In this study, I am going to analyse two texts that share the same subject, but differ in languages. These texts are from sports discourse which is generally written in an informative style. Texts in sports discourse may be written for several purposes. They may inform people of an ongoing match, give a technical evaluation of the match, introduce a player or a team. What we are going to deal with here is the last part, that is, a sports discourse introducing some of the national teams that have qualified for World Cup 2002.
Firstly, it’s important to analyse the nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs that are used to maintain continuity and relevance throughout the text. They also reflect the special way of choosing words, building up sentences, which is specific to each language. We can list them starting with the nouns:
goalkeeper rankings formation coach side weapon cap spot
midfield(er) achievement forward centre scorer striker 3-5-2 4-4-2
appearance quarter-finals flat back four draw round defeat form star
score-sheet qualifier appointment squad accomplishment
USA is called “red, white and blue” and “outsiders” in the text. It’s a paraphrase.
Also there is a common usage; “defending champion”.
forvet gözde lider yıldız performans ev sahibi organizasyon tribün
isim kadro coşku başarı milli takım spor arenası futbolsever şölen
seyirci destek puan grup defans orta alan finaller kale
France is called “horozlar”, Holland is called “portakallar”, Sweden is called “vikingler”, Italy is called “gök-mavililer”. It’s a paraphrase, as well.
There are also common usages; “tarihi sonuç”, “net skor”, “altın sayfa”
As the next step, we can list the adjectives:
reliable offensive experienced recognisable successful
iddialı önemli istikrarsız etkili
Then the adverbs are listed:
well really famously
And finally the verbs are listed:
to defeat to net to score to record to coach to join
to dominate
There are some interesting usages; “to get past”, “to bridge the gap between............”, “to concede a goal”, “to prove inspirational”, “to earn oneself a move to.............”, “to mould talent”, “to lead someone to the top”, “to craft a squad”, “to prove international in someone”.
Especially in Turkish sports discourse, there are a lot of idiomatic expressions:
dikkat çekmek biletini almak saf dışı bırakmak göz doldurmak bileti cebine atmak bileti getirmek geri sayımın başlaması sinyalini vermek yerini ayırtmak kanıtlamak finallere taşımak
hasret kalmak final kapısını açmak çökertmek göze çarpmak
gönülde taht kurmak
Considering this analysis we can say that in Turkish sports discourse, different kinds of verbs are used more often than nouns or adjectives. Also it seems to me that the majority of these verbs are related with exaggerated feelings. In English sports discourse, however, an almost equal number of nouns and verbs are observed. Unlike Turkish verbs, they express ideas more objectively.
When we look at the sentence structures, English sentences seem longer and more complex because in English, one has the opportunity to extend the sentence by adding new structures.
This sentence can be a good example:
This is not the case in Turkish, so generally short sentences are preferred. If we encounter a very long sentence like this in Turkish in which the additional information must be given at the beginning because of the word order, we will probably have difficulty remembering that information.
Linking words are generally used. These are some examples:
after along with thanks to
In both texts, we can see third person narration. Tense use depends on the information given. If the information is about a finished event, past tense is used, and if it is a prediction about the possible situation of the team in the future, future tense is used. We can also see present simple and present perfect tenses throughout the texts. Unlike English, present continuous tense is sometimes used in Turkish.
Textual Elements
The text producer intends to give information. While doing so, he usually gives facts, that is, past achivements of the teams, how they qualified for the finals, who is their coach at the moment, who are their well known players, what are their aims in World Cup 2002. He tells them very clearly, so unless a person is totally indifferent to this subject, we can say this is second order informativity. In this case, the person will understand what the text is about and the intention of the text producer will be achieved.
However, situationality plays a significant role here. First of all, it’s important to know where these texts are taken from. These texts are taken from a sport magazine and from a web sports page. Therefore, we can say that the topic given is related to where it’s written. Another important factor is the time. These texts are about the teams to play in World Cup 2002. If these texts were read in 2003 for example, people wouldn’t pay as much attention as they are now. Also not everyone will equally be interested in these texts. For example in the United States of America, basketball is the most popular sport for most of the people. The tendency to play and watch football has been increasing only for a decade or so. Thus, the meaning of a Football World Cup will depend on the people’s situation.
When we analyse the texts from intertextuality’s point of view, we can see that our knowledge of other texts and the information given here is related to each other. Since this is a sports discourse, there are a lot of words about sports. If we didn’t know those words with the help of our previous knowledge gained by previous texts, we wouldn’t be able to comprehend these texts. For example, we know what a goalkeeper, or what a forward means, and this helps us to understand the new information more easily.
Conclusion
In sports discourse there are both similarities and differences between Turkish and English texts. We can list them as follows:
· Both Turkish and English texts are informative and intend to give information about some teams that will play in World Cup 2002.
· More idiomatic verbs are used in Turkish sports discourse.
· Sentences in English discourse are longer and more complex because of the word order.
· Both texts are written in third person style.
· They are written objectively just to give facts, except a few own ideas from the text producer. Some turkish verbs include exaggeration.
· Adverbs are used more frequently in English text.
· In both texts, the information given leads the reader to the intended comprehension level.
· Both texts use paraphrases for the teams.
Home / ELT Materials / Coursebook Reports / Learn Turkish / Comics / ELT Conferences / Private Lessons / Online Translation / Links