The purpose of this unit is to consider some of the ways that, just as sentences are constructed according to a number of orderly systems (syntax, morphology, etc.), texts are too. A close look at texts reveals a variety of ways in which they are orderly, structured, or patterned. Like meals and houses and bus systems and other cultural productions, texts are designed so as to most efficiently or effectively do the job they are intended to do. Relatedly, texts can be designed well or badly.
We have seen that language can vary depending on the particular user from whom it comes (the source of accents and dialects), and that it can vary depending on the particular use to which it is put (the source of registers). This unit and the next one look in more detail at the textual features of some particular well-established written formats. We begin with the assumption that writing is not a variegated and heterogeneous mass of language chunks and fragments. On the contrary, written language is usually produced for quite specific purposes, including the following: communicating with one's God (prayers); promoting a product or service (adverts); instructing someone in how to prepare a particular dish (recipes); advising someone on how to improve their relationships and circumstances (advice columns); informing readers of new developments and resources in personal computing (information technology journalism); reminding oneself of what needs buying at Sainsbury's (shopping list); entertaining the children while stimulating their imaginations and getting them settled for sleep (stories for children). This is of course a fairly random list, but notice how all these kinds of written language - which we shall call discourse types - are quite familiar to us. As a result, we can recognize an advice column, or a children's story, or a recipe - or even just a fragment of one of these - with impressive rapidity. Just as we have plentiful knowledge about our native language (its grammar, vocabulary, sound system, etc.), we additionally develop, over the years, an extensive grasp of the form and content of these well-established discourse types.
Activity 1 Without consulting any real examples for guidance, take one of the discourse types listed below and write a brief passage of text which could plausibly fit within a full text of that discourse. Do not write more than 100 words or so, and write an extract that might come in the body of the particular text rather than at its opening. a) a holiday resort advertisement in a newspaper b) a cooking recipe. c) a sports or music club newsletter. d) a GCSE Geography textbook. e) a letter to her friends back home, written by a new postgraduate student from Mexico, who has just begun studying at Birmingham. f) a car manual g) a letter to the bank manager, in support of your request for a £1,000 overdraft. (Activity 1 - continued) You may be asked in class to 'share' your effort with other students. Discussion may focus on what in your passage makes it recognizably an extract from a car manual (or whichever), and what in the passage is less specific in this way. |
We have often emphasized, in this course, the ways in which language seems to be designed to perform effectively those tasks we set it. This is just as true at the 'higher' level of discourse types as it is at the 'lower' level of phonology. Cooking recipes have a very distinct design, and one which is quite different from that of parking tickets or brochures selling the new Peugeot 406, since these three kinds of text have different purposes, different addressers, and different addressees. Truly effective communication - spoken or written - often depends on the addresser understanding the addressee (not just their background knowledge, but also their assumptions, likely attitudes, feelings and interests) to an exceptional degree.
Activity 2 Jot down some of the ways in which you can well imagine that the typical addressee of a recipe for bouillabaisse might be different, in terms of their attitude and their background knowledge, from the typical addressee of a parking ticket or a newspaper advertisement selling the Peugeot 406. |
1. Read through the two texts below, "The Fifth Commandment" and "Travel Notes", several times, before turning to the questions that follow.
2. What kind of text type is each of these? How do you know? What kinds of evidence in each of the texts are the basis for your answer?
3. What tense is "Travel Notes" in? Why?
4. Why are there so many numbers in "Travel Notes"? What role do they play in the discourse and what kinds of connections with other potential discourses do they facilitate?
5. "Travel Notes" is structured via its five sections, with their two-word boldface headings. Can you think of some method or logic behind the order of these headings? Why are they in the order as given? Could the GETTING AROUND section have come first, the GETTING THERE section come last? Which sections are less moveable?
6. Do these sections make sense independently of the other sections? Could one just use the GETTING THERE and throw the rest away?
7. Even if the sections of "Travel Notes" are somewhat open to rearrangement, does this also apply within the sections? To what extent? Take any one of the sections and make a note of which sentences or groups of sentences can be reordered, and which cannot.
8. What mental picture of the author of "Travel Notes" do you have? One person or many, old or young, rich or poor, male or female, citydwelling or rural?
9. Would you ever be likely to see a text like "Travel Notes" without some framing larger material context?
10. What tense is "The Fifth Commandment" in mostly? Why? At what places is it in the past tense, and what is different about those passages? What particular function do those past tense passages perform?
11. Consider the sentence that begins paragraph 5: "When children turn teenagers, dissatisfaction becomes their leitmotif". How is the use of the present tense here different from its use in, e.g., the sentence England plays India at Edgbaston this summer? Which children/teenagers does the speaker have in mind? Are there any teenagers, past, present, or to come, NOT included in the sentence's judgement?
Identify as many other sentences in "The Fifth Commandment" which are similar in their generality of reference to the 'teenagers' one.
Why might there be so many sentences of just this type in this text? Why are there none of this type in "Travel Notes"?
12. Identify all the sentence-initial conjunctions in "The Fifth Commandment": that is, words like but, so, now, however, consequently used at the beginning of a sentence to link what follows with what has gone before. What more particular effects do the sentence conjunctions in "The Fifth Commandment" seem to do?
13. How frequent is the verb be, as a main verb, in "The Fifth Commandment"? What is their effect?
14. In earlier units and lectures, we compared and contrasted the complexity of written language and spoken language. Look at "The Fifth Commandment" in S-P-O-C-A terms. Take any paragraph of it and mark off just the 'top-level' P parts of its sentences. (Thus in the second sentence you'd just mark off the |was| that occurs between mother and Marjorie.)
Now consider all the remainder: how often do you find Predicators within what are 'top-level' Subjects, Complements, and so on? How would you describe the typical grammar of "The Fifth Commandment"'s sentences?
15. Underline any words or phrases in "The Fifth Commandment" which are to do with time. Are these intended to pinpoint events in time, or for some other purpose?
16. Underline all the modal verbs (may, might, could, should, must, etc.) in the passage. What do these add? What difference is there if you remove them?
15. What is the intent of the writer(s) of "The Fifth Commandment"? Who do you imagine as the target reader/audience of "The Fifth Commandment"? What are they supposed to do, after having read it?
16. How much of "The Fifth Commandment" is tied to some particular and timely news, and thus 'out of date' in a few weeks, and how much is not?
17. As in questions 5, 6 and 7 on "Travel Notes", think about the possibilities of re-arranging the paragraphs, or the sentences within the paragraphs, of "The Fifth Commandment". Would it really be impossible or inappropriate to switch paragraphs 4 and 6, for example?
18. The poet Philip Larkin didn't write "They mess you up, your mum and dad". He used another verb. Why didn't The Times use Larkin's actual word?
THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT
But teenagers rarely honour their parents
Philip Larkin's famous thoughts about parents live on: however hard they try, they mess their children up. Yesterday's erring mother was Marjorie Vickers, accused of too intense a devotion to her son, Stephen, an 18-year-old with severe physical handicaps, who was reduced last year to taking her to court in an effort to break away from her stifling over-protectiveness. The injunction he then won has now been overturned on the ground that prison would hardly be an appropriate punishment for overabundant love. His mother has still had to accept, though, that the best place for him is not by her side but at a special school.
A psychiatrist might spot a selfish element in Mrs Vickers's devotion. True love, after all, involves understanding the best interests of the one who is loved. True love sometimes has to involve letting go; almost always, in the case of a parent and child. In the case of a handicapped child, it may sometimes be tempting for a mother to assume that only she is capable of understanding his needs. But, in Stephen Vickers's circumstances, this was patently not true.
The most obviously dysfunctional families are those that thrive upon hatred or violence rather than love and affection. That of Agamemnon and his wife, Clytemnestra, must surely be the epitome. He killed their daughter, his wife killed him and their son killed her. But families do not have to end up as a pile of dramatically strewn bodies to be classed as failures. Sometimes parents are bad for their children not because they love them too little but because they love them too much.
Even parents who think that they have worked out a healthy balance between love and possessiveness are usually blamed by their adolescent offspring for doing the wrong thing. The Montagues and Capulets were seen as tyrants who obstructed the true course of love. Yet the parents of Sarah Cook were widely condemned for allowing their 13-year-old daughter to marry a man four years older than Romeo. Tyranny or irresponsibility? Parents simply cannot get it right.
When children turn into teenagers, dissatisfaction becomes their leitmotif. Usually they think their parents are too staid and unfashionable. Yet the alternative is just as bad. The subject of today's profile in our business section, Paul Simons, consciously keeps up with teenage trends so that he can make advertisements that will appeal to adolescents. Most teenage children, though, would dread having a 47-year-old father who could sing along to Blur and reach the last stage of Mortal Kombat.
The best parents are those who understand that bringing up children is a constant process of weaning. Encouraging them to be as independent as possible helps to turn them into confident adults. But the transition into adulthood requires a questioning of the unconditional love that younger children give their parents. Part of growing up is blaming your mother and father for the person you have become.
The Times 3/2/96
TRAVEL NOTES
GETTING THERE: Transatlantic Wings (0171602 4021) has flights to Antigua from Gatwick with Caledonian Airways. Prices start from £330 and go up to £540 depending on travel dates. From Antigua return flights with Liat cost $144 (£95) to St Martin and $68 (£45) to Montserrat. Other companies that arrange holidays and flights to the area include Caribbean Gold (0181 741 8491) and Carib-tours (0171 581 3517). Harlequin Worldwide (01708 852 780) organises tailor-made luxury holidays to 59 Caribbean islands. Prices, including flights, start at £880 for a week in Montserrat or £1,200 for a week in a deluxe garden room in St Martin. Harlequin can also arrange bookings at Isles Bay Plantation.
GETTING AROUND: Various Liat Air Passes are available through Transatlantic Wings (0171 602 4021). For $199 (£130) the Liat Explorer, valid for 21 days, offers three stopovers from a selection of 23 islands (including St Martin and Montserrat). The pass must be purchased outside the Caribbean and in conjunction with a ticket for travel to the Caribbean. Carib Express (0171730 2214) operates a limited service between islands and also offers a Caribbean pass. The minimum of two island hops costs $98 (£65) and the maximum eight costs $392 (£260). All Caribbean airports have a charter company on call. Montserrat Airways (001809 4916494) offers sightseeing tours, day trips and shopping excursions.
MONTSERRAT HOUSES: To buy or build, contact Isles Bay Plantation (0171 482 1418), 12 Stucley Place, London NW1 8NS.
FURTHER INFORMATION: Montserrat Tourist Office (0171 242 3131), Suite 433,52-54 High Holborn, London WC1V 6RB. French Government Tourist Office (0171 629 2869), 178 Piccadilly, London W1V 0AL. Caribbean Tourism Organisation (0171233 8382), Vigilant House, 120 Wilton Road, London SW1V 1JZ.
FURTHER READING: The Weather Prophet: A Caribbean Journey by Lucretia Stewart (Vintage) will be published in paperback in March.
