Introducing Language in Use

Activity 1

Conversational Analysis

• Record some non-scripted talk-in-interaction from a TV or radio interview. Transcribe the interaction and investigate the way turn taking is organized in this type of interview talk.
• Record some non-scripted spontaneous talk-in-interaction from the TV or radio. Transcribe the interaction and investigate the way turn taking is organized in non-interview talk.
• Record some scripted talk-in-interaction from a dramatized TV or radio interview (e.g. in a play, sitcom, soap opera or film) of a similar style to what you chose for exercise 1. Transcribe the interaction and investigate the way scripted turn taking is organized in this type of interview talk. See what simplifications the scriptwriters make.
• Record some scripted (but non-interview) talk-in-interaction from the TV or radio. Transcribe the interaction and investigate the way turn taking is organized in scripted non-interview talk. See what simplifications the scriptwriters make.

Activity 2

Pragmatics

Ambiguity: write your name backwards

 

1. writing the last name first: Merrison Andrew
2. writing the name with the letters within a word in reverse order: werdna nosirrem
3. writing the name as in exercise 2, but last name first: nosirrem werdna
4. writing the name in mirror writing:
5. writing the name from right to left, last letter first: Andrew Merrison
6. rotating your body so your back is facing your addressee and writing your name
7. writing the words ‘your name backwards’
8. writing the words ‘your name’ as in exercise 1: name your
9. writing the words ‘your name’ as in exercise 2: ruoy eman
10. writing the words ‘your name’ as in exercise 3: eman ruoy
11. writing the words ‘your name’ as in exercise 4:
12. writing the words ‘your name’ as in exercise 5: your name

Activity 3

Gricean implicature

In each of the following, think of an appropriate utterance for B so that B's reply conveys the indicated message to A without explicitly stating it.

A: Meet me at Piccadilly Circus at midnight.

B:

 

Intended message: Piccadilly Circus is not a safe place to be at midnight.

A: How much do I owe you?

B:

 

Intended message: A's debt is rather large.

A: Let's try that new German restaurant in town.


B:

 

Intended message: I'd rather go somewhere else because German restaurants are unlikely to serve an interesting variety of vegetarian food.

A: Would you like a piece of chocolate?

B:

 

Intended message: I would very much indeed like a piece of chocolate.

Think of four more examples like these.

Activity 4

Interpreting utterances

Successful participant-dependent linguistic interaction is achieved on a moment-by-moment basis. With that in mind, explain what’s going on in this example.

GHT: When was the last time you had a McDonald’s strawberry milkshake?

FJH: Oh, … let me look back, think back. I – I think Christmas must be the last one.

GHT: That’s not bad going!

FJH: Oh no, hang on: no I’ve had one since then, because I had one in March, end of last term.

GHT: Ah, that’s not quite such a good record.

Activity 5

Sociolinguistics

As per Activity 9.8, consider the following text and analyse it in terms of field, tenor and mode of discourse, and hence overall register.

 

From: Patrick Griffiths [email address removed]

Sent: 19 June 2004 00:43

To: Aileen Bloomer

Subject: RE: ILU chapter (John Field’s Mk3)

Dear Aileen

I'm glad to know that you still make time for bell-ringing.

I wish I could hear it. Temple bells here are one-note Gongs.

All the best

Patrick

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Aileen Bloomer [email address removed]

To: Patrick Griffiths’ [email address removed]

Sent: Saturday, 19 June 2004 2:25 AM

Subject: RE: ILU chapter (John Field's Mk3)

Dear Patrick,

I am onto this tomorrow and will be onto matters relating to illustrations from Rachel as well. More news over the weekend

I am off to ring a bell now.

All the best

Aileen

Activity 6

Grammar – from word to text

1. 1 A student brought this recipe to class one day.

   Mars Bar Trifle

   Ingredients:

   • Chocolate swiss roll
   •  Tia Maria
   •  2–3 Mars Bars
   •  Angel Delight (butterscotch flavour)
   •  Cream (whipping)

   Slice the swiss roll into a bowl.

   Chop the Mars Bars and lay on top.

   Soak overnight in Tia Maria.

   Mix the Angel Delight and put on top.

   Top with whipped cream.

   • Use the Mars Bar Trifle recipe to identify word classes, phrases and groups, clauses and clause structure, and text structure.
   • Find two more recipes and see if they follow the same pattern. Find other instruction texts/manuals, and see how far they follow the same patterns.

2. Find multiple examples of another genre of text (e.g. postcards written to family/friends, official letters (e.g. how to pay your utility bills or the implications of non-payment), emails, text messages, academic essays) and, as a result of analysing the text, determine what the identifying features of each genre of text are.

3. What is the longest NP in English that you can find that still makes sense? If you have read Chapter 7 of Introducing Language in Use 2/e you should be able to analyse the NPs that you have found.

4. You should be able to analyse these NPs to show the structure:

   the real Advent tea with the flavour of Christmas

   Chinese Sencha tea with fine herbs and a fantastic winter aroma

   Vanilla tea with real Bourbon vanilla and a great vanilla essence

   (The names of these teas came from the menu for afternoon tea at Reid’s Hotel, Funchal, Madeira.)

Activity 7

Language change

Names are interesting in various ways and can indicate how both the language and/or society has changed over the centuries.

1. Streets with the following names can all be found in the centre of York:
   • Gillygate
   • The Shambles
   • Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate
   • Jubbergate
   • Grape Lane
   • Feasegate
   • Goodramgate
   • Lendal.

   First of all, decide where you think the names have come from and then use a dictionary or a website about the city to see if you are right.

2. Village names worth considering are:
   • Patrick Brompton
   • Burton Agnes
   • Burton Constable
   • Thornton Steward
   • Askham Bryan
   • Askham Richard.

   All of these villages happen to be in North Yorkshire but how do you think the villages have acquired such names? Once you have decided what you think the answer might be, try using an internet search engine and see what you can find out. Then consider some of the village names in your part of the world.

3. In Wellingborough, there is a road called The Pyghtle. What do you think it might mean?
4. What about these names? What do they mean? How did the places come to have their names?
   • Rotherham, Doncaster, Treeton (all in South Yorkshire)
   • Honeybourne, Pershore, Cropthorne (all in Worcestershire)
   • Aberdeen, Inverary, Auchtermuchty (all in Scotland)
   • Aberdovey, Swansea, Llanberis (all in Wales).
5. Look at place names in your own area and see what you discover.

Activity 8

Multilingualism

Read the below transcription of a discussion about multilingual language situations in Switzerland and see how Gretchen’s ideas compare with yours.

English is not Gretchen’s mother tongue: can you see any evidence of this in her contributions to the conversation?

Alison: How long have you been on this programme, Gretchen?

Gretchen: On the BA programme?

Alison: On the BA programme.

Gretchen: I started in March this year.

Alison: OK and how is it going?

Gretchen: Fine – a lot of work.

Alison: OK. Multilingualism bilingualism. Are you bilingual?

Gretchen: No. I am Swiss from the roots.

Alison: Right. So what languages do you speak?

Gretchen: I speak Swiss German, High German, English, French,Italian and Spanish.

Alison: So why are you not bilingual or multilingual?

Gretchen: Because I didn’t grow up with another language than German.

Alison: OK.

Gretchen: I just learned it in school or abroad.

Alison: So what is your mother tongue?

Gretchen: Swiss German.

Alison: Swiss German and then the others you added.

Gretchen: Yes.

Alison: [Later on.] OK. You told me earlier on something about working as a social worker and using different languages.

Gretchen: Mm.

Alison: Was that what you were going to tell me about?

Gretchen: Yes.

Alison: Right. Over to you. Tell me all about the situation.

Gretchen: I used to work in an institution for children who had problems with speaking.

Alison: Right.

Gretchen: And a lot of them were bilingual or foreigners. And I would like to tell you one special child who was a boy, who was seven years old when he came to our institution and he stopped speaking when he was around five years. And he was Swiss and his mother wanted him  to learn three languages at the same time so she wanted him to learn English French and German. She moved around with him from Switzerland to France to England and back and in the beginning he did well he spoke French and English and Swiss German, mixed it up so quite normal in this stage but then suddenly he stopped speaking at all.

Alison: Right.

Gretchen: He was kind of over-challenged with that. And it took him three years in our institution until he picked up German and then spoke German on the right level of his age.

Alison: So was he literally not saying a word?

Gretchen: Mm in the beginning he didn’t say a word and then he started like a baby with some sounds and he wanted to have holding

Alison: Yes.

Gretchen: And we only spoke Swiss German to him and he went to therapy as well and to schooling and he stayed in this institution overnight as well. So I worked with him in his free time and he understood everything and we just had to take the pressure off him that he had to produce the language and after a while he started like a three-year-old … started talking.

Alison: And what did he start speaking – Swiss German?

Gretchen: Swiss German yeah. And only Swiss German.

Alison: Right. And that process took three years.

Gretchen: Yes.

Alison: About.

Gretchen: Yeah.

Alison: And then what happened? Did you still keep in touch with him?

Gretchen: No.

Alison: Did he then develop the other languages as well?

Gretchen: He went then back to school, to state school and then we lost contact. But when he went back to state school, he had the level of a normal Swiss child of what was he then 10 years old.

Alison: OK. So he made up what he had lost?

Gretchen: Yes.

Alison: Yes.

Gretchen: And the parents were advised to focus on German.

Alison: Right. What was the parents’ reaction to what had happened?

Gretchen: They were confused in the beginning and then they were full of remorses because they actually wanted the best for their child   and they loved travelling and using the foreign languages. And the mother wanted to make it easier for her son. And she had another child, a younger boy, and she stopped doing it with him. So the other one was completely normal and normally developing with Swiss             German.

Alison: So you say you were working with lots of bilingual children. That’s clearly one very really quite extreme example. Are there other examples that come to mind?

Gretchen: The others are mainly foreigners living in Switzerland and often Italian or Spanish children from working class people. So the parents wouldn't know German, they would come with a translator to the meeting and they would speak their mother tongue at home and the child would speak Swiss German or should speak Swiss German at school and a lot of children manage very well with that. They have   like two worlds, they have the world at home and the world at school but some of them they didn’t manage so when they came to us for (at)six years they spoke like a three-year-old but in both languages. And some of them were rather confused when they had to start reading and writing at first class because they knew Swiss German but now they had to translate it in High German. And that was very hard for them. And usually after the two first years of schooling they were fine.

Alison: But it took two years to get the two modes of German sorted.

Gretchen: Yes. So they actually came for the first class and did the first class in two years. And then they went back to state school for the second year.

Alison: So then they were a year older than their classmates?

Gretchen: Yes.

Alison: Did that cause problems?

Gretchen: No. The many children with other problems they do the first year in two years. And in that age there was not much problem with that.

Alison: Right. That elective mute for three years is very interesting, isn’t it?

Gretchen: Yes.

Alison: A little boy who chose not to speak. That’s quite fascinating. I’d love to know what state he is in now. Do you keep in touch with any of them at all from that time?

Gretchen: Not from my side. Sometimes the children want to stay in contact. They come back to us.

Alison: And are they allowed to?

Gretchen: Yes they are.

Alison: Do you still work there at the moment?

Gretchen: No.

Alison: So where are you working now?

Gretchen: I work now for a language school and I teach German French and English.

Alison: And you still say you are not multilingual?

Gretchen: (laughs) Not from birth.

Alison: So to be multilingual, do you have to have more than one language from birth? By your definitions?

Gretchen: Yes. Yes.

Alison: OK. OK. That’s fine. How would you rate your Swiss German, your German and your French? Which do you feel strongest in? Which do you feel most comfortable in?

Gretchen: Swiss German and English.

Alison: Right.

Gretchen: So when I’m in an English-speaking country, I start thinking in English and dreaming in English immediately. Not with French. I find it harder with French. For French is still for me a language of work of teaching, not of my soul, but English and German they are … sometimes I feel them equally … and when I was in England for a longer time I also used to write my diary in English.

Alison: That’s interesting. And how long were you in England?

Gretchen: For half a year and when I came back from England I kept on writing my diary for about three years in English.

Alison: Do you still keep a diary?

Gretchen: Yes.

Alison: Still in English?

Gretchen: No. Now it’s in German again.

Alison: And what prompted that change, do you think, having kept it going for three years in English?

Gretchen: It was … it became the language of my soul. I had the feeling that I could express more and better in English than in German.

Alison: And now it’s gone back to German being the more expressive language?

Gretchen: Yes. Yes. At the moment. But I’m sure if I went to England again and would stay there for another year, I would change again.

Alison: Do you have children?

Gretchen: No.

Alison: Right. So I can’t ask … Your husband is Swiss German? So the language of the home is Swiss German?

Gretchen: Yes.

Alison: If you have children, do you think you will try and bring them up bilingually or not?

Gretchen: Not in the beginning. I would stick to Swiss German just to give them a ground for the language but I would support them, if they are interested in learning languages, I would support them, definitely. Send them to English school or just doing games with them in English or French.

Alison: Do you think seeing the little boy who was overloaded has actually affected your own views on this? That you would be scared of overloading your own children?

Gretchen: Yes.

Activity 9

Semantics

1. Stool. ‘Backless seat, with or without padding, for one person’.

   Underline the parts of this definition that represent semantic knowledge. Do not underline any part that represents encyclopaedic knowledge. Give reasons for your answer.

2. What can you say about the meaning relationship between the following two sentences?

   The box contains the money.

   The money is in the box.

   Therefore, what can you conclude about the meaning relationship between contain and be in?

3. Study the following pattern of entailment (assume that it is the same ship all the time):

   ‘The location of that ship is unknown’ entails ‘The location of that ship is not known’.

   ‘The location of that ship is known’ entails ‘The location of that ship is not unknown’.

   ‘The location of that ship is not known’ entails ‘The location of that ship is unknown’.

   ‘The location of that ship is not unknown’ entails ‘The location of that ship is known’.

   Given that pattern, what meaning relationship holds between known and unknown?

4. Which of the following claims about entailment (one per line) are true and which are false?

   ‘The door is open’ entails ‘The door is not closed’.

   ‘The door is not open’ entails ‘The door is closed’.

   ‘The door is closed’ entails ‘The door is not open’.

   ‘The door is not closed’ entails ‘The door is open’.

   ‘The door is half-open’ entails ‘The door is closed’.

   ‘The door is half-open’ entails ‘The door is open’.

   ‘The door is not half-open’ entails ‘The door is closed’.

   ‘The door is not half-open’ entails ‘The door is open’.

   ‘The door is half-closed’ entails ‘The door is closed’.

   ‘The door is half-closed’ entails ‘The door is open’.

   Reasoning from your answers, say whether open and closed are a pair of incompatibles, antonyms or complementaries.(Hint: a door that is half-open is open, and one that is half-closed is also open. Well, that’s what the authors think, though some people claim that when the latch has not firmly clicked shut on a door that is otherwise closed they could talk of it as only half-closed.)

Activity 10

Words

Here are six verbs. Each of them is derived by putting a suffix morpheme {-en} on to an adjective: darken, thicken, moisten, widen, harden, shorten.

1. What is the meaning of the suffix {-en}?

   There are many adjectives that do not accept this suffix. Some of them are:
   thin, green, hot, wild, happy, peaceful.

2. How do speakers of English express causative meanings – similar to those in the first set of adjectives – for the adjectives in the second set? Try to find more than one way of doing this for at least one of the adjectives.

Activity 11

Spelling and pronunciation in English

1. Read the following sentence out loud.

   A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode

   through the streets of Scarborough;

   after falling into a slough,

   he coughed and hiccoughed.

   How many different pronunciations are there for ough? Transcribe this sentence as you pronounce each word.

2. Now consider the letters ho at the beginning of a word. How many different pronunciations are there? (Hint: the highest claim that we have heard is 11.)

Activity 12

Germany's longest compound word consigned to history

The 63-letter long king of the language's 'tapeworm words' has been declared kaput by jargon-fatigued bureaucrats

Kate Connolly in Berlin

The Guardian, Monday 3 June 2013 16.32 BST

Please click on the following link to access this article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/03/indfleischetikettierungsberwachungsaufgabenbertragungsgesetz-word-germany

 

A response in the Brief letters column in the Guardian on 7th June 2013 read as follows:

Do we just mock the lack of spaces in those endless German compounds (So long, say the Germans as biggest word becomes history, 4 June)? English seems no different when it offers instructions such as this from a Range Rover manual: Release the floor console stowage compartment lid hinge pin RH sleeve clips.

Andreas Klatt

Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire

How would you respond to either the original article and the points made therein or to Andreas Klatt's riposte?

Activity 13

Designed by Apple

Please click on the following link:http://www.apple.com/uk/designed-by-apple/

1. What is actually being advertised here?
2. What semiotic and linguistic comments can you make about this?

Activity 14

North of £1.5m

Please click on the link below and read the first four paragraphs of this article on the housing crisis in the UK in 2013. It was the metaphor North of £1.5m that caught the eye of one of the authors.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jul/15/lack-housing-credit-property-problem

How many other metaphors can you find in this article from the financial pages of the Guardian?

Activity 15

‘The flat white economy’: economics and language

Over many years the authors have taken delight in particular uses of language as shown in Introducing Language in Use (both editions in print and on the companion websites). We are accustomed to hearing other linguists enthuse in similar vein. However, it was a surprise to one of us on a beautiful June morning to find an economist taking the same delight and claiming at the end of a short article in the Guardian newspaper, “Language. It’s so great.”

The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com

1. Think about the implications of the word froth, of the words plain and white and of the claim that ‘[use of the words] said something about them, and the way they interfaced with the world’.

   How does any of this relate to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?

2. Coffee and economics – use this article as a starting point for thinking about issues of textuality.  How does use of figurative language help the economist get his/her point across?
3. Find other examples of unusual and/or unexpected intertextual uses of language.

PS The author had never heard of flat white coffee before that morning in June. Since then, flat white coffee has become a firm favourite and there is a temptation to return the compliment by saying ‘Coffee. It’s so great.’ We are still thinking about economics (‘Economics. It’s so great.’) for which we personally cannot quite summon up the same enthusiasm – but we are working on it. 

Activity 16

Toilets!

You can find linguistically interesting texts all over the place – even in toilets!

1. What makes this text a text

   

2.  Explain linguistically why this is amusing.

   

Activity 17

The meanings of translations

Translations come from the same source – and yet they read very differently and can, at times, appear to give a different message.

1. Compare these three translations of a very famous passage from the Christian Bible to see if, and if so how, the message differs.

   New Living Translation

   God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

   God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

   God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.

   God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.

   God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

   God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

   God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.

   God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.

   God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers.

   Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way.

   King James’ Bible

   Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

   Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

   Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

   Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

   Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

   Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

   Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

   Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

   Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

   Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

   Good News for Modern Man

   Happy are those who know they are spiritually poor; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!

   Happy are those who mourn; God will comfort them!

   Happy are those who are humble; they will receive what God has promised!

   Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires; God will satisfy them fully!

   Happy are those who are merciful to others; God will be merciful to them!

   Happy are the pure in heart; they will see God!

   Happy are those who work for peace; God will call them his children!

   Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires; the Kingdom of heaven belongs to them!

   Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers.

   Be happy and glad, for a great reward is kept for you in heaven. This is how the prophets who lived before you were persecuted.

2. Now go online to http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?pageno=1&fk_files=1506239 to see side-by-side translations of the Qu’ran and compare the effects on meaning of the different choices made by the translators.
3. Think about some of the generalizations made about the faith of Islam in news reporting in the UK and the USA. Look online for some articles reporting recent (to when you are looking) events.

Activity 18

Intertextuality: the death of common sense

Click on the following link and compare this text with obituaries as they appear in different print media.

http://rense.com/general92/deathof.htm

Activity 19

Defining a text

Click on the following link: http://newint.org/features/1995/02/05/pick/

What makes this text a text?

Activity 20

Defining a text: ‘These Are The Hands’

Please click on the following link: http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/poems_theseare.html

1. What makes this text a text?
2. What is the fundamental syntactic pattern of this text?

Activity 21

Public needs – private information

How does this approach to providing public information help get a message across?

What’s it got to do with you: Download

Activity 22

Nose ulcers, fingers and nails

Show how the English language has changed since The Breviary of Health was written in 1552.

Look at letter forms, at phrase and sentence structure.

Activity 23

Be a user not a consumer

Discussion about the use of language appears in some surprising places.

Follow the link: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/11/capitalism-language-raymond-williams

and then decide what your reaction is to the comments made in the article.

Does the author persuade you to think more carefully about your own use of language or does he put into print thoughts that you have already had?

Activity 24

What surnames tell us about ourselves

Reading a newspaper can set off all sorts of linguistic thoughts.

A review (www.theguardian.com/books/2013/sep/08/whats-surname-david-mckie-review) in a UK daily newspaper of a book about surnames led to thoughts about names in general, how we refer to people (see chapter 8 of Introducing Language in Use) and where our own surnames come from.

From there, it was but a short step to use other online sources to find out more information about your own surname and the surnames of your friends and family members.

• How (if at all) have they changed over the years?
• What might have caused those changes?
• Are the surnames located in a particular part of the country (and if so, why might that be?)?

We did this by putting surnames into a web browser and looking at sites that were indicated. One such site was http://worldnames.publicprofiler.org/Main.aspx which showed global geographical distribution of surnames.

Whenever you are using websites as a result of browsing with a search engine, remember to check the validity of the information you gather in other sources. As with all academic work, make sure that you check your sources as people do make mistakes.