EL1102

Studying English in Context

Tutorial No. 4: Conversation

1.      Are the following statements true or false?

·         The language in informal conversation is inferior to the language in formal writing

·         In informal conversation, the participants do not take on clear ‘roles’.

·         Participants in informal conversation prefer to personalise rather than impersonalise their talk.

·         Participants in informal conversation prefer not to use evaluative lexis

·         Sounding ‘conversational’ always carries with it positive associations.

·         You can sound ‘conversational’ in English in Singapore without using Colloquial Singaporean English (CSE).

 

2.   The transcription below is of two female students in NUS: S1 and S2 – both about 20 years old. Both have been in the same hall of residence for three years, and they are now final-year students. At the start of the transcript, S1 has just entered S2’s room to have a chat with her. The turns have been numbered for easy reference. How can we characterise casual conversation in terms of its field, tenor and mode? (Malay words have been spelt using Standard Malay spelling; Hokkien and Cantonese have been spelt using the ‘missionary’ convention, with the tone information omitted.)

 

S1: (1) Wei! Wei! Wei! - Guess who I saw just now?

S2: (2) Who?

S1: (3) Guess lah!

S2: (4) Who?

S1: (5) The:::re - two years ago most e:li:gible bachelor in Eusoff Ha::ll o:ne?

S2: (6) Who is i::t?

S1: (7) Hai: ya::! - tsk you know his name starts with - M one? - you know like Mi::chael? Michael?

S2: (8) Michael. - Ooh! You mean Michael Qua:h is it?

S1: (9) Ya: lo:r! I tell you he still looks the same okay? U:gh! so goo::d looki::ng

S2: (10) [laugh]

S1: (11) Hai!

S2: (12) Ya::h - I remember - But don’t know why nowadays the guys in the hall - quite koyak [‘terrible’, CSE from Malay] yah?

S1: (13) Ai yah! ai yah! Not very true - look at the Conrad. He’s so darn - bi:g and *stro:ng okay?*

S2: (14) *AIYO::!* - you mou kau ts‘oh [‘are you sure?’, Cantonese] Are you blind is i:t? He looks like your - typical male bimbo **[laugh]**

S1: (15) **[laugh] Oh yah! [laugh]** Eh what is the name ah? that Moon gives him a:h?

S2: (16) Stan Chart lor!

S1: (17) *[laugh]*

S2: (18) *[laugh]* eh siau [‘crazy’, CSE from Hokkien] ah you -- **eh get a hold of yourself**

S1: (19) **No no no no no* - eh seriously - what do they call a male bimbo?

S2: (20) I think --- manbo!

S1: (21) Don’t joke lah! Manbo::? Where got this kind of *na::me*?

S2: (22) *Go::t*! Haven’t you heard? It’s a mixture of erm man and bimbo:

S1: (23) [laugh] Eh wah! sometimes ah you can be quite smart eh?

S2: (24) Of course! You never underestimate a ge:nius.

S1: (25) Yah, yah, ya::h! Eh! I heard ah, you quite happening no? Every night got ma:le sli:ppers ou:tside your doo:r leh? *[laugh]*

S2: (26) *Where go:t*   **It’s just**

S1: (27) **Aha! ha-ha!** don’t give me excuses

S2: (28) Nothing one lah! It’s just a good *friend*

S1: (29) *Ya ya ya ya ya* and I’m Margaret Tha:tcher right?

S2: (30) You mean you’re not? **[laugh]**

S1: (31) **[laugh]**

S2: (32) Eh, why? You jealous is it? Well, if you want to potong jalan [‘cut in the way’, CSE from Malay] I don’t mind, just find me another hunk lor!

S1: (33) Eh actually ah? Come to think of it ah, what’s so good about having a boyfriend huh? So te:dious oka:y. Everything you do ah, must think of the other person

S2: (34) But

S1: (35) What I can’t stand most is how couples always like to wear the same clothes. Like that where got *identity?*

S2: (36) *Haiya!* Why you so ulufied [‘unsophisticated’, CSE] one? It’s called bonding! --- There, just like us now lor - bonding! Who knows, maybe tomorrow, we’ll be wearing the same **clothes**

S1: (37) **Haiyo! yo yo!** Ts’oi ts’oi ts’oi [‘touchwood’, from Cantonese] don’t say until like that ah, I’m quite normal you know

S2: (38) Stu:pid! I don’t mean that lah

S1: (39) Then what do you mean what do you mean by that! -- When you talk about couples and bonding the only thing that comes to my mind is -- *cou:pli::ng!*

S2: (40) *Eee!* Your mind ah, I tell you is darn disgusting. It needs to be washed and hung up to **dry::!**

S1: (41) **[laugh] Oh yah yah** what about my mind? At least I have a good body *unlike some people?*

S2: (42) *Hello, hello,* I happen to like all hundred and forty pounds of me! Ever heard the phrase, big is **beautiful?**

S1: (43) **[laugh]** Oh yah yah yah! How about taking all that hundred and forty pounds down to Hon Sui Sen? *Mm-hm?*

S2: (44) *Hah?* You mean jogging ah? Ah - cannot leh!

S1: (45) You ah, always like to talk about diet, now asking you to go jogging only say ca:nnot, say don’t want

S2: (46) Tsk! No, it’s because ah, I’ve got this bi:g o chhin [‘black-green’, ie bruise, Hokkien] on my knee, very painful leh?

S1: (47) Yah, yah, yah! Serves you right! You’re always so careless

S2: (48) Eh, my fault ah? During hockey that day ah, there’s this toa chiah [‘big person’, Hokkien] eh, whacked the ball so hard straight for my leg. Wah! Darn pain boy!

S1: (49) [laugh] You good for nothing okay! So big also kena [‘get’, CSE] whack.

S2: (50) As though you’ve never been hit before ah?

S1: (51) [laugh] Sorry lah

S2: (52) I tell you ah, talk to you damn siong [‘difficult’, Hokkien] one you know, always get slimed. I don’t know why I still bo:ther

S1: (53) Becau:se I’m such a wo:nderful friend what!

S2: (54) Ah pui!

 

(a)     Look up the word happening (adjective) in a dictionary. Could you find it? What does S1 mean here? What kind of a lexical item would you call it?

(b)     A number of the words from CSE and other instances of code-switching have been italicised in the transcript. What kind of words are they? Why are they necessary?

(c)      Look out for pragmatic particles. Why are they necessary?

(d)     Look out for exclamations. Why are they necessary?

(e)     Translate turns 25, 33 and 48 into a more formal, standard variety of English. What have you changed?

(f)      Conversation is said to emphasise personalisation. How was this done in the transcript?

(g)     Can you find instances of humour in the transcript? What kinds of shared knowledge is necessary before you can joke in this way with your friend?

(h)     What is the grammar of the language like? Discuss the phrase length, use of parataxis, use of ellipsis.

(i)      Are S1 and S2 very polite to each other? Why?

(j)      Conversation is said to depend on not only language for communication; it depends on paralinguistic cues, non-linguistic cues and other kinds of contextual information. Is this true of the dialogue between S1 and S2?

 

3.  Examine the text from an advertisement (which appeared in a magazine aimed at teen-aged girls). Paragraphs have been numbered for easy reference (the numbering is not in the original, of course).

 

1.  Of course you have loads of things in your life other than boys, like er, …….. well OK, like clothes for instance.

 

2.  And isn’t it nice just occasionally to wear that dress that isn’t just drop-dead gorgeous but more drop-dead-roll-over-bite-the- furniture -and-drool-like-a-pathetic-dog gorgeous?

 

3.  Let’s be clear what we’re talking about here.

 

4.  It’s the kind of dress you need attitude to wear.

 

5.  It’s the kind of dress you may even need a padded bra to wear.

 

6.  And it’s the kind of dress that you definitely do not need a towel to wear.

7.  The trouble is, that party HE is definitely going to be at and where HE will be knocked out by the sheer power of your sex appeal and HE will finally become putty in your hands, is on the same day that IT arrives.

 

8.  Your period. With its impeccable sense of timing.

 

9.  Tampax tampons are made for this kind of thing. Because you don’t have to feel one jot less confident when you have your period than when you don’t.

 

10.       And no matter how short your skirt or how tight your PVC, no one will have a clue that it’s anything other than a normal day of the month.

 

11.       Tampax tampons thoughtfully come in four absorbencies to suit the various different stages of your period.

 

12.       There are higher absorbencies for your heavier days, and mini ones for those lighter days.

 

13.       So you can feel perfectly confident there’s no danger of leaking.

 

14.       And don’t worry about inserting it correctly. The applicator always places the tampon in exactly the right place inside you. So you won’t be able to feel or see a thing.

 

15.       Although there’s nothing more natural than your period, there are times when there is nothing more uncomfortable.

 

16.       Tampons aren’t about making your period disappear; they just stop it dictating what you have to wear and when you have to wear it.

 

17.       After all, who says that just because you are having your period, you stop being attractive to boys? Certainly not boys.

 

18.       But you don’t have to just take our word for it.

 

19.       If you fill out the coupon at the top of the page and send it to us, we’ll send you some free samples. In plenty of time for your next party.

 

20.       Then you can get on with what you do best.

 

21.       Inflicting some really serious damage on those floorboards.

just

because

i’m having

my period,

it doesn’t

stop me

enjoying

the sound

of a chin

hitting

the floor.

 

(a)        How conversational is the language in the advert? Are all sections of the advertisement equally conversational?

(b)        How heavily is it dependent on non-linguistic information?

(c)        How much personalisation is there?

(d)        Analyse the grammar of the text in terms of sentence structure, etc.

(e)        Would the label conversationalisation be relevant to the language in this advertisement?

4. Examine the transcript of a part of a radio programme, aimed at a general audience, broadcast over the BBC World Service. David Crystal is a specialist on the English language and comments on English vocabulary.

 

‘If you compare, for example, the British Oxford English Dictionary and the American Webster’s Third International Dictionary, they both consist of about half a million words, but something like half the words in the Oxford Dictionary are not in the Webster’s, and half the words in the Webster’s are not in the Oxford. Add the two together, plus a lot more besides, and you’ve got at least a million words in English and many, many more. If you go around the English-speaking world, you find that the main feature that identifies Australian versus Canadian versus Indian versus South African versus Jamaican is the distinctive home-grown vocabulary and idiom that identifies these cultures. This is the characteristic of English right from the outset. English seems to open its arms wide and say to any language that it comes into contact with, “I love your vocabulary! Gimme, gimme, gimme!” ’

 

(a)        Do you think the style of his language is the one normally associated with radio broadcasts of fairly serious programmes?

(b)        Analyse the transcript in terms of grammar and lexis to see how closely the style matches that of ‘conversation’.

(c)        Is the label conversationalisation relevant to this radio programme?

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