Varieties of English: An introduction to the study of language

235 Pages·1986·15.56 MB·Studies in English Language

by  Dennis Freeborn, Peter French, David Langford (auth.)

VARIETIES OF ENGLISH
Varieties of English
An introduction to the study oflanguage
Dennis Freeborn
with
Peter French and David Langford
M
MACMILLAN
© Dennis Freeborn 1986
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1986 978-0-333-37996-7
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission
of this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied
or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance
with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended),
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place,
London WCIE 7DP.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to
:his publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and
civil claims for damages.
First published 1986
Reprinted 1986 (with corrections), 1987, 1988, 1989
Published by
MACMILLAN EDUCATION LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Freeborn, Dennis
Varieties of English.-(Studies in English
language)
I. English language-Grammar-1950-
I. Title II. Langford, David III. French,
Peter IV. Series
428 PEI112
ISBN 978-0-333-37997-4 ISBN 978-1-349-18134-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-18134-6
In case of difficulty in obtaming the cassette, please send
your order to: Globe Education, FREEPOST, Brunei Road,
Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 2BR. Please quote the title,
author and ISBN on all orders.
Contents
Contents ofthe cassette tape viii
Symbols ix
Acknowledgements x
Introduction xi
1 Variety, change,and the ideaofcorrect English 1
1.1 Good English 1
1.2 ALetterto the Editor 2
1.3 AnAcceptabilityTest 9
1.3.1 Attitudesto Englishusageinthepast 9
1.3.2 Attitudesto Englishusagetoday 11
Acceptabilitytest 11
1.4 Thisisthe sixo'clocknews- belt up! 17
1.5 Isthere alanguagetrap? 20
2 Dialectsand StandardEnglish- the past 22
2.1 Howthe Englishlanguagewasbrought to Britain 22
2.2 Britainbefore the Englishcame 24
2.3 TheVikings 26
2.4 TheNorman Conquest 28
2.5 TheestablishmentofStandard English 30
2.6 Howto analyseahistoricaltext 32
2.6.1 OldEnglish 32
2.6.2 MiddleEnglish 33
2.6.3 EarlyModernEnglishandModem
English 33
3 Dialectsand StandardEnglish- the present 41
3.1 StandardEnglishadialect 41
3.2 Present-day dialectalforms 42
v
vi CONTENTS
3.3 CreoleEnglish 56
The mango tree 57
The red bird 60
3.4 PidginEnglish 61
4 Regionalaccentsand ReceivedPronunciation 64
4.1 The differencebetweenaccentand dialect 64
4.2 Accent 67
4.3 Boundaries ofregional variation 69
4.4 Aframeworkfor accentstudy 74
4.4.1 Howto make a phonetictranscription 75
4.5 Practicalexercisesin phonetictranscription 77
4.6 Apracticalexercise in transcribingaregional
accent 78
4.7 Socialevaluationofaccents 81
4.8 Accents and socialvariables 84
5 SpokenEnglishandWrittenEnglish 86
5.1 Speechand writingasmediafor language 86
5.2 Makingatranscription 87
5.3 Dialogue 1:Makingamodelvillage 88
5.3.1 Transcriptionofthedialogue 89
5.3.2 Romy'swriting 91
5.4 Dialogue2: At theriding school 96
5.4.1 Rebecca'swriting 96
5.4.2 Transcriptionofpartofthe dialogue 98
6 Learningto talk 102
6.1 Languagelearningacomplexskill 102
6.2 Pronunciationskills 103
6.3 Grammaticalskills 109
6.3.1 Kirsty 110
6.3.2 Danny 111
6.4 Discourse and conversationskills 118
6.4.1 Tum-taking 119
6.4.2 Coherence,or fitting-in 121
6.4.3 Response to otherspeakers'needs 124
CONTENTS vii
7 VarietyandstyleinspokenEnglish 126
7.1 Bedtime stories 127
7.1.1 Susan'snarrative 127
7.2 Unscriptedcommentary 135
7.2.1 Goal! 135
7.2.2 Troopingthe Colour 143
7.2.3 Snookermatch 144
7.3 Conversation 145
8 Varietyandstyleinwritten English- I.
Reportingthe news 152
8.1 What the headlinessay 152
Events at British Leyland 157
8.2 Newsreporting 162
8.2.1 Style 162
8.2.2 Ideologyand bias 165
(1) Sheffieldincident 168
(2) Belfastincident 170
9 Varietyandstylein written English- II.
Thelanguageofliterature 182
9.1 The Preacher 182
9.2 The GoodSamaritanagain 185
9.3 Exercises inStyle - from the French 186
9.4 Some noteson verse 195
9.4.1 Rhythmand stressinspeech 195
9.4.2 Metre 196
9.4.3 The line inverse 200
9.4.4 Grammaticaldevianceinverse 203
9.4.5 Patternsofrhythmandsound inverse 205
9.5 Dialectinliterature 207
Booklist 212
Index 217
Contents of the cassette tape
Chapter 1p. 18 Tom Leonard
p. 19 WilfredPickles readingthe news
Chapter 3p. 55 Dialect sentences
p. 57 The mango tree
p. 60 The red bird
Chapter 4p. 65 MrsCook
p. 69 MrArcher
p.75 The soundsofEnglish
p.78 RP(i)
p.78 RP(ii)
p. 78 Ashington,Northumberland
p. 81 LondonCockney(i)
p. 81 LondonCockney(ii)
Chapter 5p. 89 Romy
p. 98 Rebecca
Chapter 6p. 103 Pronunciationskills,Danny,Stages A, B,C
p. 112 Grammaticalskills,Danny,Stages A,B,C
p. 121 Discourseskills, Motherand Stephanie
Chapter 7p. 127 Bedtime stories(i)
p. 134 Bedtime stories(ii)
p. 136 Unscriptedcommentary(i) Goal!
p. 143 Unscriptedcommentary(ii) Troopingthe Colour
p. 145 Conversation
p. 147 (i) Tom B.and MrsW.
p. 148 (ii) Heatherand MrsW.
p. 149 (iii) Tom,Marion, and the Minister
viii
Symbols
Wordsor phrasesquotedaslinguisticexamplesareprintedinitalics.
A symbol in pointed brackets, e.g. (d),refers to itsuseasaletterin
writtenEnglish.
A symbol or word in slanting brackets, e.g. lu:/, /peg/, refers to
sounds or pronunciationinspoken English,andusesthesymbolsofthe
InternationalPhoneticAlphabet(seechapter 4).
In transcribing conversation, pauses are shown in round brackets,
either interms oftheir approximatelengthinseconds,e.g.(2.0), orasa
momentary break, or micropause (.). Whenanoverlapofspeakingturns.
occurs, the placewhere the overlapbeginsisshownasII.
The symbol f/J indicates adeleted element.
Note to teachers and lecturers: this book does not make use of the
concept of the phoneme in discussingspoken English,although it is a
fundamental part of the study of phonology in linguistics. Many
students do not find the theory of the phoneme easyto graspatfirst,
and in the brief introductory survey of aspects of spoken Englishin
chapters 4, 5, and 6, it was thought better to establish an uncom
plicated approach to pronunciation, eventhough it avoidssomebasic
problems.
This should not deter teachers from introducing the concept and
using the term phonemeiftheywish,especiallyiftheyareteachingthe
phonology of English as part of a wider syllabus inthe study of the
language.
ix
Acknowledgements
The author andpublisherswish to thank the followingwho havekindly
givenpermissionfor the useof copyrightmaterial:
SirJohn Colvilleforhisletterto The Times.
FaberandFaber Limitedforextractfrom'TheWasteLand'byT.S.Eliot
in Collected Poems 1909-1962 by T. S. Eliot; and extract from 'Cut
Grass'byPhilipLarkininHigh Windows by Philip Larkin.
MrTomLeonard forhispoem about the 60'clock News.
Oxford University Press for extracts from 'God's Grandeur' and 'The
Wreckofthe Deutschland'inSelectedPoems,editedby Gardner.
Penguin Books Ltd for extract from Bede: A History of the English
ChurchandPeople, trans, Leo Sherley-Price (Penguin Classics,Revised
edition 1968). Copyright©Leo Sherley-Price 1955, 1968.
The Society of Authors as the literary representative of the Estate of
A.E.Housman,andJonathanCape Ltd., publishers of A.E.Housman's
CollectedPoems for adaptation of'OnWenlockEdge'byA.E.Housman
textfromOBEY.
Everyeffort has beenmade to trace allthe copyrightholdersbutifany
have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to
makethenecessaryarrangement at the first opportunity.
x