JPNM : Jurnal Pustaka Nusantara Multidisiplin
Vol. 4 No. 3 (2026): July : Jurnal Pustaka Nusantara Multidisiplin (ACCEPTED)

Register Used by Basketball Commentators in National Basketball Association : a Comparative Study

Muhammad Haris Zidan (Universitas Negeri Surabaya)
Lina Purwaning Hartanti (Universitas Negeri Surabaya)



Article Info

Publish Date
28 Jul 2026

Abstract

Sports commentary is a form of spontaneous discourse in which commentators narrate game events while evaluating and interpreting actions in real time. Despite the growing interest in sports discourse, studies on the stylistic register of National Basketball Association (NBA) commentary remain limited. This study aims to identify the types of stylistic registers used by Kevin Harlan and Mike Breen and to analyze their communicative functions in NBA live broadcasts. This research employed a descriptive qualitative design with a comparative approach. The data consisted of 30 utterances (15 from each commentator) collected from authentic NBA broadcast clips uploaded on the 23firey YouTube channel. The data were analyzed using Martin Joos' (1962) Stylistic Register Theory and Judy Delin's (2000) communicative functions framework, following the interactive analysis model of Miles, Huberman, and SaldaƱa (2018). The findings reveal three stylistic registers: Frozen, Formal, and Casual. Casual Register was dominant in Kevin Harlan's commentary, while Formal Register predominated in Mike Breen's. Frozen Register appeared only in Mike Breen's signature expression, Bang!. The communicative functions identified were Narrating, Evaluating, Elaborating, and Summarizing. Overall, the study demonstrates that stylistic register variation reflects both the communicative demands of live NBA broadcasting and the commentators' individual broadcasting styles.

Copyrights © 2026






Journal Info

Abbrev

jpnm

Publisher

Subject

Religion Humanities Economics, Econometrics & Finance Education Social Sciences

Description

JPNM: Jurnal Pustaka Nusantara Multidisiplin is an open access journal, and a peer-reviewed journal. Our main goal is to disseminate current and original articles from academics, researchers and practitioners in the fields of Humanities and social sciences, Contemporary political science, Education ...