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March 30, 2024, 12:50:18 am

Author Topic: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here  (Read 31585 times)  Share 

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Joseph41

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #30 on: February 03, 2017, 02:29:05 pm »
+1
I'm super stoked that this thread has been somewhat active recently! I was away for the last month, but I'm back now, so I'm happy to field more questions. :)

A huge thank you to those who have kept this thread flowing. Lauren's post in particular was slick! All dem +1s. ;D

does anyone have any links to past practice exams for english language that isn't from VCAA? Cheers

As referenced by AngelWings above, you could start with these from Engage Education.

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peanut

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #31 on: February 16, 2017, 04:40:56 pm »
+1
What is substitution (listed under Discourse subsystem in the VCAA metalanguage list)?

Joseph41

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #32 on: February 17, 2017, 09:37:58 am »
+1
What is substitution (listed under Discourse subsystem in the VCAA metalanguage list)?

Great question! ;D

Essentially, substitution is, as the name suggests, substituting one thing for another. It can be used very effectively to aid coherence in a text (hence its listing under Discourse).

For example, in this transaction:

Person A: Do you prefer the bigger screen or the smaller screen?
Person B: The smaller one.

Person B has substituted the noun screen for the pronoun one. This is a fairly basic example, but substitution is particularly nice in avoiding repetition. :)

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syubi

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #33 on: February 26, 2017, 05:08:43 pm »
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What is the difference between sentence fragments and ellipses?

peanut

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #34 on: February 26, 2017, 05:21:45 pm »
+2
What is the difference between sentence fragments and ellipses?
A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence. This is because it doesn't have a verb.
For example: "addicting like sugar"
An ellipse is simply when information is left out, because it is general knowledge or old information.
For example: "The dog walked inside the building. It got lost (inside the building)." "Inside the building" is the part which is ellipted.

syubi

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #35 on: February 26, 2017, 06:17:02 pm »
+1
A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence. This is because it doesn't have a verb.
For example: "addicting like sugar"
An ellipse is simply when information is left out, because it is general knowledge or old information.
For example: "The dog walked inside the building. It got lost (inside the building)." "Inside the building" is the part which is ellipted.

Got it. Thanks :)

Ahmad_A_1999

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #36 on: February 26, 2017, 08:33:26 pm »
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Hey guys,

How does 'swearing' contribute to the register of a text (given that the text is informal)?
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Joseph41

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #37 on: February 27, 2017, 12:45:54 pm »
+1
What is the difference between sentence fragments and ellipses?

A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence. This is because it doesn't have a verb.
For example: "addicting like sugar"
An ellipse is simply when information is left out, because it is general knowledge or old information.
For example: "The dog walked inside the building. It got lost (inside the building)." "Inside the building" is the part which is ellipted.

Great answer, peanut - thanks! :) Also an excellent question, syubi.

I'll just add that, from my understanding, a sentence fragment can be as such due to ellipses. So, for example:

Person A: I love you
Person B: You, too

We can glean from context that Person B is really saying, "I love you, too". But in that particular utterance, the subject (I) and the verb (love) have both been omitted - so, elision. But that elision has led to the sentence fragment of "You, too". :)

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Joseph41

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #38 on: February 27, 2017, 12:51:59 pm »
+1
Hey guys,

How does 'swearing' contribute to the register of a text (given that the text is informal)?

Hey, Ahmad! ;D Let me know if this doesn't really answer your question, but:

Swearing in general is very informal. One reason for this is that it tends to be based on taboo topics of the time. (As an aside, the nature of swearing seems to be changing; "swear words" used to be based on religion, now body parts - and the trend seems to be toward -ist language (so racist, sexist, religionist, ableist etc.)).

Something like cunt is very informal for this reason (it's based on something taboo - in this case, the female genitalia). You wouldn't see the lexeme in (the vast majority of) formal speech or writing because it's way too slangy.

Of course, cunt has recently picked up negative connotations, which is another reason for its informality. It's often used in a derogatory sense, and obviously is used to offend ("piss off, cunt", and so on).

It's interesting what impact taboo has, though, isn't it? We stop using words that even sound similar to other words associated with taboo topics. The word feck (meaning something like efficiency), for example, is rarely used in contemporary language. Cunny, meaning rabbit, was remodelled to either bunny or coney (as in Coney Island).

Did that answer your question? :-\

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peanut

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #39 on: February 27, 2017, 09:29:48 pm »
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What are the main features of formal language? All I can think of is formal language being less ambiguous, more likely to be planned and more likely to be aware of audience's interpretation.

Joseph41

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #40 on: February 28, 2017, 09:32:03 am »
+1
What are the main features of formal language? All I can think of is formal language being less ambiguous, more likely to be planned and more likely to be aware of audience's interpretation.

Hey, peanut. :) I agree that formal language is a little more difficult to discuss than informal language; if you're really struggling, though, you can always think about features of informal language, and then basically use the opposite. :)

But I recommend trying to think of formal language specifically in regard to each subsystem. A really, really quick list to which you may wish to add:

Phonology and phonetics
- Cultivated accent (more like Received Pronunciation/Queen's English)
- Clearer diction
- No yod-dropping
- Less consonant flapping
- Less assimilation (perhaps clearer word boundaries)
- More Standard pronunciation in general (so like, limited metathesis)

Morphology and lexicology
- More 'conventional' lexemes (less slang)
- But perhaps more jargon, particularly in something like legalese
- Different pronouns (like, you would rarely use one in very informal speech or writing)
- Less 'wordplay'

Syntax
- Perhaps fewer sentence fragments
- Greater nominalisation
- Hypotaxis rather than parataxis
- More complex and compound-complex sentence structures

Discourse
- Interesting stuff can be said about honorifics/greetings (so like, "hey man, wassup?" as opposed to "To Whom It May Concern")
- Debatably formal language is more prevalent in writing than speech
- Politeness features/hesitancy/hedging
- Clear coherence and cohesion

Semantics
- Again, less wordplay (fewer metaphors, similes, puns, idioms etc.)
- Potentially more 'diluted' language to avoid taboo
- Perhaps less euphemism/dysphemism

You could also try going over the metalanguage featured on pages 17-18 of the study design to see what you can apply. Those two pages are actually so, so useful. ;D

Does that help at all? :)


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NAT0003

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #41 on: February 28, 2017, 09:55:23 am »
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Just a few questions
Can I switch to eng land if I struggle with mainstream english
is the scaling worth it
how hard is to get 30 raw study score

Joseph41

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #42 on: February 28, 2017, 10:02:18 am »
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Can I switch to eng land if I struggle with mainstream english

Yes, if your school allows it.

Quote
is the scaling worth it

No, not by itself.

Quote
how hard is to get 30 raw study score

The top 50% will achieve a study score of 30 or above.

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NAT0003

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #43 on: February 28, 2017, 10:46:04 am »
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Yes, if your school allows it.

No, not by itself.

The top 50% will achieve a study score of 30 or above.
Thanks
Also, do you have to read big novels in English language

exit

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Re: Looking toward 2017: ask your English Language questions here
« Reply #44 on: February 28, 2017, 03:10:15 pm »
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Thanks
Also, do you have to read big novels in English language

No but it is generally harder. Do not switch if you don't know whether EngLang suits you. More people tend to switch back to mainstream than switch to EngLang. Read the study design yourself and see whether you find it interesting.

If you suck at the Language Analysis component at mainstream English then I have some bad news for you.

You're question suggests that you haven't done the research into what EngLang actually is, so my default answer would be do not change.
« Last Edit: February 28, 2017, 03:26:31 pm by exit »
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