EL1102, Tutorial No. 2,

EL1102 Studying English in Context

Week 4, Second Semester, 00/01

Tutorial No. 2: Variation in Grammar

1. Quick questions:

(a) What are determiners and when are they necessary?
(b) What do you understand by tense and aspect?
(c) What are hypotaxis and parataxis?
(d) What do you understand by the term dialect? Do linguists use the term differently?
(e) What does it mean when we say that linguistics adopts a descriptive approach? What is the contrastive term?

Note: There won’t be time for all 2 to 5. Please be selective.

2. Text A

(1) When the excitement dropped as the ball went out, a deep voice said fairly loudly in her ear, ‘Whoa. You come to see Cheng play but you’ve never been to the pool to see me swim.’ The boys around must have heard, but on the other side of the field a UP three-quarter had the ball and was running with two UP men close behind in line to take a pass. Siti knew the voice and read the tone. She turned away from the thrilling run to look at Andrew. His face was black with anger. She looked into his eyes and shook her head. No one noticed her. She put her hand out and put it on his chest for a second and turned back to the game.

(2) A roar went up. UP had got a touchdown.

(3) In her elation Siti shouted, ‘Well done, Cheng!’

(4) The guy on her right laughed. ‘Not Cheng, lah. David.’

(5) Someone quipped, ‘Only eyes for him, ah? Like that?’

(6) She laughed, ‘I must be blind.’

(7) ‘Love is blind, lah,’ from a voice near her.

(8) ‘Cheh! Don’t be like that. Friend-friend only.’

(9) Siti turned around to look at Andrew but saw only the back of him slinking away from the rugger field. She thought about his jealousy on the way home. (Rex Shelley, A River of Roses, p. 350)

This text is from a novel, published in 1998. Siti, Andrew and Cheng (Cheng Ho) are students in the fictional UP (Ulu Pandan Junior College). Here, the UP rugby team is playing against Bartley Secondary. The paragraphs have been numbered for easy reference.

(a) What marks the dialogue as Singaporean – is it the lexis or the grammar?
(b) What marks the dialogue as informal, rather than formal?

(d) Why do you think Shelley chose to write the way he did?

3. Text B

     He [Mahathir] added that ‘there will be some problems that will keep on bothering us, but that is not sufficient for us to have any confrontation’.
     Relations with Singapore were also ‘not quite as close as before’.
     The Straits of Tebrau ‘is still separating us – still the same width’, he quipped.

This is a text taken from a newspaper (The Straits Times, 16/11/98). There is a lot of language within inverted commas – we can take these as quotations from Mahathir.

(a) Is the use of the progressive aspect in the last line ‘normal’ in Singaporean/Malaysian English?

(b) If you were the journalist, and you used reported speech, how would you represent the last line?

(c) Is it significant that the Straits of Tebrau is used instead of the Johor(e) Straits or the Straits of Johor(e)?

(d) Do you think the language would be different if Mahathir had made a written comment?

4. Text C

Examine the advertisement on the left (original size about 9” × 12” or 23 × 30 cm). The text on the top left-hand corner reads:

Because he’s been fishing for sticklebacks.

Because he makes choccy cornflake cakes.

Because he gets piggy backs from the dog.

Because he can’t wait to hold his little sister.

Because you care.

And the text at the bottom reads:

Antibacterial Moisturising Handwash, Hand Lotion and Hand Gel. Cussons Carex

(a) The advert does not seem to use complete sentences. Show where this occurs.

(b) How does the illustration work together with the text? Are both necessary?

5. Text D

Examine the following transcribed oral narrative. (The speaker is a young British woman. A hyphen means a short pause.)

well Gabriel - who’s a little on the impulsive side - met this bloke when she was sixteen - moved in with him the next day but that’s beside the point - she met this bloke on Saturday night - he said ooh come out to the pub like on Sunday lunchtime - so she went out - started drinking with this sort of rugger-bugger type - so eight pints later she was in the curry house like this - and she funnily enough she slumped over her chicken tikka or whatever - and erm what they did all these ten blokes hid round the corner like in the kitchen of the curry house and they got the manager to come and wake her up and say all your mates have gone - you’ve got a hundred quid bill - you’ve got to pay - she’d only met this bloke the night before - and she was going like - oh my God I haven’t got anything here - take my jewellery - take my watch - I’ll - I’ll come back with the money as soon as I’ve been to the bank later - he was going no no I’m not going to let you leave the premises - I’m going to call the police - all this sort of stuff - anyway they waited till she was on the point of hysterics and they all came out going ha ha what a good joke - like this - it’s not a very nice story is it - she’s still with him - that’s four years later - and that’s his bloody nicest feature - that’s the nicest story she can tell about him.

(a) Does the narrative use parataxis or hypotaxis or both? Is one used more than the other? Why?

(b) Try writing the story using a different style (play around with the notion of parataxis and hypotaxis) and discuss the changes in effect.