a good game I don’t think er (.) we had a bad game if we take away the two goals in the first half maybe (.) it was when (.) we were unlucky because after the first goal we came too early er there was a period of 10-15 minutes where we probably er we were haunted by what happened here in December (2) err but we finished the first half well (.) er better I still think the second half was also better but (2) we we are I admit that we didn’t hurt them enough you know err err us (1) different game from last time erm I think the score is very flattering for them but they had you know they thewe are are realistic.

UI: Would the gap between the two teams not been closer if you’d started with Downing un Young or perhaps even brought them on earlier?

GH: Nerrr (2) I know you would say ask that question but erm we started the team with Emile Heskey and also Gabby Agbonlahor err and Nathan Delfouneso who is an under 21 international so the attack was practically 3 international and midfield we had also internationals so (.) when we have quality yyyou use it and its not down to a matter of 2-3 men I think er I don’t think Ashley or Downing would have avoid the first goal which was very unfortunate because it bounced on of Clarky’s hand en it went it into the goal after Balotelli hit it but er after being down to 1-0 it was difficult.

Transcript 4

Petr Cech (PC) (Russian) Chelsea Goalkeeper After 0-0 draw with Copenhagen

Unknown Interviewer (UI)

UI: Well happy with the result I’m sure what about the performance?

PC: Well (.) I think we are happy that we are through to the next round I think that er what er we were missing in our performance is goals cos we created enough chances but we didn’t take them an an then you play ninety minutes nil nil you know is champions league we need to be careful at the back not to concede any er any goal which would er give them a little but of the lift so I think the job was done (.) weee kept a clean sheet an as I said the only thing we was missing were er converting the chances.

UI: Well you’ve been here before this sort of stage in the competition how how er strong are Chelsea to on and win in this competition?

PC: (2) Well

UI: this Chelsea

PC: we are we are er in a good position we did well weeee are now in the quarter finals lets see whats gonna be the draw but we are confident we have got lots of experience an I think we overcome a difficult period in our season which er t make us er strong going in the champions league.

UI: a final point who do you don’t want the most at all Barcelona or one of the English clubs?

PC: I don’t mind to be fair if you want to win the champions league you need to beat any opponent which comes erm against you in any stage so (.) I don’t mind.

UI: Thanks Peter

PC: Your welcome

CarloAncelotti (Italian) Chelsea Manager after same game

UI: Well Carlo first of all it’s two goals in six games for your strikers since er Fernando Torres arrived (.) what’s your best front pairing who are your best players up front?

CA: (.) All (.) all they are all fantastic player

UI: I know but do you you

CA: We didn’t need to score today because we won two nil (1) we had a lot of opportunities to to score we played well an we each er an

UI: but do you have to decide essentially in the games that remain this season who’s gonna be your front pairing in particular

CA:I I decide game by ga I will decide game by game because when the players are fit last game er Kalou was important for us eh at Blackpool er the game in champions league Anelka scored two goals da de game by game

(Interrupting)

UI: Did didn’t tonight shows you need some fluency

CA: Sorry

UI: Some consistency in your selection

CA: (2) We have a fantastic squad (grinning) I don’t er I I don’t understand dis answer this a question because we didn’t need to score we played well we shot twenty four times err (1) in the goal so what we have to do more.

UI: Thank you Carlo.

Transcript 5

Avram Grant (Israeli) (AG) West Ham Manager after 3-0 over Stoke

Unknown Interviewer (UI)

UI: Avram er its been quite a week hasn’t it successive home victories and three goals in each of them that must be a very happy dressing room that you’ve just left?

AG: Yes very happy er I think first because we are winning and second that they believe nnow more about our football that we spoke about this the last time last place on the league now (1) er we scored err three goals each one each of the last three league game an five against Barnley(Burnley) its their that football that we believe about is attacking football an we thinking about this evening we was on the bottom err (1) do good.

UI: How pleased are you that Demba Ba didn’t sign for Stoke?

AG: (.) I’m very pleased because er him an Hitzlsperger err (.) one of the players wanted to sign and you know we have many players on loan which er (.) we want er (.) most of them to stay in the league (.) but its Hitzlsperger and Ba belong to us so er (1) its very good two players I know them many year and I like them intelligent players and ver important as of course Demba its unbelievable I don’t remember player (.) that er (.) make such a big impact in his first game like Demba and Thomas is also like a new signing.

UI: I remember earlier in the season when things weren’t going too well you were saying just wait until we’ve got everybody back fit (.) well now you have and we’re seeing the results of that aren’t we?

AG: (2) Yes because we first time I said the players that played instead gave everything we cannot er (1) complain (.) maybe one or two games Liverpool away Newcastle but even its happened to the big teams so err (1) I accept this the players gave everything (1) the players that we wanted from the beginning err as I say I said to you lets wait ( cheeky grin) and see you see the impact of them cos err injuries are part of the game but its happened to us from the first game and not in the times that we want (1) we want a now when everybody’s fit first you see a big a big competition see the plays that didn’t play today yeh we have a good team.

UI: We hear a lot of about the word momentum and West Ham have certainly got that at the moment haven’t they?

AG: (2) Yes were are on a momentum er we was on a momentum before the game an we we wanted to keep the momentum, momentum is good if you keep it and er the most important is to be the momentum, to do the right things, to do the right things when you’re doing the right things on the pitch you get the points (1) even eh you know the players was er a bit frustatious a few monthses ago when was th th top and we didn’t so we get the good momentum by de football by the eh (1.5) point and I sink that eh it’s a good time to get quality and we can improve it.

UI: Well today’s result and the performance have any bearing on next weekend’s FA Cup quarter final against Stoke?

AG: Ahh (.) to be fair I don’t like to play against ah eh big fan of them I don’t understand they play against the same team week after week errr (.) I don’t like it but errr (1) an its not easy because er you know Stoke will be more ready for us an its quarter final I mean a quarter final everybody wants to be in the semi final especially teams like Arsenal and Stoke so it will be a very tough game.