PITCH CHARACTERISTICS OF BRITISH HORSE RACE COMMENTARIES

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the investigation of the prosodic features of an English TV horse race commentary. A horse race commentary is deemed to be a special type of spontaneous text where prosody acts as one of the main factors that determine the effectiveness of speech. The four chosen horse race commentaries were broadcast by BBC and commented by male representatives. The durations (time period from start of the race to the moment the winning horse fi nishes) of the horse race commentaries range from 80 seconds to 150 seconds. Such prosodic speech parameters as maximal F0 (Fmax) and minimum F0 (Fmin), F0 range (FΔ) and mean F0 (Fmean) are investigated by Praat software (version 6.0.37). It is stated that the commentary of horse racing as a genre of media discourse is considerably oriented towards the listener and characterized by prosodic heterogeneity. Emotionally-charged fragments of speech at the end of horse race commentary are marked by an increase in the mean parameters of F0 and the widening of F0 range, compared to initial and medial fragments.