142 EXPLORATION: INVESTIGATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE Bush: What about Kofi then? what sort of xxxx (I don’t xxxxx ceasefire) plan his attitude’s basically ceasefire and everything resolves (.) but (-) you know what I’m saying Blair: Yeah no I think the the really important thing is and it’s really difficult is that (.) you can’t stop this unless you get this international business agr[eed ] Bush: [Yeah ] Blair: I don’t know what you guys have talked about about Israeli er but as I say I’m perfectly happy to try to (.) see (.) what it what the lie of the erm l- land is but you need that done quickly [because otherwise it will spiral ] Bush: [yeah she’s going ] I think Condi’s going to go pretty soon Blair: Right well that’s (.) that’s that’s all that matters but (.) i- if you (.) you see it will take some time to get that to[gether] (-) Bush: [yeah ] yeah Blair: But at least it gives people at sh[ot ] Bush: [It’s] a process, I agree Blair: at which [she an an ] Bush: [I told her ] your offer too to (xxx xxx) Blair: Well it’s it’s only if it’s I mean you know if she’s got a (.) or if she needs the ground prepared as it were (.) cos obviously if she goes out she’s got to succeed as it were whereas I can go ((Bush starts eating a cracker)) out and just [talk ] Bush: ((Whilst eating)) [you see ] the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to come and stop doing this shit and it’s over Blair: [(xxxxxxx) ] Bush: [(who is) ] Blair: (xxx) (Syria) Bush: (Why?) Blair: Because I think this is all part of the same thing= Bush: =Yeah Blair: What does he think? He thinks if Lebanon turns out fine if you get a solution in Israel and Palestine (.) Iraq goes in the right way Bush: Yeah yeah he’s (through) Blair: He’s had it and that’s what the whole thing is about it’s the same with Iran Bush: I felt like telling Kofi to call to come get on the phone to (xxx) as- Assad and make something happen Blair: Yeah Bush: (Because then Israel) (xxxxxxxxxxxx) Blair: (xxxxxxxxxxxxx) Bush: We are not blaming (.) the Lebanese government ((Blair touches the microphone in front of him and the sound is cut)) TEXTS IN ACTION 143 To expand your analysis, you should now bring in the principles of pragmatics and their accompanying linguistic frameworks which were introduced in B3 and C3. Analyse the overheard conversation from the perspectives of the following: q Grice’s Cooperative Principle and conversational maxims q Leech’s Politeness Principle and politeness maxims q Brown and Levinson’s concept of face and positive and negative politeness. q Discuss how you think the informal terms of address that both Bush and Blair use would be used differently if the two politicians were talking to a public audience through the mass media. What does this reveal in terms of levels of formality for conversations that take place in public versus private spheres? q Using the above data as a guide, discuss how the role of an audience or any other potential overhearers governs the discourse strategies that we select when we inter- act with one another. q Compare the spoken discourse that is used here with a formal speech made by either of the two politicians or a press conference where both of these politicians made a speech. What differences can you find? How important is written scripted discourse to politics? Bush’s use of the expletive ‘shit’ attracted a great deal of media attention. In an exact mirroring of the Gordon Ramsay examples in C3, when shown on US television net- works the word ‘shit’ was bleeped out, but when shown on British networks the word was not censored. In fact, on the BBC, the news reporter actually uttered the word ‘shit’ himself, in the form of reported speech, quoting exactly what Bush had said, when introducing the story. This adds weight to the view that cultural differences exist between the perceived politeness and impoliteness norms and conventions when com- paring the editorial decisions taken by British and US broadcasting networks. There was also much media attention focused upon the greeting sequence initi- ated by Bush. The following is a typical example of the media reaction: Forget prime minister, Mr Blair, or even plain old Tony. The new way to address the prime minister, we learn, is ‘Yo Blair’. (James Wheatdale, BBC Website 17 July 2006) Despite doubts about the accuracy of the transcription of ‘Yo Blair’, particularly due to background noise (as you have seen, after listening several times we decided upon ‘Yeah Blair’), the term ‘Yo Blair’ has stuck, regardless of whether it was actually uttered or not. It has been used as the title of a book by British journalist Geoffrey Wheatcroft: ‘Yo, Blair!: Tony Blair’s Disastrous Premiership (2007). One clothing company produced ‘Yo Blair!’ T-shirts where it described this merchandise as ‘the new must have political t-shirt’ (concepttshirts.co.uk). It was also possible to purchase T-shirts with the Bush expletive: ‘Get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it’s over’, followed by the satirical caption ‘Mid East Politics by G W Bush’, as well as a third design, simply the quotation ‘On this trade thingy’, with the caption underneath ‘G8 diplomacy 2006’. q Consider occasions where you or a friend/family member have been caught out by the presence of overhearers. 144 EXPLORATION: INVESTIGATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE q What kind of communicative problems did this cause? q What happened next in the discourse? q Were these situations easy to resolve? Why/why not? q Drawing upon what you have learnt during the discourse and pragmatics strands in this book, discuss the overall importance of formality and informality, along with the differing norms and conventions of ‘appropriate’ discourse in public and private spheres. Consider how this differs in various cultural contexts where the English language is spoken. LEARNING TO READ Learning to spell Ada is 5 years old. She is in her first year at school in Yorkshire in the UK, and is learning to read and write. Here are some examples of her spellings, and the standard- ised versions in italics (derived from her reading her own writing out loud): swiintcarn sweetcorn roobarbAndcosdud rhubarb and custard ttatos tomatoes tmortoss tomato sauce golicbreb garlic bread piica pizza milc milk sosajis sausages oneeuns onions chicin chicken potoes potatoes fishfingrs fish fingers soop soup sbgetee spaghetti oringepier orange and pear bingbo bingo breb bread bred bread cupandsorss cup and saucer sorsa saucer telee telly dibr dibber (=television remote control) teef teeth plAts plates AYsgreem ice cream sosijsAndmAsAnmichdvedg sausages and mash and mixed veg Once A pon A taym Once upon a time C6 Activity 6.1 J LEARNING TO READ 145 q On the basis just of this limited data, can you speculate on some of the patterns and principles of spelling that Ada uses? q Can you identify regular patterns (where a rule seems to be applied consistently) and variable patterns (where different versions are allowed)? q Can you identify spellings where her pronunciation of the word is influential, and others where the spelling departs from the way the word is pronounced? q What is her system for using capital letters, and what do they signify? q When does she use doubled letters (‘ii’, ‘oo’) and what are they being used for? Learning to write stories Here is a story that Ada wrote around her fifth birthday (a standardised version is given in italics from her reading aloud). Age: 60 months OnceA ponAtaYm Once upon a time therwosAcatthe there was a cat. The cAtmetAbogthee cat met a dog. The bogsebheLow dog said, ‘Hello’. Here is another story she wrote two months later. Again the standardised spelling and punctuation are given in italics. The story is written ‘upside down’, beginning at the bottom of the sheet of paper with the top half blank, so a normal sequence is given afterwards. Age: 62 months with the teecup the End with the teacup. The end. the sarsa plAd gAms the saucer played games frend wos a sirsa friend was a saucer. hadafrenb the teecops had a friend. The teacup’s coRb speec the teecop could speak. The teacup ther wos A teecop hoo there was a teacup who Once A pon A taym Once upon a time Once upon a time there was a teacup who could speak. The teacup had a friend. The teacup’s friend was a saucer. The saucer played games with the teacup. The end. Here is a story Ada wrote one month after the last example. Her own writing is repro- duced overleaf. Activity 6.2 J 146 EXPLORATION: INVESTIGATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE Age: 63 months the End The End. plAd withht eechuth played with each other. woscold sdon theA was called spoon. They hAdAFrend hisFrend had a friend. His friend hors the rocnhors horse. The rocking-horse ther wos A rocen there was a rocking- Wo (Once) Once A pon A tim Once upon a time Once upon a time there was a rocking- horse. The rocking-horse had a friend. His friend was called spoon. They played with each other. The End. Finally, here is a story Ada wrote two months after the last one. Again, it is inverted so a reversed-order sequence is also given. LEARNING TO READ 147 Age: 65 months Enb End. b offthiA boocs the (ed) off their books. The the hAws AndFinish the house and finished thien thiA went intoo then they went into thia mAd lots ov boocs They made lots of books go intot dades booc go into Dad’s book. And bid A buc too and did a book to plAb onthe peeAno played on the piano the somhAwsAnd the summer-house and Ada and bad went intoo Ada and Dad went into Once Apon A tAYm Once upon a time . 142 EXPLORATION: INVESTIGATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE Bush: What about Kofi then? what sort of xxxx (I don’t xxxxx ceasefire) plan his attitude’s. member have been caught out by the presence of overhearers. 144 EXPLORATION: INVESTIGATING ENGLISH LANGUAGE q What kind of communicative problems did this cause? q What happened next in the discourse? q. public and private spheres. Consider how this differs in various cultural contexts where the English language is spoken. LEARNING TO READ Learning to spell Ada is 5 years old. She is in her first