Commentator

In earlier days, commentators played a huge role before the arrival of television sets. They have to tell the people listening virtually everything what they were seeing and this is still the case with radio listeners. In tennis commentators have a different job to other sports commentators, as the commentator need not commentate the whole time. Most importantly the person who is commentating will not commentate when the point is being played. This is because in tennis, each shot taken by a player happens so fast that it is difficult for a person to speak on it. He will describe the point once the point is over and also between each game; this is different to other sports where the person has to commentate throughout the entire game with only short breaks in between. It is also common in the majority of the sports that sportsmen after their retirement take up the profession more usually because they want themselves to keep in touch with the sport and so they could also share their experiences and technical knowledge of the sport with the viewers.
Sporting commentators all have a distinctive style of speaking that is recognisable wherever you go, this is called sociolect. Sports commentators are well known for their exaggeration and use of phonology. For example Andy Gray says “Look at the prey on the little flick through...” For enthusiasts and follows of the sport, football fans will understand and recognise the jargon used by the commentators. The metaphor used; “Look at the prey...” is used to entice the listeners and keep them interested in the jargon only follows of the sport will know and understand. This also is shown from Gray later on when he says "...then try and transfer it across” this language is shaped and selected for the sport as “Transfer it across” wouldn’t normally be associated with a football.
In addition football comes with its own lexicon, like other sports it includes its own unique terminology. For example Gray comments “you don’t