On the Contrastive Analysis of a Television Text Type

Abstract

Analysis of media-linguistic aspects by linguists is of great importance because the latest linguistic trends can be understood on the basis of this material. Based on the contrastive studies of the text type weather report on German and Georgian television, the following similarities and differences were highlighted: many media-linguistic aspects (sentence types, common verbs, mood, technical and local expressions, visual effects, etc.) look similar. With regard to the types of sentences, the following tendency has emerged: parataxes are the most common occurrence in TV weather reports. In second place are hypotaxes, followed by simple sentences and ellipses. German moderators tend mainly to use the oral style. This is shown by reductions, colloquial and regional expressions, breaking a sentence frame, demonstrative pronouns and modal particles. In addition, that could also indicate that they are less focused on the teleprompter. The weather report of the Georgian morning TV program "Guten Morgen, Georgia" (Rustavi 2) is broadcast live at various locations. Before the current temperature of the day is presented, the weather moderator chats casually with the studio moderators and their guests. The weather report is contextualized in this way. The weather report is almost always done with an introductory sentence. The weather data is read out by the moderator or by the respective guests. German moderators present both current temperatures and the weather forecast for the next few days. Regarding speaking speed, it can be emphasized that German moderators speak almost twice as fast as Georgian moderators. Both German and Georgian moderators are always in a good mood. The dress style of the morning presenters, in contrast to evening presenters, is mostly unofficial in both the German and Georgian weather reports. It must also be mentioned here that it is very important to deal with various types of text in both school and university foreign language lessons. Since listening to a weather report is a realistic everyday act, this type of text must find a worthy entry into foreign language lessons. It is advantageous to combine visual and linguistic aspects, because in this way both visual and hearing comprehension are trained.