Spoken and written language M. A. K, Halliday10 v4g4 rtrd Unc Press ‘itn Sect, Ono OX2 60 strd_ ew York Troe Sele! ates Coe Madrag_ Korac Pawing igs Stewore Rone Roar Tobe Ket ec Sato Cope Tone Meta scan’ td saad opis erin aon fod, Oxford Ealih an he Oxford Engi ogo are de mais of ‘Gaford Davenay Pree Isanois 4371530 © Dean Universi 1988, 1989 Fr oulshe 1985 Stet eioe 589 Sec ipso 1990 Lone ‘lpn toed Kopi twin lus red na vase oath, na (Slr orty any ears cron, ntl, rey ‘Sowing er anne. thet he pra persion ‘Gnlre Unter res. “TWistvk sl jth comin ha aha at #7 iene obese ee es no te ced wba he pes pit cnsn iy a [Steg nconer her thea ttn WAS pad wa ‘at vr conto ng coon bg Tago oe he ubegue pocse™ Pre in Hang Kong About the author M. A. K, Halliday Michael Halliday was born in Leeds, Bogland, in 1925. Me took his BA at London University in Chinese language and iterate, then studid linguistics asa graduote stabs, Gist in China Peking, University and. Lingnan. University, Canton) and then’ st Cambridge, where he received his PhD in 1955. ‘Alice holding appoimments at Canibridge and Edinburgh he went to University College London in 1963, a8 Direcor of the Communi. ES cation Research Ceatte. Thete e directed two research projets, one the Linguistic Properties. of Scientific English and the otner in Linguistics and English Teaching the later produced Rrealihrough 12 Literacy for ower primary schoas and Language in Use for secondary Schools, i 1965 he was appoiniad concurrestly Professor of General Lingoistis, with responsibility for building up 2 new department in this subject. He remained at University College London Until the end of 1970. From 1973 to 1975 he was Profesor of Linguistica at the University of Hlinois, Chicago Circle. At the beginning of 1976 be became Head of the new Department of Linguistics atthe University ‘of Sydney, from which he recently retired. He was consulant to the Curncutum Developmen Conte's Language Development Project 1976-78 and subsequently = member Of the Project Review and Advisory Panel ‘Re tigi on the Linge Sociesy of America’s summer Linguistic Institutes in 1964 diana), 1966 (UCLA), and 1973 (Michigan), and was clected fo honorary membership ofthe Soviet) i 1978. He has bed visiting professorships at Val, Brown, UC. Irvine, and the Univer sicy of Naieobi and in 1972-73 was a Fellow f the Cenire for Advanced Study inthe Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, California. In 1969 he was awarded an honorary doctorate atthe University of Nancy. France: 2d in 1981 be received the David H Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English from the National Council of “Teachers of English (USA) "is curtentrescarch interests aFe the semantics and grammar ofete modern English: language development in early childhood; text lin Buistice and register variation; educational applications of linguistics; nd artificial intelligence, in which he is associated with the ‘Penman’ project at the Information Scieuces Institute, University of Southern California. “Among his publications are: ‘The Language of the Chinese ‘Secret History of the Mongols’, Publi- cations of the Philological Society, Vol. 17 (Blackwell, Oxford, 1959). (With Angus Meintosh & Peter Strevens) The Linguistic Sciences and Language Teaching (Longman, London, 1963). Intonation and Grammar in British English (Mouton, The Hague, 1967). “Notes on transitivity and theme in English—Parts 1-3°, Journal af Lin- ‘guistics, vol. 3, 1967 and vol. 4, 1968, 4 Colrse in Spoken English: Intonation (Oxford University Press, Tandon, 1970), splertions inthe Fancions of Langage (Eaward rng Londo, 1973), * Leaning How 10 Mean: Explorations in the Development of Language (Edward Arnold, London, 1975). (Owith Rugaiya Hasan) Cohesion in English (Longman, London, 1976). System and Function in Language, eatted by Gunther Kress (Oxford University Press, London, 1976) Language as Soclal Semiotic: Te Social Interpretation of Language ‘aad Meaning (Edward Arnold, London, 1978). (With J. R. Martin) (eds.) Readings in Systemic Linguistics (Batsford, London, 1981). An Ineroduction to Functional Grammar (Edward Arnold, London, 1985). Foreword Ina sense, educational interest in language isnot new. Studies of rhetoric and of grammar go back as far as he Greeks; in the Englishspeaking countries, studies of the classical languages, and more recendy of English itself, have had a well established plsce in educational practice. Moreover, a nurnber of the istaes which have aroused the most passionate debates about how to develop language abilities have tended to remain, ‘resurfacing at various points in history in somewhat differen formulations perhaps, But nonetheless stil there, and sill lively. ‘Of these issues, probably the most lively has been that concerning the extent to which explicit knowiedge about language on the part of the learner is a desirable or « useful thing, But the manner in which discussion about this issue has been conducted has often been allowed to obscure oher and bigger questions: questions, for example, both about the nature of language as an aspect of human experience, and about language a8 a resource of fundamental importance in the building of human experience. The tendency in much of the western intellectual teadition has been to dissociate language and experience, in such a way ‘that language is seen as rather neutral, merely serving to ‘carry’ the fruits of experience. Whereas in this view language is seen as @ kind ‘of “conduit, subservient to experience in various ways, an alternative View. as propounded in the books in this series, would arguc that language is itself not only & part of experience, but intimately involved in the manner in which we construct and organise experience. AS such. itis never neutrat, but deeply implicated in building meaning. One's notions conceming how to teach about language will ditfer quite markedly, ‘depending upon the view one adopks Concerning language and experience {In fact, though discussions concerning teaching about language can sometimes be intresting, in practice many such discussions have proved. theoretically il-founded and barren, serving merely to perpetuate a ‘number of unhelpful myths about language. ‘The most serious and confusing ofthese myths are those which would suggest we can dissociate language from meaning — form from function, ‘or form from ‘content’. Where such myths apply, teaching about language ‘becomes matter of teaching about “language rules’ — normally ‘grammatical rules ~ and as history has demonstrated over the years, Such teaching rapidly degenerates into the arid pursuit of parts of speech and the parsing of isolated sentences. Meaning, and the critical role offangoage in the building of meaning, are simply overlooked, and the kinds of knowledge about language made available to the learner are ‘of a very limited kind. ‘The volumes in this series of monographs devoted to language ‘education in my view provide a much better basis upon which to adress ‘questions related tothe teaching sbout language than has been the case anywhere in the English-speaking world for some time now. I make this elaim for several reasons, one of the most important being that the series never sought directly to establish & model for teaching about language at all. On the contrary, it sought to establish a principled model ‘of language, which, once properly aniculated. allows us to address many {questions of an educational nature, including those to do with teaching about language. To use Halliday’s term (1978), such a model sees language primarily as 2 "socist semiotic", and asa Fesource for mean ‘centrally involved in the processes by which human beings negotiate, Construct and change the nature of social experience. While the series certtinly does not claim to have had the last word on these and related subjects, I believe it does do much to set a new educational agenda ~ ‘one which enables us 40 look closely at the role of language both in ‘ising and in learning: one which, moreover, provides a bass upon which to docide those kinds of teaching and learning about language which ‘may make a iegitimate contribution to the development ofthe learner Thave said tha arguments to do with teaching about language have been around for a long tire: certainly as long asthe (we hundred years of white setement in Australia. {n fact, coincidentally, just asthe first settlers were taking up their enforced residence inthe Australian colony fof New South Wales, Lindley Murray was preparing his English Grammar (1795), which, though nol the only volume produced on the subject in the eighteenth century, was cerzainly the best. lundeeds of ‘school grammars that were to appear in Britain and Australia for the feat century atleast, were to draw very beavily upon what Murray has written. The parts of speech, parsing and sentence analysis, the later as propounded by Morell (an influenta) inspector of schools in England), were the principal elements in the teaching about language in the ‘Australian colonies, much as they were in England throughout the ‘century. By the 18603 and 1870s the Professor of Classics and Logic at Sydney University. Charles Bachar, who had arrived from England ‘in 1867, publicly disagreed with the examining authorities in New South ‘Wales concerning the teaching of grammar. To the contemporary reader there i a surprising moderniy about many ofhis objections, most noubly his strongly hetd conviction that successful control of one's language is Teuened less as a matter of committing to memory the parts of speech nd he principles of persing, than ta maner of fequem opportunity Historically, the study by which issues of use had been most effectively addressed had been that of ehetoric, in itself quite old in the English-speaking tradition, dating back at least to the sixteenth century. [Rhetorical studies flourished in the eighteenth century, the best known, ‘works on the subject being George Campbell's The Philosophy of ‘Rhetoric (1776), and Hugh Blair's Lecures on Rhetoric and Bells Leures (1783), while in the nineteenth century Richard Whately published his work, Elements of Rhetoric (1828). As the nineteenth century proceeded. scholarly Work on rhetoric declined, as was estified by the markedly inferior but nonetheless influential works of Alexander Bain (English ‘Compasition and Rhetoric, 1866; Revised version, 1887). Bain, in fact, did much t corrupt and desioy dhe older *etorieal traditions, primarily because he lost sight of the need for a basic concern with meaning in language. Bain’s was the century of roranticism aftr all: on the one hand, Matthew Amold was exclling the civiising influence of English literature inthe development of children; on the other hand, there was a tendency towards suspicion, even contempt, for those who wanted to take a scholarly look atthe linguistic organisation of texts, and at ‘the ways in which they were structured for the building of meaning. In 1921, Baltard (who was an expert wittess before the Newbol Enquiry ‘on the teaching of English), wrote a book called Teaching the Mother Tongue, in which he noted among other things. that unfortunately i@ Englang at Yeas shetorial studies had become associated with what were ‘thought to be rather shallow devices for persuasion and argument. The ‘isinclination to take seriously the study of the rhetorical organisation ‘of texts gave rise to a surprisingly unhelpful tradition for the teaching ‘of liverature, which is with us yet in many places: ‘ivilising? it right be, but it was nor to be the object of systematic study, For such study would in some il-defined way threaten or devalue the work of literature inst ‘A grammarian like Murray bad never been in doubt about the ‘elaionship of graramar and thetoric. As he examined i, grammar Was ‘concerned withthe syntax of the written English sentence: it was not concerned with the study of "syle", about which he wrote a short appendix i his original gramwmar, where his debe tothe major ehetoriians ‘of the period was apparent. Rhetorical studies, especially as discusted bby Campbell for instance, did address questions of ‘style’, always from the standpoint ofa recognition of the close relationship of language to the socially created purpose in using Tn fact, the general model ‘of language as discussed by Campbell bore some relationship tothe node! taken up in this series, most noxably in its commitment to register. ‘The notion of register proposes a very intimate relationship of text to content: indeed, $0 intimate i that relationship, it is asserted, thet the ane ean only be interpreted by reference to the other. Meaning is realised im language (in the form of text), which iy thus shaped oF patterned in response to the contest of situation in which itis used. To Study Tangsnge then, is to concentrate upon exploring how it is systematically patterned towards important social ends. The linguistic theory adopted here i that of systemic linguistics, Such a linguistic theory | set also a Social Uheory, fr it proposes Firstly, that tis the nature ‘or human behaviour to build reality and/or experience through complex semiotic processes, and secondly, that the principal semiotic system available to humans is their language. In this sense, to study language istoexplore some of te most important and pervasive of the processes bby which human beings build their world ‘originally developed the volumes inthis series asthe basis of two ‘major off campus courses in Language Education taught in the Master's degree program at Deakin University, Victoria, Australia, To the best ‘of my knowledge, such courses, which are designed primarily for teachers and teacher educators, ate the first of theit kind inthe wortd, and while they actually appeared in the mid 1980s, they emerge from ‘work in language education which has been going on in Australia for visent one,Nisnhde bo sca Linggs Deepa ee Soe a Tr wn eh a et et arena ct oe a Cee Cea aoe ne Gat 7 eh eee see a A ee Fe ee ec Sa ee See a a tk variously exploring aspects of language education, and leading to the a a a I Oe (Deakin University, 1983); Brendan Bare and John Carr (eds.), Cs Ue), Re a ee Le OS ee peak i a, ts A Mee cad wr, yu ean). Dore a Dice am Unie gain Ana, Gen Pg Le ee en nt Cer Gee pe Ae si, Geran op, Nae 9, 1 Lin ee Se ne Hono hn ero) A es so ei aga opin aati i asin tie gig wd apg cco vii ice a st setae te remap ence ae A er ee eet te soli ay Spi i ei cian tay a a et ae sce pei yn oc eh hoe ne 2 ee a eee Fe ct Ce as cepoluceeing te ree ta ato ones of en sneer a eae oy otter agi ee meth srt ohn a op re ee Seen ee ee cen ihe pence teaeat cece oe bcheect discon rt ee etn eee ra See eo 2 oc co i ane a which he worked, i fact, grammar looked at syntactic rules divorced from considerations of mesning oF soeial purpose. By contrast, Halliday’s approach to grammar has a number of real ‘strengths, the frst of which is the fat that its basis is semantic, not symtactic; that is to say, iti a semantically driven grammar, which, While not denying that cerain principles of syntax do apply, secks consider and identity the role of various linguistic ems in any tex in terms of their function in building meaning. Its for this reason that its practices for imerpreting and labelling various finguistic items and sroupings are functionaly besed, not syntactically Based. Tere is in ‘ther words, no dissociation of “grammar” on the one hand and "semantics" or meaning on the other. A second strength of Halliay's approach is that itis not uniguely interested in written language, being instead committed tothe study of both the spoken and written modes, ‘nd to un explanation ofthe diferences between the two, in such @ way that cach is illuminated because of its contrast with the other. A third and final strength of the systemic functional grammar is tht i permits Useful movement across the text, addressing the manner in which linguistic pattenings aro built up for the constriction of the overall text in its pantcular “genre, shaped as itis in Fesponse 10 the context of situation which gave rise 10 Halliday’s functional grammar les behind all ten volumes in his, sevies, though one ther volume, by Michael Christie, called Aboriginal perspectives om experience und learning’ the role of language in Aboriginal Education, draws upon somewhat diferent if ail compatible perspectives in educational and language thory to develop is arguments. The laver volume, is available dzeely from Deakin University. In varying ways, the volumes in this series provide a helpful introduction to much that is more fully deat with in Halliday"s Grammar, apd 1 commend the series to the reader who wants to develop some sense of the ways such a body of linguistic theory ean be applied wo educational ‘Questions. A version of the grammar specifically designed for teacher ‘education remains to be writen, and while I cherish ambitions to begin ‘work on such a version soon, I am aware that otbers have similar ambitions ~ in itself s most desirable development While I have just suggested tht the reader wite picks up any of the volumes inthis series should find ways to apply systemic Hngustie theory 10 educational theory, T want to argue, however, that what is offered here is more than merely course i applies linguistics, legitimate though such a course might be- Rather, I want te claim that this is a course in educational linguistics, aterm of importance beenuse places linguistic sedy firmly atthe heart of educational enquiry. While iis {rue that a great deal of linguistic research ofthe past, whee i did not interpret language in terms of interactive, social procestes, or where itwas not grounded ina concern for meaning, has fad litle of relevance to offer education, socially relevant editions of Kngustics Uke tha from ‘which systemics is derived, do have a fot to contribute. How that contribution shovld be articulated is quite properly a matter of evelopment in partnership between eduationists, teachers and linguists, and a great deal has yet to be done to achieve sich articulation 1 believe that work in Australia currently i8 making 4 major sively archaic. The English, equally characterstcally, let chings take their course, and ended up with a writing system that looks incredibly reused, but in which the superficial messiness hides a rather effective compromise between the old and the new, the native and the foreign. I is fer from perfect; but it has many Virtues—not the Teast of which fs tha it quietly neutral among all the various native and non-native forms of English that are now spoken around the world. When it was confined to England, and other English-speaking areas of Uhe British Isles, it had already’ proved its ability to represent the various local accents of standard Baglish. (These are not the original dialects, which hhave now largely disappeared except in some rural areas: they ae vastly different and have thelr own orthographies.) Now. it serves not only the “first language’ English of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, ‘the Caribbean, Canada, and the United States but also the “second language” English of many other parts of the word—South Asia, many ‘countries of Africa, Singapore, and the South Pacific. Like the Japanese script, English writing ought to be impossible to learn; but-again like Japanese—it iy not. ls mixed character is aso ‘what makes it accessible, In the frst place, to the exient that itis a ‘phonological script itis not phonemic. Ir allows various other pris ‘ciples to override the phonemic one. For example, i writes photograph in phowgraph, photography, and photographic al alike, even though their phonemic structure is very different, and similarly with many hundreds of other related sets. 1 allows Anglo-Saxon and Graeco- Romance words to have different spelling conventions rather than forcing ‘one to adapt—incongruously, as it would be—to the other, Ic embodies Strange, minor, but very useful conventions of is own, like the two, tree, and four-letter rule (grammatical words can have two letter, Jexical words must have atleast three, and proper names, at least four: mpreeoer (Cs ICS all right when it wing though. He vsly goes erook when they lose. D: It was funny today. { had this horse, Alice, and — E: And what did you get for your gouble? 1D: But wait il Tell you about his horse, Cause I can't see rch, you know, and Tsaid to Doris, “Oh,” I said, ‘I may as well ihave a double, I suppose,’ so we're just picking them out and trying to foxsick them out, you know, s0 I put the extra double and I had about three with those other horses—about four, and — Number one won it, ‘Oh ye umber one won he Fit enr eg, and... yeah, Mum said ‘Oh, I haven't gor hat.” [said “Oh, Thaven't got it” And then — they protested; and my horse won it by protesting And then the second one got ‘yp and it paid seventy od dollars. ‘On my goodness, And she was going crook. She says — ‘So you got seventy odd dollars today. 1 got about eighty-wo altogether. ‘Today. ‘Today. A good day's work ge go yroroe «recorded by Pamela Riley) "A!-Actualy there's one argoment that goes— this otin relation to the Hungerians; this is the Russians—that essentially the Russian peasants, agricultural labourers, were better off under the Tsarist than they have been under the Stalinist regime; ‘ht, you know, theit teal income, real peasant income, has declined under the — Tohought this was te kulaks ‘Oh, no; the kulaks were rich peasants, Yes, that’s right they wete the ones that ruled others. ‘Theis were the serf essentially, the serfs the labouring people. The rea incon ofthe seri had declined; and actually this is an argoroen that many thatthe ani-Soviet Marxists Use to! they say that what's happened is dhat Russia expoted the peassnta—that the Stalinist regime exploited the peisants tc pay for, you knos, co fund their ingustralisation, Yea, I think that's 30 Woo. Whereas this the criticism that the Chinese make of them: they aay they're — "think that’s probably tue; mean, think that if you're going {o change 2 whole society you're going 1o have to have very ‘you krow, someone's going to suffer and there are going tobe CC: Like, everyone? BB: Wel, you know, you could say the Chinese landlords, or whatever suffered a the Chinese regime but forthe ajcrity He improve, and thee noone wh coal posi eng c PERe oene and intonation, tone largoages ite tation a5 the expres: | sion'aF grammatical | isineions Cz Life improved in the west tthe same time: don't forget that. B: Oh yes, I'mnot—the west: you know, Fm not really bringing that Io it, but— ‘Az That's actually one of the points that Galbraith has made. you Know: that whatever you say about capitalism—his ts something of course that Marx says about capitalism —i Telieved — it released the macs of the people from what he called the idiocy of rural life Here they have been transcribed into ordinary writen English, with consequent loss of a certain amount of the meaning. There are ater: native Ways of transcribing that corporate different facets of what the ‘weiting system leaves out. There is a0 Way of Incorporating every last detail, and certainly a0 point in trying, since the transcription soon becomes s0 clutered as 10 be unreadable. What one hes t do is decide which features are important for the purpose in hand, and leave the ‘others out ‘We shall adopt a panicular form for the transcription of conver sational text, designed to incorporate the features that will be described = present chapter. A brief reference will be made to ther methods ranscription in current Use. ‘Mention was made earlier of the ‘language diary", the idea of ‘keeping # record of language use. This can give interesting results with spoken language, ifone makes notes oa the various patterns of speech that have accompanied onc's verbal encounters in the course of a day, Ii caa also be a wseful technique in teaching, since pupils over a wide age range cam become aware of spoken language it this way, Intonation and rhythm All natural speech, in any language, is marked by pattems of intonation ‘and chythm—what Joshua Sicele, who first deseribed them in detail (1775), called the ‘melody and measure of speech’. Intonation is the ricledic movement, the rise and fall in piten. Rhythm isthe “beat” of fhe language, which gives it an organisation in time. Both are prosodic Femures: they are part of the system of the language. “The particular function of intonation aad chythm, he contribs tion they make to discourse, will vary from one language to another, although there ace certaim general tendencies that apply to all. As = general rule, the function of rhythm is internal 10 the phonologicel System: that is, it imposes organisation on the sound of language, pa ticularly the patterning ofthe syllables, but does aot by itself express ‘contrasts in meaning. Intonation, on the other hand, functions in the texico-grammnaticel system: i encodes some aspect ofthe wording, and therefore directly expresses contrasts in meaning. Ti some kinguages, inionation has a lexical function: dhe choice oF TONE (say. falling as opposed to level or tising) is as much part of the phonetic shape of word as isthe choice of vowels and consonants, ‘0 that if you vary the tone you get a different word. These languages 48 “ fare called TONE LANGUAGES: well-known examples are Chinese, Vietnanmese, and That. tn other languages, i has a grammatical function: the choice of inroxATioN (the pitch contour of a clause or phrase) expresses some aspect of the speech function, usually having something. todo with cerisinty oF doubt: and the LOCATION OF PITCH PROMINENCE (where the main fal of rise in piteh occurs) often carries some infor- ‘mation about how the discourse is organised into messages, and what the listener is expected 10 attend to Probably in all languages there is Some use of intonation asa grara- ‘matical feature; but less in tone Languages, far obvious reasons (since pitch variation is already doing something else)— itis minimal in Viet- hnamese and Cantonese. English is at dhe other end of the scale; itis ‘ota fone language, and it makes a great deal of use of iatonation to ‘carry grammatical meaning, may seem: strange to refer to the function of inconation as gram- ‘matical; but there are good reasons for doing so. In the frst place, the ‘conirass expressed by intonation ate quite systematic, like other con- tuasts in che grammar; they are not vague and individualistic nuances. Secondly, they are closely tied to other grammatical systems, such a8 mood and modality; its impossible to describe these systems in detail without taking account of intonation. Thirdly, since intonation can express lexical meaning (that is, can function as part of the shape of word, a5 it does ia a tone language), itis only to be expected that it will also be able to function n the geammac, This is not (o say chat descriptions of intonation in terms like ‘excited or “doubrful" are wrongs, merely that if such terms are used, they become grammatial terms and need to'be understood as systematically related both 10 each other, and other yrammatia ea.goris 1 next three sections we will give a short account of the rhythm tnd intonation of spoken English English rhythm Ina tine of verse, we can hear the rhythm cleatly. K may be determined by the Mere, the particular verse form that is chosen, as im 1 passed by his garden, and marked, with ono eye, ow the Qui and the Panther were sharing 2 pre ‘Caroll, Through the Looting Glass ch.10) Here itis clear thatthe beat falls on the following syllables: passed, ‘gar (in garden), marked, eye, owl, pr (in panther), shar éin shoring), sd pe Thee lables ar SHENG he oes ale ans. We wl ‘express this by the following notation. using a slash / analogously 10 ‘the bur line in music—tha is, imamediately before the beat! 1/ passed by his J garden and / marked with one / eye how the 1 Ow! and the / Panther were / sharing a ! pie Frequently, however, the thythm of verse is not determined by the metre; the mete is an idealised pattern that lies bend the poem overall. whereas the tytn is the actual value with whieh te lines are invested 49 shyt in languages, saythm and merethe foot as the ont ‘of ihm in spoken English (and may be varied, of course, from one reading to another). So if we take Browning's line Hours and long hours in the dead night, ? ask the metre, whch és iambic pentemeter, would put the stress on every second word: and, hours, the, night, ask: In this sate-chamber, dying by degrees, Hours and long hours in the dead night, T ask ‘Dok live? Am I dead™ Peace, peace seems all Seint Praxed's ever was the chureh for peace (Robert Browning! "The Bishop odes his toni at Saint Praxod's Chureh") Rhythmically, however, @ probable reading of the fine would Be: 7 hours and / long / hours ia the / dead / night 1 f ask which is how it would sound as a segment of natural speech. ‘Natural discourse ia English is chythraie im just this way. Here is ‘an example from the speech of a six-year-old, who asked "Why are there more floods in houses in the basement? I should have thought the root was more likely tO Teak than the ground floor’. Rhythmically 1 why ate there / more / floods in / houses in the / basement / Notice thatthe number of syllables from one beat to the next ean vary. just like the number of notes in a musical bar, The “bar’ in language fs referred wo as» FOOT, following the ceminology of metrics—in some ‘ways a bad choice of term, because the rhythmic foot is not the same thing as the metre foot, but we will continue co use it here. Note that the (rhythmie) foot always begins with the beat (unlike the metric foot, ignin, Hike the bar). [Let us indicate the number of syllables in cach foot, in the above example 1 why are there / mare / Moods in / houses in the / basement / 3 v 2 + 2 In some languages, such as French and Hindi, tne besic unit of hychm is the syllable: all syllables ure more or less. the same length, In other languages, the basic unit of rhythm is the foot. English is @ ooetimed" language (sometimes called "stress-timed’, because the syllable carrying the beat is strong, or ‘stressed, In English all feet ‘are more or less the same length ‘The key words in both cases are “more or les", {f speech main tained ste tempo, then the fect would be exactly the same length; twhien would mean that ina foot with four syllables each syllable would be only one quarter the length of a syllable that occurred in a foot all by itaclf. This does happen in some contexts; for example, reciting @ Tiat like the months of the year (see Figure 4.1) But in onfinary conversation the timing is not so exact. A 1wo- syllable foot tends to be a Ftle bit longer then a one-syllable one, but potting like twice as long—whereas ifthe language was timed by the Syllable, two syllables would take twice as long as one. The typical proportion is roughly as in Table 4.1 sn Figure 4.1 Recitation of the months EMEPPAP PPA emery eblty Ma Jd | ose Jue ty PPPAPPPRPEPRPEP EPPA ‘Aww S:p- wer OC tober Now semmber December Now: Jaan abd Fobra hve aerate eings vt 6 Ure: al Hf so ed ‘hee chaegen wpe tre haley the ILdld | pst By Table ot Relative duration of fect having diferent numbers of syllables example / why ere there / more / Moods in howses in the J basement no of ‘lables in foo 3 1 2 4 2 proportionate Euration ls 112 16 12 1 lt ier words, taking aone sabe foot shaving tunic, then a wo-syllable foot will average 1,2 units; Le. it will be ‘one fifth as long again, A three-syllable foot will average 1.4; and 50 ‘on, The tempo of speech varies considerably, of course; but something like half s second is fairly typieal durstion for a one-syllable foot jn not 190 rapid conversation, Henee the actual timing for this utter- ‘snve might have been something lke that in Table 4.2, Table 4.2 Typical duration of feet (in seconds) Tiahy ate there! more fla in Boosey in the {basement seconds: 070s Os os 06 ‘This means that English syllables pet contracted or expanded aecord- ing wo the arrangement of sitong and weak: all syllables have 10 fit in the thymic per sty the strong ones (ncuding the strong slabs themselves, since their fegih ako has «9 accommodate), Furthermore, the total tine taken up by the Toot is not slays ‘divided equally among ks consent splables. The relative duration Df syllables in the fot is also entirely systema: its determined by 8 combination of grammatical and Phonological factors thats 100 complex {© g0 into here, but that is very clearly described by Aber= ombie (1963) inthe chapses dealing with rythm (Shades in Phones land Linguistics, Chapters 33) These facts are important for anyone Interested in the relation between conversational rythm and the rhythm of poetry duration of| st {ho eoatve lengih of ‘ilferent fest and therefore of lables wii te foothe stent beat the particwarly yehnic ually of spontaneoes <0 eration “There is one other feature 10 be taken into account in the ehythm of English, and that is silence, If we go back wo the lines from Browning ‘Goce again, the Tine following the one considered earlier was ‘Do five, lim I dead?” Peace, peace seems all. Rhythmically, I read this as do Lf live J, amt / dead. / peace / peace seems / all/ ‘An alternative, making, more coneession to the metre, might be: do I Tive am 1 dead 1, peace / peace seems fall / though { prefer the frst. Ta cither case, there is a least one sICiNT Beat: 4 foot in which, instead of a strong spllable, there is silence ‘Again. there isan anology in music: a bar may begin with a rest. This ‘happons frequently in conversational English—Where speakers (and their isteners) can maintain the chythm across at least two, maybe more, feet” consisting entirely of sitence. ‘Coming back to aur conversational example, there was silent beat between the two pars: 1 why are there / more { Aoods in / houses in the / basement J, {should have / thought the / roof was more /Tikely 10 / leak than the ? grownd / floors “This silent beat can be an important structural signal: it helps, slong, ‘vith the intonation, 10 show the distintion between a non-defining 2nd 4 defining felative clause: 1 peuple who / live in / glass / houses... . (defining) Eskimos 7 who! Tive in / ice / houses .. . «non-deFining) ‘The writing system signals the possibility ofa silent beat by means of a comina: people who live in glass houses... verous Eskimos, who live fn ice houses, Conventionally, we will show an orterance which starts with one ‘or more weak syllables as having a silent beat at the beginning 2, do / five! am 1/ dead ‘One of the main problems faced by forcign learners of English is geiting the. shythm right-especially if their own language is predominantly syllable timed, and does not contain weak or reduced Spilables. But rhythm can be one of the main reasons for not being understood by English speakers. Practice in strict tempo rhythm with fect of different length Ie an effective Way of rapidly improving the evel of intelligibility ‘All forms of spoken English are rhythmic; but the more uncon- scious the speced the more Fythmic I is likely ¢o be. Reading aloud & prepared fest (unless itis overly ehythanic im its form), or talking faa situation where one has to monitor oneself (ina formal context, for on a difficult topic), tends to detract from the regularity ofthe rhythm Spontancous conversation of a natural, unselfeonscious kind is usually the most rhythmically paterned of all English intonation; tonicity and tone Rhythm is closely linked ¢o intonat that carry the burden of the melody. 1, since it isthe strong syllables ° 7 ‘The foot. in itself, Is not @ unit of meaning. It does not express ‘any semantic structure. Which syllables are strong in any instance is fined within Hmits Gterined by the wording: essentially. he pipe 1. Words of more than one syllable have an ACCENT on a pasticular sy; te secede song, ters are weak, Lang words ‘may have more than one accent 2. Words of one syilable ate (a) stvong, if lexical ‘conent” words), (b) weak, if grammatical (“function words). 3. Any word, and any syfable of sy word. can be strong for special prominence or contrast. But there is a phonolngical enit that is larger thaw the foot, and that isthe unit oF intonation, known 2$ the ToNE GROUP. The tone group does represent a meaningful segment ofthe diseourse. Each tone group is, so to speak, one quantum of the message, the way the speaker bs ‘otganising it us he goes along. ‘We wall mark the boundary of the tone group with » double slash, rmking iC (by convention) always coincide witha foot boundary. The ‘exact location of the boundary is indeterminate, since one tone group ‘acllows without pause into anocher; but we ean, in fact. identify i the nearest foot, whieh is all that matters. ‘A tone group has two significant properties. One is that & contains 44 particular point of prominence, referred to as the TONIC. oF TOXIC NUCLEUS: this property we refer to as is ToNtctTy. The other is that I selects one of 2 small number of melodic contours or TONES: this property we shall simply call Hs TONE. The melody may have one par TW iC oF (Wo: that Is, it consis either Just of a ToC SEGMENT (the part that contains the tonic nucleus), or of a tonic sement preceded by nother, PRETOSIC SEGMENT. ‘We will mark the tonic nucleus by bold type (wavy underlining Jn manuscript of typescript). It is always located at one particular foot, ‘where it isthe word containing the strong syHable that carries the promi ‘pence. Let us exemplify from the same piece of text as before: Fahy are there more / floods in ! houses in the / Wasement // Here he tonic is the nd onthe word basement, Te second sentence, ever, contains two fone groups, with tonie prominence on roof and again on ground! 1) Vshould have / thought the / roof was more /tkely to / Teak than te // ground / Noor 7 ‘We will mark the tone in two ways cit does no harm to introduce ‘a tiule redundancy ino the transcription): (1) by # number atthe begin- fing of the tone group, after the double slash, and 2) by a diacritical symbol inserted above the toate syllable, The set of tones—number, description, and diacritic—is as follows: tone 1 fall \. tone2 rise / (or 2 sharp fallerise V) tone} low rise — tone 3 fallerise tone 5 ise-fall 33 the 1000 group 8s the nit of ttonstionIcvement im speech: the rntoation one 13 fall + tow rise \ tone $3. rsefall + low rise A~ ‘Tones ‘one-three’ and “five-three" are, as they appear, combinations ‘of two of the five basic toney; but they occur om a single tone group— Which therefore has two tonte cuclei instead of just onc. ‘We can now transcribe the example in its final form: 1/1 why are there / more { loots in / houses in the / basement //1 “should have / thought the /roaf was more’ likely to / Teak than ihe 17-4 ground / floor 1? {willbe helpful at this point to depict he entire contour, so as to make clear the relation between the tone and tonicity (see Figure 4.2). Figure 4.2 Intonation contour insets ney alate he tame ate mg he ee at ere Mey to manne get fn, Wha his figure shows is dat while the information contour is» con eu Swi oe nepal seping Sony hr cach one group one ree es yavhere There does menly dps or or dns bath nee e ther “Tht increased pich movement, the place uhere the pitch Is sis mont dynamic, ithe point of prominence ithe tone group. ean te Henly heard once ome as Tarn to atend to tts takes aie Biv of practice, with tape repeater oop o transcribing mache: But tinconselously, ofcourse, we hear every time. Aeoualy is 8 Somplex phenernenon comprising fetures of pitch, length, sd ondnest fundamen frequency, duration, and atnaty) bute key Tator IS pac hange. The toni lables fen slighly longer than ts lace inne thm would deters; sod i may also be rargnaly louder, ‘hough this the leas imporant factor in te hentiicaion. The meaning of tonic prominence ‘at is the semantic function of tonicity? Let us go back tothe notion of the INFORMATION UNIT: what the speaker chooses 10 present x3 one portion of message. This is what the tone group is for: one tone group fs the expression of one unit of information Information inthe linguistic sense is not the samme thing as infor- sation in mathemati, although itis not totally unrelated to i Infor “a ‘mation is a property of connected discourse, involving the interaction ‘of two complementary parts; what is ‘given’, and what is “new”. “Given' ‘means known, of a least knowable, to the listener at this pol in the discourse; ‘new’ means unknown, ot non-recoverable, In principle, an information unit js a balanced constriction of the given and the new, But information is, of course, in the gift of the speaker. It is not some abjectfiable commodity. In analysing discourse imo its given and new elements, one can usually point to factors of the context (context of situation, and preceding text) that have determined what is given an is new; but inthe last resort itis the speaker's decision what is to be treated as one or the other. So the ‘new is really “what I (the speaker) tll you (he listener) to attend to'—shat you're being offered as news, The ‘given’ consttuies the ground against which this news is made vo figure ‘Tonic prominence marks the culmination of what is new in the perticular information unit. Anything after the tonic, but sil in the Same tone group. is thereby signalled as piven; for example, more likely 'o leak in the current fragment. What comes befare the tonic may be all new, oF may start with something given: so that the tral formula {forthe information unit ig (G) N (G)— obligatory New element, opt ally preceded and/or followed by something Given. But there is an UNMARKED pattern, which has the New at che end: (G) N. Other things being equal, the new efernent comes last in he Information unit, and anything thar is given precedes it, Ths is extremely ‘important for the writen language, because it means that in writing ‘one normally organises amers so that each clause proceeds from Given to New, om the assumption of (wo related unmarked options ("defaule™ choices): {hat each RANKING (Le. non-EMREDDED) clause is one information unit: and that in exch information unit, what is given Gf anything) precedes ‘what is new ‘at a reader can assume (1) that each ranking clause is one tone _Rf0Up and (2) that in exch tone group the tonic comes at the end. We Shall see in Chapter 5 that there are certain clause structures that signal the occurrence of other, MARKED distribations ‘The unmarked pattcrn is the one that is Ukely to figure im the ‘opening passage of a discourse, since there is usually no good reason for choosing anything else. So Nigel, in this example, begins ‘with an information unit in which everything is New—he is just izoducing the subject, out of dhe blue—so the onic comes a the end, ‘on basement. In the second pare, however, ite introduces two marked features; the clause is structured into 1wo information units, 10 mark the contrast between roof and gromnd (floor), and cach of these has ‘Amarked information structure, with given material following afer the new. In the first, more litely vo leuk is treated as given, since the preceding clause has already introduced the topic of loads in houses: ‘while in the second, the tonic is on ground, leaving floor as given Decause itis implicit in basement (and pethaps also roo). ‘Thus there isu dynamic quality in spoken discourse whereby the pattern of information flow is a sequence of small crescendas, each one 59 The tone group ax information wot Information consists of what is “give ‘and what is "now". the dynamic of| natural speech; ‘marked and ‘Unmarked pacers of bven and new informationthe meaning of pitch vacation: falling, being @ movement from a tess prominent, more predictable onset towards a more prominent, less predicuble climax. That represents the base line, as it were. ‘But i that pattern was maintained invariant over a long stretch, its effectiveness would be diminished: there is an inherent coottadi sion involved in creating a structure for organising the unpredictable. ‘There has to be a structure. otherwise no meaning can be construed boy departing from i; but by the same 1oken, there has to be am inter- play between the departure and the norm. Hence whereas in writes funguage there i w cendency © proceed tinenly fromthe koowa 10 che informauve (since there is no resource in the writing system for expressing this kind of meaning), in spoken tanguage there is a great deal of variation, as the speakers exploit the potential of tonicity toi full rhetorical effect. The meaning of tone TW tas been kaown for a tong time that the rise and fallin the pitch ‘of the voice was meaningful. i place in English grammar wes poinied ‘outa hundred years ago by the distinguished grammarian Henry Sweet 1888), “Although Tone languages make use ofthe contast between high and low (Static pitch features can serve for lexical distinctions), ito- tation systems always use ptch dynamically. The fundamental opp0- sition used for grammatical purposes isnot that between high and low, bu that between falling and rising. ‘Chikdren muster this opposition very early, well before they contot the mechani of auton; and it seems to havea nea iver) ficanco, in tha falling pitch is i some way associated with satis- {ton an ng pach wih -someng Pode be done Toe oon Of these, in early childhood, wsually mesns a request (or action, but in the adult language a craving is craving for information, s0 here ‘ising pic wsually means 8 question. But the precise meaning varies considerably from one language wo another Te English, the particular significance ofthe falling tone is that of confidence about POLARITY the speaker knows whether the point at {seue is positive oF negative. So tone T expresses m sateen, as i It's Tuesday, and it also expresses a WH-question, asin what day 18 112, where although the speaker is uncertain about something i is not 1 question of yes or ao-—he or she simply wants a missing picce Supplied. Tone 2, on the euher hand, expresses a yer/no question, as ints it Tuesday?" the rise in pitch signals “polanty wnkaowa" ‘The third term in this opposition is neither faling or rising but, in principle, level—that is, H “opts out” of the choice, suspending decision 50 to speak. In practice it never is level, but always carries 2 slight rise, signaling ‘message incomplete This tone is used 0 show ‘an information unit that is dependent on another one: it might be an item ina list (ther than the las, a stitement chat i going tobe fllowed by “and” plus another one co-ordinated to it, oF a circumstantial expres- soe, such as time or place shat is added atthe end. The last—staternent ceding with circumstantial element—is the typical meaning of tone 13, 36 i how jie cht sia There’ sae oer nthe ie oe obo on tolons fan. oe an ora ve mai ved "une Heapressh ements {salt tao’, and wont brie pa a ae inet epened bye eceananne ewe ee ae ae Aoontve How ve ecole hee te a “Tho sama iat we refering toh ace ben aaa or writen Spl whee ere wc notonee see as posnble conte, ba cane cinces aslousse Wie ero Fest) imcroqaine, sapere sa ok mancion aera ie prove i spoken Eahshy where ey eee Pe isingited au" wrting® Se 9a an age nen spate Enis ieee mood. ote ag a oor Shee these enegoes do at always go tgether—you wl at decrees on toe and gel merogves on one foment ‘eta Yt anig se unsncy neces oi thnsBae ‘ual iby Jo getapeber And that ponies he ste a SDS nt ne tes ooem meange a eenenes wae Clowcy vl to athe an ure apn ee incenain way ypealh” deur aed Wit meses ce {0 wit tone I, Sh yetn inartognve eae go ened is imporant ony aon Sapte ae pe Dec ve imcragatee, td inperve ase Gamma) coeponee he hoe ng tn cle >, Sent econ and era Comune cucgora ihe chose hana Sen ancien te ‘Sean oer o acely eapreed bys combinton Sf ne ‘tone; bette calgurs ould ree be coment ‘oad we waned wipes them i 9x eget oer en Would ate bjond oul greene For ua deca eats Mew hcp oa put calcio the emg oe ent ton nxt Ts wil Sic wo ek she ops nme ‘Sree “Ter to tones 4 an 3, These se 98 coainaons 0 he asic movement, an thy har veld in her meaning. Tone ‘ibe seh Sense oh ey Seca and ied ries Sos tne of eseretion and Sencar ee bot oe as Sth hands it inure Sete, he ren oe ha Stata wih he rat you maga eee nea tea, be ‘he tomer par of he house hr epce ara he one a Sioctuc wi the meanag “ones the commen tone 4 rie flowed by fall The on i tiny not oom store, bac iene aich ee Sony aed by cen hs ones offcourse oes with the nuamee of "you ought to have known that’. It is particularly Toone ceetowant Sorte decal meting ecole of one i: his i te “ey ot ie panar mors nthe dsvouse: We conti syne oF aetves, as in Fire 3, Ts pecs ayn eae “caning ptt aid bythe cesourss ne in gl (Pov nested avout my Pronto sal Gres ih Engin) tah ns aelen, we wet eo ey oe from a dynamic point of view. tafonation to teling, asking. ordering,Figure 4.3. A genceal model of the meaning of the English tones The dynamics of intonation ‘As we ebsersed ati, comes English speech consists of an ae ocsrenon of inlodic units (fone groupe: each one Is 8 sere kee ote or more rythm uns (eet), fs characterised by & seas lic conte (one). aod has one point of prominece, ac me nce maximum rede movers ake le (nic sae ae prtsosicpateraing is teatngft: he Teaton ofthe aa nfo structure, andthe choice of tone raises the key. * 1S «ae no pasesberween one groups, nor are ii boonies be anes tone group ts comiered fo conti opt the tevin aie ose tn tea ne Ts may Be ee ne foot (one Ty 2, 3 4 oF 3) or x pec Gest tor oteribe te preemte sgront i dai. Wt each tone acted asa ange ot preame enous which IE sar iy marin the Deinaing oF Me Infrsation on teri apt of te ky Tere is way weather leat ai ee ang new tne group an gang. with Be ion Oro faring ee afer te toni fom ule Same eu they frm ati —they simply mara the pith veri 1a icy cep ke te orgs Ykely 1 ook in Fg Sone eee oer hand ine per fs beginning he prtnie Seger aaaae eeu. he itely co jmp in pe eer op or dow ite where that example wo read Why re tere ods in hose Toul ave thougit the ont would ep the rin amy vee mit expect anew pretonic 1 Begin at keep, and 19 be marked canna et i met am cheno oor eae since most conversations are in some sense continuings of converse tions that have taken place before; but we ean aceept the notion of the starting point af a conversation. Its context isthe context of situation: the features of field tenor, and mode which determine the kinds of meanings that will be exchanged, Figure 44 Another intonation contour 6A NN Leave mhavuht he root would eee the ain aay. From the moment that there is an environment—some culturally recognised activity ix going on, such as an outing, some interpersonal roles aod statuses are defined, for example, pensioners imeracting with ‘each ether and with atonr guide; and some rhetorical mode is adopted, for example, spoken, free eonversation—a member of the culture ean make predictions about the language that will follow, with a better than-chance probability of being right. There ate expectations from the start: set phrases lining up to be produced, snd parts of the linguistic system primed ready for access ‘Once conversation stars, a new element is added: cach new step defines the environment afresh. The rneaning of whatever is said i “with respect’ 10 what has gone before. The process is a stochastic one: the probabilities are reset at each boundary, and the linguistic resources Fegrouped to face the new situation. This is not something that happens ely between one turn and another (one speaker and the next). ‘perhaps easiest to think of in the context of dialogue, because there ‘we readily wccept that the interactant who is listening has t0 wait to hear what the one who is speaking says; but the one who is speaking also has 1 wait to hear what he himself says--it is not all mapped out before he starts, As in many of the phenomena we study, the macro picture is predictable, but the micro behaviour is highly variable, [Every language is organised 50 as to cope with this kind of demand, and this is the particular significance of the prosodic systems we are discussing. (The other resource that is specially called on to curry the ‘dynamics of spoken language is that of tans: this is deseribed in Chapter 6.) The combination of tore, tonicity. and rhythm enables the speaker (Gr speakers—the principle holds whether discourse is shared oF not, and it does not much matter when and how often there isa change of ‘wrn) to go on creating meaning without becoming ircelevant. (This is ‘not to suggest, of course, that speakers always achicve this estimable ‘goal; the point is tha the resources are there.) He ean indicate which re the conent-bearing elements, vay the density with which new infor ‘mation is introduced, show how i relates to what has gane before, give ia pantcular “key signature" to indicate its relevance a this particular point—ane direct the listener exacily to what he wants him t attend to Let us tabulate these for ease of reference (see Table 4.3) Iimonation and the flow of discourse: how exch mmve changes the contest ot whats 10 follow.Table 4.3 Functions of rhythm and intonation in English function in discouse yin | Wighlihes contem words istingushes structures losied stems eg. defining and tow reales potential for ‘Setinng relatives (onieiy and tone tonieny | highlighs element under ‘gus (eulnation of ‘ew; marks anything following st given; creates poteital for ‘other systemaric functions combines with mood to Signal semantic categories fo rhetorical function tome | ome) sigaals keys bio ceran logical relations [see Belowt Aprewonic) marks omes fof new tone group: [Signa subcategories of hay We end this chapter with a transcription of part of 9 conversation (recorded and wanscribed by Alaf Elmenoufy) Az 1/4. the / only seal / accident that /f$ I've ever / had was 2017 iy fog and fice and 1/1, dere was... 2 (713 big! truck / parked on the {side of the / road w/t bout... three feet a//t way from the / side ofthe / road and it was J very / thlek 1 fog 17% , and a / mink had //1 gone into 7 this Pteuek. 4 well the / mint bad just //1 couched the 1 offside of the / ruck with its #1 nearside f wing and 30 it 1/4 meant when | T came a/long my side of the / road ‘wus com pletely / blocked and /4 , unfortunately 1/1 ‘went into-a Tour sehoel/ skid be//4 fore coming / up to this mind and 4. at f that time 17/1 didn't / know how 10 7 deal with a / four wheel /skid and [44 $0 /T went / int the J malni // BHI, you hit i / sideways / on J As H3_ afbout) wwetve / cars / sent into / me and 1/3 dhea J 27 friend of / ours /3 came a/long and (/1 he deicided io / wy and overtake the / Jot and so he //1 went / into / each ! ane sort of //1 banging them / sideways as it were and 171 oh 7 this was in J daylight 1/ Br HV, belcause of the £ fog 7 Az 114 needless to /say | 1/4 treat fog. with /113 great selspect now 1 Be 111 yes 1171 know they 1/53 keep ! happening these / multiple colfisions in fog //2 were you all / right though asa result of ¢ this 1 Ac HV oh / yes 1/1 oh / yes these /34 there was / no-one J injured // 60. Chapter 5 Written language: lexical density ‘The complexity of written language “The following sentence is taken from a writen report (Annual Report of the National Trust of australia 1982-83. p14): ‘The Trust hes offered advice to Tacal government authorities on cemetery conservation 1 consists of twelve words. Of these, eight ate lexical items (content words) and four aze grammatical items (function words). Grammatical items ate those that function in closed systems in the language: in English, determiners, pronouns. most prepositions, conjunctions, some classes of adverb, and finite verbs. (Determiners include the articles.) In this example, the grammatical words are the, has, 10, and on. Tn other words, there ate wwice as many lexical words a5 there are ramimatical words. Compare this withthe first part of the spoken text at the end of the Last chapter: ‘The only teal aecilent that I've ever had was in fog and ice. ‘Counting I've as one word, this has 13 words: of hese, ue, onl, that Te, ever, had, was, In, and und are grammatical items: the lexical stems ure real, accident, fg, abn ice. Here the proportions are reversed: twice 38 many grammatical as lexical ‘This is a characteristic difference between spoken and written language. Written language displays a much higher ratio of lexical ems (0 teal rasning words. ‘This is aot just a consequence of the subject-matter. Here are a ‘number of written seatences with a “iranstation’ into a form that wouks ‘be more likely 10 occur in speech; i s sill ot specially “collagial Figures show the numbers of lexical (L) and grammatica! (G) words, Tesiment in asi tact lps Wf you invest in a rai aly, his songierm commnitmen. (L:7:6:3) amples Tae you ate going 10 be Somiited for 3 Vong te. (L7; ay 61 sgranvratical Ghunetion') words tnd levied (Ceontent) wordsthe kind of Senate ati ‘ypicat of writen language: “levies! eens ‘he grout of aachment between When anni andi aber at Iso cr signe fro gow ached eck er. MS ieee ceelopnem of chit 2s tht he cit epee Se etiac enngst dace amongst Peo: peonle ds ln ine TBosetsconvnuiy losers rk Members fhe bases coiny De agped main secety relax wie ry ch hs apl Sate somenne or he rear he mile he Tein Scop 110.0:6) sd ave smching fr the ssgal we ns who five there. (L:12: G:16) Se sl sch an exercise a the She sdf hat was doe i wou Seema Tor_amrstong_ bythe make psuble fore goverment Fcranea ine the kgbimate 10 one mc mom gorvren nce of wor goverment sts Sch which ha 4 ng 1 heir to, 6:1 ‘em prea (10, O17) Some migians acted open. en: Some people migrated tea they ‘singe rm ivan ere yee my SEER Shoa pce bem oe gu om tho relives ad fe coves L803) ‘Sho fad gone othe calories belo bonsai) viah iiaion of moses sheeting autre te Som meee" By eoac anes da bey rated. (4; G10) ‘Arey faces Dr Coffin ulockedthe De Coffin unlocked the door an oor. (16, G2) he di 30 his face was grey. (LS: G9) ‘We can explain the significance of his distinton as follows, The eet wan and poten langage one F DESY: he Sy wa wih he fran prev Rei ih er, rien language is dense, spoken language ib spare ‘Knumber ot factor sot (0 hs density sm fil complex phesomunon, os ve would cover fweircd to quanify man exact case bat is mint the product ofa small numberof variables, and Sere cae cborve widut a complicated baer of measurement ‘Ons cation shld be pve: By expressing the dsinctom In his weay meSnaveivedy Towed" H semantically. o say that writen vangulge more dense” sf suggest that if we start from spoken rES2Es, nen writen language wil be shown to be more complex. Sie couit have loaked athe same pihenomeron from the ther cm. We could have Sid that he diference between spoken lngtae Shi writen language i one of nea, the tticacy with which he ‘tomato organised, Spoken language is more neat tan writen the aca chapter we shall 100K Ino Ue yleumenon of snigseyewhich gm ct 2 telated phenomenon. bat seen fom the pest ere rom that pont ie wl appear ha poken (Reagan ove complex than writen, The concluston will be tat cee comple tomo say. Weitenlanguape displays one nd Sfeomplenty. spoken language snoter- Our un wl be 0 make eet wha these ae. ‘After considering both kinds of complexity, we shall try to account for them under a single generalisation. This will relate to the concept ‘of lexico-grammar; the level of “wording” in language. One way of expressing the matter—rather oversimplified, but it provides e pointer in the right direction—is that the complexity of writen language is lenical, while that of spoken language is grammatical ‘What we are examining now, therefore, with the notion of “densiy’, is w kind of complexity that arises in the deployment of words Lexical density ‘me cistincton we have to recognise at this point is one we have refered {o already: chat between lexical items and grammatical tems. Lexical items are often called ‘content words’. Technically, they are TEMS (i.e constituents of variable length} rather than words ia the usual sense, because they may consist of more than one word: for example, stand ‘up, take over, call off, and other phrasal verbs all function a single lexical items. ‘They are LEXICAL because they function in lexical Sets ‘ot grammatical systema: that is 10 say, they enter into open not closed contrasts ‘A grammatical item enters into a closed system. For example, the personal pronoun him contrasts on one dimension with he, his; on another dimension with me, You, her, it us, them, one; but that is al “There are no more items in these classes and we cannot add any. With a lexical item, however, we cannot close off is class membership; it ‘into an open set, which is indefiniely extendable. So the word door is in contrast with gate and screen; also with window, wall, floor and ceiling: with knob, handle, panel, and sil; with room, hewse, hall; ‘with entrance, opening, portal there is no way of closing oft the sets (of items that itis related (0, and new items can always come into the picture ‘As you would expect, there isa continuum from leis into grammar. while many items in a language are clearly of one kind or the other, there are allways likely to be intermediate cases. In English, prepositions and certain classes of adverb (for example, moDAL adverbs Uke always, perhaps) are on this borderline. For purposes of comparing spoken and ‘written English it does not mater exactly where we draw the Tine provided we do it consistently. Like many other features of language, the distinction is quite clear in our unconscious understanding (which is never troubled by border- line eases, unlike our conscious mind). Children are clearly well aware ‘of tone of the developmental strategies used by many children for constructing sentences in the mother tongue ts 10 leave out all gram ‘matical tems; and some children re-use this strategy when fst learning to write (see Mackay et al. 1978). ‘We have already pointed out that the distinction is embodied in four spelling system, since grammatical items may have only one oF two letters im them, whereas lexical items require a minimum of thee (showing incidentally that prepositions, at leat the comnion ones, belong in the "grammatical class, bocause of words like al, i, 1, om, which ctherwise would have to be spelt wit, ian, 100, onn). And there ihe concep of a ‘lexical ierJerscal dens the momber Jesical ems as 2 proportion af the umber of running words are some “special languages around the world hat are based entirely ‘nth diction, singe they rogieall xia ems to be alered wile fit grammatical ones remam unchanged~for example the moter. lw language in Dysbal, Now Queensland (sce Dizon 1980). So is nor surprising that te distinction is Tondamental tothe diference between speech and wring Tm principle a prammatial item has no place ina dictionary. But cot (adton of dictonaryeoaking fo lactide all words, gente Wala wal lenial, vote ditonary solemnly ees the and ve Though wa nating oy aout hem —odhing, at ha fal in the seope of lencology. Amore consistent practice ls hat of Roger= Thetaurs, ich doe eae out most af he grammatical words those thut are included ae there because Roge feats them lexically. for trample ning up me with personality ego, spi (and nt ih ou se, iy I werd the writngeystem, beng wien wih space om eked) ‘nie elvan em, and counting he ao xk gratia Sond. We ten express this x ¢ proportion ofthe foal number o Fanning words. there are 12 leivah and 8 grammatical items, his, jves the proportion of exieal ems to the ttl es 12 out of 2 which tke show mvt lencal density of 60 percent, oF 0.6. Tn general the Inore “writen de langage being Used, the higher wil be te proportion Of lexical words tothe foal numberof rang words i The Text Frequency “The next thing 10 take account of {8 probabil. ‘nother aspect the dtncion between lexical and grammatical wide that grammatical em end 0 be considerably more equent ip covurrence. A list of the mot frequently occuring words in he English fngvaye wil always be headed by grammatical tems hike she finland and it Lexieal ems are repeated mach less often ‘Ths in ise is entely predictable, and of no gre sigaiicance tothe preset point. What & significant the rlaive frequency of “ Wichave been asming a simple sein which leis tes count the some, ut the acta! eles that we sre responding to i one in which te relative frequency ofthe tom plays a sigoiicant part. The felaive ffeguency of grammatical ems canbe ignored, nce all of thie ready Hen beat bee ive nny Of leiel ites an imporans factor m the station “The vocabulary of every language includes « number of highly frequeat words, offen general terms for large classes of phenomena Examples rom English are thing, people, way. do, make, et, have, fo. teal, many. These are lena wens, but on the bordettne of {rammor they often perform fonctions that are really graramatica!— for example thing 28 general noun (almost pronout) as i thar’ | thing I could well do without, make ws a general verb, 2s in you make ime tired, it makes no difference. They therefore contribute very le 1 the lexical density ‘By contrast, a lexical item of rather low frequency in the language contributes a great deal. Clearly there Is difference between the fal, lowing examples in the feeting of density that they give: compare the mechanism of sex determination varies indifferent organisms wit the way the sex is decided differs with diferent creatures liffereat creatures have their sex decided in different ways ‘The proportion of lexical items is about the same in all three: but the last tWo “eel less dense because they include very frequent items sich as have and way, ‘Another factor that operates here is that the last two examples incorporate repetition, the item afer diferent, Repetiion aso tedces € effect of densty~sinee even if a word is intrinsically rare, its ‘occurrence seis up the expectation that it will oceur again. Note that normally all the members of a morphological paradigm are the same lexical item: for example, difer, differed, differen. diferonce, difering, differenly are all instances ofthe one lexical item {but aot differential in differential equation). This is another difference beewoen ‘lexical tern" and "word" For a systematic, formal investigation of Jenical density in texts we should have to adopt some weighting whereby lexical items of lower frequency ‘scored’ more highly than common ones. Wort frequency lists have been available for some time, and there are now targe bodies ‘of written and spoken text in machine-readabte form in various places from which such information can readily be obtained. ‘But for inumediate practical purposes, either all lexical items ean bbe «reat alike—this will still show up the difference between spoken and weiten texts—or a list can be drawn up of high-frequency lexical -ms 10 be given half of the value of the others, This is equivalem Fecognising thre categories rather than two: grammatiul items. high frequency lexical items, and lowfreyuency lexical items. A more revealing measure of lexical density So far we have assumed that the feature of lexical density was jut some= thing to do with words. The measurements we have suggested have been concerned withthe pattern of distribution of words of different kinds in spoxen and writen texts. We started With a classification of all words into two categories grammatical and lexicat—and envisaged the possiblity of refining dhs by taking into account the frequency of | word in the language (i. its unconditioned probability of oscursence at any point)—either crudely, but eaough wo allow forthe much greater effect of low-frequency lexical items, or more deticately by burlding in a differential system of weightings for all. However for we took such refinements, we should still be meas- « the cetfet of this on Testes densitylanse, sentence, and “elaine complex” uring words against words, But this is rather one-sided, because it ‘iggests that spoken language is simply to be characterised by a negative Feature tie relative shsence of (or low level of) density of infermation Ts there any way of remnterpreting this notion so that i tes us some- thing positive about spoken language 2s well? ‘Let us enamine the notion of density further. Ithas to do, as already suggested, with how closely packed the information is. This is why the probability of the tem is ieportant: a word of low probability carries tmore information, But words are oot packed inside other words; they tre packaged in larger grammatice! wnits—sentences. and their eom- poneot pars this packaging imo lager graraoatca structures that Feally determines the informational density of a pastage of text. "Which isthe most relevant ofthese larger structures? There is one hat clearly stands out a the unit where mesnings are organised and ‘rapped up together, and that is the CLAUSE. The clause isthe gram. Tatil unt in which semantic constructs of differen kinds are brought together and integrated ino a whole. ‘This always appears a difficlt notion a first, Decause ofthe incon- sistency with which the terms “clause” and "sentence’ are used i cad ‘onal gearamars, But in fact itis not excessively complicated. If we take as our starting point the observation that a so-called “simple Semence’ is a sentence consisting of one clause, then much of the ‘ifficulty disappears. What is traditionally known as a ‘compound cmence’ will all consist of tWo or more clauses; and each of them jpotentall carries the same load of information asthe single clause of 2 ‘simple sentence”, ‘Eventually we shall discard the term “sentence” from the grammar ihogetter, it am then be used unambiguously (0 refer to a unit of the ‘Friling system —that which extends from a capital leter following Tul stop up to the next full stop. In place of "sentence" inthe gram we shall use CLAUSE COMPLEX, because that wil allow ws co refer both To wetten and to spoken language in a way that makes the two com- frable. We cannot Wlemify a “sentence” in the spoken language: oF Father, we can Wentify # sentence in spoken language only by defining ftas § clause complex. And since the notion of a "complex" can be Formally defined, and yields aot only clause complexes but also phrase ‘Complexes, group complexes, and word complexes, it seems siripler to ‘adopt this term throughout. "Te clause complex is, infact, what the sentence (in writing) comes from, The uit that was intuitively recognised by our ancestors when they frst introduced the "stop" as 3 punctuation mark was the clause complex: that is, 2 sequence of clauses all structurally linked. For our notation, we will use three vertical strokes to mark a ‘sentence boundary (til using the term "sentence’ pro tem; but grad- ily phasing, tout), und two vertical strokes to mark a clause boundary. For example’ Uf The basic ‘stat? of living organisms is protoplasm | There is no fet composition ofthis | and it varies between one individual and fhe next. “The clause is the gateway from the semantics to the grammar. It provides amore powerful and more relevant organising concept for resting esl deny. and more generally, for eating ws Captae the special properties f bolt sponen and writen nepeape ittent ofcing te miner of enc tena’ ao ne ee ‘ber ming worm il eat he mer fe tetra of te tol number of Sauer Len en es Ietsie ste nea exeal seo pe Sa ‘Keeping tate simples clase Gach to is te excl sem nt oe ata ne otc a Tespectively. five. ic, stuff, living, organisms, prowplasm) 7 omposton, andr (are, naa eel tone 4 of ne ihdng an sveape once pes ae We wl eres a TRS eat lence dens ae The clause whut i we are measuring, then, for any text spoken ot ween, i he average mount flexi information pec ease. No account nee be taken for purposes ofthis particular measirement, ofthe number and ‘organisation oF elasos inthe sentence (cause commplen). Buti wil be mcessary 10 Monty eaplicly whet is Case THs ot lays easy, however, 10 ecognise wha clause. Again, for comparative purposes, the mai requirments consistency: but Since ths category is pethaps the most funlsmental category inthe whole ttingusttcs ab well as being erica Be unty of spoken and writen language, i importa to devote 4 setion to the discussion of Precicly becauts s undumenal a category the clase so imposible define, not thre Just ane igh way of describing iE comple nd arn en fl ir tet ical internettions: thereat very mary diferent Kinds of eeneral thn that Ting aye itr i for tern purposed the elause ls ely wo come ot ooking soinewbat ferent i each Cae ‘ut all imerpetaions will ao have someting in come vel toute pve Below represents a eration that have nd wel nthe general conte of cational guns 'satheorilmerprtion with strongly pragmatic motve bid i ered fom two eomplemenaty apc of exptens th ores 4 vlad fer he pps ing pt, bat les 8 Jevelop a theory you wil not have anything fo spply. The pi pups for wich hie inerreion hs een ed ae tox sl from natura conctsaton io erature: the study f funcional va ia on (ose) ange: Language teaching, netaing moter tony and foreign language; child language ne and og ngage: hid gigs Sv at ‘According 0 this interpretation, he clase i functions ni a rple constuction of meting” fancons simultaneously (1 fepieetation ofthe phepomest of experince, thee a nerprced bythe members of te calle; (2) a he expesion of speech fon, Seough he tga of dence Chae and) ah rer ofthe mestage, which is crganied in tne Toc of thet beset of aansed inthe foc of theme plus To each f these fonctions corresponds asirectual configuration. lexical deny (2) the number oF Texica tems as « ati of the umber of clauses defining the clause by reference 10s threefold fonction