VCE English Language Question Thread

[jesseprior]

Well I would assume overlapping speech means they are familiar / comfortable with eachother, but other then that I am not really sure, and don't even get me started on subsystems, problem my biggest issue.

I attatched the text.

[PolySquared]

Overlapping doesn't seem to be a prominent feature in this text, although you can still comment on it, I wouldn't spend too much time on this area. I would talk about the way they speak, is an interlocutor using non-lexical utterances or are they placing emphatic stress on certain aspects of their speech?

[MissSmiley]

Hi everyone!

I'm having some troubles understanding the differences between fronting/front focus ; same thing with right and left dislocation.
For example,
if you say an adverbial is at the start of a sentence (e.g At 5pm,...) what do you call this as? fronting, front focus, or any of the dislocations?

Also, I'd really appreciate some examples for these things, so I can understand the difference a bit more clearly.

Thanks a lot guys!

[PolySquared]

Does anyone have any evidence to support and contradict innatism as a form of language acquisition? I can't seem to find any information in this area.

[MissSmiley]

Hi all,
I really need help with some things before my SAC this week, so would love a reply!

1. Just wondering what subsystem would 'incorrect punctuation' go under?
So there's a question on 'describe register and refer to at least three linguistic evidence from more than one subsystem'.
Now there's a lot of unnecessary capitalisation in the text (incorrectly punctuated)
So could I use this as a linguistic evidence to say the register is moderately formal text? (the text is for a formal SA by the way)
But what subsystem would this fall under?
And can I link it to register in the first place? because it does sound more like standard/non-standard thing than register?

2. Is an infinitive considered as the beginning of a subordinate clause?

3. How would you find an example of nominalisation if there were no possessives? (i.e. "the institution's intentions).
Without possessives like these, I'm finding it a bit hard to find nominalisations just by looking at suffixes.
Is there a simpler way?

4. What would be the sentence structure of these:
- Then the removal van did not arrive, leaving us stranded. --> The 'then' is really confusing me. Because 'the removal van did not arrive' would be a main clause, but is it still the main clause even though the 'then' is there? And then 'leaving us stranded' is one subordinate clause right? Would this be a complex sentence?

- just checking, is this a compound-complex sentence?
"The fact that we were helpless was not too disturbing, but the sudden change in the weather was since we were stuck outside."

- "Things did not remain the same for long because things were not quite what they seemed" --> this is a complex sentence right?

Thank you very much guys!
Would love some help!

[sarahsmith34]

Hi guys,
Was just wondering if anyone had any paragraph ideas for this essay prompt?
'If you want people to share your point of view, the formal register offers the most effective linguistic choices. Do you agree?' 

[Joseph41]

Hi guys,
Was just wondering if anyone had any paragraph ideas for this essay prompt?
'If you want people to share your point of view, the formal register offers the most effective linguistic choices. Do you agree?' 

Hey, welcome to ATAR Notes!

What are your thoughts so far? Interesting topic!

[sarahsmith34]

Hey, welcome to ATAR Notes!

What are your thoughts so far? Interesting topic!

Well, I think formal language can be used to establish expertise through the use of jargon and therefore makes the user's points more credible and people would then share the same point of view. But then on the other hand if formal language is used for political correctness for example, it may manipulate the people's views rather than encourage the same point of view.
?

[Joseph41]

Well, I think formal language can be used to establish expertise through the use of jargon and therefore makes the user's points more credible and people would then share the same point of view. But then on the other hand if formal language is used for political correctness for example, it may manipulate the people's views rather than encourage the same point of view.
?

Awesome!

I think you're definitely right - formal language can be used in that way, and for that purpose.

Something to consider here, though, is the context of the correspondence. For example, if you're just chatting with your friends and want to convince them of your point of view, would using a highly formal register be most appropriate? Could that actually lead to social distance?

What else comes to mind?

[MissSmiley]

Hi all,

I'm not sure how to structure my AC for formal spoken text.

1. Do the phonological features, topic management, etc have to have a separate para? Or can we weave these things into social purpose/context para?

2. Where do we talk about coherence and cohesion strategies? Should this be limited though? Since we have to focus more on phonology as well?

3. Can the topic management, turn taking (discourse) go in the same para as the phonology? Just because this all related to the speech?

Thanks so much guys!

[sarangiya]

Hello all!
Our teacher has said that pauses are not a part of prosody, but are instead non-fleuncy features.
This made sense to me until a friend suggested that only pauses to think or because of false starts etc were non-fleuncy features, while intentional pauses for emphasis are something else.
Anyone agree and know what? Would it be prosody even then?
Thanks all!!

[sarangiya]

Hi all,

I'm not sure how to structure my AC for formal spoken text.

1. Do the phonological features, topic management, etc have to have a separate para? Or can we weave these things into social purpose/context para?

2. Where do we talk about coherence and cohesion strategies? Should this be limited though? Since we have to focus more on phonology as well?

3. Can the topic management, turn taking (discourse) go in the same para as the phonology? Just because this all related to the speech?

Thanks so much guys!

Idk if this will help you but my teacher said the "stylistic and discourse features of the text" dot point should be addressed throughout the essay because they also are presented throughout the whole text.
Cohesion is like glue that sticks the whole text together and can be configured to be many features across a range of subsystems, so I don't think it fits in just one.

[MissSmiley]

Idk if this will help you but my teacher said the "stylistic and discourse features of the text" dot point should be addressed throughout the essay because they also are presented throughout the whole text.
Cohesion is like glue that sticks the whole text together and can be configured to be many features across a range of subsystems, so I don't think it fits in just one.

Thank you!
I guess it'll be better to ask our teachers what proportion they want of cohesion/coherence and then phonology.
But I do agree with you that because phonological features are throughout the whole text, it wouldn't matter if we weave them constantly through our social purpose / context para.
I've always dedicated a separate para for cohesion and coherence, because I didn't really think they'd link explicitly with any social purpose/ maybe a little bit of context
But I'll ask me teacher about this.

Also, I'm a bit puzzled how these are considered adverbials according to the British Council English grammar exercise:

1. I don’t know where the keys are but they’re not in the car for sure. I’ve looked!
--> the exercise said the answer was: 'in the car for sure' is an adverbial in this sentence. But how can you include 'for sure' as an adverbial?

2. The company built the new apartments as cheaply as they could.
--> in this sentence, the answer is: "as cheaply as they could" is an adverbial.
But how can you include 'they could' into this?
I thought the adverbial was only 'as cheaply as'

Could someone please explain me this? Have I got my adverbials wrong?

Thanks all!

[Why???]

Hey,
I was just wondering what kind of features can be spoken about under standard english. I'm writing an analytical commentary and a part of the rubric requires explicit reference to Standard English. It is a spoken text so I'm not quite sure what kind of things I should be analysing in relation to 'Standard English'.

Thank you in advance!

[WON0173]

Hi. First time posting here. After reviewing syntactical patterning in terms of formal language, I'm kinda stumped on how parallelism, antithesis, and listing relate to formality, because all I'm getting at is that it usually relates to coherence and cohesion. Not to mention it's properties feel the same for informal language. My teacher says that it depends on the social purpose, to which affects the register, but I'm still lost.