ILS1 Seminar 7 December 7, 2018
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JUMBLED TEXT 1 He had a little boat, and he rowed about quite quietly on the lake; for lake it was, wide and deep and deadly cold. Only old people go fishing. Not he. The only fish you ever catch are tiny (yet in every pond there is a giant pike big enough to swallow a swan whole). He was Gollum - as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face. Fishing may be the most popular participatory sport in the UK, but most people don't have a clue what actually goes on out there on our rivers, lakes, and seas. I don't know where he came from, nor who or what he was. Only old blokes go fishing. Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature. It's boring. He paddled it with large feet dangling over the side, but never a ripple did he make. It's always raining. He was looking out of his pale lamp-like eyes for blind fish, which he grabbed with his long fingers as quick as thinking. The average Briton has his or her fair share of preconceptions about fishing, of course.
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Text 1 Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature. I don't know where he came from, nor who or what he was. He was Gollum - as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face. He had a little boat, and he rowed about quite quietly on the lake; for lake it was, wide and deep and deadly cold. He paddled it with large feet dangling over the side, but never a ripple did he make. Not he. He was looking out of his pale lamp-like eyes for blind fish, which he grabbed with his long fingers as quick as thinking. 3
Text 2 Fishing may be the most popular participatory sport in the UK, but most people don't have a clue what actually goes on out there on our rivers, lakes, and seas. The average Briton has his or her fair share of preconceptions about fishing, of course. It's boring. It's always raining. Only old people go fishing. Only old blokes go fishing. The only fish you ever catch are tiny (yet in every pond there is a giant pike big enough to swallow a swan whole). 4
JUMBLED TEXT 2 •
With such a small community of speakers, the children never developed fluency. The last straw in my decision to sit down and write the book was getting back a manuscript that had been mutilated by a copy editor who, I could tell, was mindlessly enforcing rules that had been laid out in some ancient style book as if they were the Ten Commandments. However, I support the Ontario Education Act’s restriction of the language of instruction in publicly funded schools to English or French. Our heritage language suffered while we were busy trying to learn English and make a life in Canada. For all these reasons, I have long recognised the need for a style guide based on modern linguistics and cognitive science. The weekend Chinese classes we attended were taught in dialects incomprehensible to us. English eventually became our home language. The manuals written by journalists and essayists often had serviceable rules of thumb, but they were also idiosyncratic, crabby, and filled with folklore and apocrypha. While it’s unfortunate my family wasn’t better able to hold onto our heritage language, it’s great when families can. Linguistics experts, for their part, have been scathing about the illogic and ignorance in traditional advice on usage, but have been unwilling to proffer their own pointers to which rules to follow or how to use grammar effectively. My siblings and I understand rudimentary Hakka but don’t speak it.
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Text 3 Our heritage language suffered while we were busy trying to learn English and make a life in Canada. With such a small community of speakers, the children never developed fluency. My siblings and I understand rudimentary Hakka but don’t speak it. The weekend Chinese classes we attended were taught in dialects incomprehensible to us. English eventually became our home language. While it’s unfortunate my family wasn’t better able to hold onto our heritage language, it’s great when families can. However, I support the Ontario Education Act’s restriction of the language of instruction in publicly funded schools to English or French. 6
Text 4 For all these reasons, I have long recognised the need for a style guide based on modern linguistics and cognitive science. The manuals written by journalists and essayists often had serviceable rules of thumb, but they were also idiosyncratic, crabby, and filled with folklore and apocrypha. Linguistics experts, for their part, have been scathing about the illogic and ignorance in traditional advice on usage, but have been unwilling to proffer their own pointers to which rules to follow or how to use grammar effectively. The last straw in my decision to sit down and write the book was getting back a manuscript that had been mutilated by a copy editor who, I could tell, was mindlessly enforcing rules that had been laid out in some ancient style book as if they were the Ten Commandments. 7
Activity 4: 1. Representative (Assertive): Madrid is the capital of Spain. (Sp. represents a state of affairs. Assertives commit speakers to the truth of the proposition) 2. Commissive: I promise to marry your sister! (Sp. commits him-/herself to the performance of an action) 3. Directive: Please close the door! (an attempt by Sp[eaker] to get H[earer] to do sth.) 4. Expressive: Thank you for the nice present! (Sp expresses a psychological state about the situation or state of affairs denoted by the proposition) 5. Declaratives: I hereby pronounce you man and wife. (Sp declares sth in a formal situational context) 8