The article focuses on a relatively new genre of computermediated communication, online sports reporting (also known as live text commentary or minute- by-minute match report). This is a hybrid genre which combines a chronologically structured narrative (capturing the events of the sporting match minutebyminute) and the commentator’s evaluative formulations (evaluations which are often expressive and subjective, funny and humorous statements) as well as his implicit contact with the audience (fictitious dialogue). It thus fulfills both the informative function (providing factual information) and the entertainment one (as typical infotainment). The introductory characterization of the genre is based on the work of J. Chovanec, but unlike in his work, it focuses on Czech live text commentary (mainly from soccer, hockey and tennis matches) and on the terms, nonstandard professional vocabulary units and slang expressions in the commentators’ speech. Significant attention has been devoted to these levels of the lexicon in Czech and Slovak linguistics. However, the genre in question once again confirms how difficult it is to distinguish them. For example, the combination of individual expressions (or entire language levels) with standard, “colloquial” or nonstandard Czech appears to be very problematic in this respect.
