Processing Varieties in English: An Examination of Oral and Written Speech Across Genres

272 Pages·1990·14.81 MB·English

by  Marcia I. MacAulay

Processing Varieties in English
This study of oral and written speech in English examines media as
processing varieties and looks at their interaction with genre. To
date the study of orality and literacy in English has been unsyste-
matic; findings have been inconsistent and contradictory.
In this treatment, clear methodological parameters have been set
up to ensure accurate and significant findings. All texts used are
parallel texts arising out of the same or a similar context of situation.
With this methodology, ideational meaning is clearly distinguished
from textual meaning. Moreover, media and genre, two aspects of
textual meaning, are distinguished so that representative features of
each are isolated. Lastly, all texts are naturally occurring across rep-
resentative genres. With such distinctions and criteria in place, the
important interaction of media with genre is examined, while the
character of oral and written speech as processing varieties is re-
vealed.
Above all, this book demonstrates the non-neutrality of oral and
written speech as language varieties. Especially important is the
resultative/causative split between them in the representation of
events. Written speech is not oral speech "written down," as Bloom-
field and de Saussure originally claimed, but a very different system
of syntactic and discourse organization which influences how we
represent and see the world. Both varieties strongly influence the
semantic content and generic function of any text they convey, indi-
cating a very significant interplay of semantic variables in the pro-
cessing of language.
Processing Varieties in English contributes to a wide range of linguis-
tic areas and topics, including discourse analysis, socio-psycholin-
guistics, and cognitive science.
MARCIA I. MACAULAY received her PH.D. from the University of British
Columbia and is currently a lecturer in the Department of English at
the National University of Singapore.
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Processing Varieties in English:
An Examination of Oral and
Written Speech across Genres
Marcia I. Macaulay
University of British Columbia Press
Vancouver
© The University of British Columbia Press 1990
All rights reserved
ISBN 0-7748-0334-7
Printed in Canada
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Macau lay, Marcia Irene
Processing varieties in English
Includes bibliographical referenes
ISBN 0-7748-0334-7
1. Oral communication. 2. Written communication.
3. Literary form. 4. Mass media. 5. Speech acts
(Linguistics). 6. Sociolinguistics.
7. Psycholinguistics. I. Title.
P95.M32 1990 302.2'4 C90-091198-0
UBC Press
6344 Memorial Rd
Vancouver, BC V6T 1W5
This book has been published with
the help of a grant from the Canadian
Federation for the Humanities, using
funds provided by the Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of
Canada.
To my parents
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Contents
Tables
Acknowledgments ix
1 Introduction 3
2 Oral and Written Narrative 14
Personal Narrative: The Boy in the Mirror 19
Historical Narrative: The Legend of Gunninute the
Outlaw 29
Mythic Narrative: The Legend of Astace 39
Conclusion 51
3 Oral and Written Description 55
Process Description: Cattle Driving 57
Conclusion 77
4 Oral and Written Exposition 80
Popular Exposition: The Definition of a Lover 83
Conclusion 104
5 Oral and Written Instruction 109
Popular Instruction: How to Make Yogurt and Yogurt
Cheese no
Conclusion 131
6 Oral and Written Argument 134
Socio-Political Argument: The New Cold War 137
viii Contents
7 Conclusion 162
Appendix: Texts Used
The Boy in the Mirror/Oral Account of Martin Starret 179
The Boy in the Mirror/Written Account of Martin Starret 180
The Story of Gunninute/Oral Account of Martin Starret 180
The Story of Gunninute/Written Account of Martin Starret 183
Astace (Carrier Creation Myth)/Oral Account of Martin
Starett 184
Astace: The Indian/Written Account of Martin Starret 187
Cattle Driving/Oral Description 192
Cattle Driving/Written Description 193
from The Politics of Love/Oral Exposition 195
from Loving Each Other /Written Exposition 197
Yogurt and Yogurt Cheese/Oral Instruction 202
Yogurt and Yogurt Cheese/Written Instruction 204
Noam Chomsky and Fred Halliday in Conversation 205
from The Making of the Second Cold War/Halliday 216
from "Towards a New Cold War"/Chomsky 226
Notes 237
Bibliography 243
Index 255
TABLES
1 Syntactic Profile/The Boy in the Mirror 21
2 Syntactic Profile/The Legend of Gunninute 30
3 Syntactic Profile/The Legend of Astace 40
4 Syntactic Profile/All Narratives 52
5 Syntactic Profile/Cattle Driving 58
6 Syntactic Profile/The Definition of a Lover 85
7 Syntactic Profile/How to Make Yogurt 113
8 Syntactic Profile/Chomsky 139
9 Syntactic Profile/Halliday 139
Acknowledgments
Any work based on original research goes through numerous stages
of development. At each stage I was fortunate enough to receive
valuable advice and support from many colleagues and friends.
Among these, I should especially like to thank Allen Specht, from
the Sound and Moving Image Division of the British Columbia
Provincial Archives, who went to great trouble helping me locate
and select the Starret material used in this book. I should also like to
thank my teachers Fred Bowers and Laurel Brinton, who helped me
with the conceptual framework and analysis of my material. Further,
I wish to thank the two readers from the Canadian Federation for the
Humanities who gave me constructive criticism and commentary.
Jane Fredeman from the University of British Columbia Press I thank
for her continual support and for the care and attention she gave to
the revision and editing of my manuscript. Lastly, I wish to thank
Gail Fraser and Evanthia Tsiouria for their insightful feedback and
generous support. Whatever strengths this book possesses owe
much to the guidance of those named and others whom I have
acknowledged here.