A Workbook to Communicative Grammar of English (4 page)
Read A Workbook to Communicative Grammar of English Online
Authors: Dr. Edward Woods,Rudy Coppieters
7.
Driving on the left-hand side is something most people get used to in no time at all.
8.
I haven’t got the faintest idea if the evidence given by Karen will prove her innocence.
9.
Either your informant is completely ignorant of the facts or he is deliberately deceiving us, which is even worse.
10.
In contrast with conventional wisdom, forests in northern countries are expanding rather than shrinking.
11.
The politician said he wasn’t involved in the cover-up but he was, as appeared from an incriminating document found in the flat of his former mistress.
12.
For Christ’s sake, why couldn’t you behave properly in the company of such distinguished guests, whose only fault was that their English sounded slightly pompous?
Tone is the type of pitch change which takes place on the nucleus. There are three basic types of tone in English, each of which tends to express a number of related meanings:
(i) | falling tone |
(ii) | rising tone |
(iii) | fall-rise |
Task one **
Assign one of the three basic tones to each tone unit in the following sentences, underlining the nuclear syllable on which the pitch change takes place.
1.
Are any of these titles still available?
2.
Don’t lean too far out of the window.
3.
I don’t want to spend ALL my dollars.
4.
How many passengers survived the plane crash?
5.
You’ve seen some of these films before?
6.
George Stephenson was the inventor of the steam engine.
7.
In terms of profitability, the current year has been quite exceptional.
8.
Why didn’t you turn up at the meeting, because you had overslept again?
9.
Technically speaking, these devices are extremely sophisticated.
10.
If you haven’t got enough time now, you can write those letters tomorrow.
11.
Edith may not be a very good cook, she knows at least how to appreciate good food.
12.
There’s a wide choice of cheese here: Cheddar, Stilton, Camembert, Gorgonzola and Danish blue.
Task two ***
For each sentence, first mark tone unit boundaries with vertical bars. Second, underline the nuclear syllable on which the pitch change takes place. Third, assign one of the three basic tones to each tone unit. (cf Section 42 in
CGE
)
1.
Members of the jury, I thank you for your attention during this trial. Please pay attention to the instructions I am about to give you.
Henry Johnson, the defendant in this case, has been accused of the crimes of First Degree Murder with a Firearm and Aggravated Assault with a Firearm.
In this case Henry Johnson is accused of First Degree Murder with a Firearm.
Murder in the First Degree includes the lesser crimes of Murder in the Second Degree, Murder in the Third Degree and Manslaughter, all of which are unlawful.
If you find Mr. Peter Smith was killed by Henry Johnson, you will then consider the circumstances surrounding the killing in deciding if the killing was First Degree Murder, Second Degree Murder, Third Degree Murder or Manslaughter.
(slightly adapted from
www.pbcountyclerk.com
)
2. | Ruth: | Steve, where’s my handbag? |
Steve: | Over there, on the windowsill. You’re not going out shopping, are you? | |
Ruth: | Of course I am. How else am I to prepare dinner tonight? | |
Steve: | Oh, I thought we were going to a restaurant. | |
Ruth: | The last time we went to a restaurant you kept complaining about the food. | |
Steve: | It was one of those very exotic places. You know I don’t like them. | |
Ruth: | What would you suggest then? As long as it isn’t fish and chips, of course. | |
Steve: | Well, shall we go to an Italian restaurant? That’s not too exotic as far as I am concerned. | |
Ruth: | All right. You still remember the terms of the agreement we made last time? | |
Steve: | I don’t, quite frankly. | |
Ruth: | In that case, let me just refresh your memory. Whoever chooses the restaurant pays the bill for the two of us. | |
Steve: | You will have your revenge, won’t you. |
Emotion
2.1. Emotive emphasis in speech 1
Emotive emphasis can be given in a variety of ways:
•
interjections
: words like
oh, ah, wow, ouch
, etc.
•
exclamations
beginning with
what
- and
how
-phrases which do not cause subject-operator inversion
•
emphatic
so
and
such
•
repetition
(which also denotes degree)
•
stress on the operator
•
nuclear stress on other words
•
intensifying adverbs and modifiers
Task one *
Identify the various emotive features that you can find in the following extracts.
1. ‘Well!’ thought Alice to herself. ‘After such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they’ll all think me at home! Why, I wouldn’t say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!’ (Which was very likely true.)
Down, down, down. Would the fall
never
come to an end?
(from Lewis Carroll,
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
and
Through the Looking-glass
, p. 13)
2. “You know something, Maria? We fought.”
“Fought?”
“We were in the goddamned jungle … and we were attacked … and we fought our way out.” Now he sounded as if the dawn were breaking wider and wider. “Christ, I don’t know when the last time was I was in a fight, an actual fight. Maybe I was twelve, thirteen. You know something, babe? You were great. You were fantastic. You really were. When I saw you behind the wheel – I didn’t even know if you could drive the car!” He was elated.
She
was driving. “But you drove the hell out of it! You were great!” Oh, the dawn had broken. The world glowed with its radiance.
(from Tom Wolfe,
The Bonfire of the Vanities
, pp. 98–99)
Task two *
Give emotive emphasis by adding the kind of element suggested by the ‘prompt’ in brackets, changing the sentence structure where necessary.
1.
John Thaw was a brilliant actor. (emphatic
so/such
)
2.
You’re wearing a beautiful tie. (exclamation)
3.
That was an awful thing to say. (repetition)
4.
It was stupid of you to insult the ambassador like that. (exclamation)
5.
I’m really disappointed now. (repetition)
6.
The lounge is elegantly decorated. (emphatic
so/such
)
7.
It would be far better to ignore that man altogether. (repetition)
8.
When I came back, I felt exhausted. (emphatic
so/such
)
9.
Joan’s mood changed suddenly again. (exclamation)
10.
The Wilsons are nice people. (emphatic
so/such
)
11.
Olive can be a charming hostess. (exclamation)
12.
A bedbug is a tiny creature. (repetition)
Task three **
Underline the operators, modifiers, etc. which are likely to receive nuclear stress in the sentences making up the following dialogue. Add the dummy auxiliary
do
where it makes sense.
Helen: | George, what are you doing so early in the morning? |
George: | I’m awfully sorry, but I had to get out of bed. |
Helen: | Tell me what’s the matter with you, then. |
George: | Well, I had the most horrifying nightmare. |
Helen: | You will have to calm down, you know. This isn’t an isolated thing. Something must be bothering you. |
George: | I can’t deny that. I’ve been terribly worked up lately. |
Helen: | I wish you’d tell me more. I have a right to know. |
George: | If I told you, you’d be incredibly angry. |
Helen: | You owe me an explanation. I am your wife, after all. |
George: | I decided to buy a hugely expensive car and it could ruin us. |
Task four **
Complete the following sentences, using the most appropriate of the intensifying adjectives or adverbs in brackets. Use each word just once.
absolute | definitely | gorgeous | great | horrendous | indeed |
literally | raving | really | terribly | tremendous | utterly |
1.
Most of the relatives were ____________ devastated by the terrible news.
2.
The fact that I knew the local culture so well turned out to be a ____________ asset.
3.
Yet another country in this volatile region is descending into ____________ chaos.
4.
The evidence ____________ proves that the victim was killed with a blunt instrument.
5.
We enjoyed two weeks of ____________ weather while we were cruising in the Pacific.
6.
The stock market guru was ____________ knocked off his pedestal.
7.
Five-star hotels are often associated with luxury and ____________ bills.
8.
Jennifer was described by some experts as a ____________ beauty.
9.
To be quite honest, I’m not __________ impressed with Jim’s performance.
10.
Are you ____________ going to get married to this unscrupulous person?
11.
It was a ____________ idea to cut bus and tram fares in big cities.
12.
The documentaries broadcast by
National Geographic Channel
are very interesting ____________.
2.2. Emotive emphasis in speech 2
•
The emotive force
of a
wh
-question can be strengthened by adding
ever, on earth
, etc. to the
wh
-word.
•
Negative sentences
can be intensified by adding
at all, a bit, whatever, a thing
, etc. or by putting
not a
before a noun. The negative element can also be placed at the beginning of a clause, which normally causes subject-operator inversion.
•
An exclamatory question
is a
yes-no
question spoken with an emphatic falling tone. It often has a negative form.
•
A rhetorical question
is more like a forceful statement and can have a positive or negative form. There are also rhetorical
wh
-questions.
Task one **
Intensify the emotive force of the underlined parts by adding one of the phrases below. Use each of these phrases only once, some of them being interchangeable.
a bit | a fig | a thing | a wink | at all |
by any means | ever | in heaven’s name | on earth | whatever |
1.
I didn’t have
any money
.
2.
Why are you going to sell such a unique painting?
3.
I
wasn’t surprised
that things had got out of hand.
4.
There was so much noise that night that I
didn’t sleep
.
5.
How
did the serial killer manage to escape from prison?
6.
What
have you been doing to your hair?
7.
There is
no reason
to be so upset about Erica’s sudden departure.
8.
Without light, no one
could see
in that dark cave.
9.
It is
not true
that the whale is a type of fish.
10.
Gary was severely reprimanded but he
doesn’t care
.