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Language & Meaning: Style, Representation and Rhetoric

2. Ways of Speaking – exploring linguistic variability (Part 2)1. Linguistic indicators of ModeFollowing the work from the previous unit, we now turn to the issue of the Mode of a text and its linguistic indicators. Recall that under Mode we are interested in the nature of the text as a communicative event or action, in how it is produced and transmitted, in how it is organised internally as an unfolding sequence of meanings, and in how it relates to the context in which it is created or to the information it presents.

1.a InteractivityThe aspect of a text’s Mode which perhaps has the most obvious influence on the style of language is that of its interactivity. Here we are concerned with the following types of questions. Was it constructed through a process of interaction between multiple interlocutors or non-interactively by one writer or speaker in isolation? If it was constructed interactively, what was the nature of this interaction? For example, were those involved in immediate face-to-face contact as in the case of typical conversations, or was the contact oral/aural as in the case of a telephone call?

In many cases, whether or not the text is interactive or non-interactive will be obvious. Clearly, interactive texts involve turn taking, questions and answers, interruptions, overlaps, hesitators, and indicators of sympathetic support (e.g. ‘right’, ‘OK’, ‘yep’, ‘really’). Non-interactive texts do not.

This variation is very simply demonstrated by reference to the three texts with which we were primarily concerned in last set of notes. Text 4 (the one with the couple discussing their health problems) included all manner of interactive elements – for example, the sequence of question and answer as speakers exchanged turns; interruptions and overlaps as the exchange of turns was negotiated; supportive feedback insertions on the part of Speaker 1 as he/she encouraged the interviewees to continue their accounts. Predictably, the two written texts were entirely without such indicators of interactivity.

However, it needs to be noted that the situation is by no means always this straightforward. Consider by way of a very brief example the following extract from an article in a popular computing magazine. It is written and hence, presumably, non-interactive.

COMPUTERS get blamed for a lot of things. Whether it's a stock market crash, our children getting fatter or the decline in the state of the Top 40, you can bet it's all the fault of the PC. Sure, we all know computes are bad for us, but just how much damage can they do to this delicate wetware of flesh, bones and organs we all call home? [PC Basics, December 1998: p.30]

We notice here a number of what appear to be more interactive elements. For example, the writer’s apparent direct addressing of his audience (‘you can bet…’), his use of a question (‘just how much damage can they do…?’) and what appears to be a

© P.R.R. White. Language & Meaning: Style, Representation and Rhetoric. Unit 3 p. 1

response to some contribution from another speaker/writer (‘Sure, we all know…’) We’ll be considering what’s going on here communicatively in later units. For now it’s enough to note that the interactive versus non-interactive divide may not be as clear-cut as the earlier discussion may have suggested. And there are further questions arising from differences in the type of interactivity. For example, might we expect, and do we observe, systematic differences in face-to-face versus telephone conversations? And what about the new types of interactive texts made possible by technological innovation such as those which occur in written form in online chat rooms or bulletin boards? To what degree are these similar to, or different from, spoken interactions.

4. b SpontaneityA second key aspect of Mode is that of spontaneity. Here we are concerned with whether the text was produced ‘on-the-spot’, so to speak, spontaneously and without the opportunity for pre editing or correction (as is typically the case in casual conversation) or whether it was produced non-spontaneously by means of a process by which is was possible to edit and correct the text (as is the case with much written language)?

Some indicators of spontaneity will be relatively obvious – for example, pauses, mid-utterance corrections or reformulations, repetitions, abrupt topic changes. Other indicators will be less obvious. For example, research has discovered that there is a close correlation between the spontaneity/non-spontaneity of a text’s production and the density with which the text packages its information. High densities of information are associated with non-spontaneous production, with what is sometimes termed ‘off-line’ production. Lower densities of information are associated with spontaneous, ‘on the fly’, production, with what is sometimes termed ‘online’ or ‘real-time’ production.

Differences in informational densities are possible because texts are made up of both ‘informational’ and ‘non-informational’ words. Informational words are lexical items which refer directly to aspects of the experiential world, to entities (people, places, things, etc), to actions or happenings, or to the qualities of entities of actions/happenings. These informational items are sometimes also called ‘lexical’ items or ‘content’ items. In terms of the traditional parts of speech (word classes), we can say that these informational/lexical words include nouns, verbs, adjectives and some adverbs. In contrast, non-informational terms don’t directly refer to aspects of the experiential world. Rather they are ‘grammatical’ words whose function is to link together these informational/lexical words to form sentences. That is to say, they act to join other words together into phrases, to set up links between words within a text, or to indicate relationships between other words.

To illustrate these non-informational/grammatical items, consider the following sentence.

Fred and Mary quickly arranged to meet by the Town Hall because the station was unexpectedly flooded. They did not realise the huge problems this would bring

It is a fairly straightforward process to identify the informational/lexical words here – those words which directly designate entities, actions or qualities. Thus words which designate entities are:


Fred, Mary, Town Hall, station, problems.

Words which designate actions, happenings, or states of affairs are:

arranged, meet, flooded, realise, bring.

Words which designate qualities are:

quickly, unexpectedly, huge.

This leaves us with the following non-informational/grammatical items (indicated in bold/underlining)

Fred and Mary quickly arranged to meet by the Town Hall because the station was unexpectedly flooded. They did not realise the huge problems this would bring

Some explanation might be required here.

The term ‘and’ obviously doesn’t refer to any aspect of material reality – there is no ‘and’ which can be pointed to or observed in the external word. Its function is purely a grammatical one – to link together ‘Fred’ and ‘Mary’ as those who were jointly involved in this ‘arranging to meet’.

To term ‘to’ in ‘arranged to meet’ is also ‘grammatical’. It functions simply to link ‘arranged’ with ‘meet’.

The term ‘by’ is ‘grammatical’ in that it acts to indicate the relationship which obtains between Fred and Mary’s ‘meeting’ and ‘the Town Hall’. It indicates that the relationship is one of co-location.

The term ‘the’ also doesn’t refer to any aspect of the material world. It functions grammatically to indicate that the item so designated (‘the Town Hall’, ‘the station’) is known or can be specifically identified. It indicates that we know which Town Hall or which station is being referred to. In this it contrasts with ‘a’ (as in ‘a station’) which acts to indicate that the item so designated is not known or can not be specifically identified.

There are no ‘becauses’ in the material world. It is a ‘grammatical’ item which acts to indicate the relationships between Fred and Marry arranging to meet by the Town Hall and the station being flooded. ‘Because’ indicates that the relationship between these two utterances is one of causality. Thus ‘because’ indicates a logical relationship.

‘Was’ is possibly the most problematic of these grammatical items. It indicates the location in time when this flooding occurred. Specifically it indicates past time (or tense.) Now ‘pastness’ may seem to be an aspect of the material world. But this is only an illusion. This notion of relative time is a construct of human consciousness as that consciousness operates through language. Accordingly, lexical items which only indicate the relative timing of an action (was, is, are, were, will, have, had, has) are classified as non-informational or ‘grammatical’.

The term ‘they’ may also strike you as problematic. But notice that ‘they’ of itself is incapable of referring directly to entities in the material world. It is only via its linkage with the informational items ‘Fred’ and ‘Mary’ that it is able to refer. Accordingly we see pronouns such a ‘they’ as grammatical/non-informational in that


they always refer to some other word (or words) and not directly to the material world.

Words classes (parts of speech)It is extremely useful, then, to be able to identify and to distinguish between these informational/lexical and non-informational/grammatical word classes (or parts of speech) should we want to investigate the informational loading of a text or the likelihood that it was spontaneously produced. More specifically, such a knowledge will be useful if, for example, we want to investigate such issues as the differences between speech and writing, whether email is more like speech or more like writing, why some writing manages to sound quite ‘spontaneous’ and conversational, why some lectures are almost impossible to follow, and the degree to which the language of television drama and soap opera does actually imitate real casual conversation. It is very useful, then to be able to reliably identify the informational/lexical word classes of noun, verb, adjective and adverb, and the non-informational/grammatical word classes of article, pronoun, preposition, auxiliary, and conjunction.

Now, it’s possibly that you are already familiar with this material and can confidently classify words according to their class. If so, then you may want to jump forward to Activity 5 (page 16 below) where you will have the opportunity to apply this knowledge to a informational loading/lexical density analysis of three of the extracts we worked with in the previous chapter. However, before you do this, you probably ought to have a go at the pre-test which is provided just below. It will give you a chance to test your level of knowledge.

Pre-test – perhaps you already know this stuff?This test is intended for those who feel that they are familiar with the material, or suspect they know most of it at least. The test will check your knowledge. If you find that that you answer all questions correctly then you probably can afford to miss the material which comes immediately after, or at least skim read it. Do note, however, that there is no expectation that you should be familiar with this material - in fact, I am assuming that this material will be new or largely new to most, or at least many of you. So if this is largely or entirely new, then there’s probably not a great deal of use in even attempting the test – you should go directly to the first ‘word class’ section immediately below.Pre-test for following sectionsIdentify the ‘word class’ or ‘part of speech’ of the underlined words in the following sentences. That is, you should classify them as one of the following: noun, pronoun, adjective, article, preposition, verb, auxiliary, adverb or conjunction. At the same, classify each word as either an informational/lexical item or a non-informational/grammatical item/For example, if you were provided with ,The sound of his footsteps resonated down the empty corridor.as a question, your answer would supply the ‘word class’ of ‘sound’, ‘down’, ‘empty’ and ‘corridor’. Specifically:sound = noun; informational/lexicaldown = preposition; non-informational/grammaticalempty = adjective; informational/lexicalcorridor = noun; informational/lexical


1. The extreme rigidity of the hull is probably what saved their boat from breaking up.

2. His leaving the company in a hurry came as a welcome surprise

3. The government’s intervention in the tender process means that the contract will have to be completely renegotiated.

4. I do like his cooking but his pomposity gets my goat.

See Appendix to check your answers

Word classes sectionNounsWe will begin, then, with looking at nouns. Many of you will be familiar with the definition by which this word class is said to consist of those words which name things, people and places, that is to say concrete entities.. This is accurate to a certain extent. All words which name places, people and things are nouns – thus, woman, dog, cliff, city, apple, clouds, water, wheat, oxygen, monster, corner, circle, hypotenuse, slope, and so on. We might consider such words as ‘prototypical’ examples of the noun category in that they reference concrete entities. The grammatical situation, however, are rather more complicated. As it turns out, while all words which reference people, places and things are nouns, not all nouns which reference people, places and things. There are some nouns which reference rather different types of phenomena – for example courage, destruction, amazement, decision, marriage, democracy, difference, disaster, necessity, speech, truth, evil, skill, speed, cause, purpose, statement, reason, means. These are nouns which are classed as ‘abstract’ on the basis that they don’t reference concrete people, places or things. So why are such classed as nouns? It’s all to do with the positions such words can occupy in relation to other words in the sentence, and only indirectly to do with what they reference.

Let me demonstrate this point. The defining property of nouns is, in fact, their unique ability to combine with the words the, a(n) or some to form a meaningful chunk or unit in the sentence. Thus we say the man, the city, the decision, the destruction, the reason, the stupidity, the cause, the difference, the necessity, and so on, regardless of whether or not the word is referring to a thing, person or place (that is to say, regardless of whether the ‘entity’ is concrete or abstract.) Notice that, in fact, we have here nouns which reference not only things and places but also actions/happenings (the destruction), qualities (the stupidity) and logical relations (the reason). So while the phenomena being referenced here are diverse (things, places, people, actions, happenings, qualities, logical relations), all these words are classified as nouns on the basis of the position the word can occupy – namely that of combining with, and coming after, the or a(n) in a sentence. The diagnostic, then, for identifying a noun is not a semantic or functional one – we don’t ask what the word means. Rather, we apply ‘formal’ or ‘structural’ criteria and ask what slots within the sentence the word currently occupies or is capable of occupying.


There is just the one instance where this definition may appear to break down – the case of so-called ‘proper’ nouns such as Adelaide, John, British Telecom, Microsoft Word. These are probably reasonably easy to recognise as nouns on semantic (meaning) grounds – words that fall into the category of ‘proper noun’ all act to name ‘individuals’, that is to say, individual places, people, institutions/companies, products etc, and remember that we said that all words which name such individual entities are nouns. (It helps, of course, that they all take capital letters in English.) But still, it’s slightly problematic for our definition in that terms such as Adelaide and John don’t seem to combine with ‘the’ or ‘a’, etc. We say, for example, ‘I went to see John’, not ‘I went to see the John’. Never fear, however, a solution is in sight. It is possible, under the right conditions, to combine such ‘proper nouns’ with ‘the’ or ‘a’. Thus – ‘It’s no longer the Adelaide that I knew and loved as a child’ and ‘This is exactly the British Telecom which we have all learnt to hate.’

By way of illustration, all the nouns in the following paragraph have been underlined.

It doesn’t matter if you are typing up huge documents in a wordprocessor or trying to get to the next level on Quake II; if you use a mouse, joypad or keyboard for long periods, it can cause damage to your wrists, lower arms, and indeed the rest of your body.

Nouns, obviously, are informational or content words. They contribute to the informational load of the text. The higher the frequency of nouns, the greater the informational load being carried by the text and thus the greater its ‘lexical density’. Activity 1.Identify the nouns and proper nouns in the following. (check against answer key in Appendix)

1.

"WHEN I was growing up with my mum and dad at home," says Steffi, "I used to hear the rows. My dad and mum are married and we lived with her son and daughter by another chap not married to her.

"They're older than me and living with partners now. They have a baby each and more on the way. My half-brother's girlfriend doesn't work because she didn't like him spending so much time away from her. So he had to give up his job to stay at home with her.

2.

The cockroach is probably the most obnoxious insect known to man. Several species of cockroaches have managed to acquire a relationship with man, rivalled perhaps only by lice and flees. These insects are known vectors of certain rickettsial organisms and other diseases (plague and murine typhus) but like the bed-bug, cockroaches may only be accidental carriers of pathogens. Nevertheless, there is a considerable body of evidence to incriminate cockroaches as potential carriers of disease whose importance in this area is becoming more fully recognised.

See the appendix for answers.


Articles, demonstrative pronouns and possessive pronounsArticlesThe little words – i.e. the, a(n) – which combine with nouns in this way are known as ‘articles’, with the known as the ‘definite article’ and a(n) as the ‘indefinite article’. They always occur in combination with the noun (preceding it) and act to indicate whether the entity being referred to by the noun is assumed to be known or identifiable or whether, alternatively it is assumed to be unknown or not yet identified. Thus if I say,

I brought the teacher an apple.

I am assuming that those I am addressing don’t know which apple I am referring to and could not identify it.

If, however, I say,

Have you cleaned the car.?

I am assuming my interlocutor knows exactly which car I am referring to and certainly can identify it.

Demonstrative pronouns.

There are two other types of words which are similar to articles in that they also combine with nouns to provide information about the identifiability of the noun. Consider by way of example,

This essay is perfect while that essay has some serious problems.

Here we have two essays which are assumed to be identifiable by reference to proximity to the speaker – ‘this essay’ is the one nearest the speaker, while ‘that essay’ is the one which is further away. These words are known as ‘demonstrative pronouns’.

Possessive pronouns

And finally there are what is known as possessive pronouns. For example,

My apple; their problem.

These again are words which combine with nouns. They indicate that the entity in question is assumed to be identifiable via possession. Thus the apple I am talking about is the one ‘I’ own or hold or have control of, and the problem I am talking about is the one that ‘they’ have or which is their immediate concern. Such words are called pronouns because ultimately they ‘stand-in’ for or replace (the meaning of ‘pro’) an actual noun. For example,

Peter’s apple (my apple); the team’s problem. (their problem)

These three types of words (articles, demonstrative pronouns, possessive pronouns) are known together as ‘determiners’ in that they act to ‘determine’ the noun. Determiners are non-informational or grammatical, since they, don’t of themselves, refer to aspects of the experiential world. It is only in combination with a noun (an informational element) that they can carry a meaning. These determiners do not carry any informational load of their own.


Pronouns We’ve just mentioned one sub-type of pronoun – the ‘demonstrative’ variety. We’ll now turn to looking at this word class more generally. Pronouns are words which act to stand in for nouns, though this is not an exhaustive definition – some pronouns stand in for other types of words or word combinations. Consider the following extract,

But cockroaches are just the thing – you just get them anywhereYeah but when you tread on them, they crunch

Here the words ‘them’ and ‘they’ act to stand in for, or to link back to, the noun ‘cockroaches’. Accordingly they are examples of pronouns.

Pronouns in English include, I, me, you, yourself, he, him, she, hers, we, us, they, them, it, that, this, those, these, my, our, their, there, ours, someone, everybody, no one, anybody, something, who, which, what, whom, why.

The term ‘pronoun’ is, in a sense, a misnomer since, as just indicated, in many instances, words classified as ‘pronouns’ don’t stand in for nouns but stand in for different word classes or for rather larger units of language. Thus pronouns often stand in for whole clauses - that is to say, entire statements or propositions. Consider the following,

I just screamed and jumped on the chair and as I did that my books went flying everywhere

Here the word, ‘that’ is a pronoun which stands in for the whole proposition, ‘I just screamed and jumped on the chair.’

Pronouns can also stand in for phrases. For example,Have you been to Europe? / No, I’ve never been there

Here the pronoun, ‘there’ references or stands in for the phrase, ‘to Europe’.

In other instances, words which we classify as pronouns don’t really stand in for anything at all, but rather work more as grammatical slot fillers. Tthey provide a word for a grammatical slot but don’t carry any referential meaning. Thus the ‘it’ in ‘it was raining’ doesn’t stand in for, or link to any identifiable word or string of words – noun or otherwise.

Since pronouns of themselves can’t reference phenomena in the experiential world, they are classed as non-informational/grammatical. They don’t add to the information load because they refer to entities or other meanings which must already have been mentioned in the text.

Activity 2

Identify the determiners (articles, possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns) and other pronouns in the following

I had skin cancer. I'd been digging in the garden and and I don't know whether I scratched myself with a 'cos I was doing my I don't whether a s+ a thorn caught me on the nose and then I'd been digging

Cats and all sorts had been digging about, I hate cats, and it wouldn't heal up and it was going on and I was getting cream cream on my nose - it never ha+ healed up you see. So I went to the doctor's and they looked at it down the


infirmary. Then they had to have those all these specialists round you you know and I thought, Why the heck am I seeing other people.

Answers available in the Appendix.AdjectivesThe adjective is another word class which works in combination with the noun. They are words which refer to the qualities and characteristics associated with nouns. That is to say, they act to describe or classify nouns. Adjectives can either precede the nouns they describe (the beautiful, golden trumpet) or be linked back to a noun by means of a verb such as ‘to be’ (the trumpet is beautiful).

Adjectives have been indicated by means of underlining in the following extract.

It doesn’t matter if you are typing up huge documents in a wordprocessor or trying to get to the next level on Quake II; if you use a mouse, joypad or keyboard for long periods, it can cause damage to your wrists, lower arms, and indeed the rest of your body.

Adjectives, of course, are informational/lexical and carry informational load. They add to the lexical density of the text.NumeratorsQuite closely related to adjectives are words which don’t indicate the qualities of nouns but rather indicate their number. For example,

Non-specific: a few apples, some apples, several apples, many apples, most apples

Specific: one apple, ten apples, the third train

Non-specific numerators are classed as non-informational/grammatical (since they reflect the speaker’s perspective and not some objective aspect of the external domain), while specific numerators are treated as informational/lexical (though there is some debate about this)

Activity 3

Identify adjectives and numerators in the following

The cockroach is an obnoxious insect. Several species have acquired a close relationships with man which is rivalled perhaps only by lice and flees. These insects are important vectors of rickettsial organisms and similar diseases (plague and murine typhus) but like the bed-bug, cockroaches may be accidental carriers of pathogens. Nevertheless, there is a considerable body of evidence to incriminate cockroaches as potential carriers of disease.

Answers available in the AppendixVerbsVerbs act to indicate what action, happening, or state of affairs is occurring. They also act to describe nouns by attributing qualities or identities to them.

Happenings can involve,

physical actions: they crushed the cockroach / the cockroach climbed the wall / the cockroach exploded / many cockroaches live in my house


processes to do with human cognition and emotions: I hate cockroaches / Cockroaches terrify me. / I felt something on my leg / I don’t believe in giant cockroaches

processes to do with the communication of information: he told a story about cockroaches / he says he hates cockroaches

As well, verbs act to attribute qualities and identities to nouns:

attributing: The cockroach was huge. / Those cockroaches sound dangerous.

identifying: That cockroach is my pet / The Australian bush cockroach is the ugliest of all.

Additionally, verbs may act to indicate possession or constitution:

Fred has/owns six cockroaches / Cockroaches have six legs.

Obviously verbs will be classed as informational/lexical since they point to actions, happenings or states of affairs in the experiential domain. They contribute to the lexical density of the text.(verbal) AuxiliariesVerbs are frequently associated with additional words which act to indicate whether the action or state of affairs occurred in the past, present or future. For example,

He was crushing the cockroach / he has been crushing cockroaches / he is crushing the cockroach, / he will crush the cockroach / he will be crushing the cockroaches / he will have been crushing the cockroaches

These ‘helper’ words are termed verbal auxiliaries or often just auxiliaries. The list of (verbal) auxiliaries in English is as follows:

am, is, are, was, were, will, been, being, be, have, has, had, havingModal auxiliariesThere is another set of ‘helper’ words which operated in conjunction with verbs. These act to supply a range of meanings by which, for example, the speaker makes a judgement about,

the probability/likelihood of the event: there may be a cockroach on your leg / the cockroach must have eaten all the cake, there’s no other explanation

whether some action is permitted or obligatory: you can kill that cockroach if you like / you must kill that cockroach at once.

These words are termed modal auxiliaries (or sometimes modal verbs). They include

may, might, can, will, could, must, should, ought to, have to

Auxiliaries are classed as non-informational/grammatical items because they can carry no meaning on their own behalf. They necessarily operated in conjunction with verbs to indicate, not some aspect of the external, experiential domain but rather something about the speaker – namely when the event occurred relative to the speaker or the speaker’s view of the likelihood of the event having occurred, or their view of whether or not the event should occur.

Activity 4

Identify the verbs and auxiliaries (both types) in the following


text 1


Cats and all sorts had been digging about, I hate cats, and it wouldn't heal up and it was going on and I was getting cream cream on my nose - it never ha+ healed up you see. So I went to the doctor's and they looked at it down the infirmary. Then they had to have those all these specialists round you you know and I thought, Why the heck am I seeing other people.

text 2

The cockroach is an obnoxious insect. Several species have acquired a close relationships with man which is rivalled perhaps only by lice and flees. These insects are important vectors of rickettsial organisms and similar diseases (plague and murine typhus) but like the bed-bug, cockroaches may be accidental carriers of pathogens. Nevertheless, there is a considerable body of evidence to incriminate cockroaches as potential carriers of disease.

See appendix for answersPrepositionsPrepositions act to indicate relationships between words. They most typically act to indicate how different parts of the clause are related in space or time. Typical prepositions of time and location are, in, on, into, towards, to, at, near, across, from, above, under, down, within, outside, beside, after, before, for (six minutes), until, during, throughout, since. Prepositions may be made up of single words (as just exemplified) or by multiple words – thus, ahead of, next to, along with , across from, out from, out of, close to, near to, adjacent to, subsequent to, in front of , on account of, because of etc. Apart from relationships of time and space, prepositions indicate a range of relationships including, accompaniment: with, along with, as well as, without causality: because of, due to, on account of means: by means of, with (an axe), he travelled by (boat) counter expectation/contrariness (indicating that the event/action/state of affairs

was in some way unexpected, unpredicted or contrary to usual/expected practice): He went into he cave in spite of / despite his mother’s warning.

exceptionality: except for, apart from, besides comparison: He flew like an eagle; He is faster than me

The prepositions of acts to indicate possession and association: the book of the teacher, the leader of the pack, the decision of the committee, the destruction of the city

Prepositions obviously have a grammatical/non-informational rather than a referential role in that the act to establish relationships between other words and groupings of words, and hence don’t refer directly to the experiential world. They are therefore classified as non-informational/grammaticalConjunctions/connectivesConjunctions and connectives are somewhat similar to prepositions in that they too act to establish relationships between other meanings. Conjunctions act to link words,


phrases, clauses or sentences together in logical relationships. This relationship may be one of accompaniment.

Mary and Ren Hua; I laughed and Mary kept playing; a milkshake or a dry Martini

or timing

I laughed when Mary kept playing; I laughed until Mary stopped playing

or causality

I laughed because Mary kept playing.

or condition

I will laugh if Mary keeps playing; I will laugh unless Mary stops playing.

or opposition/counter expectation

I laughed although Mary had stopped playing

and so on.

Conjunctions in English include

and, but, or, so, yet, when, while, now that, until, after, before, since, although, though, even though, unless, whereas, while as, so if, because, in case (that), in order that, in order to.

Connectives are closely related to conjunctions and indicate a similar set of logical relationships. These are words which act to indicate relationships between sentences, rather than between words, phrases, or clauses within sentences. For example,

I worked really hard. Therefore I expected to do well.

Here the connective therefore indicates a causal relation between sentence 1 and sentence 2.

Other connectives include,

consequently, as a consequence, thus, however, then, afterwards, meanwhile, nevertheless, moreover, accordingly, moreover

Conjunctions and connectives are classed as grammatical/non-informationalAdverbs Finally we come to ‘adverbs’. This is a problematic category because, in the traditional accounts of English grammar, it acts as something of a grab bag for all the words which couldn’t be fitted into any of the other word-class categories. Thus, Crystal (Rediscover Grammar with David Crystal, Longman: 166) states, ‘the adverb is the most heterogeneous of all the word classes in English grammar. It contains words which perform a wide variety of functions within the sentence’. Accordingly, if it’s going to be useful for our purpose of distinguishing the informational/lexical from the non-informational/grammatical, we need to break it down into a smaller set of word classes.

Connectives

Actually, we have already encountered one word type which is traditionally included in the ‘adverb’ grab bag – namely the connectives just discussed. In traditional


grammar, words such as therefore, moreover, however, thus, then etc would be classed as adverbs. We will prefer to place them in their own category – that of ‘connective’, as already indicated. Obviously this is a word-class which is non-informational.

Adverbs of manner, time and placeThere is one type of adverb which is easy enough to identify. Its function, perhaps predictably given the name ‘adverb’, is to modify or describe verbs in some way. For example,

The cake cooled slowly (the adverb slowly indicating the manner, specifically speed, of the cooling.)

He abruptly left the scene of the crime.

She skilfully eased the stone from the fruit.

She pushed vigorously through the undergrowth.

More specifically, these adverbs indicate the ‘manner’ of the action of the verb, or ‘how’ it took place, and almost always end in –ly. Closely related are adverbs which supply information about where or when the verbal process occurred. For example,

She went abroad. (where/location)

She left yesterday; She left early (when/temporal)

Obviously adverbs of manner, time and place are all informational/lexical in that they refer to aspects of the experiential world. The contribute to the lexical density of the text.

IntensifiersAnd then there are words which have traditionally be classed as ‘adverbs’ but which act, not to modify verbs, but rather adjectives and other adverbs. More specifically, they act to indicate different degrees of intensity for those adjectives or adverbs. For example,

a very hot day (intensifying the adjective hot)

he was slightly upset (down-scaling the adjective upset)

The cockroach climbed the wall very quickly. (intensifying the manner adverb quickly)

We will use the term ‘intensifier’ (rather than adverb) to designate such items. They constitute a relatively small set – i.e.

a bit, slightly, somewhat, quite, rather, very, really, extremely

They are classed as non-informational/grammatical because the distinction between being ‘somewhat’ hot and ‘rather’ hot is not a matter of experiential-world conditions. The distinction is a purely linguistic one and depends entirely on the speaker. What is ‘rather’ hot for one speaker will be ‘really’ hot for another.

Subjective or interpersonal pronouns

Finally, there are words which are quite similar to these intensifiers in that they act to indicate, not some aspect or quality of the experiential, but rather to present the speaker’s subjective view or judgement on the proposition which is being expressed. These judgements can, for example, be concerned with,


the probability/likelihood of the process under consideration: Maybe/ possibly/ probably/ certainly she put the cockroaches under her father’s bed.

the degree of presumption involved in the utterance: Evidently / Presumably / Obviously / Clearly / Of course the cockroaches ate the cake.

the usuality of the process: Usually / sometimes / always / often /occasionally the cat eats cockroaches.

the degree of obligation or necessity: Necessarily she poisoned all the cockroaches.

These are termed ‘interpersonal adverbs’ and seem to hover on the boundary between the informational and the non-informational. Usually they are classed as non-informational/grammatical on the grounds that they relate to the speaker (his/her assessment) and not to some aspect of the experiential world.

Summary: the informational/lexical versus the non-informational/grammaticalTo summarise, the lexical/informational word classes are as follows:

nouns (woman, dog, Adelaide, happiness, amazement, discovery, decision, manoeuvre, democracy, marriage, etc)

verbs (to leap, to arrive, to know, to love, to decide, to say, to indicate, to be, to have etc)

adjectives (hot, large, unhappy, intelligent, woollen, scientific, courageous, etc)

specific numerators (three, third)

adverbs of manner (quickly, abruptly, vigorously, intelligently, corruptly, happily, etc)

adverbs of time (tomorrow, early, etc)

adverbs of place (abroad, away, up, down, etc)

The grammatical/non-informational word classes are:

articles (the, a(n), some)

demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those)

possessive pronouns (my, your, his, her, its, our, their)

pronouns (I, me, myself, you, yours, yourself, yourselves, he, him, himself she, her, herself, it, itself, we, us, ours, ourselves, they, them, themselves, theirs, no one, somebody, someone, something, everyone, everybody, nobody, anyone, anybody, who, whoever, whosoever, why, which, whom, what, whatever, whatsoever, when, whenever, that, this, these, etc)

conjunctions (and, but, or, so, when, while, until, before, although, because, unless, if, in order to, yet, etc)

connectives (therefore, thus, consequently, meanwhile, however, then, etc)

prepositions (to, on, with, without, among, before, after, above, of, around, on account of, because of, etc)


intensifiers (slightly, somewhat, rather, quite, really, very, extremely, etc)

non-specific numerators (some, several, many, most etc)

interpersonal adverbs (maybe, perhaps, probably, possibly, certainly, definitely, clearly, obviously, evidently, necessarily, etc)

auxiliaries (am, is, was, were, will, have, has, had, may, might, can, could, ought, must, should, have to, etc)

There is one other important grounds for distinguishing between informational/lexical and non-informational/grammatical items which needs to be mentioned. Here we are concerned with whether or not it is generally possible for speakers of the language to come up with or invent new words in a given word-class category. We discover that new word invention is possible for the informational/lexical items (nouns, verbs, adjective, some adverbs) but not for the non-informational/grammatical items. Thus new informational items are constantly being added to the English vocabulary – i.e. lazer, scuba, internet, ADSL, VoIP,, arbitrage, to interface, to text - with dictionaries having to be updated every few years to keep up with the new coinages. Related to this is the fact that these informational word classes have a very large, potentially limitless memberships. Thus there are hundreds of thousands of nouns and verbs in English, millions if you include scientific terminology. Accordingly the informational/lexical word classes have been given the label ‘open’. In contrast, the non-informational/grammatical word classes have small, essentially fixed or stable memberships. Accordingly, you are very unlikely to find yourself coming across a new auxiliary, pronoun, preposition or conjunction since it’s virtually impossible for individual speakers to come up with new non-informational words and have these items enter the general vocabulary. Accordingly, these grammatical word-classes are categorised as ‘closed’. Actually, over time, changes in the memberships of these classes do occur. For example, in English we have lost the pronouns thou and thee and there does seem to be some pressure to come up with a new second-person plural pronoun in the form of yous. Similarly, English originally had no articles (i.e. no the or a), making do with just the demonstrative pronouns this and these. However, such development occur extremely slowly and essentially imperceptibly, and are not in the control of individual speakers. Hence the label ‘closed’.

Text analysis applications – exploring ‘spontaneity’ and informational load through lexical density analyses

Equipped with the knowledge, it becomes possible to compare and contrast text by means of what is known as a ‘lexical density’ analysis. Here we are concerned with calculating what proportion of a text’s total words is made up of informational/lexical items. Obviously, the greater the proportion of informational/lexical items, the higher the lexical density. Consider by way of just a very brief illustration the two following extracts.

1. I was just wondering if there was a possibility of you helping me with this.

2. Your prompt assistance will greatly assist the expeditious advancement of the government’s objectives.


Usually, of course, we don’t conduct lexical density analyses on individual sentences. The findings only become meaningful when they relate to whole texts or at least to extended sections of text. However, just for the purpose of demonstration we will compare the lexical densities of the two sentences. To do this we firstly determine the total number of words for each text. Thus,

1. I was just wondering if there was a possibility of you helping me with this. Total for all words (lexical and grammatical) = 15

2. Your prompt assistance will greatly assist the expeditious advancement of the government’s objectives. Total for all words = 13

We then identify instances of informational/lexical items and then count them.

1. I was just wondering if there was a possibility of you helping me with this. Informational = 3 out of 15

2. Your prompt assistance will greatly assist the expeditious advancement of the government’s objectives. Informational = 8 out of 3

We then calculate the percentage for informational items – i.e.

extract 1 - 3 informational items out of a total of 15 words = a lexical density of 20 percent

extract 2 – 8 informational items out of a total of 13 words = a lexical density of 61 percent

Obviously there is a significant difference in lexical density and informational load between these two sentences.

Activity 5

(Answers to be submitted via email as this week’s short text analysis exercise.)

Ok, we’re now going to investigate spontaneity and informational load in our three primary texts. In order to do this we will subject them to a lexical density analysis as just demonstrated. For the purpose of this exercise, we will confine the analysis to around about the first 120 words from each text.

So just as a reminder. With respect to the extract supplied below

1. Calculate the total number of all words (should be around about 120)

2. Identify and then count all lexical/informational items - i.e. all nouns, verbs (excluding auxiliaries), adjectives, specific numerators, adverbs of manner, time and place.

3. Calculate your count as a percentage of all total words.

1.


Cats and all sorts had been digging about, I hate cats, and it wouldn't heal up and it was going on and I was getting cream cream on my nose - it never ha+ healed up you see. So I went to the doctor's and they looked at it down the


infirmary. Then they had to have those all these specialists round you you know and I thought, Why the heck am I seeing other people.

2.

SALES of turnips are rocketing in China because the veg is said to cure SARS. They are used in herbal remedies sold to treat severe acute respiratory syndrome. Wholesale prices of turnips in China's capital Beijing have shot up THIRTY PER CENT in a week amid fears over the deadly flu-like virus. Carrots, garlic and ginger are also included in the potions and shops have been selling out. The global death toll from SARS rose to 153 yesterday. Nine were reported in Hong Kong -the most in one day there so far. They included a woman aged 34, who died while giving birth. The condition of the baby was not known. China has been hit hardest by SARS, with 64 deaths.

3.

The sex hormone estrogen is important for many physiologic processes. Prolonged stimulation of breast ductal epithelium by estrogen, however, can contribute to the development and progression of breast cancer, and treatments designed to block estrogen's effects are important options in the clinic. Tamoxifen and other similar drugs are effective in breast cancer prevention and treatment by inhibiting the proliferative effects of estrogen that are mediated through the estrogen receptor (ER). However, these drugs also have many estrogenic effects depending on the tissue and gene, and they are more appropriately called selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs). SERMs bind ER, alter receptor conformation, and facilitate binding of coregulatory proteins that activate or repress transcriptional activation of estrogen target genes.

Once you have completed the analysis, consider and answer the following questions.:

1. Are there clear differences in terms of lexical density between some or all of the texts.

2. Are the differences what you might have predicted. How do you findings related to the spontaneity/non-spontaneity of the texts under consideration?

3. You should have found that there was at least some difference between the lexical density of the two written texts (texts 2 & 3)? How might this difference be accounted for (since they are apparently non-spontaneous)?

Please supply both your findings as to lexical density (i.e the percentages for informational items in the three texts) plus your answers to the above three question via email to your tutor by Sunday


ConclusionIn this and the previous unit we have investigated a framework by which it is possible to systematically relate the style of a text to the social context in which that text operates. By this means we identify and compare what are termed different ‘registers’ of language. Specifically we have explored how social roles and relationships (Tenor), subject matter (Field) and the nature of the text as a communicative event (Mode) influence particular aspects of grammar and vocabulary. In particular we saw the following connections:

The Field of a text will be reflected in the types of entities (nouns) and actions/happenings (verbs) it depicts. Under the SFL approach the words and structures which indicate or reflect the text’s Field are termed ‘experiential’ items or meanings. This term (‘experiential’) is used because it is by such items that the speaker/writer provides a particular record or representation of the experiential world.

The Tenor of a text relates to the personal identities, social roles and interpersonal relationships of those involved in the communication. It can also be seen as a matter of whether these participants are equal or equal in terms of their power, social status, expertise or authority, and of whether they are socially close or socially distant. Equality/inequality in terms of social hierarchies is indicated in multi-party texts by whether or not the interlocutors are able to make similar meanings or to do similar things with their language. The more powerful will typically be able to do more with their language and have will have a greater repertoire of meanings to choose from. In single-party (written texts) writers can construct themselves as more or less powerful by choosing formulations which present them as more or less assertive, more or less dogmatic, more or less certain, more or less in control, more or less entitled to advise or to direct the actions of others, more or less entitled to pass judgements, and so on. Social closeness/distance is reflected in the use of casual/colloquial forms, by the use of contractions and reduced forms and by the use of familiar/friendly terms of address, and so on. Under SFL, the words and other formulations which indicate the Tenor of the text are termed ‘interpersonal’ items or meanings because tenor is a matter of the ‘personal’ involvement of speakers/writers in the texts they are producing and the ‘interpersonal’ relationships which influence how the text is constructed.

The Mode of the text is reflected in those linguistic features which relate to its nature as a communicative event. These features include those relating to whether the text was interactively or non-interactively constructed and whether it was spontaneously or non-spontaneously produced. Those words, structures and other linguistic features which reflect its Mode are termed ‘textual’ items or meanings because they related to the overall construction of the ‘text’ as a complete, unfolding communicative action or event.

The material in this set of notes has, of course, only provided an introduction to this topic of how language use reflects and is determined by its context of use. We have demonstrated the general principles at work but have by no means presented a full account of all the ways in which Tenor, Field and Mode determine grammatical style. The account which was begun here will be extended and deepened in following units as we consider additional lexical and grammatical indicators of a text’s register.


AppendixAnswers to pre-test 1. The extreme rigidity of the hull is probably what saved their boat from breaking

up.

The: article; non-informational/grammaticalextreme: adjective; informational/lexicalrigidity: noun; informational/lexicalof: preposition; non-informational/grammaticalis: verb - but can be treated as an auxiliary for these purpose and hence as non-informational/grammaticalprobably: adverb saved: verb; informational/lexicaltheir: pronoun; non-informational/grammaticalfrom: preposition; non-informational/grammaticalbreaking up: verb; informational/lexical

2. His leaving the company in a hurry came as a welcome surprise

His: pronoun; non-informational/grammaticalleaving: verb; informational/lexicalcompany: noun; informational/lexicalin: preposition; non-informational/grammaticala: article; non-informational/grammaticalhurry: noun; informational/lexicalas: conjunction; non-informational/grammaticalwelcome: adjective; informational/lexicalsurprise: noun; informational/lexical

3. The government’s intervention in the tender process means that the contract will have to be completely renegotiated.

government’s: noun (used possessively and adjectively) ; informational/lexicalintervention: noun; informational/lexicaltender: noun (used adjectively) ; informational/lexicalprocess: noun; informational/lexicalmeans: verb; informational/lexicalthat: conjunction; non-informational/grammaticalwill: auxiliary; non-informational/grammaticalhave: auxiliary; non-informational/grammaticalcompletely: adverb; informational/lexicalrenegotiated: verb; informational/lexical

4. I do like his cooking but his pomposity gets my goat.

I: pronoun; non-informational/grammaticaldo: auxiliary; non-informational/grammaticallike: verb; informational/lexicalhis: pronoun (used possessively and adjectively) ; non-informational/grammaticalcooking: noun; informational/lexical


but: conjunction; non-informational/grammaticalpomposity: noun; informational/lexicalgets: verb; informational/lexicalgoat: noun; informational/lexical

Answer key for activity 1(nouns and proper nouns underlined)

1.

"WHEN I was growing up with my mum and dad at home," says Steffi, "I used to hear the rows. My dad and mum are married and we lived with her son and daughter by another chap not married to her.

"They're older than me and living with partners now. They have a baby each and more on the way. My half-brother's girlfriend doesn't work because she didn't like him spending so much time away from her. So he had to give up his job to stay at home with her.

2.

The cockroach is probably the most obnoxious insect known to man. Several species of cockroaches have managed to acquire a relationship with man, rivalled perhaps only by lice and flees. These insects are known vectors of certain rickettsial organisms and other diseases (plague and murine typhus) but like the bed-bug, cockroaches may only be accidental carriers of pathogens. Nevertheless, there is a considerable body of evidence to incriminate cockroaches as potential carriers of disease whose importance in this area is becoming more fully recognised.

Key to activity 2Identify the determiners (articles, possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns) and the pronouns in the following.

Articles underlined, possessive pronouns in double underline, demonstrative pronouns in italics and other pronouns in bold



Key to activity 3Identify adjectives and numerators in the following. See underlining

The cockroach is an obnoxious insect. Several species have acquired a close relationships with man which is rivalled perhaps only by lice and flees. These insects are important vectors of rickettsial organisms and similar diseases (plague and murine typhus) but like the bed-bug, cockroaches may


be accidental carriers of pathogens. Nevertheless, there is a considerable body of evidence to incriminate cockroaches as potential carriers of disease.

Key to activity 4Identify the verbs and auxiliaries (both types) in the following. Auxiliaries double underlined, verbs in bold undeline

text 1

I had (see below for why this a verb and not an auxiliary) skin cancer. I'd been digging in the garden and and I don't know whether I scratched myself with a 'cos I was doing my I don't whether a s+ a thorn caught me on the nose and then I'd been digging


text 2

The cockroach is (see below) an obnoxious insect. Several species have acquired a close relationships with man which is rivalled perhaps only by lice and flees. These insects are important vectors of rickettsial organisms and similar diseases (plague and murine typhus) but like the bed-bug, cockroaches may be (see below) accidental carriers of pathogens. Nevertheless, there is a considerable body of evidence to incriminate cockroaches as potential carriers of disease.

You may perhaps have been perplexed as to why ‘had’ in ‘I had skin cancer’ and ‘is’ in ‘The cockroach is an obnoxious insect’ were analysed as verbs and not auxiliaries. It’s basically because these word forms can perform both functions. When these items occur in isolation, without any other verbal elements, then they do the complete verbal job, so to speak. For example.

He has cancer; I have several good friend.

He is the leader; They were late.

In all such cases, the item can’t be performing an ‘auxiliary’ function because there’s no other verbal element for it to be auxiliary to. Accordingly, in such cases the item represents the ‘main verb’ of the clause – an instance of either ‘to have’ or ‘to be’, not an auxiliary element.


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