A critical discourse analysis of verbal expressions showing emotions in football commentaries Phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán về cách thể hiện cảm xúc bằng ngôn

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES -------- NGÔ VIỆT TUẤN A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL EXPRESSIONS SHOWING EMOTIONS IN

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

Phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán về cách thể hiê ̣n cảm xúc bằng ngôn từ trong các bình

luâ ̣n bóng đá ở các tờ báo điê ̣n tử tiếng Anh và tiếng Viê ̣t

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: Engl sh Linguist cs

Co e: 6 2 0 0

HANOI, 2014

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES



NGÔ VIỆT TUẤN

A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF VERBAL EXPRESSIONS SHOWING EMOTIONS IN

FOOTBALL COMMENTARIES IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE E-NEWSPAPERS

Phân tích diễn ngôn phê phán về cách thể hiê ̣n cảm xúc bằng ngôn từ trong các bình

luâ ̣n bóng đá ở các tờ báo điê ̣n tử tiếng Anh và tiếng Viê ̣t

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: Engl sh Linguist cs s

Co e: 6 2 0 0 1

Supervisor: Dr Huỳnh Anh Tuấn

HANOI, 2014

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the thesis entitled “A critical discourse analysis of verbal

expressions showing emotions in football commentaries in English and Vietnamese newspapers” has been carried out at the University of Languages and International Studies

under the guidance of Dr Huynh Anh Tuan The work is original and has not ever been submitted in part or full by me for any degree at another University

I further declare that the material obtained from other sources has been duly acknowledged in the thesis

Ngo Viet Tuan June 2014

My sincere thanks are also sent to all of the teachers at the University of Languages and International Studies for their useful lessons during my two- year learning here

Last but not least, I would like to send my heartfelt thanks to my family and friends for everything

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, football is undeniably the most favourite sport in the world It is not surprising that football commentaries in newspapers always interest readers However, the sportswriters‟ subjective ideas related to social inequalities displayed in these commentaries are really problematic because of their great effects on reader‟s mind This research is carried out on some of the most viewed online newspapers in English and Vietnamese The collected data are analyzed on the basis of Fairclough‟s three- dimensional framework for critical discourse analysis (CDA) and Systemic Functional Grammar at the level of word and clause by Halliday As a result, the research reveals the existence of sexism and nationalism embedded in verbal expressions showing sportswriter‟s emotions and shows certain differences of these demonstrations in English and Vietnamese football commentaries Moreover, the research discusses the reasons for the presence of these social inequalities Hopefully, it will be the firm ground for further CDA research

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iv

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 2

3 Scope of the study 2

4 Methods of the study 2

5 Design of the study 3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 4

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background&Literature Review 4

1.1 Overview of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) 4

1.1.1 The history of CDA 4

1.1.2 Definition of CDA 5

1.1.3 Aims of CDA 6

1.1.4 Differences between CDA and other approaches to Discourse Analysis (DA) 6

1.1.5 Key notions of CDA 7

1.1.6 Principles of CDA 9

1.1.7 Main approaches to CDA 9

1.1.8 Fairclough‟s analytical framework 11

1.1.9 Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and CDA in connection 13

1.2 Review of literature 14

Chapter 2: Methodology 15

2.1 Research approach 15

2.2 Research method 15

2.3 Research questions 15

2.4 Data collection 16

2.5 Method of data analysis 16

2.5.1 Analytical framework 16

2.5.2 Analytical units 17

Chapter 3: Data analysis 18

3.1 Sexism 18

3.1.1 Underestimation and overestimation 18

3.1.1.1 Underestimation 18

3.1.1.2 Overestimation 21

3.1.1.3 Summary 24

3.1.2 Insult and worship 24

3.1.2.1 Insult 24

3.1.2.2 Worship 25

3.1.2.3 Summary 28

3.2 Nationalism 28

3.2.1 Happiness after win 28

3.2.2 Sadness after loss 32

3.2.3 Summary 36

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion 37

4.1 Findings 37

4.1.1 Sexism in football commentaries 37

4.1.2 Nationalism in football commentaries 37

4.2 Discussion 38

4.2.1 Sexism in football commentaries 38

4.2.2 Nationalism in football commentaries 39

PART C: CONCLUSION 40

1 Conclusions 40

2 Limitations of the research 41

3 Suggestions for the research 41

REFERENCES 42

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

It is undeniable that football (or soccer) is the most popular sport in the world nowadays It attracts billions of people of any age, gender, class, religion, and nation Football seems to form its own society in which everyone can see the factors such as economy, politics, and culture; in which the states of emotion can be demonstrated clearly and overtly: the crazy love

or the extreme hate, the outburst of happiness or the bottom of sorrow Possibly, football inventors never imagined it could become such a favourite sport someday

There are some reasons which can explain the popularity of football in the world such as the easy rules, the great contribution to health and the encouragement of team spirit However, another important reason which is not usually paid attention to is the remarkable support of the mass media Thanks to the live matches on TV or the emotional commentaries in the newspapers, a lot of people from generation to generation have grown up with the love and passion of football This shows that mass media has such great effects on the feeling and thought of football fans Through the mass media, football commentators can easily appeal for the entire nation‟s patriotism and solidarity before every single football match of their national team Also, they can easily make football fans have biased views about some social problems due to their emotionalistic commentaries In order to illustrate how subjective some of football commentaries nowadays are and how they badly affect

readers, I manage to do a thesis called “A critical discourse analysis of verbal

expressions showing emotions in football commentaries in English and Vietnamese e-newspapers”

2 Aims of the study

By analyzing football commentaries in English and Vietnamese newspapers, this research aims at investigating the verbal expressions used by English and Vietnamese sportswriters in order to find out whether there is evidence of social inequalities in their perspectives This aim of the research

is specified by the following two objectives:

- Clarifying and contrasting the way that social inequalities like sexism, nationalism are legitimized in discourse of showing emotions in English and Vietnamese football commentaries

- Helping readers better understand the ideologies conveyed in the commentaries and have an objective and tolerant outlook on social problems such as sexism and nationalism when they read the football articles in English and Vietnamese

3 Scope of the study

In the framework of the research, I would like to focus only on the way sportswriters showing their emotions in football commentaries in English and Vietnamese e-newspapers Then, how the two social inequalities namely sexism and nationalism are produced through these emotion demonstrations should be highlighted Other issues in the realm of social inequalities such as political, cultural, class inequalities are excluded from the scope of the study

Details of the data sources are presented in the Methodology chapter

4 Methods of the study

My research adopts the approach of Critical Discourse Analysis The qualitative method of data analysis is applied for the research After the data are collected from football commentaries in English and Vietnamese e-newspapers, the analysis is exercised on the basis of Fairclough‟s three-dimensional framework: Description-Interpretation-Explanation and

Systemic Functional Grammar at the level of word and clause by Halliday

The analysis procedure is specified more in the Methodology chapter

5 Design of the study

The study consists of three parts:

Part A, INTRODUCTION, outlines the background of the research In this

chapter, a brief account of relevant information is provided about the rationale, aims, scope, significance, methodology and design of the research

Part B, DEVELOPMENT, includes four chapters:

Chapter 1, THEORETICAL BACKGROUND and LITERATURE REVIEW, presents all related theoretical background that precedes and necessitates the formation of the research Meanwhile, it gives a slight overview of some previous researches on the same subject

Chapter 2, METHODOLOGY, refers to the sources of data as well as the method to collect and analyze the data to facilitate the research process

Chapter 3, DATA ANALYSIS, analyzes the data collected

Chapter 4, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION, discusses the findings of the data analysis

Part C, CONCLUSION, draws important conclusions and makes

suggestions for further researches

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

AND LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, fundamental concepts of Critical Discourse Analysis and the review of previous researches related to the research are provided

1.1 Overview of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)

1.1.1 The history of CDA

Before the 1970s, linguistic research was focused on formal aspects of language which constituted the linguistic competence of speakers and which could theoretically be isolated from specific instances of language use (Chomsky, 1957) Where the relation between language and context was considered, as in pragmatics, with a focus on speakers‟ pragmatic or socio-linguistic competence, sentences and components of sentences were still regarded as basic units Much socio-linguistic research at that time was aimed

at describing and explaining language variation, language change and the structures of communicative interaction, with limited attention to issues of social hierarchy and power The 1970s saw the emergence of a form of discourse and text analysis that recognized the role of language in structuring power relations in society It drew the attention of many linguists, typically such as Kress, Hodge, Fowler, Van Dijk, Fairclough and Wodak Their works served to explain and illustrate the main assumptions, principles and procedures of what then became known as Critical Linguistics (CL)

By the end of the 1980s, CL was able to describe its aims, research interests, chosen perspective and methods of analysis more specifically and rigidly Wodak (1989) lists, explains and illustrates the most important characteristics of critical linguistic research as they had become established in

continued research

By the 1990s, the label CDA was used commonly to describe this particular approach to linguistic analysis and was recognized “as a distinct theory of language, a radically different kind of linguistics” (Kress, 1990, p.94)

1.1.2 Definition of CDA

Fairclough (1995, pp.132-3) defines CDA as follows: “By critical discourse analysis, I mean discourse analysis which aims to systematically explore often opaque relationships of casualty and determination between (a) discursive practices, events, and texts (b) wider social and cultural structures, relations and processes; to investigate how such practices, events and texts arise out of and are ideologically shaped by relations of power and struggles over power; and to explore how the opacity of these relationships between discourse and society is itself a factor securing power and hegemony”

In the opinion of Van Leeuwen (1993, p.193) “Critical discourse analysis should be concerned or is concerned…with discourse as the instrument of power and control, as well as with discourse as the instrument

of the social construction of reality”

According to Van Dijk (2001, p.352), CDA is a type of discourse analytical research that primarily studies the way social power abuse, dominance, and inequality are enacted, reproduced, and resisted by text and talk in the social and political context With such dissident research, critical discourse analysts take explicit position, and thus want to understand, expose, and ultimately resist social inequality

According to Wodak (1996, p.16), CDA highlights the substantively linguistic and discursive nature of social relations of power in contemporary societies This is partly the matter of how power relations are exercised and

negotiated in discourse It is fruitful to look at both "power in discourse,"

"power of discourse" and "power over discourse" in these dynamic terms

In summary, CDA can be defined as being fundamentally interested in analyzing opaque as well as transparent structural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control as manifested in language Language, as claimed by Habermas (1988, p.172), “is also a medium of domination and social power It serves to legitimate relations of organized force…language is also ideological” Through the definitions of CDA above, it is obvious to see that the phenomena of discrimination or inequality such as sexism, nationalism and how language contributes to legitimize these unequal phenomena are really the supreme interests in CDA

1.1.3 Aims of CDA

CDA examines patterns of access and control over contexts, genres, text and talk, their properties, as well as the discursive strategies of mind control It studies discourse and its functions in society and the ways society, and especially forms of inequality, are expressed, represented, legitimized or reproduced in text and talk For example, the absence of sexism or racism in society gets more and more sophisticatedly in daily discourse and CDA aims

to find out this absence in discourse and show how it probably controls listeners or readers‟ mind Furthermore, CDA does so in opposition against those groups and institutions who abuse their power, and in solidarity with dominated groups, e.g., by discovering and denouncing discursive dominance, and by cooperating in the empowerment of the dominated

1.1.4 Differences between CDA and the other approaches to Discourse Analysis (DA)

Rebecca Rogers (2004, p.2) claims that CDA distances itself from other discourse analysis methods because it includes not only a description and

interpretation of discourse in context, but also offers an explanation of why and how discourses work

Adam Jaworski & Nikolas Coupland (1999, p.33) also see the difference of CDA when comparing it to other traditions They argue that several approaches to discourse have mainly descriptive aims with an intention of providing an exhaustive structural model of discourse organization CDA is much different This critical approach to discourse really sets itself away from descriptivism of this sort It foregrounds its concern with social constructionism and with the construction of ideology in particular

Ruth Wodak & Michael Meyer (2009, p.2) show that the significant difference between other DA approaches and CDA lies in the constitutive problem-oriented, interdisciplinary approach of the latter CDA is therefore not interested in investigating a linguistic unit by itself but in studying social phenomena which are necessarily complex and thus require a multidisciplinary and multi-methodical approach

1.1.5 Key notions of CDA

For proper understanding of CDA as a new linguistic approach, it is important that some key CDA notions should be considered

Critical and the use of this term in CDA can be traced to the influence

of Marxist and later the “Critical Theory” of Frankfurt School Critical means not taking anything for granted or self-reflection of the research process Therefore, Critical does not imply the common sense of the word, i.e criticizing, or being negative and "positive", of course, is in no way to be understood as the counterpart of critical research Nowadays, this term is also adopted more popularly in everyday language to mean the use of rational thinking to question arguments or prevailing ideas

Power is another concept which is central for CDA Max Weber (1947,

p.152) defining power as: “the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability rests” For CDA, language is not powerful on its own – it gains power by the use powerful people make of

it It explains why CDA researchers are interested in the way discourse (re)produces social domination, that is, the power abuse of one group over others, and how dominated groups may discursively resist such abuse This raises the question of how CDA researchers understand power and what moral standards allow them to differentiate between power use and abuse

Ideology is one of the most controversial and elusive academic

concepts According to Simpson (1993, p.161), ideology is “a mosaic of cultural assumptions, political beliefs and institutional practices” Since language is regarded as the physical form of ideology and language is thus an indispensable part of any attempt to study ideology Ideology, for CDA, is seen as an important aspect of establishing and maintaining unequal power relations Fairclough (2003, p.218) considers “Ideologies are representations

of aspects of the world which contribute to establishing and maintaining relations of power, domination and exploitation They may be enacted in ways of interaction (and therefore in genres) and inculcated in ways of being identities (and therefore styles) Analysis of texts…is an important aspect of ideological analysis and critique…”

Regarding the relationships of language, power and ideology,

Fairclough (1989, p.2) states that ideologies are closely linked to power because the nature of ideological assumptions embedded in particular conventions, and the nature of those conventions themselves, depend on the power relations which underlie the conventions Besides, ideologies are also

closely linked to language, because using language is the commonest form of social behavior where we rely most on „common sense‟ assumptions Whereas, language is entwined in social power in a number of ways: language indexes power, expresses power, is involved where there is contention over and a challenge to power Power does not derive from language, but language can be used to challenge power, to subvert it, to alter distributions of power in the short and long term

1.1.6 Principles of CDA

CDA‟s emergence was not long ago, yet it has received a lot of attention and favors from linguists since then Many researchers find themselves interested in conducting CDA Fairlough and Wodak (1997, pp.271-80) summarize the main principles of CDA, acting as a guiding star for those who expect to do CDA researches The main principles are as follows:

 CDA addresses social problems

 Power relations are discursive

 Discourse constitutes society and culture

 Discourse does ideological work

 Discourse is historical

 The link between text and society is mediated

 Discourse analysis is interpretative and explanatory

 Discourse is a form of social action

Of eight main principles above, the first principle that CDA addresses social problems such as inequalities of gender, race, class, religion is the most important and distinctive of CDA Any CDA research must highlight this principle

1.1.7 Main approaches to CDA

Socio-cognitive Approach: Teun Van Dijk

Teun Van Dijk is the leading figure in socio-cognitive approach to CDA This approach by Van Dijk is based on the assumptions that

“cognition” mediates between “society” and “discourse” Van Dijk supposes there is no direct relationship between social structures and discourse structures and almost always they are connected to each other through personal and social cognition This cognition is the lost segment of many critical linguistic studies and CDA; therefore he offers the triangle of society: cognitive and society and discourse Van Dijk‟s works mainly focus on the issues of power, ideology and knowledge

Discourse-Historical Approach: Ruth Wodak

This approach was developed by Ruth Wodak and other scholars in Vienna working in the traditions of Bernsteinian sociolinguistics and the Frankfurt School This approach attempts to integrate systematically all available background information in the analysis and interpretation of the many layers of a written or spoken text, specifically taking into account four layers of context (Wodak, 2001) Wodak (2001, pp.69-70) has put forward some main features for the discourse-historical approach to CDA as follows:

- The approach is interdisciplinary

- The approach is problem-oriented, rather than focused on specific linguistic items

- The approach is abductive: a constant movement back and forth between theory and empirical data is necessary

The primary issues in her CDA research mainly focused on sexism and

national identity Her CDA works were appreciated such as Gender and

Discourse (1997), The Discursive Construction of National Identity (1999), Discourse and Discrimination (2001)

Dialectical-Relational Approach: Norman Fairclough

Fairclough is one of the greatest CDA founders Fairclough develops a dialectical theory of discourse and a trans-disciplinary approach to social change His works focus upon social conflicts and try to detect their linguistic manifestations in discourses, in particular elements of dominance, difference and resistance In his approach, every social practice has a semiotic element Productive activity, the means of production, social relations, social identities, cultural values, consciousness and semiosis are dialectically related elements

of social practice He understands CDA as the analysis of the dialectical relationships between semiosis (including language) and other elements of social practices His approach draws upon a particular linguistic theory – Systemic Functional Linguistics (Halliday, 1985) – which analyses language

as shaped (even in its grammar) by the social functions it has come to serve

1.1.8 Fairclough’s analytical framework_an important background of CDA

development of the analytical framework for studying discourse Up to now,

many researchers have considered this framework as a useful tool to do CDA studies In fact, Fairclough gives

his opinion on the actual nature of

discourse and text analysis through

the three-dimensional framework in

Figure 1 below:

(Source: Locke, 2004, p 42)

As shown in Figure 1,

Fairclough‟s analytical framework

includes three dimensions of discourse: the text, the discourse practice, and the socio-cultural practice Corresponding to these three dimensions of

discourse Fairclough identifies three dimensions, or stages, of CDA:

• Description is the stage which is concerned with formal properties of the

text In this stage, the analysis of the language structures produced is exercised For the CDA practitioner‟s easy application of the framework above to analysis, Fairclough suggests ten main questions (and some sub-questions) in the stage of description Of ten questions, the following eight questions about vocabulary and grammar are really useful and necessary in the scope of my CDA research:

A Vocabulary

1 What experiential values do words have?

What classification schemes are drawn upon?

Are there words which are ideologically contested?

Is there rewording or overwording?

What ideologically significant meaning relations (synonymy, hyponymy,

antonymy) are there between words?

2 What relational values do words have?

Are there euphemistic expressions?

Are there markedly formal or informal words?

3 What expressive values do words have?

4 What metaphors are used?

B Grammar

5 What experiential values do grammatical features have?

What types of process and participants predominate?

Is agency unclear?

Are processes what they seem?

Are normalizations used?

Are sentences active or passive?

Are sentences positive or negative?

6 What relational values do grammatical features have?

What modes (declarative, grammatical question, imperative) are used?

Are there important features of relational modality?

Are the pronouns we and you used and if so, how?

7 What expressive values do grammatical features have?

Are there important features of expressive modality?

8 How are (simple) sentences linked together?

What logical connectors are used?

Are complex sentences characterized by coordination or/ subordination?

What means are used for referring inside and outside the text?

• Interpretation is concerned with the relationship between text and

interaction - with seeing the text as the product of a process of production, and as a resource in the process of interpretation

• Explanation is concerned with the relationship between interaction and

social context - with the social determination of the processes of production and interpretation, and their social effects Naturally, the analysis in this stage includes the exploration of the ways in which discourses operate in various domains of society

In short, according to Fairclough‟s analytical framework, CDA

researchers concentrate on not just analysing texts, nor just analysing processes of production and interpretation, but analysing the relationship between texts, processes, and their social conditions, both the immediate conditions of the situational context and the more remote conditions of institutional and social structures

1.1.9 Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and CDA in connection

Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), which is developed mainly by M.A.K Halliday, is an approach to language that explores how language is used in social contexts to achieve particular goals Because it is concerned with language use, SFL places higher importance on language function (what

it is used for) than on language structure (how it is composed) It is apparent that the way SFL views language is closely appropriate to CDA It is the reason why SFL, especially Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG), is usually

in favour with CDA practitioners and SFG is considered the main foundation

of text analysis in critical discourse studies For instance, on the basis of SFG, Fairclough sets up ten questions in the stage of description as mentioned above and CDA practitioners have found them useful for their research so far

1.2 Review of literature

There have been a lot of the researches on sexism and nationalism in football in the world However, the CDA researches on these issues are not

really plentiful In term of sexism, the CDA research “Football, it‟s a man‟s

game: Insult and gendered discourse in The Gender Bowl” by Jacqueline

McDowell and Spencer Schaffner concentrates on the analysis of gender

discourses in the Gender Bowl, a reality TV program featuring the football In term of nationalism, the CDA research “Scoring a hat trick: Nation, football,

and critical discourse analysis” by Mariza Georgalou referred to the analysis

of the Greek commentaries on Greece team‟s performances in Euro 2004 Although these are really the interesting and useful researches, the restricted source of data and the lack of contrast among the different languages are partly considered as their limitations Therefore, my CDA research tries to overcome these limitations for a more comprehensive one

CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY

This chapter aims at firstly outlining the basic steps in the research process such as the approach, method, questions as well as data collection, and then describing the method of analysis in detail through the way how the analytical framework are applied for data analysis

2.1 Research approach

In order to highlight the relationship between the language in use and the formation of social inequalities in the press, particularly soccer commentaries, the approach of CDA is seen as a suitable option

2.2 Research method

My research is carried out on the basis of analyzing football commentaries in English and Vietnamese newspapers Therefore, a contrastive analysis to find out the differences in showing sportswriters‟ emotions in terms of social inequality in the two languages is necessary and it

makes the research more interesting

2.3 Research questions

On the basis of the two objectives mentioned in the Introduction, two

research questions of the study are raised as follows:

- How are social inequalities in term of sexism and nationalism produced in English and Vietnamese football commentaries?

In order to answer this question, the research would investigate the words, phrases and clauses used to legitimize these social inequalities

- How are readers affected by these commentaries?

For this question, the research would show readers‟ responses to these commentaries It is the best way to measure positive or negative effects on readers

Of course, all of my research is structured around these questions to

find out the reasonable answers at last

2.4 Data collection

The data for the analysis in my research are the articles during the

period of 2001-2014 collected from some English e-newspapers such as The

BBC Sports, The Channel 4 News, The Daily Record, The Daily Mail, The Huffington Post, The Guardian, The Bleacher Report and some Vietnamese e-

newspapers such as Bóng đa ́ , Thể thao & văn hóa , VnExpress, Vietnamnet

These e-newspapers are chosen because they are popular and reliable sources

of information as well as they have great effects on reader‟s feeling and thought, which is considered the important factor to infect readers with the two social inequalities, namely sexism and nationalism In term of sexism, the concerned demonstrations of emotion are underestimation and insult to women as well as overestimation and worship to men In term of nationalism, the demonstrations of emotion targeted are happiness after national team‟s win and sadness after national team‟s loss Since my research focuses on only verbal expressions showing emotions in commentaries, the sentences of

showing sportswriter‟s emotions are selected and highlighted for the analysis

2.5 Method of data analysis

Qualitative method is chosen for the data analysis After gathered, the sources of information are processed in the analytical framework of the research

2.5.1 Analytical framework

In my research, the analysis is implemented on the basis of Fairclough‟s three-dimensional framework for studying discourse as stated in Chapter 1 It means the data analysis in term of sexism and nationalism

follows three-stage process: Description, interpretation and explanation In

the stage of description, I would like to particularly emphasize the grammatical features used in each sentence of showing sportswriter‟s emotions to legitimize the social inequalities above In the stage of interpretation, I would like to suggest how verbal expressions showing sportswriter‟s emotions should be interpreted in the specific context of the whole article and which of social inequality they display explicitly or implicitly In the stage of explanation, I would like to mention to socio-cultural conditions such as situational, institutional affecting the way that sportswriters show their emotions as well as what effects those commentaries have on readers‟ mind

2.5.2 Analytical units

As mentioned above, the stage of description in my research plays a very important role in the correct interpretation of the text Therefore, in this stage, in order to clarify the grammatical features used, Systemic Functional Grammar at the level of word and clause by Halliday is chosen for the analysis Specifically, words and kinds of clause such as exclamation, imperative, rhetorical question, clause with modal particle in the sentences of showing sportswriter‟s emotions are core units for the analysis Besides, eight useful questions about vocabulary and grammar suggested by Fairclough are also considered as the facilitators of the analysis

CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS

In this chapter, the data collected from the newspapers presented in chapter 2 will be analyzed to highlight the presence of the two social equalities namely sexism and nationalism in verbal expressions showing sportswriter‟s emotions

3.1 SEXISM

In English football commentaries, sportswriters usually direct negative demonstrations of emotion to women and positive demonstrations to men These negative demonstrations can be the underestimation or the insult to women‟s football, female players, referees and fans; meanwhile, men‟s football and male peers receive the sportswriters‟ favour such as overestimation or the worship which is hardly granted to even great women

Unlike the English football commentaries, the Vietnamese ones do not show sexism at all The fair estimation is always given to both women and men Actually, this is surprising because it has become common knowledge that social prejudices to women in Vietnam are much more serious than those

in Western countries

3.1.1 Underestimation and overestimation

3.1.1.1 Underestimation

In English football commentaries, the underestimation to women can

be exposed through words or phrases which have never been used for men‟s football such as in the following example:

“It’s worth examining just why the SFA (Scottish Football Association) and their partners spend £1.2 million each year to bankroll a ladies’ version

of a game played in men’s shorts.”

On February 26, 2013, Gordon Parks, a famous sportswriter of the Daily Record and Sunday Mail, published an article entitled “Spending £1.2m