Commentary -- used in broadcasting, fashion shows, sports
events, military parades, state funerals, presentations etc.

Sports commentary
Two types     - "play-by-play"
        - "colour-adding" -- gives pre-event background, post-
event evaluation, and interpretation during the event.
Conversational style, monologue or dialogue.
Reporting of an ongoing activity ? use of present (simple)
tense.
Listener or viewer not specified, not present, no feedback from
the audience.

Highly formulaic style of presentation -- reduces the memory
load on the commentator
                        - helps to achieve fluency
(provides time to think or follow the action if there are some
difficulties)
Starting, scoring etc. formulae.
Silence impossible.
Fluent - keeping up with the pace of the activity.
Spontaneous speech in emotive moments, elsewhere little voiced
hesitation, false starts etc.

Prosody reflects the atmosphere and dramatic situations.
Variety of speeds of articulation -- both very fast and very
slow.
Monotone, loudly (horse-racing) x softly (snooker, chess).
Wide variations in pitch range (ball games).

Grammar:
- present tense
- omission of sentence elements
- inverted word order
- extra modifiers (+ relative clauses)
- frequent use of the passive (a play seen before it is
possible to identify the player: The shot is blocked ...by
Maldini).

Discourse:
- cyclical, recurring sequences of activities
- introduction or summary in each cycle