Grammatical Cohesion in Online Minute-By-Minute Football Commentary

Linguistic inquiry into football commentary has become prevalent in recent times. Despite the plethora of studies on football commentary, the cohesive elements within it remain unexplored. The present study, therefore, investigated the grammatical cohesive devices in Online Minute-By-Minute Football Commentary (OMBMFC). Three OMBMFCs from The Guardian news were collected, processed, and analysed. Drawing on Halliday and Hasan’s Cohesion Theory, the study found that all four types of grammatical cohesive devices (reference, substitution, ellipsis, and conjunctions) were employed in the OMBMFC. The most dominant grammatical cohesive devices were references followed by conjunctive devices and the least used were ellipsis and substitution. The study also found that these devices were employed to avoid repetition and to link sentences. It was recommended that an investigation of both grammatical and lexical cohesive devices in OMBMFCs be carried out to ascertain a holistic view of the role cohesion devices play in these commentaries. The study extends research in cohesion studies, particularly in football commentary. Keywords: Sports Commentary, Cohesion, Cohesive Devices, Online Minute-By-Minute Football Commentary