“Iran will not go quietly!” The Identification of Promotional Metadiscursive Tokens in the Farsi and English Commentaries of the Match Between Argentina and Iran in the 2014 FIFA World Cup

The analysis of nearly 205 minutes of the English and Farsi commentaries of the 2014 FIFA World Cup match featuring Argentina and Iran focused on the identification of the promotional metadiscursive tokens employed by the reporters covering this match in their respective vernacular. The sportscast transcriptions were inspected to uncover the various tokens with promotional characteristics. A thorough data analysis presented seven comprehensive categories of promotional components, namely adjectives, adverbs, verbs, nouns, interjections, idioms, and honorifics. Adjectives and adverbs were the most common constituents implemented in both languages and they were divided into nine and five subcategories, respectively. Honorifics were only witnessed in the Persian sportscasts and were interpreted as cultural markers in the discourse. The research serves as proof that promotional metadiscursive constituents are a fundamental aspect of soccer sportscasts, and it can also be considered as a basis for inquiries in this unique discourse genre.