From Zeroo to Heroo: Word Play and Wayne Rooney in the British Press

CHOVANEC, Jan. From Zeroo to Heroo: Word Play and Wayne Rooney in the British Press. In Slovak Studies in English I. The Proceedings of the conference organized on the occcasion of the 80th anniversary of the opening of British and American Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Bratislava. Bratislava: Comenius university. p. 85-99. ISBN 80-89197-27-2. 2005.

Basic information

• Original name: From Zeroo to Heroo: Word Play and Wayne Rooney in the British Press
• Name in Czech: Od nuly po hrdinu: slovni hra a Wayne Rooney v britskem tisku
• Authors: CHOVANEC, Jan (203 Czech Republic, guarantor).
• Edition: Bratislava, Slovak Studies in English I. The Proceedings of the conference organized on the occcasion of the 80th anniversary of the opening of British and American Studies at the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University, Bratislava, p. 85-99, 15 pp. 2005.
• Publisher: Comenius university

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Proceedings paper
• Field of Study: 60200 6.2 Languages and Literature
• Country of publisher: Slovakia
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14210/05:00030828
• Organization unit: Faculty of Arts
• ISBN: 80-89197-27-2
• Keywords (in Czech): slovní hříčky; aluze; novinové titulky; sémiotické hříčky; analýza diskurzu; vizuální komunikace; multimodalita; Wayne Rooney
• Keywords in English: word play; Roo-morpheme; punning; allusion; headlines; semiotic play; media language; discourse analysis; visual communication in media; multimodality; Wayne Rooney
• Tags: allusion, Discourse Analysis, headlines, media language, punning, Roo-morpheme, semiotic play, visual communication in media, word play
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

One of the topics which received much attention in the British media in 2004 was the appearance of a new football star at the Euro 2004 Championship in Portugal: Wayne Rooney. As the 18-year-old player was catapulted, to paraphrase one of the headlines, from "zero" to "hero" almost overnight, the media had to find ways of turning the little known teenager into a household name. One of the strategies adopted by the popular press was to appropriate Rooney by using nicknames and by transforming many common nouns to include references to him, the latter achieved by using the affix Roo to form countless blends. In this way, he turned "heroo" from a "zeroo". This article documents some of the forms of reference which were used in the British popular press (mainly the Sun and the Daily Mirror newspapers) in connection with Wayne Rooney. Such forms of reference are placed within the framework of word-play: a creative manipulation of linguistic forms.

Abstract (in Czech)

Jedno z témat, kterému byla v roce 2004 v britských médiích věnována značná pozornost, bylo objevení nové fotbalové hvězdy na fotbalovém Mistrovství Evropy Euro 2004 v Portugalsku - Wayna Rooneyho. Tento osmnáctiletý hráč se z "nuly" díky svým výkonům stal takřka přes noc národním "hrdinou". Média (většinou bulvární) začala na Rooneyho odkazovat s využitím jeho přezdívek a pomocí transformace nejrůznějších obecných výrazů, v nichž došlo ke změnám morfologicko-fonologického rázu a následému využívání morfému "roo". Tento článek dokumentuje postupný vývoj forem označování Rooneyho a odkazování k němu, a to na základě materiálu z britského bulvárního tisku (hlavně deníků the Sun a the Daily Mirror). Identifikované a klasifikované jazykové formy jsou interpretovány s ohledem na slovní hříčky, tj. tvořivou manipulaci jazykových forem.