Synopses & Reviews
Through case studies the author shows that formulaic genres are everywhere, ranging from engagement notices through political propaganda to cartoon humor.
Synopsis
Mikhail Bakhtin was right. Humans could not use the languages they know without also learning the genres which govern so much of our social life. These genres frequently consist of rules prescribing the order in which we must say things and formulaic phraseology which prescribes what can and should be said. Native speakers know only a small fraction of the formulaic genres in a speech community. This relativizes the concept of a native speaker in all situations. Koenraad Kuiper illustrates these views with an array of fascinating case studies of engagement notice writers, horse race commentators, weather forecasters, pump aerobics instructors, square dance callers, cartoonists, and Red Guards.
About the Author
KOENRAAD KUIPER is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. He is the author or editor of four previous academic and text books: An Introduction to English, Smooth Talkers, New Zealand English, Semantics: A reader. He was awarded a DSc for his research on the phrasal lexicon in 2001 and the University of Canterbury Teaching Medal in 2004.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
PART I: FORMULAIC GENRES
What Are Formulaic Genres?
A Day at the Races
Forecasting the Weather
Polite Genres in a Multilingual Community: Greeting and Eating in Singapore
Playing a False Part: Projecting and Perceiving Fraudulent Identities on the Internet
PART II: GENRELECTS: VARIATION AND CHANGE IN FORMULAIC GENRES AND TRADITIONS
Idiolectal Variation: Ritual Talk at the Supermarket Checkout.
Gender Variation and Politeness: Form and Function in Controlling the Body
Geographic Variation: Formulaic Variation in Engagement Notices
Revolutionary Change: Formula Change During the Cultural Revolution, People's Republic of China
Historical Variation: The Historical Reconstruction of Proto English Auction Speech,
Volitional Variation: Humour and Formulae
Notes
References
Index