Written language, standard language, global language

By Michael A. K. Halliday (2003)

1 Language within Britain - Standard English, dialect and accent
-This parade descends from an ancient ceremony.
-I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
-Small local shops are intrinsic to the town’s character.
-Monophthong is a speech sound that consists of only one vowel sound, for example the sound /u:/ in queue /kju:/.
-He ascribes his poverty to his parents.
-Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and of their meaning and use.
-Salary will be commensurate with experience.
-Plough is used for digging and turning over soil, especially before seeds are planted.
-The war was paradigm of the destructive side of human nature.
-The term ‘cardboard city’ was coined to describe communities of homeless people living in cardboard boxes.
-The building stands as the last remaining relic of the town’s cotton industry.
-War provided impetus for the development of aircraft.
-The book is heavily skewed towards British readers.
-As a matter of fact, Japan is not an ethnically homogeneous nation.
-The group made a production prototype and then conducted a product test using it.
-The whole ship turned easily with a small rudder.
-A griot in West Africa is a repository of oral tradition.
-Diphthong is a combination of two vowel sounds or vowel letters, for example the sound /ai/ in pipe /paip/ or the letters ou in doubt.
-Dialect is the form of a language that is spoken in one area with grammar, words and pronunciation.
-Accent is a way of pronouncing the words of a language that shows which country, area or social class a person comes from.

2 Process of inventing new English words
-She contrived to spend a couple of hours with him every Sunday evening.
-Semantics is the study of linguistics meaning.
-The teacher drew an analogy between the human heart and a pump.
-He and I moved in totally different social spheres.
-Paradigm is the set of inflectional forms of a word.
-He considered how the sign was to be construed.
-You need to marshal your thoughts.
-His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism.

3 English history – borrowings from Latin and Greek
-They began to lose momentum in the second half of the game.
-Her story sounded perfectly plausible.
-‘Happiness’ is a derivative of ‘happy’.
-She went on to elaborate her arguments.
-He has been late on numerous occasions.
-The company needs an infusion of new blood.
-The riots are a clear manifestation of the people’s dissatisfaction.
-Interest will accrue if you keep your money in a savings account.
-Ophthalmologist is a doctor who studies and treats the diseases of the eye.
-The 2% loading for using the card abroad has been removed.
-The girls learn exactly what is entailed in caring for a newborn baby.
-In many countries, education is still the prerogative of the rich.
-There were too many layers of management in the company.
-The skin of amphibians permeable to water.
-She felt insulted by the low offer.

4 Possibilities of changing in written language, standard language, global language
-They were concomitants of an examination.
-Feudalism is the social system that existed during the Middle Ages in Europe which people were giving land and protection by a noble man, and had to work and fight for him in return.
-Filth engenders disease.
-The ship steered a course between the islands.
-I need ten people to help me implement the sales plan.
-The company started to deploy robot clerks in the shop.
-He believes in divination by means of dreams.
-The Emancipation Proclamation was written by Abraham Lincoln.

5 Grammatical metaphor
-Lexeme is the smallest contrastive unit in a semantic system.
-He exploited his father’s name to get a job.
-The oscillation in the stock market was unexplainable.
-Communities in the island depended on fishing for their livelihood.
-A rhetorician is a person who is skilled in the art of formal rhetoric.
-The grass was wet with early morning dew.
-The two companies have been fused into a single organization.
-A chemist dispenses a prescription.
-She always provided us with a sense of reassurance.
-The children are caught in the crossfire of a dysfunctional relationship between the parents.
-Herbs are used for medicinal purposes.
-Her teeth alignment is bad.

6 English as an international language or a global language
-He was the progenitor of a family of distinguished actors.
-Vernacular is the indigenous language or dialect of a community.
-Discourse is a continuous stretch of (especially spoken) language longer than a sentence.
-The government decreed a state of emergency.
-She wields enormous power within the party.
-This system perpetuated itself for several centuries.
-Sexism is deeply entrenched in our society.
-People were deprived of their political rights.
-Research has been constrained by a lack of funds.
-A disastrous business venture lost him thousands of dollars.
-The trajectory will continue to rise through 2008.