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    Speken and written language M. A. K. Halliday Ay H onbemaspon 7 8 oeuagen Series Editor: Frances Christie Oxford University Press OcoréUniveniy Prns xt Ne York Toro nee” Srgare_ Hog fos [Nal Barer Str Cave To Kora Tie ‘Bora Orford. Oxo Oxted tne the Oxon gl og ce ae mark of 1S5N 01 «71530 (© Deskin Univer 1983, 1999 Fi pales 198s Secon eitce ng Ingse oath beng porta, Puc in Hone Kong M. A. K. Halliday jiday was bom in Leeds, Engl in 1925. He took his BA at London Us Chinese language and litera guisties as a graduate (Peking Universicy and intinents at Cambridge and Edinburgh he Went to University College London in 1963, as Director ofthe Comm cation Research Centre. There he directed two research projects, one inthe Lin pertes of Scienfic Enalish and the other in Linguistics and English Teaching: the ed Dreatehrough to iteray for tower primary schools Use for soconsaty is, Chicago Circle, At iew Department of Ling ‘of Sydney, from which he recent Curriculum Development Centre's Language Development Project 1976-78 and subsequently 2 member of the Project Review and Advisory Panel He taught onthe Linguistic Socieey of America's surnmer Linguist Institutes in 1964 Cndians), 1966 (UCLA), and 1973 (Michigan), and 3s elected to honorary membership of the Society in 1978. He has professorships at Yale, Brown, UC. Irvine, and the Univer. ‘of Nairobi a "73 was a Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study in the Behavi fornia. 1a 1969 he was awarded an honorary doctorate atthe University of Na and in 1981 he received the David HRussell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English from the National Council of| ‘Teachers of Engl His current sare the semantics and grammar of Foreword Armong his pal 1age of the 1964), (Mouton, The Hague, 1967), | 3°, Journal of Lins 4 Course in Spoken Engl London, 1970) rns in the Functions of Len the extent to the lear language becomes a matter of teaching about “language rules’ — normally rules ~ and as history has demonstrated over the years, rapidly degenerates into the arid pursuit of parts of speech and the parsing of isolated sentences. Meaning, and the critical rele of | 1983); Brendan Bartlet. and John Cacr (eds.), Language in Education Workshop: a Report of Proceedings (Cente fot Research and Learning, Brisbane C.A.] i Campus, to the build language whi Whi which these the concems of the older rhetorical studies to ways of examining ime. Par example, them fang is astociated conception of ex subject to processes of fon tougy than would though obviously much more requires to be said about be deale wth in these ve cof language is now available, currently most completely Halliday's in Introduction to Functional Grammar (1985), which offers ish language in a manner that Mucray’s ‘male possible the development ofthe volumes in this education is true that the developing tradition of langu nes represent dors, as Ihave noted, t nonetheless also looks ‘ways of understanding the Grammar could not aave done. Murray's Grammar confined ise of the writen English sentence. It did bout spoken language, as opposed to wr provided no basis upon which to explore a whether tat be even more importantly, the toral text. “The preoceupat ten sentence neglected the pre-e position being accorded tothe written word by Murray's to disastrous consequences since, because ofthe especially in educational practices, In Murray's of grammar on the other hand, was, as Thave puted to bis view that it was the rhetorician ing to the text. In the tradition in 1 considerations of the syntax. have anything already noted, to be ‘who addressed wider questions y based. in Pon the one aad and "semanties' dr meaning on the other. A second strength of H ies behind all ten volumes inthis series, though one other volume, by Michael Christie, called Aboriginal perspectives on experience and learning: the role of languege i Education, draws upon sontewbat different if sill compatible in tself a most desirable development Thave mst suggested that the reader who picks up any of the volumes in this series should find ways to apply systemic lin, theory to educational theory, I wast to argue, however, that ‘offered here is more than merely a course in appl ‘though such a course might be. Rather, T want to properly a matter of ‘development n partnership between educationst, teachers and linguists, ‘anda reat deal has yet to be done to achieve such ‘currently is making a major selopment of a vigorous educational linguistics, not all of it of course in a'systemic framework. I would note here the Tew years ago in developin sen in ceniral Australia, and more recently his work inother groups in Canberra; the recent work of Beth fichael ‘nd Stephen Harris, all of the Northern Territory Department in developing language prog ral children the imporeant work of John Carr and his colleagues ofthe Queensland =partment of Education in developing new perspectives upon language the various language curriculum in the teansition years from home to s Gero, aso of Macquarie Univers secondary school, across a number of different subjects; and the work cof Pam Gilbert of James Cook Unive ‘whose interests are both in writing in the secondary school, and in language ane gender “The signs are that coherent educatio is beginning to appear around ‘and I note with pleasure the appearance of two new and wtemational journals: are pol mes, T suggest such a study can make a major contributo ‘o the pursuit of educational equality of opportunity, and the wider social problems of equity and justice. Language isa political tion: those who are wise in its ways, ca using it 0 shape and serve important personal and 50 is, not merely develop those who are able and willing fective role in demoer One of the most encouraging measures ofthe potential value ofthe perspectives open to teachers taking up an education sies of the kkind offered in these monographs, has been the variety of teachers attracted to the courses of which they form a par, and the ways in which these teachers have used what they have learned in undertaking teseatch ‘papers forthe award ofthe master's degree. They include, for example, ary teachers of physic, social science, geography and English, inguage to migrants and ople, primary school teachers, a nurse educator, teachers of blainly sorth it, added sense of control and direct ‘work at fostering and devel (end to Say that they ‘her appreciation of language and how language hey are able to in 7 negotiating, defining and clarifying realistic goals for their students. By any standards, these ate considerable achievements Foreword to a close, {should perhaps note for the doing course work wit eed to read the ‘though I should ead in any order one called Language and volumes in the order given: Frances Christ Clare Pai MAAK. Hal texts aspects of lang! JL. Lemke ~ Using then either, M.A.K. Halliday ~ Spoter and ya Hasan ~ Language, contex Ina social-semiot ithe classroot the second course. called nd Education, and they may be read ike, though only three of the five behaviour Gunther Kress ~ Linguistic processes in sociocultural practice IR, Martin ~ Factual writing: exploring and challenging social reality (Cate Poynton ~ Language and gender: making the difference nr rice ceri ante ene ances te References Grammar (Longnian, Roberts and Green, London, Composition and Rherorie, revised in two Parts — Intellectual Elements of Style, and Fart 11, Emotional Qualities Soyie (Longman, Green and Company, London, 1887). ‘Mother Tongue (Hosder & Stoughton, London, rc and Belles Lettres, Vols. 1 and 11 (W. 783). ed 1776). Baliga, MLA. Longue ot octal snot the social erpeeion Taneuage and met |, London, 1978) London, 1985), indley, English Grammar (1795), Facsimile Reptiot No. 106 (Menston, Seclar Press, 1968). About the author iti Foreword ¥ Preface x Chapter 1 Development of speech Origins ‘The develop logy How Nigel started to meen s provolanguage yolutionary interpretations From protolanguage to language e8e system of writing From ancient Egyptian to English Charactery, sylicbary, alphabet er 3. Written language Codified and codable expressions What How punctuation relates o grammar and phoaok Writen texts with minimal punctuation, punetuatoy and rausing 3” Functions ofthe writen language 39 Fors of writen English a Varintion and writen language 2 Chapter 4 Spoken language: prosodie features 46 Speech and transcription i lm and thythe 8 English rhythm ° English intonation: tonicity and tone 2 xiii 56 Frequency ‘A more revealing measure of lexical density he clause ‘The clause as an el Nouns and nominality Chapter 6 Spoken language: grammatical intricacy Speech no lest sutured than writing Lexical sparsity in spoken language Representing experience in talk ‘The clause complex in spoken language Some longer passages of speech ‘Two kinds of complexity ‘Transcribing spoken texts Chapter 7 Speaking, writing, and learning Differences between speech and writing boay Conclusion Appendix References | [Prefers We live in what is called a “literate society’, which means that @ reasonably large proportion of older children and adults in the com ‘munity use language in a written a¢ well asin a spoken form. They have learnt to read and write. Speaking and listening come naturally, unless one is born deaf; they also have to be learat, of course, but however, one is usually taught; -p. in the process of edu- ih educated practice fom Reading and writing are associated Writing and speaking are not jst akerat thy are ways of doing diffe Parily because ofits association with the sources of power—but partly also “because it is nearer t. surface of our ‘consciousness—writing tends to steal the linguistic limelight. For most trate people, ‘language’ means writen language. We talk about how letters are pronounced, instead of, more accurately, how sounds ace ‘writen down, We say our language is ‘not phonetic”, meaning thet the spoken forms do not accord with the writing system-whereas in fact isthe written forms that do not aecord with the sound system. Even ine notion ofa ‘word is tied to the written mode. Andi thority and teachers, we tend to assume that writen language is the only respectable medium through which to learn. ‘But speech came frst, by some millions oF years; and it comes first 2 viduals. We may have learnt fo read and writ, but we still go on talking and listening; and we still goon learning by talking and ‘The fact that we are less conscious of the processes of speech does not make them any the less important. We achieve different goals by means of spoken and written language; but neither has any superior value over the other. xv ‘Beatin University wanted i in book form and not o am, as well 2 bs vie Is oe seen passages in tate Readers read di ‘meaning will stand out more clearly one the text n form. for his kindness in writing igrepi greatly “University forthe trouble Frances Christie for her nstructive adviee, I is fashionable these days fo tal. ‘this text is #0 be thought of as in dialogue wi the other texts in the series, the whole lot together trying to soy something about language as the basis of human development MACK, iday xvi ‘Chapter 1 . Development of speech 1 scems likely that human beings have been around inthe world for ‘quite some time: say 23 million years, according to the findings of hard Leakey and others. If we anet one of y, we would recognise him or her as quite ‘The distinctively human characteristics of walking upright. using ing were already appearing well over a milion years ago. supposed o mark us off from the rest of creation, ine tomary nowadays to emp ith other species-—rath tinguishes us aga the apes, and in othr species? There have been many attempts to demonsteate pes could acquire human-like language; tat although their jeulatory organs are not shaped to produce speech sounds, if we fee particular ly capable ‘The results to be not ass talk if they want fon an oversimplified account of what human language is relly (It also seems rather unlikely, one must admit.) So let us speculate a hhow, on the basis of our present knowledge, human language prob evolved: and see at what point and in what respects our ancestors set fut along a new semiotic track, ugh they turn out on exami imed. The idea that “they, ‘The developmental analogy 1c is often pointed out that in many respects the lates the history ofthe species. The idea isan old one, first formul ie By Emst Hickel. In the words ofa recent BEC embryo growing in the womb, each one of us programs ‘plana: oF fe as a member of have evolved on earth’ outflow ~at bith tothe thythmic pat language that is spoken by his mother.) ates phylogeny is in general velopment, we may also find it to ddevelopment—at least for one par- ‘concerned, hed on other grounds; the evidence indings and hence if we fin the species we are discovering some- develops spacey evolved ing new. ‘In the case of language, however, we cannot reconstruct the early stages ofits evalation. “mast the only evidence we have for this is about how chiklren learn language. The lependent information is simply the probability that early humans In this period did have language, as is suggested (I) by the sizeof their ‘and (2) by the fact that they used tools. But these tell us nothing about what evolved, ing the development of the cil hat—guesswork. On the ather ha early child- the mother tongue there is a ‘chi tongue’, and the forms and functions that that takes look very a like evolutionary steps towards what we know as language today Symbolic and non-symbolie acts Children begin to communicate more of less from bisth. A newborn child can already “pay attention’: when his mother talks to him, he listens. Within tree or four weeks he is contributing his own share of ' | the “discussion”, respond iy is 1979), who was ore ofthe first 10 speech’, because the taking hole of an object" pre. "ters: eis poping bnsels soto spel I be using other Iso 0 control by acting on jas (0 lean to tion between symbolic and non-symbolic acts. IFT am bungry, and want to eat a appl act directly on the apple by going and getting it myself ‘where it isin reach, reaching out, and then arabbing it. But provided there are an get hold of it in another ean say toa syrapathetic has to be addressed tons, beeause they depend on values the symbols have already acquired i use Somewhere around the middle ofthe frst year of life, the “ld ns for these two modes of action, the direct and the reach out, grasp, and pull things towards him, jenary action iting things to knock then typically, stars around 4-5 ‘months. Not long afterwards, he begins to explore the alternative, miode—getting others t9 achieve the effect for hirn, ‘The ‘child tongue’ [Bot there is a problem wi ‘symbolic acts, A symbol has to be under stood. IFT start speaking Chinese to you, that is a perfectly good act ‘of meaning; but if you do not understand Chinese, te only message you wil get i that 'am talking—you will ave no idea what [am talking ‘bout. Even if what Tam saying is che Chinese equivalent of “bring. me fan apple’ (nd pingud Iai gi wa), itis unlikely that the apple will ative. how to reat a sombel tat ockars Understand the iconic principle he coul second year, that is wt before he starts on of others, he starts by creating one ton with the small Ulae kind of abstraction, ‘own, one that does not contain of alte set of sicxs. These signs are made by voi ‘combination of the two ‘There have been very few studies of the ‘nets of mesning by which an infant starts ta ther vocabulary or grammar bu ir gesture, oF naine, for present pu! Nigel created his first language. How Nigel started to mean ing. As she paused, wit the pes he [Nigel reached out for it. He closed his fst firmly around it, looked ather face for a moment, and then, afier another moment, lego. He had towards him. the pen, do you’ Al yat—you ean is was an act of meaning; and it had worked. His mother had od. Nigel was, of course, quite capable of grabbing the pen that Was his normal way of geting tion between the two kinds of act: the direct, non-symbolie acti the object itself, andthe indirect, symbolic action °on” ((.e. directed ‘owards) the object but ‘through’ (mediated by) the person addressed, ‘Nigel had solved the basic problem, that of er could be understood: and he had solved it ieonically that is, I resemblance to its meaning. ‘The gesture ‘of grasping an object firmly and holding on to it for a measurable time before leting go is a very reasonable way of encoding the meaning becoming conscious ofthe fact that both Nigel and something entirely new.) igel was encouraged by his success and created two more in the same week, both of them also iconic. L was enters by throwing his toy eat up in the air, and eatching ie os When T stopped, he leant forward and touched it: neither grasping way, but Keeping his fingers pressed against it for ip again?” Every time I stopped, he got tired and refused. But it as clear that id Nigel himself made it clear, by the satisfac: repeated the was quite distinct. He was ‘saying” was responding to the symbol These were nt, inf ‘hese had appeared vo weeks ead e very first symbols Nigel had crested: st shorly before the age of eight le “That's nice, yes." ‘This would go on for as long as she kept the conversation going ‘The other was also [ce], but on a higher, falling tone, and without ity ofthe first. It meant “That's interesting — ad vias used when Nigel's attention was caught ike a flock of birds taking off from the ground engine. This was addressed maialy to himse or aus revving vp Dut often someone responded, saying what the commotion was about “Those are pigeons’, his mother ssid. "Weren't they noisy” One child’s protolanguage So at eight months Nigel had language. It consisted of five signs, which Were frequently repeated when the occasion arose; and those around him, the small group thet made up his immediate family, understood them and gave a reply. They replied, of couse, in ther own language, fit mening motives for the frst year of ite ‘would no doube have been ingulted to have his wo never occurred t he could now converse: he could ‘communicate. One isa pragmatic one: he wants to be given something, ‘oF he wants something to be done for him; and for these purposes he res of grasping and touching. The other is more ‘thoughtful mode; ether he is expressing cur (on around him, oF he is just ‘being together’, expressing his awareness {hat he is one person, his mother is anothe an experience. These he expresses by sound, his firs true speech sours Having established his a te bepining the tan. to longer of the stily “proto” kind St took atthe piod of oughly sx moms that consis, with "ean hear an seropane” funny (where's it speci up oa the floor in expressed some for environment either interaction sity, disgust ee. in the outside from). In one or two ct 7 a fundamental theme in the protolangucge i together" typically a greeting or calling to a ‘with an invitation to share an experience. Te turns ov that this shating of experience by attending to some object that both can focus on Nigel and tis mother looking ata pitire togetie. for example fe an important step towards the child’s conception of name, aad hence towards the development of language in the adult sense, these? IF those of the first group represent language in a “doing” function that which we refer to as rracMaTic—then the signs ofthe second group have, ‘of a “thinking” function: Nigel is using his ability to crea as a way of projecting him: $0 10 speak—and so begin xplore it. In my own work I have referred Eric function, meaning “for learning with 'sprotolanguage, from its ea ays these two ‘a once hoth & means il studies that have been its also the fundamental organising principle that les behind the wh Of adult language. Every human language is @ potenial for meaning in these two ways: itis a resource for doing with and itis a resource for thinking with, This isthe most important single fact about human language, and a motif to which we shall return in our study of speech and writing Evolutionary interpretations Returning to Trevarthen for a moment: he made some fi showing mothers interacting with small infants, 8 learning t name things Painter (1989) ‘pragmatie* and “Inathete™ language as. resource for ing and for learning 1. The impression was st ther and baby, though performing what ements, were yet ina curious wy volved ina dance together, wth remarkable synchrony. Then the filma along. The others "know aska mother who is conversing ‘what the child is saying, she language e Tanguage would have begun in the fo {or expressing general meanings In their relations with others: meanings sch as give me (some object) “do (Some service) for me”, “behave (in a certain way) for me of) objects come to be associated ia general meanings of this kind. So a lar sign evolves as “I want to be together with you" and that becomes a name of a person or a kin relationship; another evolves as ‘complex turns ino a name ean be directly abserved 0 we know that it eam happens and the fact that this seems to be the typical developmental patter suggests that the human experience may not have been very different cussing the origin ofthe forr tural shape of the protolingul about that too, from what can en create the expressions for observed of the way smal 1 ‘meaning, hai been prop of tension on being ts" make whon going to slsep, thumb in front of lips and breath going in and out creating suction noses, 2. We can easily recognise “other cats and aeroplanes. n of Iv: they have at Teast— in the world today are equaly the product ‘evolution, and al are equally well adapred tothe they serve, From protolanguage to language ins. But as to exactly how the prat have evolved into a language of the type represented by a today, we ean say very evidence is lacking ‘The reason for this isan interesting one. If we are righ, then for 5 6=9 months after creating his fist symbolic sig in some sense recaptulatng the history of language. Butt 8 leap. There is, afterall, no need for him to go through the whole process, step by laborious step; as soon as he is ready to take up the ‘other tongue, he can do so, He has in fact been listening to it for angus -—because here even the developmental vorks—typically « few months into the second year — he ean start building it up for himself. (Some children like to think about the leap from chi tongue to mother tongue a long time before atu Xs by reingining quite uncommuni but provided they show underst equal into the development of language. Some are in fact interjections' like Af and Ow! are in fact lies of protolanguage that have survived be thae here is a leap at this poi "A prota system, consists of meanings that are coded directly into sounds. Or rather, we should say into "expressions", since as we have seen, the way be expressed either in sound or in gesture jmary medium of s advantage thatthe receiver does not need the sender is doing, or even to be able (0 see the sender ‘us say protolanguage consists simply of meanings ar systems in species other as claimed in some of ipanzees of gorillas are capable of language: but this is doubtful—none of the examples his respec, and ic seems strange that if thei brain fact begun to evolve any such system aniong themselves. Nearer home, we find protolanguage in our us (apparent 2 species, the basie 10 wo: 4 und jmmutable, like a system of urate signals—they have ise the system would part and recombined. (1 sof meaning ean be teased apart, coded ly by different devices (selection, madifiction, ordering, prosodic modulation, ete.—all the parapliernalia of grammar and ‘vocabulary, in fac), and then recoded into a single ‘There Gomes a point, therefore, ie representation of the difference betwee language and protolanguage, see Figure 1.1. Figure 1.1 Language and protolanguage (2) protolanguage QOOO¢( sian sien sam, We ‘content plane ‘expression lane phonology ul [Chapter 2_ | } aresS Writing systems Pictures and written symbols 99.5 per centof the nguage has been hi But this isnot langyege; and the dist wre may be~perhaps cation, a symbolic act directed at other people. and writing comnntunicative purpose, such as record Writing isu part of language: one form of expresso how writing bog {he coming together of wo femiate Systeme languag ‘may be a form of com form of writing something sis shown by mean anything reference 10 what a picture ‘conveys nificance", and s0 on. the question of whether som is a par of language, More is one kind of expression in language—an alternative to sound. We have std tht a language c . Wording, and sound. We ean now modify this, and say that a language Of mi ‘of which it is made up, put them in a dictionary, Pronounce them. They are not elestents of a language. ‘The fact that we can make a clear distinction between what is n theory: and inthe history of writing there must have been many, although one seems to ‘which suggests that the transition from “presw been fairly sudden, ough we cannot document the process whereby writing fe is reasonably cle happened. Writing did not begin wagery on the of Writing begins when pictures are interpreted as language 14 jure 2.2. Earliest known form of Chinese charaster horse No doubt the Chinese had been making pictorial representations ‘of horses for along time before that; none of them has survived. But at some time in this process, an important change took place i the erpreted. At frst, it represented ore accurately, a member of no longer represented say, se word pronounced {mo}, which means ‘horse? in Engl iow be read aloud Let us express this change of function in tionally, the shape ( 8 CHARACTER. Since that time, the shape of this particular has varied considerably, as shown in Figure 2.3, But is fu EB the word (1000-00 se () «$00 me) 200 e—1950 ADC todern ‘The same process 100k place with hundreds of other representations, From being pictures, representing classes of objects, they became characters, representing words. ‘The shapes themselves ‘did not have to change; what changed was the way they were ‘understood. ime, of cours, the visual shape does also tend to change. Once symbol has become a character, and especially when i has happened in enough instances so that not just a few words hece and there, but most of the words ofthe language, can be represented in other words, once a writing stem has evoived—then the shapes tend to become regularised and simplified, in ways that are strongly inluenced by the materials tht are used for writing on and with: ‘on bone, casting in bronze, chiselling in clay, patting on silk, and so ‘on. But the change of form is not a necessary consequence of the change ‘of function. What creates writing is not the particular shapes that are 1s from pictures to charecters Figure 2.4 Development of se characters 1. Pi modern “dove! were inden ee ss tour > FF « DX aXe lian standing by speech] Uhneeting man under hand] & BP Bow um Fe KR ot mttase under dageeraxe] 1" (same semantic element) sy gy Fe vig cmt = 5, vase +E ying YI 5a jie ee = 5, weer + TL oe gy of tin wat = Sonar Fae jetures are combined to form a semantic compound: for ‘kneeling man under hand forthe word yield; standing man by the side of speech for the word must, sun in the middle of twee for the word ease (where the sun rises); foot under dagger-axe for the word warfare (marching under arms) 18 fe adopied ither (2) instead of or (S) as w nila sound, by a process fe character for whet fe (Same pronunciation Two pictures are combined. indicating the me combination o ies of 1 and character for dove, Old Chinese [wr]. used as phonetic and combined with (a the character for silt thread to represent the ‘word tie, rope {djwar], (6) wit the character for hand to represent the word push [Cwar], (6) with the character for speech to represent the word who? [Gwar], (@) with the character for tree, wood, © esent the word hanumer (Wjwor). More than three quarters of language are of this ype. ing the sound, the other i-phonetic compound (a bove): for example, the bols are Tanguage: ive an analogy from a charactery there would ‘be one character forthe morpheme Kind and another for the morpheme 3). for words, not for meanings and synon) synonyms would have to be wt biguous readings. ‘This kind of writing system is appropriate for the is neither more nor less advanced than other wr ike: whereas if they were ideographic, ten alike and there would be no una ish, the writen symbols represent the language f wording but at the level of sound. The next section ibes how this system came about. From ancient Egyptian to English ‘The first writing system developed in ancient Egypt was a charactery Hes characters are known as “hieroglyphs’, meaning “sacred earving- ‘Starting many centuries earlier, hieroglyphic weting had developed along the path that we have described above for Chinese (see Figure 2.5(@)). The principle of phonetic transfer was established by the third 19 ‘shot happened Chinese we “ideographie’ logosraphic N= @f 0 horn swallow beste Rewer st f = ww 6 oS ft Goi GA 0 e Sd Lr PR or itr slates so hen \ Be broken down lato a nunber 20 + bull; these are quite dif to be represented by make up the word cannibal But once this sep has beea taken, the whol re of the writing m becomes transformed. As long a there isn principle, a sept 2 Poesicsn: the lopment of a syllar"y indicator the character Tor cloth was ihe writing. remains logo: i added co the original picture raphe: represent the ‘As soon as the picture of a can 60 is not is no longer functioning as character 1k will then occur equally natural ‘words containing the syllable /kaen, like cannabis, ‘and so on. The charactery has been replaced by ain, there is no need for the form ofthe symbol be a picture ofa billyean. Only its funtion has the representation of class of obj re as belonging to a single category: a ‘can’ then reinterpreted, to represent the word can, the ame ofthis category in the lexicon of the English language, It has now been reinterpreted ‘ver again, so that it represents the syllable /ksen!, which is an element ‘of English phonology. When this change has flowed through the whole writing system, the symbols no longer stand for words but for sounds. ‘The script has become a phonological one. Charactery, syllabary, alphabet ‘As a matter of fact, this change never di tke place flyin the Egyptian ‘writing system, lays etained some of te features ofa charac tery. But iguages whose speakers borrowed their system from the Egyptian, of which the one that is sig for our purposes is Phoe language, like modern Arabic and ns took over a smal number of Egyptian syinbols labie signs. Thus the Phoenician word for ‘water’ (cf. Hebrew m ‘water and used ito represent the syllable /ma/-—Keeping ‘the name ofthe symbol (as we have names for the ‘ord for “snake’ vas must; so they ike character and used it to represent the vo itself nen. They borrowed about thirty sé them a fixed order: first came the Egyp an word 7aleph (From which we get our word i), beginning with a glotal stop, and hence used forthe syllable ‘al; and second the Egyptian character for “house’, Phoenician beth (cf. Hebrew beyeh), used for the syllable bal, is kind of script was well suited to the Phoenician language, ss in modern Arabic, the root of a word vowels in between will vary (along with, affixes before and after) to signal grammatical categories of person, 2 te the consonant sequence ge number of words such Kitab “book a very different kind xed part of the word moreover, there can be whole clusters of ns in a single syllable, as in the word stragks/ meaning throa. A syllabary, therefore, would be quite inappropriate. So the Greeks used each Syimbol t sand just fr the conson vowels; and they then added separate symbals forthe va sing Phoenician symbols for which they had no other use (like sleph— ere was no glottal stop in Greek, so they adopted this symbol for the vowel /a/) or making up new’ ones for themselves. ‘The result vas an ALPHABET (s0 called because the Greeks also borrowed the ynabet resembles a syllabacy in that its symbols stand for junds, not words; but they sand for sna ‘Table 2.1. Kinds of writing system Level of language | lexico-gramm: represented Gon phonological (oun) Wword/morpheme Type of symbol: | character syllabic (Clogogcam’ sin characteny ‘he categories themselves are clearly defined; but any given instance may be mixed or intermediate, Thus the Semitic scripts are not, in fact, pure syllabaries; they are in a sense intermediate between ‘2 syllabary and an alphabet. A stricter case of a syllabary would be the Japanese kana script, adapted from Chinese characters, And our syllabary Greck: the develop ment of an aiphabee summary ofthe Giferent kinds of writing system inly rot purely phonemic ition among different languages; but languages are highly complex. When be open-ended and ‘When people setts con, writing was developed indepen xis in human history, and even among ese there may have been some themselves to the needs of the particular language—whi _ become somewhat messy and indeterminate, A writing system needs 1 be reformed now and again, because languages are always changing, ‘whereas st ig systems are because it i impossible to define what an ideal script ieve-and if o ‘ainly be impossible to at A note on ‘ideograms ‘The symbols of all natural writing systems began as pictues, This is 85 te ofthe letters of our alphabet a it is ofthe characters of Chi Evety time you write the word man, you are drawing three pictures water, an ox head, and a snake (sce Figure 2.6) Figure 2.6 Evolution of leters m, Exynion | Phoentan | Greek | Latin» et paces 7 | A Mm water a? var | mt te on Ao fa) fel yyWN IN on fol iat ten symbol is ever a pieto- contradiction in terms. 1a symbol is part ofa wri present some element ‘ofa Tanguager in that case itis not functioning as a picture ‘What about the term ‘ideogram’? I have avoided becaus the level of represenation ofthe writing systems so far described has been either lexico-grammatial or phonological. Nothing hs been said of writing representing the semantic elements of a language. 24 complex, with $0 many intersecting that ty could not be they «ann iting sysoms ar those whose sym represent, fy 2 geval F wording or sound ‘express the new scion schemes did not wor Theseurus But it is possible for a script to embody some use of semantic representations, as @ : and pethaps the clarest example ‘Ab, Tapanese was not writen ‘down; then there were two large-scale invasions from China, asa rest (of which Japanese borro%ed from Chinese both the a syllabic writing system of their own, ue, however, there were many Chinese words in the language, which although they eould be weitten inthe sylabary phonology having become adapted to Japanese) were also entirely at home in 0 the Ja process, however, the borrowed trom Chi native Japanese wor clten Being used for mare than o the character for the Chinese word mei “beautiful” (Middle Chi pronunciation fiji) stands in Japanese forthe following: (1) the word -mjwi borrowed—twvice, from different dialects—into Japenese, now ‘pronounced either (bi) or [mil; 2) the native Japanese word uasubushi, ‘meaning “beautiful; and (3) the native Japanese word yo! meaning ‘good. From the Chinese point of view, a characteris tied absol lar word. From the Japanese point of view, however, + may stand for three or four different words, unrelated to each ‘sound or form but related to each otter in tends to have for them a semantic as 25 —— nn A ER A RY I CR OR AT AE 4 ERA He UN I aa “symbols Standing for seinings? some fetures of Japanese witng lance: part logogram, part what ws for everyone. ‘The English writing system some aspects of successively invaded by Norwegian, Danish, and Norman Frenc in the Renaissance, it took over massive doses of Latin and Gree! only lexical roots but also large numbers of affixes and the morpholog- al processes that Went Wi betic writing syste few letters had been added (Latin had 1 very simple phonological s)stem, from the by refusing perturbed it were 0 elf. One was the great (1100=1500), when effect on the writing system was likewise twofold. Just when ling was becoming standardised, i had suddenly grown rather the language h red largely distinct phonological systems, erent spelling iy appropriate , tackled them by setting te about the language and its 26 different and have their own orthographies.) Now, it serves not om the first language” En; New Zealand, South Africa, language” English of many other parts ofthe world—South Asia, many countries of Africa, Singapore, and the South Pac ‘even though with many jo-Saxon and Gracco- Romance words to have differen spelling conventions rather than forcing ‘one t adapt—incongruously, as it would be—to the other. It embedies nor, but very useful conventions ofits ow, like the tw ‘words can have two leters, Inthe second place, logographic. ‘There are One own dialect paw, poor, pour, and pore are all ide! ‘many speakers of English there are two or even three different syllables fmong them; on the oer hand, we distinguish higher and ‘many English speakers pronounce alike. The s of different groupings fable to use words characteristic of without the same envifonmental cushioning speech, When we talk, there is always a 65 no great problem that many words are pronounced ing, however, isto get away from dependence onthe immediate Unambiguous, i is useful to be able to put up a notice saying wait for pause after whole lessons without 27 the evolu English system at the same time saying we! purely phonological seri fon the context as the spoken one. Up to this point, we have been exploring the origin of speech and the development and nature of writing. Tt exploration of written language | Chapter 3 ee Written language 7? Codified and codable expressions Po mnguage: (1) by providing ready-made (‘cod expressions, forthe njority of elements, and (2) by providing the of ereating’ coding’) expressions fur elements that are not alteady eodified—new borrowings and coinings, an individual writers neologisn children and foreigners), and the contains (1) recognised spellings forthe iajority ofits words, and 2) recognised principles of spelling igs do not yet exis. in the language, the early Modem Enalish period \was emerging and printing had just begua, there of iteremtspelings, ing reason Why it should lerstand each other's spoken ‘world, unhampered By the are underlain by what a single phonological system. The seme principle wi fork for weiting. Asa tule, however, writing systems tend to engender conform ‘once they come into general use; partly for conv because the development of writing tends tobe ass 29 English writing provides (1) stan- | | | Writing systems features tive processes anyway—the emergence ofa literary, religious, learned valued (and thezsfore 19 lanned and even legis- lated for. Tre conformity that i expected ofthe language is expected of the way it is writen; indeed it may exist primarily ‘except when read aloud, 50 that symbol of its identity. And when learning 1 conform, So writing systems tend towards uniformity sd expressions forall the established we they provide general principles whereby expressions can be created Does that mean, however, that writing incorporates all the features of speech? Clearly it does not, There are various aspects of spoken language that have no counterpart in writing: rhythm, intonation, degrees of Joudness, variation in Voice quality taber’ that itis Mary talking and not Jane, the individual characteristics of a particular person's speci, “The que accidental ifrcate writing systems should not incorporate answer—as usual in linguistcs-—is that What writing leaves out ‘These features of spoken language are known 2 "ARALINGUISTIC features, The difference between these 10 arry systematic contrasts in meaning, just ‘grammar, and what cistinguishes them ffom these other resources (such ‘as word endings) is that they spread across extended portions of speech, like an intonation contour, for example. Paralinguistc features also extend over stretches of varying lengths but they are not systematic — they are not part of the grammar, but rather additional variations by the speaker signals the import of features, by contrat, are not part of the language propertics of the individual speaker. It may be (see Table 3 30 ‘Table 3.1. Features not embodied in word [sas ] escrito | features of [English] that display Tang aeue) i ‘eertiy) ‘Technical | prosodes paralanguage | indexical name | | teeares Princip woation | tamber plch range ‘ype {soprano-bass) shyt tension 4 [ingivigul preferences for cersin prosodic and paalinguisic patterns) to superim of other patterns that course: ion, where words denoting features ‘aff, words such as an above or below the line of type, or to incorporate the box atthe beginning: and there is ene kind of writen language where something ofthe sort is done, namely dramatic dialogue with is “stage 5 such as [angrily] or [with great condescension). But this has never become a feature of writen language in general "This suggests that there is some reason why nat, The reason can rent functions of speech and writing. David Aber: his discussion of the work ofthe great eighteenth-century Joshua Steele, put it like this: 5 eoastuciet ‘spoken language, the aim of writing i ao, usually, 1 Spoken uterances which have occured (bererombie 1965, p.36) 31 | seve fetus found ia the evolution of ¢ yee punctuation fare not going to be present to the reader a some distance from the ih in the composing of a wi the choices in mesning that are devices. IF this is 0, the features of dis course, ver there 10 pti only in spoken Ianguage, Having made this case, we must now proceed t challenge and, in part, destroy it It is crue that writen language is very different from age. It has different functions, different context cry different ways. At the same time, ted above (as “prosodic and paraling fiance in the writen mode. For one do not form & sme person “implication of utterance’ may be talking to yourself 35 you may be as deadpan as iF you were ‘expressed by in English are expressed by particles in Vietnamese or in se languages these meanings get written down, they do not 0 the omission of prosod order par is deficiency; this is the device of punctuation Punctuation Greek alphabetic wring hegen as a string of leer, without spaces and without ponctaton. The fst ine usually went fam let to gh es the wrter reached the en ofthe line, he went down about height of one letter and went back slong the Tine Fon right to lt, then let right again, and so on with stemate ince” A passage English writen in his contindous goa fshion woul look like this 32 ‘ovright succession (while the Phocniciogs opts to 2. Spaces sere introduced between words, 3. A punctuation mark, the stop, was introduned to mark off sentences 48. Capital (upper case) and 5. Special symbols were brought in to indicate linkage and omissions (hyphen, Collectively these symbols Have tne kinds offueton. One is boundary marking Te grammar of every languege onsen drags 8 small earch of unis of ierent sac In eal phases, word, end morphemes, Graal {take eecount of thee ‘The most distinctive, words and sentences, were the Fst to be cd words marked off by spaces, sentences fl sop, Sub the wring sytem provided for ntrmediate uni mean 4nd comma, comma for weaker boundaries, clon for arene ‘ones. Both can be sed to separ erence serving fo indicat neal bracketing, 2 {© matk off phraes, and even example, foram aerthought, or a made’ belveen a colon and a semicol araronie (orvard-eterring) Figure 3.1 Bracketing effect of punetuation (), O}s (0). 0), Oh ‘The second funetion of the symbols is staus to show that a sentence has fish indicate its speech functions tas there is a contrast between full stop, for statements; question mark, for questions; and exclamation mark, used for a mixed bag of specch fonctions including suggestions, offers, exclamation, cl hare the negative propery ti the speaker is either exchang sdservices (offers, suggestions, anal commands; for exemple, Fl help pou! Ler’s be friends! Go home), expressing his or her ewe (ex 8, for example, What @ mess), or establ reetings, for example, Bob! Hullo there!) ss ? and’! were introduced in medieval times. The question marke was the leter q, the i of Latin qucesto “question’ reversed and placed above the stp; the exclamation mark was an J above su 0, representing the Latin exclamation fo ip the form of a single symbol ‘The other symbol of status isthe quotation mark. This is used ta (for exa "Ie says “Bough-wough!” * eried Daisy ‘Another tradition has double quotation marks for sayings and single ‘ones for thoughts. But the two have often been used more or less inter changeably. ‘We cam then recognise third, rather minor function, about which lt 0 generalise, but which we could perhaps label vaguely “relation markers’, This includes (1) the hyphen, which sig end), showing variant, as in the negative finites ec.) or, by convention, that a noun is possessive (Fred's, he girls’) al printed version of the sentence fon fashion (continuous zigzag) is a8, above in One thing wae conn, toi was he black i “Looting Gass, Bodley Head, London, 1974, ch ‘Table 3.2 summarises the categories of punctuation in English, How punctuation relates to grammar and phonology As far as the use of the status mar fet. Inthe first pl 4 ‘Table 3.2 Categories oF English punctustion Type Feature represented Symbol general etic name form ‘word space phrase; - Boundary matical | clause ae : markers, | nits = classe closing semicolon |: opening | colon ie SF ———F statement information [question | question |? exchange tack speech other command, i Fnetion functions ‘torus markers sing ‘quote projection | quotation, doube order; ‘que or wording | any unit | apposition dash =a Relation digression arenthesis rarkers . — oe (compound) | linkage hyphen - (com ve [ possessive, | omission apostrophe | fegative | In the second place, in those registers that are not confined (0 Satements, sich as dramatic dialogue and narrative fiction, le uncertainty about where these other categories occur People tend to agree on what a question is incipal variation is inthe use ofthe exclamation mark, which some writers are much freer with than others, and in the dist en single and double inverted commas, which tends to be ph 35 Langueze remains is written down, ‘she in.a shop? And was ing the thor side of But the boundary markers allow for systema order to understand this we need to ask how they ‘writing AS long unconscious of it it, As Franz Boas observed rhany years ago: be phenomens inguistic classifications hich are farm ways ‘speculte about linguists extegor (Boas (0.8. p56. 58) Greece a of course, was a grammar of the written language. linconscious of the nature of spontanecus conversa tion, and have remained so to this day; but they became aware of the structure of language through a study of what was writen down. They became er ‘and gave nares 10 sentence and word, and later on phrase and clause. When pai developed, the boundary markers were associated with these grammatical units language, shich has the same us ying grammar the tone group (a phonological luni, characterised by intonation: one melodie movement, oF tone contour): other things being equal, each clause is spoken as one tone group. Hence, ifone is writing connected discourse in English, the pone- tuation can be thought of (and is unconsciously interpreted) indifer~ as marking off grammatical units or ss marking off prosodic ings are often not equal. The reason why the ‘is meaningful is precisely as a means of giving struc- ‘the message. The tone group expresses 8 unit of information, ‘hat the speaker chooses to encode as a single message block; the relation ofthis to the clause is merely the base tine, to which al other ‘So a speaker may lowever, other association between clause and tone alignments can be related as a point of refere 36 is composing with spoken discourse, then ance; he is sructuring the text prosod and hence a conflict may arise. Is he to pune honologically? What is match up with tone groups, they differ, and the oth across a writer who seems s arise. Many writers shift between ont ‘of combine both if they ean; but occasionally we come gly to favour one or the other type— punt idoal style @ and. as Sebastian came fo sla leapt down from the gate and, 26 Sebastian came forwan her look of reeognition tepretation of the text in phono rms~each stretch between commas cortesponding to a tone group. Note that in neither case does the comma imply a pause, although in loud reading itis often understood that way. Written texts with minimal punctuation: punctuation and pausing which punctuation is reduced to a minimurs. The legal language: the old theory wa that puncti ‘There are registers ‘best known exam 3 ‘0 styles of poncts ion: acording the minimem of punctuation” a Tegal ocument ation marks were too unstable to be relied on—they could be left out in copying, or fraudulently deleted or inserted: ant s0 sx ‘that mace use of no punctuation at all, Hence the production of sentences such as the following (from mortgage agreement): “That if the Morigapor inthe opinion of CAGA which opinion may be evidenced by a ofthe Adoraeys refered 0 in rakes default Drejudice to any other right power or remedy of CAGA to perform ot Observe any sich overs ‘and for that purpose to da or attempt to do to remedy ‘oF attempt to remedy any and every such defi tafaction oF CAGA’And all moneys 30 paid shall be repayable by the Mortgegor ‘upon demand ana be deemed part ofthe moneys secured hereby OF in any security collateral hereto and-cary interest accordingly ti payment. Giom CAGA Memorandum of Mortgage) If we ty to read this aloud, we are likely to end up breathless, because we have not taken time off to breathe, Punctuation provides ‘meant to be read In other kinds of tex, the eect of hurrying the reader along" is created by the absene feature that may reflect note how the absence of punctuation seems to promote rapid ‘since there is no indiation where internal boundaries should 25 cm long with one edge x stright edge and fix the semieirle tothe wood vo tht the diameter Is along the Straight edge-A piece of string about 10 cnt lang has one end attached ‘0 the centre ofthe diameter and a small weight wo the oer so that i may hang freely. (A. MeMallen & 3.1, sms, On Course Methematice 2, ‘The effect on reading aloud is very different if we rew Internal boundaries. ‘Take a piece of wood, ledge; and fix the semi the straight edge. A piece of string about 10 cm lor cond attached to the centre of the diameter, and a siall ‘may hang 38 Although in reading aloud we tend to inser aries marked by punetuation, the pause itsefis note structural feature. If you listen to spontaneous discourse, there will of course be pauses from time to time; but not only are they fewer, and shorter, thaa those get fare characteristic ddo net come in the same rather, the speak tens to pase in ehe of a structure when he of she comes to an unexpected word (ane that has a low frequency in the language, or is not predi context) in question, “There is very rarely any pause, however, at grammatical or phono- logical boundaries. The “boundary” berween one clause and another i an analytic concept; while that between one toxe group and anocher i'w complex melodic and rhythmic phenomenon, 4 change in the contour of the melody and not loc in time, In neither case is there any determi immatical or phono- using. If we pause when fea with that activity, here ‘being consciously reprocessed and translated iato the 3 medium, Functions of the written language Writing evolves in response to needs that arise a8 2 result of ealtoral changes. The par ‘writing, was the comples of events changed Tanguage serves their requirements perfectly adequat is precisely what it evolved in order to do. ‘When some communities took to husbanding and cultivating, and so ensuring a regular and increasing supply of food, their patteras of culture underwent certain fundamental changes: populations increased, there was “division of labour’, power structures arose, wealth was dis for whose purposes the spoken language was no longer enough. Language had to be reduced to a form where it existed rather than simply happening where a text could be referred to over and over 39 Soundary markers, and pausing | Writing evaives to serse nes funtion, language tn ‘osien place of writen guage eve be performed each ies. Is minds ike the literature nrocess lad Wisuil cepeesentatc proper ecording language: re Pes, sid be composed losophical postions argued lyric and en down, and then came is were celebrated and ‘composition of wetten nurden ofthe transmission of eu rating studies that have tbecome (oF will become) classes: for example, the work of Marshall MeLthan. Jack Goody, and Walter Ong (MeL.uhan 1962; Guody 1968: ur own sky and tion of written tanguage. ople achieve though reading ers = 3), for information, from, that one has read during the course of 3 might look something like the following: 1 action e.g. on roads and stutions; product labels and Instructions, ¢.g, on food, tools, or toys purchased; rec menus; telephone dirs ‘computer manuals, monitors, and printouts jal contact ° Correspondence: letters, postcards, greeting cards magazines; non- ‘uideboots an 40 fiction books; poetry and -ech. ‘The complexity of the writen language is its density of substance, solid like that of a diamond formed uncer pressure. BY contrast the complexity of spoken language i ity intcicacy iquid like that of a rapidly running river. To use @ analogy, the structure of spoken language is of 2 choreo- sraphic kind. Of course, much conversation very short turns; and here the poi patierns does not get ful ight seem, because what happens in dialogue is thatthe speakers share in the production ofthe discourse; so tha although the grammar does not show the paratactic and hypotactic patterns of the clause complex inthe way that these appear When the same speater holds the Foor, some of the same semantic relations may be present across tums. Here are two examples, one of three adult speakers, the other of an 87 raphe conception 2 soRre eB 88 IL oh F yes it sa by a / snake ff 11 sort 1 don’t / Kove ex 1/4 aetiy deep / hole in my 1/1 foot 171 made me / very 1 sinee of //13 somieb from the / snake's / poison U7, sells the fsertim / allergy 1 isn't 2 (horse / serum / allergy / 1113 yes that’s / right ic Hl was a {horse serum /allespy i! 111 yes //1 T've / got i¢ 171 too 1 don’t be / bien by a / snake / then // ve / got it/1 how do you / know / you've / got it! . of conftracting / tetanus by 1 being inijéeted algainst / tetanus /! 12. you / had! tetanus // a yee 201 and / what / happened / then // 14 Oh 1 went / rigid for 1/3 thirty-six / hours and thea J!4 fortunately the ef fect / passed / off /? 1713 usually JH s0 that / wasn’t / Tong e/novgts to i/4 mean that you / starved 1 1/1 no the 1/4 danger isn't / usually starlvation i's... (11 , it atlacks'the / respiratory / system and when //13 that 7 happens you 1/3 no longer breathe and //1 therefore you di few J minstes {7 1 bite of a / mamba you 1/3 just sa! bye by 8 mambs 3 paralyse your / brea not / poison recently // sppa/ratus same! way’ Just has a / paralysing eff 7H where / were you / ducing those / thirty-six / hours then 1 that you were (I rigid 11 Win T hed i 12, ac I home {i 172 in your / own / bed or in a //1 hospital / bed /! UT at Thome it was a 1/4 long / time al go /7 of a / ear and was //1 therefore infjected ang 73 then a / few months / later T//1 fell off my / bike and «1/4 , sort of/ broke / everything / could and they in//1 jected ine again... and 1/3, you / shouldn't have / J over it but //4 T didn’t get any 1/ (recorded by Afaf Elmenouy) Railway, 1829) IN: IPL what is there inthe / water that / makes you / sink //2 ina marsh i! F: TA mothing i's /4 jus / ordinary water (1, you / always 4 sink in / water // iy 1 can’t you / swim in the / water // see //1 , beleause it / isn't / deep e/novgh (11 ith mud and / weeds 17 to 7 t00 i? fon to / England 1/2 alway /) ‘near the / marsh (1 near # Moss 1, and / Chat ? Moss is / all / part of / England 1 ithas) England / all J round {7 Ni 124 2 so the / trains could have gone //1 round a //L long / way //1, but it would have / been too / f ght they 1/4 could have gone / round but it would een too / far /f 2 / Rocket was the / fastest / train inthe Jw because in / England ins in the world’, they J only / had in England be/cause they / dhought it/ would have 1 ve / ercible | accidents and they would have //1 been too / fast /L how fast did the Rocket / go 1 IL wwenty-nine f miles an / hour 1) NL, that’s / just about / one / mile an / hous for 14 these 41 days 118 , ut for / those / days 1/5 wow if it was zn (opie: the Rainhill ils for the Liverpool & Manchester 89 the importance of vansenbing spoken language sensibly snd with onder- standing Transcribing spoken texts ‘Why has it become customary to regard the spoken language as ¢ Jointed and shapeless? There Seem to be three main reasons for this ready rferred ing; to say ‘non liter to be a more relisble way of prese. ing them; which means that the value is now transferced fo written language, and speech comes to be regarded as transitory and inconsequent ‘The second reason is that when people begin to transeribe spoken texts, in the age of tape recorders, they are so taken up withthe hesita- tolisten to language would have aid of tape recorders, surprise; but unless you are iguist you are likely to process speech and its wordings very natural nixed up al version-—and then saying ‘Wow! what a mess’. Umagine reading out an unedited are having to think about what they are saying, and work out ments as they go along. The ordinary everyday exchanges the gossip amang neighbours, bandy around whea ive that people ig together over a meal or atthe bar— and also the pragmatic discourse that is engendered when people are red in some co-operative enterprise—these tend to be much more and articulated, because the speakers are not having to think fl the time about what they are to the planning ys this is like ‘ofa poem, oF children’s composition not use these documents ten language. In the same wa} of speech, making ap preserving ing are some of the traneripti English thac are in current use; the references, for spoken iow where they may |. Survey of English Usage system R. Quirk & J. Svartik, A Corpus of English Conversation (Longman, London, 1980), il, Teacher Talk (Oxford University 5. Language Development Notation LE, Bloom, Language Development: Form and Function in Emerging Grammars (MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970), Norwood, New Ierscy, 1984). netional system Spoken English: Part 3, Inton sdon, 1970). being used here. 1t was or to foreign students, but has s and edu Purposes. ere is nothing wrong with ‘ordinary orthography. Ths i easy to read and avoids look exotic, The important requirement if orthography is to punctuate the te ‘We have emphasised all slong that writing is not speech for is speech writing that is read aloud. But the two are ma ing system; and if the one is being represented through the eyes, or ear, of the her, tis important rouse the sesources in the appropriate way. I you ead writen language aloud, you do your sound meaningful. The same guiding principle applies spoken language dove. devised for teaching spoken En; been used for a variety of lint For very many purposes, however, transeribing making th of the same unde 91 ve kinds of| feanscrpton in ChapterT Speaking, writing, and learning Differences between speech and writing of saying. They are gs. To go back to our from Chapter 2: in language, a network system) is encode; ‘of expressions. The expression cultures, makes use ofthe medium of sound (p {in some cultures it also makes use ofthe visual or “gtaphological” system). Can we say, then, tat talking and writing are different ways of (saying) the same meanings (things)? The answer we are i Must Be: yes, and no. Yes, in the sense that the two are © “utputs’—alrernatve realisations of the meaning pate can be said in writing can also be said in versa, The to are both language; and language {is more important than either. I: is « mistake t0 become (09 much sessed with the medium "At the sams "ime ‘at we should recogt ere are sp answer must be ‘no™ Iti rather Tike the in any one human language ean a y other. Asa general ‘and itis a fundamental and significant truth: all same potential for expressing human meanings. But cach language has evolved in its own culture; and while Well adapted to serve the needs of (i.e. express the meanings of| the culture within which it itself developed, iti mot 0 well equipped for expressing the meanings of anotner culture, Aboriginal languages are not in fact, s—nor are European langeages Each would have to adapt such different demands, ‘There is an anology with speech end wi the respects in which we would have to q to the meaning el in order to meet ing. We could identity 'e generalisation that 92 effects: spoken language does not boundaries, oF sign es hese are Ts mainly forthe reasoe the fist place: namely, that there are fferent functions to which each ore is appropriate To that extent, lerefore, they ave n the ar in having both speech and w ed the functions of each other. chapter: that speech and nce. There is @ sense in ing creates a world of thins; “asics is not an easy ques shall not solve it here. Bue it deserves special if ine sketchy—section of the discussion to isl Grammatical metaphor turn up. On the writen side, we tend to have rather few different verbs; those ‘apart from be and 8 (represent, comprise, form, add up to, constitute, te), verbs such as lead 10, cause, allow, allow, derive, cover, are the names of circumstantial relator wed the “after the announcement, people applauded ‘applause 93 Expres by spoken Tangeage? lead “in view of this development, this development cou toa different outcome things might tern out in speech or in ‘That is to say, am example $0 hhe derived much satisfaction “because of this di igen e * es from this discovery, he was very ‘The council's proposed replacement of subsidies by a loan is incur: her speech covered five points ‘she spoke about : ring the biter resentment of the ofession. ide, We find a greater range of verbs. These verbs are ‘contains of grammatical metaphor, and we ean produce various les metaphors! Versions of it, such as, fori epee ‘Because the council is proposing to lend money instead of giving : oe it, (people who work as) doctors are feeling bitteriy resent seattle a stperte Doctors bitenly resent it that te council is proposing that money afer they had announced (i), people applauded should be lent instead of being given. in view of what has Ic makes no ditference whether on a pa \was written or spoken; the point is that the less metaphorical variants Spoken forms are tend to occur in speech and the more metaphorical ones tend to occur _ perhaps “nearar the one “arammaccat in writing. Hence we can say that writen language is associated with aap 8 the use of grammatical metaphor sure of writen rp ieuse/applauded, dscoverlascovery, and so on. (Members of sch many instances of grammatical metaphor Tonguase pars are ‘the same words’ inthe sense that they ae the same LEXICAL that are just as much ith speech, Some of them may have iffering only in derivation of inlexion.) The metaphor is in been borrowed from writing in the first place; but not necessarily 30 and some are particularly characteristic of speech, such a8 that by which tion ofa lexically 'be represented, Of English, as'2 verb, hes Been represented principle is at work here as possible to expand nouns more e ‘make the same silly mistake, gave two or three war ‘nice bot bath, which are not easy to express wi than verbs, and to say things like ng growls, have we verbs err, grout, thing, or something is nappening ‘he and bathe, Novertheles this kind of cross-coding in saracterisic of Ww of English the phenomenon is happened’: two processes, related ay of expressing a time relations! processes in the grammar is by a hypotactic of para complex: ach Detween, ie clause Sifferent times id metaphor, since they are mastered language development. from specific ro general, Children have no diftiulty with this; a8 soon as they get into the mother tongue, the fact that ve learnt to name things at al! means tht they have got the ether their gs. They have to learn what the exact bound- 8 ngnage clock, what is a watch, what ig “opment le that words name clases, and after they had announced it, people applauded 8a they announced it, then people applauded 1" 2 ‘But by the use ofa grammatical metaphor, the time felation is encoded there was just one process—a “heaning’ instead they 13 and one of applauding, idea ofa elass oft pressing something metaphy metaphoric rammar from protolanguage. One could iolanguage as being metaphorical, ney involve a transference of meaning, The qu involved in the phenomenon we are considering each will appear as metaphorical if viewed from the standpoint ofthe other, whether there is reason for regarding either ! fone as the more congruent. I. He has told his mother along Aouble-decker bus; she says "Those are very interesting ‘observations’, Nigel: ‘What did she mein by observations?—there of a train.) 94 95 the imporance of spoken language in ‘sucttion have a bath type, spoken form) differen ways of leaning because they are diferent ways of kao “The welten language presets a S*MOPDIC view I, defines universe as prot rhe thas process, Whether we a al Tayou of» house or the or have with primary hol extooks, when tee employ granmatl of food with hands i is sense, therefore, wri highly coded, more removed from—or less direct categories of our experience. This in tun, if We are ‘ur perceptions of what ty sor is ike. There is, surely, a relation he way our experience is encoded in lang: n languge tends to be rather more ovean view. It defies its universe primarily proces; encoding Notas Sucre Ut As Constrctng-or demolishing. Ta the spoken ianguage, phenomena co cy happen They are scenes coming ino bang, changing, ovng in dont of os, Sn sy nating oto onward ; Tw. Tne ost ofthis perspective i that we tony have less awareness Learning through language sf how things actually are a 8 an t letsened sense of Bow they Most af what we lear, we ear sis ra even We emphasised earlier bat these i side in spoken and w prescted (0 us ‘hee that cepresents tings text in wi features ofeach variety clear he or she can use writen language as a tool for learning. in the same derive inthe frst place from the medium and the functions it serves, Way that he or she has alvays learnt through spoken language. In fac, ‘once it has evolved the varity becomes independent of the medium recently rover huve been expressed ‘and can be transposed into the other form. We can all learn to talk in tien Fanguage, and even (hough this is harder) to compose ‘conversation, Conclusion © always shown age, because ke the spokea language seriously. ig tiken Over many OF Society, but also our this has been determined by the pattern of speech roles thatthe spo Shee Weies cer are, language ses up: itis quicker and more effective to check whether a replaced oral memories as the repositories of collective wisdom and student knows the enswer by asking a question orally in class than by | ‘writen test every time. But there is more tot than that. Anyone ‘who teaches has a sense of what is communicated by speaking and what is communicated by w Th we star. - withthe gene en some learning takes place more effectively through the spoken language and some through the wrens ne obs” Tanguage and Of course, there are individual differences in learning style—some i learn more through the ear, others through the eye. And there are differ. ences in teaching style; other medium. But above and beyond these differences are the difercet part in sanctifying the writen fen down that it becomes an 7 nd writing a diferent ways of Bence ways oF ‘Traditional grammar as writen, There ate good reasons is move. Since language evolved as speect Jearnt as speech by the individual, we have to study i form if we are to understand it properly. 1 that was the only reason, the study of spoken language might ‘roup, remain the preserve of th tions to writen ‘There are at ‘spoken Locus of the constitution of things. feedback into 2). Because spoken language is her Feasons for taking value. We have pass as a bearer fence, for eximple, spoken they are timed to fit the task; whereas w fften have to be accompanied (or even replaced) by pis critical step was probably th language, onthe other ang, highlights the symone pect ‘eephone) Spec has regained at eas some of Pree tie ecerer of we netsesd paea ‘Tre er reason, and no es important. that refered 10 inthe ‘cies and speaking. as well as by reading iy a process of constructing meanings fe component in leacning is a process of constructing tnd the deaf systems of meaning, the ideational and interpersonal re create in and through guage, embody, as we have Seen, two com ives the and the dynamic, When we leara ieously as a universe of thi and happening. We can think of this in elation toa piece of machinery: in order to understand 8 synoptic view of its construction language of deaf communities; the’ Australian form of itis called ‘nustas. Functionally, it serves the normal purposes of a First spoken language are adapted to these two dimensions Language and of experience—in the threefold way in which language constructs our ea ty: Tnguage is world. Language is, at one and the same time, (I) & part of reality, 2) an account of reality. and (3) an image of reality. Let us see how his works out with speaking and writing Image 0 |. Obviously speaking and writing, and their counterpart listening and = reading, are both part of reality, in the sense that (once we become literate, atleast) Doth ester into our experience. We are, ourselves, speakers range of act 2. But when we do engage in verbal from other forms of act in 0 way kes up in another. A leap when learning quipped to cope with is further away from the wordings of 7 approaches to this problem is the use of ile that we eopege I om amon te whole ‘wordings expresed'in gestural form, We cannot pure these Issues here; but itis important to stress thatthe special problems of the deat are not intrinsic to language (provided tat «dea child of heating parents has access to sign). They are problems of adequate provision for theit specie needs, of communication with tke rest of the community, and Of the attitudes that others Rave towards them. ‘writen language in perspective spoken language the functions that language is called upon to serve: and performs 98 | 9 Ver vary ret, Wire a Se) eeewpln; mie Meebo pean Beene deyet oa. = sofreek Aibiges hu hanred Shang Abu ibe wind lee | decctbe tha whole slzakinn HR, Tilt a. tiny) & Cp sey Hepat o spel Heer 100 101 Appendix a 7 Special symbols Grammatical symbols sentence (clause complex) boundary clause boundary [group or phrase boundary embeded clause embedded group or phrase 1 tone group boundary 7 foot boundary bold tonic prominence (information focus) Hsing tonic) rising tonic) ing tonic) 13 tone 13 (1 followed by 3) Phonetic symbols (enclose phonetic trans 11 (enclose phonemic transer 102 ‘The international phonetic alphabet (Revised 10 1951) #/ ie ; i cE Hole : | | 7 Zale [+] | le a. : (Piss a 5 tls 4 Is aael-le-|-}-E- Atel | ail |e |. s iT — if By eee | Ble sazkedalevits 2g Ei dis etoat 103 [References Abercrombie, D., Studies in Phonetics and Linguistics, Language and Language Learning 10 (Oxford University Press, London, 1963) Boas, F., Introduction ro the Handbook of American lndian Languages (Georgetown University Press, Washington, DC originally published stl), Dixon, R.M.W., The Languages of Australia (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge). Goody, }., The Dormesticaion of the Savage Mind (Cambridge University ress, Cambridge, 1968), M.A.K., Intonation and Grammar in British English, Janua Linguerum Series Practica 48, (Mouton, The Hague, 1967) alliday, M.AK., An fi netienal Gra ‘Amold, London, Baltimore & Melbourne, 1985) Leakey, RE., & Roger, L., People of the Lake: Mankind and its Beginnings (Doubleday (Avsehor Books), Garden City, New Jersey, (Edward The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Mr» ‘Toronto Press, Toronto, 1962) Ong, W.t., Oralty and Literacy: The Technologizing ofthe Word, New (cents ‘Series (Methuen, London, 1982). Stele, J., An Essay towards Establishing the Metody and Measure of Spe 1 Expressed and Perpetuated by Peculiar Symbols (up. Sweet, Ha, A New English Grammar, Logical and Historical, Part I Syntax (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1898). Trevarthen, C., ‘Secondary intesubjectivity: Confidence, confiding and ‘acts of meaning in the frst year, in A. Lock (ed), Action, Gesture ‘and Symbol: The Emergence of Language (Academie Press, New York, 1978). ‘Trevarthen, C., ‘Communication and co-operation in early infancy: A

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