Key words used by the football manager José Mourinho in provoking the rivals

ABSTRACT

This study is focused on analyzing the sentential meanings of the key words used by the football manager José Mourinho in provoking the rivals. The cause why this person is chosen as the object is about the controversies of his model in managing his clubs. Mourinho—well-known as The Special One—frequently provokes his competitors. It emerges before, in, and habitually after the games. In addition, how the features of sentential meanings used also becomes another objective of this study.

A descriptive qualitative method is used due to the following reason. It focuses on the description and the explanation of the phenomenon being studied, namely, the key words used by José Mourinho in provoking the rivals. The researcher becomes the primary instrument in collecting and analyzing the data. The data itself were collected from quotations of Mourinho press conferences. It was obtained from online sources that are BBC, Daily Mail, ESPN Soccernet, and so forth. It begins from a moment when the manager firstly state as The Special One until the end of season 2008/2009. Furthermore, the data were analyzed upon Edward de Bono’s theory of provocation. It is supported by Stephen Lucas’ methods of persuasion (refers to Aristotle’s three proofs of persuasive appeal).

The results of the study show that Mourinho typically used synthetic sentences, deixis, presuppositions, idioms, and entailments in sequence to provoke the rivals. These features of meanings are used as the process of provoking others, warning, teasing, showing respectability, and comparing himself with others. They are also used to deny and sometimes clarify the statements about him.

Those elements are also used to disparage others. While the rhetorical questions and analogical reasoning are used to give evidence. The shapes of testimony then and emotional languages are used to react against the results of the games. Furthermore, The Special One insults and underestimates others through these features. He also uses it to challenge the opponent teams.

It is suggested then that it is better when we take the advantages of using the art of language in our communication. Other than it can be used by Mourinho to provoke his rivals, rhetoric can be used to advise others as what Allah says in an- Nisa: 63. Lucas (2004:452) states, if we want listeners to do something as a result of our speech, we will probably need to appeal to their hearts as well as to their heads. The same opinion is what is conveyed by Francis (1958:564) that a teacher or lecturer, for instance, who has capability in using rhetoric, will be more effective in communicating and conveying messages to his students.