Introdungcing English language part 27 ppt

but - you know what I’m saying Blair: Yeah no I think the the really important thing is and it’s really difficult is that.. you can’t stop this unless you get this international business

Bush: What about Kofi then? what sort of xxxx (I don’t xxxxx ceasefire) plan

his attitude’s basically ceasefire and everything resolves (.) but (-) you know what I’m saying

Blair: Yeah no I think the the really important thing is and it’s really difficult

is that (.) you can’t stop this unless you get this

international business agr[eed ]

Blair: I don’t know what you guys have talked about about Israeli er but as I

say I’m perfectly happy to try to (.) see (.) what it what the lie of the erm l- land is but you need that done quickly

[because otherwise it will spiral ]

I think Condi’s going to go pretty soon

Blair: Right well that’s (.) that’s that’s all that matters but (.) i- if you (.) you

see it will take some time to get that to[gether] (-)

yeah

Blair: But at least it gives people at sh[ot ]

Blair: at which [she an an ]

Bush: [I told her ] your offer too to (xxx xxx)

Blair: Well it’s it’s only if it’s I mean you know if she’s got a (.) or if she

needs the ground prepared as it were (.) cos obviously if she goes out she’s got to succeed as it were whereas I can go

((Bush starts eating a cracker))

out and just [talk ]

Bush: ((Whilst eating)) [you see ] the irony is what they need to do is get Syria

to get Hezbollah to come and stop doing this shit and it’s over

Blair: [(xxxxxxx) ]

Bush: [(who is) ]

Blair: (xxx) (Syria)

Bush: (Why?)

Blair: Because I think this is all part of the same thing=

Bush: =Yeah

Blair: What does he think? He thinks if Lebanon turns out fine if you get a

solution in Israel and Palestine (.) Iraq goes in the right way

Bush: Yeah yeah he’s (through)

Blair: He’s had it and that’s what the whole thing is about it’s the same with

Iran

Bush: I felt like telling Kofi to call to come get on the phone to (xxx)

as-Assad and make something happen

Blair: Yeah

Bush: (Because then Israel) (xxxxxxxxxxxx)

Blair: (xxxxxxxxxxxxx)

Bush: We are not blaming (.) the Lebanese government

((Blair touches the microphone in front of him and the sound is cut))

To expand your analysis, you should now bring in the principles of pragmatics and their accompanying linguistic frameworks which were introduced in B3 and C3 Analyse the overheard conversation from the perspectives of the following:

q Grice’s Cooperative Principle and conversational maxims

q Leech’s Politeness Principle and politeness maxims

q Brown and Levinson’s concept of face and positive and negative politeness

q Discuss how you think the informal terms of address that both Bush and Blair use would be used differently if the two politicians were talking to a public audience through the mass media What does this reveal in terms of levels of formality for conversations that take place in public versus private spheres?

q Using the above data as a guide, discuss how the role of an audience or any other potential overhearers governs the discourse strategies that we select when we inter-act with one another

q Compare the spoken discourse that is used here with a formal speech made by either of the two politicians or a press conference where both of these politicians made a speech What differences can you find? How important is written scripted discourse to politics?

Bush’s use of the expletive ‘shit’ attracted a great deal of media attention In an exact mirroring of the Gordon Ramsay examples in C3, when shown on US television net-works the word ‘shit’ was bleeped out, but when shown on British netnet-works the word was not censored In fact, on the BBC, the news reporter actually uttered the word

‘shit’ himself, in the form of reported speech, quoting exactly what Bush had said, when introducing the story This adds weight to the view that cultural differences exist between the perceived politeness and impoliteness norms and conventions when com-paring the editorial decisions taken by British and US broadcasting networks There was also much media attention focused upon the greeting sequence initi-ated by Bush The following is a typical example of the media reaction:

Forget prime minister, Mr Blair, or even plain old Tony The new way to address the prime minister, we learn, is ‘Yo Blair’.

(James Wheatdale, BBC Website 17 July 2006)

Despite doubts about the accuracy of the transcription of ‘Yo Blair’, particularly due

to background noise (as you have seen, after listening several times we decided upon

‘Yeah Blair’), the term ‘Yo Blair’ has stuck, regardless of whether it was actually uttered

or not

It has been used as the title of a book by British journalist Geoffrey Wheatcroft:

‘Yo, Blair!: Tony Blair’s Disastrous Premiership (2007) One clothing company produced

‘Yo Blair!’ T-shirts where it described this merchandise as ‘the new must have political t-shirt’ (concepttshirts.co.uk) It was also possible to purchase T-shirts with the Bush expletive: ‘Get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over’, followed

by the satirical caption ‘Mid East Politics by G W Bush’, as well as a third design, simply the quotation ‘On this trade thingy’, with the caption underneath ‘G8 diplomacy 2006’

q Consider occasions where you or a friend/family member have been caught out

by the presence of overhearers

q What kind of communicative problems did this cause?

q What happened next in the discourse?

q Were these situations easy to resolve? Why/why not?

q Drawing upon what you have learnt during the discourse and pragmatics strands

in this book, discuss the overall importance of formality and informality, along with the differing norms and conventions of ‘appropriate’ discourse in public and private spheres Consider how this differs in various cultural contexts where the English language is spoken

LEARNING TO READ Learning to spell

Ada is 5 years old She is in her first year at school in Yorkshire in the UK, and is learning to read and write Here are some examples of her spellings, and the standard-ised versions in italics (derived from her reading her own writing out loud):

roobarbAndcosdud rhubarb and custard

dibr dibber (=television remote control)

sosijsAndmAsAnmichdvedg sausages and mash and mixed veg

Once A pon A taym Once upon a time

C6

Activity 6.1 J

q On the basis just of this limited data, can you speculate on some of the patterns

and principles of spelling that Ada uses?

q Can you identify regular patterns (where a rule seems to be applied consistently)

and variable patterns (where different versions are allowed)?

q Can you identify spellings where her pronunciation of the word is influential, and

others where the spelling departs from the way the word is pronounced?

q What is her system for using capital letters, and what do they signify?

q When does she use doubled letters (‘ii’, ‘oo’) and what are they being used for?

Learning to write stories

Here is a story that Ada wrote around her fifth birthday (a standardised version is

given in italics from her reading aloud)

Age: 60 months

therwosAcatthe there was a cat The

cAtmetAbogthee cat met a dog The

Here is another story she wrote two months later Again the standardised spelling and

punctuation are given in italics The story is written ‘upside down’, beginning at the

bottom of the sheet of paper with the top half blank, so a normal sequence is given

afterwards

Age: 62 months

with the teecup the End with the teacup The end.

the sarsa plAd gAms the saucer played games

frend wos a sirsa friend was a saucer.

hadafrenb the teecops had a friend The teacup’s

coRb speec the teecop could speak The teacup

ther wos A teecop hoo there was a teacup who

Once A pon A taym Once upon a time

Once upon a time there was a teacup who could speak The teacup had a friend The teacup’s friend was a saucer.

The saucer played games with the teacup The end.

Here is a story Ada wrote one month after the last example Her own writing is

repro-duced overleaf

Activity 6.2

J

Age: 63 months

plAd withht eechuth played with each other.

woscold sdon theA was called spoon They

hAdAFrend hisFrend had a friend His friend

hors the rocnhors horse The rocking-horse

ther wos A rocen there was a

Once A pon A tim Once upon a time

Once upon a time there was a rocking-horse The rocking-horse had a friend His friend was called spoon They played with each other.

The End.

Finally, here is a story Ada wrote two months after the last one Again, it is inverted

so a reversed-order sequence is also given

Age: 65 months

b offthiA boocs the (ed) off their books The

the hAws AndFinish the house and finished

thien thiA went intoo then they went into

thia mAd lots ov boocs They made lots of books

go intot dades booc go into Dad’s book.

And bid A buc too and did a book to

plAb onthe peeAno played on the piano

Ada and bad went intoo Ada and Dad went into

Once Apon A tAYm Once upon a time