Analytical Commentary

The written discourse presented attempts to depict the childhood of an average Australian
in the 1950’s in the rural sea-side town of Warrnambool. Written by John Clarke under the
pseudonym of Dylan Thompson, the author replicates the prose ‘A Child’s Christmas in
Wales’ by Dylan Thomas, which also reminisces the life from earlier times in a nostalgic
light. The social purpose of the discourse is therefore to both entertain as well as to give
today’s readers a taste of life from before. The register of this discourse is highly informal,
exemplified by the common use of Australian colloquialisms and slang.
The most salient feature of this discourse is the lexicology. The discourse heavily contains
Australian colloquialisms and other slangs. Examples of this include ‘pav’, ‘for ‘ron’, ‘trout-
fit’, ‘sheep-rich’ and ‘two-horse’. The use of these typically Australian colloquialisms has the
purpose of building up a vivid image of Australia to the reader and helps to reinforce the
Australian-ness of the various activities mentioned in the discourse. What furthers this is the
fact that many of these expressions are mostly out of use today and therefore adds to the
nostalgia that this discourse is meant to convey to the audience. This contributes to the
social purpose of giving today’s readers a peek at the typical ‘Australian’ childhood of the
past. The choice of informal lexemes in this particular social purpose is highly sensible for
two primary reasons. The first is that the abovementioned use of slang and colloquialisms
that are characteristically Australian inherently will lower the register of the discourse. The
second, more nuanced, reason is that informality is a characteristic Australian value. The
informality of Australian society, especially in earlier times and in more rural areas, is
therefore conveyed in the discourse through its use of informal language. It is perhaps this
that motivates the first reason as it is a primary reason as to why Australian language has so
many rich colloquialisms that uniquely associated with being Australian.
The semantics of this discourse is also relatively nuanced and is key in delivering to the
social purpose of this discourse. This stems mostly from the use of Australian expressions.
The semantics of phrases such as ‘brown bee-humming’, ‘trout-fit’, ‘sheep-rich’ and ‘two-
horse’ may not immediately be understood. These metaphors attempt to characterize the
state of our country in that time frame: busy, fit, having lots of sheep and the two-party
state of national politics. Other examples of lexemes or phrases whose semantics carries
significant information of the context of this poem include the mentions of ‘sunburn
lotions’, a reference to the potent sun exposure in Australia, ‘wave-roaring’ and ‘salt-
squinting’, indicative of Warrnambool’s place as a sea side town which is explicitly
mentioned in line 2 and has implications in line 7 with mentions of ‘wet-haired youths’ who
have most likely been the beach. ‘Eucalyptus’ is a plant exclusive to Australia and California,
though it is associated more as a distinct symbol of Australia. References to the ‘fly wire
door’ in line 8 is also particularly effective due to the its ubiquity. The final lines (18-20)
make several references to cricket, a popular Australian sport. These references are used
metaphorically, such as in line 19, where it refers to the pitch as vowel-flattening, which is a
characteristic of the Broad accent of Australian English. The mention of ‘puberty’ in line 20
puts a fitting end to the prose which looks back at one’s childhood. It is these semantic
features of this text which aid it in achieving its social purpose of illustrating the Australian
way of life.
The coherence of this discourse relies heavily upon the ability for the reader to infer the
meaning of many of the phrases and lexemes used. It is however, heavily hindered in this
particular discourse by its references to things which many in the audience today are
unlikely to know as well as expressions that have fallen out of use. These include ‘trout-fit’,
‘Zephyr Six’ and ‘formica’. The use of Fahrenheit temperatures also reduces the coherence
of this text for the modern audience that may not have used the imperial system before.
There are, however, other references made that the modern audience should still be able to
infer from. These include cricket references in lines 18-20. In terms of cohesion, this
discourse follows the key principles of information flow, other than which the discourse is
mostly unremarkable.