UNIT 28
I hope these charts help you in the process of memorising the names, bibliography and concepts of this unit.
The title of this unit is the longest, see: Linguistic macrofunctions to express regular communicative intentions: start & maintain social relations, give & ask information about objects, people and actions, express intellectual & emotional attitudes.
Remember to start by giving the definition of speech act and speech event given by Stern in 1983: Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
- Speech act is "the smallest unit of speaking"
- Speech event is the next larger unit of speech activity: conversation, discussion, lecture, etc. and it always takes place in a speech situation.
They can be analysed from 3 different points of view:
1- Formal properties- (Linguistics) morphological & syntactic point of view.
2- Description of Mental processes that determine the production of language - (Psycholinguistics)
3- Social Dimension: (Sociolinguistics) Social contexts & roles.
Various Conceptual schemes studying speech act in their social setting enumerating all the factors determining language and language meaning have been given from different areas of study, such as linguistics, social psychology, philosophy and anthropology.
See the authors and their schemes, these models slightly differ in the labelling of the factors. However, they all include the following concepts in the SPEECH ACT:
1. The participants
2. The message.
3. The medium or channel
4. The setting, scene or speech situation
5. The topic, not necessarily related to the external non-linguistic reality.
6. The particular variety of speech, likely to depend on the situation and the relationship between the participants of the topic.
7. The purpose or function that a given speech act has.
Authors: Karl Bühler 1934; Roman Jakobson 1960; Searle 1969; William Peter Robinson 1972; Halliday 1973.
Now we will continue with the exponents (Micro Functions) of these functions, and for that we are going to group them into four large areas (Information, Socialization, Intellectual attitude, Emotional attitude) following Geoffrey Leech & Jan Svartvik 2003 in A Communicative Grammar of English. Routledge.
AREA of INFORMATION
(statements, questions and answers, reporting, lack of information)
A) Statements:
1. Subject-verb normal order
2. Subject-verb inversion.
B) Questions & Answers:
1. Yes-no questions- "Are you thirsty?"
2. Wh-questions- "What are you doing?"
3. Alternative questions- "Will you have orange, banana or strawberries?"
4.Questions with bias (=inclination or prejudice) some, always, already... the appearance of assertive in a question normally implies a positive answer. -"Would you like some more coffee?" (I expect you would)
5. Questions in declarative form. (with a rising tone) -"You are coming then?"
6. Question tags. Differ in polarity, if not, the tone may be sarcastic. "You call that a good omelette, do you?"
rising tone, sure- "This is right, isn't it?"
falling tone, not sure- "This is right, isn't it?"
7. Negative interrogatives. to express disappointment or anger- "Will nobody come to the lesson?"
C) Reporting
1. No change. Reported Speech with introductory verb in the present tense, even in perfective aspect.
- something has just happened- "The taxi driver says is 40€ plus taxes."
- habitual remark- "he is always complaining about the weather"
- still in the same conversation- phone conversation- Annie: "I'll be there soon", Oscar: "She said she'll be here soon".
- referred sentence may still be true- "He told me his surname is Lawrence."
2.Change. On the other hand, Reported Speech with introductory verb in the past tense needs to make some changes:
- back-shift, present for past, past for past perfect.
I am driving here today
He said he was driving there that day.
- deictic references (personal pronouns, spatio- temporal deictics...) I-He/Today-That day/ Here-There
Modals with no past form do not change: could , might, should, would, ought to, had better and used to."Must" may remain or change into "had to" or "would have to" if the original reference has a future value, past perfect does not change.
a) Reported questions: lose also their usual word order and use that of statements.
Whether or if
Will you still love me?
He asked me whether/if I will still love him.
Wh-word
What are you eating?
They asked me what I was eating.
If/whether...or whether or not in alternative questions.
Did you have salad or rice?
I asked her whether/if she had salad or rice.
Wh-word + to (not with why)
I asked the flight assistance where to place my bag.
b) Reported commands:
Ask / Tell + to
He told us to be quiet during the speech
D) Lack of information
When we don't have the information required, we can use any of the following structures to show lack of information. All these may be followed by an if/whether clause or by a Wh-word:
I don't have idea...
I haven't the faintest/foggiest idea...
I haven't got a clue...
I (really) don't know...
It's quite (impossible) for me to know...
AREA of SOCIALIZATION
(give samples in each Microfunction)
1. Beginning and ending a conversation
2. Complimenting and congratulating
3. Offering and thanking
4. Apologising and regretting
5. Expressing condolences
6. Expressing wishes, seasonal greetings and toasts.
7. Speaking on the phone
8. Writing formal letters.
AREA of INTELLECTUAL ATTITUDES
(give samples in each Microfunction)
A) Opinion
- asking for an opinion
- giving an opinion
- asking without giving your opinion
B) Agreement & Disagreement
- Agreement
- Disagreement
- Partial or qualified agreement
- Interrupting
- Corroboration
- Clarification
AREA of EMOTIONAL ATTITUDES
(give samples in each Microfunction)
A) Liking and disliking
- Likes
- Dislikes
- Indifference
- Preference
- Hope
- Anticipation or pleasure
- Regret
- Approval and disapproval
- Surprise
-Concern
- Emotive emphasis:
* interjections (tut-tut/gosh! whoops!)
* Exclamations
* Repetition
* Emphasizers
B) Volition (following Leech & Svartvik)
(give samples in each Microfunction)
- Willingness
- Wish
- Intentions
- Insistence
CONCLUSION:
Language is no only used to convey simple information, but it is also used to express communicative intentions, establish social relations, asking for and giving informations or express attitudes, whether intellectual or emotional. When developing our student's communicative competence, we shouldn't only consider their grammatical accuracy, but also their ability to express themselves on each context by using these functions of language.
It would be good to give an idea of how to teach some of this content in class. Remember to cite the law. Below I leave you the list of Royal Decrees and Decrees that we are using at the time of writing the syllabus design.
IN ESO:
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