Stylistics 7

• It’s been very nice having you. • This s s you know, it’s a sort of – outdated policy which just goes on and on. • He had a kind of, m, m, goldfish bowl round his head,… • I can’t screw up the what’s-it. Will you try? • Mary’s gone out with what's-his-name – you know, the boy with a curly beard? • Czech isn’t too easy to learn. I mean, there are so many case-endings and things like that.
• No, they were ever so nice about it, nice as one can be, but, well, he said he said he said he’d have given it to me if it hadn’t been, been for – for Malaysia, Malay or Malaysia. I think I kept saying Malaysia which didn’t endear me any – Malaya, or you have to keep going to Malay … • Randomness of subject-matter and lack of planning
• • • • • • • •
(P=professor, S=student, F=Fred) P: (Hi.) F: (Well,) how did you get on Jenny? S: I didn't bloody get it. F: Didn’t bloody get it, oh dear. S: I didn’t (get it). P: (You probably) swore at the panel. S: I didn’t. I did, must admit, I put my foot in it once or twice. • F: Well.
• Lexical features • Simple and direct in expression, plain and colloquial, rich in vague terms and slangy expressions, lexical hyperbole, use of phrasal verbs, etc. • -- I’d like fifty pence, Dad. • -- Why? • -- Because we want some things from the shops. • Give me the desk, please. Hello desk？
• -- What have you been making, Ro? • -- Well – I was ma – I’ve been making a mar – I’ve been making a market – and I made it out of matchboxes – and –
• Stylistic features in terms of levels of language • Grammatical features • Simple and direct syntax: preference for short, elliptical and incomplete-looking sentences, that deletion from subordinate clauses, sentence-final preposition, personal pronouns (sometimes even a whole clause) as subjects, verb contractions, avoidance of using modal verbs should, ought to, must, etc.
• S: No, they were ever so nice about it, nice as one can be, but, well, he said he said he said he’d have given it to me if it hadn’t been, been for – for Malaysia, Malay or Malaysia. I think I kept saying Malaysia which didn’t endear me any – Malaya, or you have to keep going to Malay … • F: Oh! • S: Didn’t console me actually. • P: Didn’t you , I mean, didn’t you give the impression that you were actually dying to go to Malaysia?
• corner over here would like a bit of advice – and the other thing of Sinclair stung me about um which is um I shouldn’t have been stung, cos he was obviously on my side and I said, he he said er did I think I had… • P: Have some, have some coffee Jenny. • S: Um did I think I had … • P: Please Jenny, it’s Christmas today you know. • S: he’s enjoying himself cos he’s taking me apart …
• F: Didn’t bloody get it, oh dear. • S: I didn’t (get it). • P: (You probably) swore at the panel.
• Normal non-fluency -- hesitation, slips of the tongue, overlapping or simultaneous speech
• But I didn’t know that and he said um – so I said take somewhere like Lancaster where they have, you know, possibly one of the finest applied linguistics department and, yet the teaching of English, um Italian and – French are in the dark ages. There was this horrible silence and he said well we three troglodytes in the … • You’ve what? An accident? • What? HER to sing a song before the audience?
• • • •
General features -- Are you ready for it? -- Well, I don’t know. Kind of. -- Better hurry, there is not much time for it. • -- Oh, all right. • Inexplicitness – heavy reliance on the immediate situation of language use
• • • • •
-- I like the film very much. -- Me too. -- I really don’t know how to thank you. -- Just hurry up’ll do fine. -- I’m not interested in university. I want to leave school next year. • -- Nonsense, Simon. You are not leaving school until you’re eighteen. • -- I want some sugar on it, please. • -- Oh good. Do I put a lot on itust’ve been professor of French or German. • S: He was. • P: Yeah. • S: But I didn’t know that and he said um – so I said take somewhere like Lancaster where they have, you know, possibly one of the finest applied linguistics department and, yet the teaching of English, um Italian and – French are in the dark ages. There was this horrible silence and he said well we three troglodytes in the
Stylistics 7
Daily Conversation and Public Speech
• 1) Necessity of studying speech Speech is the most basic form of language activity 2) Necessity of studying conversation Conversing is the most basic of spoken varieties 3) Object of the study spontaneous or non-spontaneous very formal, formal, or informal, intimate, informative or phatic
• S: I’m not a good liar actually. God, I put my foot in it. He had some prize-blerk and afterwards he took me aside and said, um, you did put your foot in it at least three times, but we didn’t hold it against you, and you know at one stage some old geezer in the corner who must’ve been at least a hundred and eighty says um, er – Do you think linguistics has anything to say to the teaching of ah foreign language in the country? And I said well yeah …