1. This paper contains NINE (9) questions and comprises SIX (6) printed pages. Check that your paper is complete.
2. There are THREE SECTIONS (A, B and C) in this question paper.
3. Answer FOUR (4) questions: choose at least ONE (1) question from EACH SECTION.
4. Each question is worth 25 marks. Try to spend roughly the same amount of time for each question, about 45 minutes.

(a) Rewrite the first three ages into part of a newspaper article (eg The Straits Times) as part of an introduction to a series of articles to English as an international language. You may fill in (or make up!) as many details as are necessary. This should be no longer than one page.

(b) Discuss how the language of the original has been transformed for your article (in terms of grammatical structure, lexis, etc.), and suggest why these changes are necessary.
 
 

The seven ages of English  1 Pre-English period (– c. AD 450)  Local languages in Britain are Celtic. After the Roman invasion c. 55 BC Latin becomes the dominant language of culture and government. Many communities in Britain are bilingual Celtic-Latin.  2 Early Old English (450–c. 850)  Anglo-Saxon invasion c. AD 449 when Romans leave. Settlers bring a variety of Germanic dialects from mainland Europe. First English literature appears c. AD 700. English borrows many words from Latin via the church.  3 Later Old English (c. 850–1100)  Extensive invasion and settlement from Scandinavia. In the north of England dialects of English become strongly influenced by Scandinavian languages. In the south King Alfred arranges for many Latin texts to be translated.

3. The boxed passage below comes from E M Forster’s novel A Passage to India, set in British colonial times in India. It describes the dejected feelings of a major character in the novel, the Englishman, Fielding. Fielding has just been insulted and expelled from his very colonial British club for standing up, firmly but with quiet heroism, for his Indian friend Aziz, whom the rest of the members of the club are trying to persecute with fanatical racial zeal.

(a) Making use of the core-periphery distinction introduced in the lectures, discuss the ways in which the choices and combinations of words in the passage help the writer achieve exactly the effects he appears to be aiming at.

(b) To support your discussion, rewrite selected portions of the passage substituting core words with matching non-core words and vice versa, and show how such rewriting interferes with the achievement of the effects aimed at.
 
 

...he felt dubious and discontented suddenly, and wondered whether he was really and truly successful as a human being. After forty years’ experience, he had learnt to manage his life and make the best of it on advanced European lines, had developed his personality, explored his limitations, controlled his passions — and he had done it all without becoming either pedantic or worldly. A creditable achievement, but as the moment passed, he felt he ought to have been working at something else the whole time — he didn’t know at what, never would know, never could know, and that was why he felt sad.

4. Below is a transcript of a conversation between two close friends, Kathy and Carol, both in their 30s. They discuss the Christmas light-up in Regent Street and Oxford Street in London (the equivalent of Orchard Road in Singapore) after there was a bomb there. Look especially at Kathy’s turns.

(a) Rewrite Kathy’s speech into a more elegant style appropriate for, say, a short story. Begin it with the following sentence: ‘I have to say that the effect of the bomb was obvious when Jenny took her daughter Rebecca to London on Friday for a day trip.’

(b) Compare the original and your ‘elegant’ written version. Explain clearly how the language is different in terms of the lexis, grammar, and overall organisation. Explain why this is so.
 
 

Kathy: Jenny took - erm -- Rebecca - up to London one day last week took them up er - Regent Street and Oxford Street and she said although the lights are very nice - in every single one there’s at least a bulb - one bulb *missing*  Carol: *ooh yeah*  Kathy: and bulbs missing off - the shop fronts and  Carol: **yeah**  Kathy: **it’s as** though people thought oh sh ss  Carol: well - in that case don’t bother to do *it*  Kathy: *that’s right*  Carol: just have a couple of Christmas trees in each with **lights on them**  Kathy: **yeah** why not - there’s nothing more lovely than a Christmas tree with lights on  Carol: you know that would be *perfectly*  Kathy: *yeah*  Carol: adequate - **really**  Kathy: **yeah**  Carol: I mean in a way it seems like a wicked waste of resources just - to light up - you know strings of *lights [inaudible]*  Kathy: *having said that* - and I absolutely agree with that it is but when I was young it was the highlight of my Christmas  Carol: mm - yeah  Kathy: we my mum always took me up - to Regent Street and Oxford Street  Carol: oh I only ever once went I think  Kathy: oh we went regularly - you know virtually every year when I was little  Carol: mm  Kathy: and it was absolutely -  Carol: *that was your - thing [inaudible] yeah*  Kathy: *the thing - it was --* it was like having my surprise present cause I - as I got older obviously - sort of stopped

 
5. The boxed passage, which may be considered to be a fairly representative example of academic writing, is taken from the book Ecological Fantasies by Cy A Adler. In it, the author criticises environmentalists on the grounds that ‘the inescapable fact is that the well-being of industrial man has improved as his environment has deteriorated’. In the passage below, he criticises them specifically for their attack on the use of phosphate detergents, which they argue are harmful to the environment.

(a) Provide a brief rewritten version of the passage in which you set down its argument in everyday, colloquial English of the kind someone might use in casual conversation among friends when trying to get them to accept its viewpoint.

(b) Discuss the lexical, grammatical and other such linguistic differences between the two versions you now have of the passage, with a view to showing how academic writing typically works. Is it true to claim that the linguistic features of the original passage help as far as possible to present its viewpoint as a neutral and objective statement of the facts of the situation, while the features of your rewritten version would probably help to immediately reveal it as just another opinion?
 
 

Manufacturers do not produce phosphate detergents in order to benefit the environment, but increased fertilisation of infertile waters by phosphate nutrients has undoubtedly increased biological activity and fish in these waters. It is equally difficult to believe that manufacturers prefer phosphate detergents to soap simply because they can make a greater profit, as has been stated by many environmentalists. A large company geared to mass merchandising can sell almost any product, no matter how worthless or deleterious, at a good price to a lot of susceptible people; soaps, detergents, cornflakes, cigarettes, lipstick, automobiles; the product per se is unimportant. Thus it is simplistic to claim that manufacturers are purposely pushing anti-environmental rather than pro-environmental products purely because the former are more profitable than the latter.…one must closely examine the relative benefits and diseconomies of a product before calling for its elimination.

 

 
7. McCrum et al. describe English as ‘a crafty hybrid, made in war and peace’. Daniel Defoe called it ‘your Roman-Saxon-Danish-Norman English’.
    Why has it been described in such a manner? Focus your answer on any aspect of the development of English.

 
8. ‘There are strong reasons for discouraging Singapore English and its further development.’ What is your response to this claim? Provide good arguments and effective data in support of your position.
 

9. ‘Do we use English or does English use us?’ Do you think this is a valid question for ex-colonial countries to ask when they consider the role of English in the world and why (not)?
  

© 1997 Peter Tan, Thiru Kandiah