English Grammar: a resource Book for Students
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English Grammar- A Resource Book for Students
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Activity C12.9
✪ Activity C12.10 ✪ Activity C12.11 ✪ Activity C12.12 ✪ Activity C12.13 ✪ A N A LY S I N G S P O K E N T E X T S 185 The text seems to run on more than it would if it was a written description, especially with the double use of and in the second sentence. Kind of also seems inappropriate or unnecessary. In other words, it still sounds like speech. Activity C12.4: There are several uses of and to link clauses; this is the only conjunc tion used. There are two relative pronouns: that on line 3 and which on line 10. With the aid of these relative clauses and other postmodification there are some complex noun phrases, for example: these horrible uniforms – that were – in our school colours of course – red white and blue – made of 120 per cent polyester our little – kind of – sequence of movements Activity C12.5: There is none. Activity C12.6: The only place where there is a major interruption is on lines 15–17, from I don’t know to school activities where the speaker is lost for a word or phrase and fills in with appeals to the listener (what do you call it?) and hesitations (kind of you know). The result is that the subject of came on line 17 is some women from the . . . on line 14. There are other minor ‘insertions’, for example at the 4th of July parade of course on line 2. Activity C12.7: The speaker appears very careful. This is borne out by the large number of hesitations, where she is planning what to say, and by the lack of any grammatical ‘errors’ or restarts. This suggests that the description should be considered quite formal, even though it is spoken and unplanned. The absence of ellipsis supports this view. Activity C12.8: Both lines have contextual ellipsis. In full the first one would be something like Did you have a lecture earlier? and the second would be Yeh – it had a fire alarm in it. Activity C12.9: The amount of ‘grammar’ is rather limited; for example, several utter ances, e.g. 2, 3 and 9, consist only of phrases. Overall it would be impossible to make this text look like writing; only utterances 1, 4 and 5 could be said to be ‘complete’ sentences. Activity C12.10: a) The only obvious link is but in utterance 6, showing an inconsistency between it and utterance 5. Otherwise the utterances have little obvious connection, though utterance 9 is clearly a continuation of 7. This is not to say that the conversation 186 E X P L O R AT I O N does not hold together; however, much has to be inferred from the context (this kind of ‘connection’ is sometimes called ‘coherence’). b) Adding for example What about . . . ? would show that they are making alterna tive suggestions. Activity C12.11: Yeh instead of yes, as well as gotta and wanna (instead of got to and want to). Activity C12.12: It is generic you, referring to people in general (though with an appeal in particular to the listeners); see B2. Activity C12.13: There are a number of differences between A and B2: B2 has a number of short utterances; this is a reflection of the nature of a multi ❏ sided conversation, where participants may only have a moment to make their contribution (note also the overlapping); the fact that the conversation is rather ‘competitive’ may be to do with the allmale cast. A could be rendered using full punctuation and complete grammatical sentences ❏ (though it would still sound like speech); this would not be possible for B2. in A links are made explicit, although in a simple way (e.g. via the use of ❏ and); in B2 they have to be guessed. These differences reflect the difference in the situations: in A someone is trying quite carefully to make a coherent narrative, while in B2 the participants are performing spontaneously and casually as they know each other well; other conversations, e.g. between strangers, might not sound so informal. From this we can see how much difference there is within spoken language. Section D EXTENSION |
