The Post-Match Interview as a Discourse Genre: A Combined Genre and Register Analysis

Abstract

The analytical frameworks of genre and register have proven particularly useful for linguists interested in examining the functional properties of a set of related texts. By using genre and register, a linguistic profile of a text type can be developed and subsequently accounted for in relation to features of the social context in which the text is used. However, studies have typically used either genre or register as their analytical tool and have rarely combined these two approaches into a single analysis. Additionally, genre seems to have usurped register as the favoured approach to examining texts in context. In this thesis, I model a combined genre and register approach using the post-match interview text, a televised interview held with players after professional sports matches, as my object of study. This thesis (1) provides a detailed linguistic profile of this particular interaction by highlighting both macro and micro features of these interviews, and (2) examines the post-match interview text as it is used in different contexts or registers. The post‐match interview was chosen because it provides an opportunity to examine genres and registers in sport and media domains, as opposed to the academic contexts typically explored, and because the findings of the linguistic profile may be useful for the increasing number of people being asked to speak in this genre.

Two hundred and forty post-match interviews from four different sports were collected and analysed using a Systemic Functional Linguistics approach to genre and register. Data from ethnographic interviews with stakeholders (i.e. players, interviewers, fans) were also included to provide insider knowledge of the social context. When analysing the post-match interview texts, the concept of genre was invoked to explore the social purpose and macro level patterns (i.e. stages and schematic structure) of these interviews. The concept of register was invoked to examine micro level features of language use, associated with the context of situation.

From a genre perspective, the social purpose of post-match interview texts is to elicit match reaction from professional sports players for a television audience for “fandom” and entertainment purposes. This purpose was realised by a Match Reaction stage that was obligatorily employed in these texts. A generic structure was also observed. From a register perspective, post-match interview discourse patterns identified an expectation that speakers in this particular context of situation provide personal evaluations, enact the temporary roles of interviewer and interviewee, and use language in an unplanned and fluent manner. Patterns in the linguistic realisation of these key micro functions were also identified.

Employing a combined genre and register framework also allowed for comparative analyses of the post-match interview genre in different contexts of situation, or registers. Features of the post‐match interview in different sports (football, rugby, golf and tennis), different sport types (individual versus team sports), and different regions (Oceania and Europe) were compared. While little variation was observed between the four sports (beyond sport specific lexical choices), differences in the strength of evaluating acts between the different sport types, and in the typical eliciting strategies in the different regions were observed. Ethnographic insights were drawn on to account for the linguistic differences observed in these differing social contexts.

These findings suggest that a combined genre and register approach can usefully provide a way of exploring both macro and micro patterns of language use in a particular genre, while also allowing for the exploration of finer level genre variation.