Sunday 8 December 2013

A Tale of Two Articles- Language Analysis!

Note: This piece has been uploaded for a bit of fun! I did it as my English homework- it isn't an actual article, it is merely a comparison of my previous piece on the Norwich game and an article on the same game from the official Norwich website.
See the two articles here: http://www.canaries.co.uk/fixtures-results/match-report/index.aspx?MatchId=3661274&tcmuri=974294

http://www.liverpoolfcfanscorner.com/1/post/2013/12/suarez-crushes-norwich-with-four-goals-post-match-thoughts.html

The first text is an article written about Liverpool vs Norwich, from the perspective of a Liverpool fan. The other is a match report on the same game that was published on the official Norwich City website.

Though both texts are about the same event, the tones created by the respective authors are very different. On the Norwich website, phrases such as ‘on the wrong end’ are used, which imply that Norwich were not particularly at fault, and they were simply unlucky. In contrast, the article on LFC Fans Corner focuses mostly on the good play of Liverpool rather than the bad luck of Norwich. Emotive words such as ‘spectacular’ and ‘phenomenal’ are used to express the level of play that Liverpool were attaining.

Another technique used in the article on LFC Fans Corner is alliteration. Phillippe Coutinho is described as ‘creating chances’ and ‘dribbling round defenders’; the flowing nature of the language mirrors the fluid play that Liverpool were producing. Alliteration is also used in the article from the Norwich site, but to create a different effect. It describes Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers as ‘applauding in admiration’-in this instance, the use of alliteration alludes to the repetitive nature of the action. It suggests that applause were drawn a lot from Rodgers due to the extremely good performance of his team; this in turn makes Norwich look better as it further emphasises their helplessness in preventing the landslide victory.


Finally, the Norwich article uses litotes to try and portray Liverpool’s victory as somewhat fortuitous, again to show Norwich City as unlucky rather than merely outplayed. It describes the move that led to the second Liverpool goal as ‘nothing special’, suggesting Liverpool were lucky to get a goal from it. The piece on LFC Fans Corner, on the other hand, uses hyperbole to make Liverpool seem even better than they actually were. When describing the same goal, the author of this article said ‘it required a large amount of skill’. This serves to dispel any nagging thoughts the reader might be having that the goal was lucky. 

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