The transcript extracted from ABC TV’s film review show ‘At The Movies’ is relatively formal showing minimal features of informality. The formal register upheld by the two TV hosts, Margaret (M) and David (D) is in spoken mode. In this episode, the interlocutors review the film ‘127 Hours (2011)’ with the purpose of informing and entertaining the audience on the production and mise-en-scene quality. Moreover, M and D’s discourse acts as a marketing scheme promoting the film ‘127 Hours’. The review is aided through the manipulation of language, relating to the context of TV.

The specialised lexis employed by M and D achieves the purpose of reviewing a movie. The TV hosts use lexemes pertaining to the semantic field of films such as “filmmakers” (L25), “cinematographers”(L22), “MA15+”(L73) and “leading role” (L17). This asserts their expertise in the film industry. In doing so, the validation of their expertise encourages the audience to view M and D as being professional and authoritative. This establishes trust between conversing participants and the audience further easing the function of producing credible film review. Additionally it is evident that the mentions of prominent figures and renowned actors for example “Aron Ralston” (L2), “James Franco” (L3), “Danny Boyle”(L6) and cinematographers “Anthony Mantle and Enrique Chediak” (L22) engages the viewing audience as it contributes to the credibility of a thorough film review, thus achieving the text’s purpose.

Prosodic features incorporated by M and D throughout the text facilitates the purpose and further enhances the text’s cohesion. M and D’s purpose of generating a reliable yet promotional review is aided by the introductory phrase “well in May”(L1) supported by audible inhalation and the fast paced utterance “<A James Franco A>”(L3) which increases the importance and excitement of the film, supporting the function of entertaining a TV audience. In addition, the employment of emphatic stress “(H) the ^pain and ^frustration of his situation.”(L10) and rising pitch evident in “^walk/”(L4) and “film/”(L64) allows the reader to feel the intensity and on-going anticipation the movie elicits hence supporting the purpose of promoting the movie. This rising pitch also found in line 61 “… express/” admits the speaker, in this case M, to hold the floor and indicate that there is more information to be asserted. Rising pitch aids the text’s function by indicating that the film is manifested through a multitude of plots.

The spontaneous nature of an unscripted speech brings about an influx of discourse particles and conversational strategies. These features act as cohesive ties, which consequently support the text’s purpose as an appeal of this show is the conversational tone. The discourse particles such as “it’s like – acting as a quotative”(L35) or “you know”(L32, 36 and 46) facilitate the flow and ebb of the dialogue by continuously having something to say as an awkward silence on TV is unacceptable. Subsequently, the interlocutors use minimal responses as listening