Syllabus for the 2nd half of semester

  1. SPOCA for complex sentences: listing, nesting, linking
  2. Conversational structure
  3. Viewpoints & Narrator
  4. Speech Presentation
  5. Style and variation

Dr SPOCA!!
S = SUBJECT / A Noun Phrase which refers to the entity which is the
topic of the sentence (what the sentence is about), and
if the predicator of the sentence is a dynamic verb,
the subject is the "doer" of the action. Usually comes
first in the sentence, before the Predicator.
My son went to university in Wales.
To perform at Madison Square Gardens was her highest ambition.
P = PREDICATOR / A Verb Phrase which expresses the action/process or
relationship in the sentence.
The tiny ladybug landed on my arm.
Apieceof pepperoni pizza would satisfy his hunger.
O = OBJECT / A Noun Phrase which refers to the entity which is the recipient of the action/process. Only occurs with transitive
Predicators. Usually comes after the Predicator.
The dog bitthe postman.
Fifteen children from the school choir will be singingAfrican folk songs.
C = COMPLEMENT / A Noun Phrase or Adjective Phrase which normally comes after a linking Predicator and expresses some attribute or role of the SUBJECT.
  • He is the father of three.
  • Time is the great healer.
  • Those animals were very rare Siberian tigers.
  • His client became more and more angry.
  • The remaining problem is where to find the money.
Sometimes it expresses an attribute or role of the OBJECT.
  • Everyone thought him an idiot.
  • The accusation made me livid.
  • The whole town wanted the outlaw dead.
Almost always comes after the Predicator.
Her voice sounds lovely.
The tea tastes foul.
The first thing I did was open all the windows.
A = ADVERBIAL / An Adverbial, Prepositional or Noun Phrase which usually specifies some condition related to the Predicator, e.g. when, where or how some action occurred. It is by far the most mobile of the sentence elements, and can occur in many different positions in a sentence (the other four sentence elements are much more fixed). Its most normal position is at the end of the sentence, however.
Hence the ordering S-P-O-C-A
  1. Mary ¦ loves ¦ Bob
    Phrase: NP VP NP
    SPOCA strucure: SPO
  2. John ¦ was ¦ very annoyed.
    Phrase: NP VP AdjP
    SPOCA strucure: SPC
  3. The hungry student ¦ hates ¦ overcooked spinach.
    Phrase: NP VP NP
    SPOCA strucure: SPO
  4. Joanne ¦ lifted ¦ the receiver ¦ angrily ¦ within two seconds.
    Phrase: NP VP NP AdvP PP
    SPOCA strucure: SPOAA

(I) THE HIERARCHICAL NATURE OF GRAMMATICAL UNITS

Grammar involves a hierarchy of levels. Here is the basic hierarchy:

Words are made up of one or more morphemes

Phrasesare made up of one or more words

Clausesare made up of one or more phrases

Sentences are made up of one or more clauses

(A)SIMPLE, COMPOUND, AND COMPLEX SENTENCES

SIMPLE SENTENCES contain just 1 Main Clause (MCl)

Diane kicked the soda machine.

The policeman asked me for some identification.

A giant spider has made its home behind the shampoo bottle in Neil's bathroom.

COMPOUND SENTENCES contain at least 2 Main Clauses joined together bycoordinatingconjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).

The horse reared andthe riderwas thrown.

Either he is mad or he feigns madness.

COMPLEX SENTENCES contain at least 1 Main Clause and 1 Subordinate Clause (SCl)

  • After he left work,he headed straight for the hotel.
  • We're going to have to take the trainbecause the car's broken down.
  • If you heat water,it boils.
  • Although she's the best in the class,she did badly in the exams.
  • While I'm out,could you tidy up a bit?
  • The woman who called my mom sells cosmetics.

The range of linking words used with subordinate clauses is much wider than with the linkers in compound sentences. A short list would include:

Time:after, before, as soon as, while, when, as

Cause:because, since, as,

Condition:if, provided that, as long as, unless

Concession:although, though, even though

Relative:which, who, that, where, whose

(II) LINKING, LISTING AND NESTING

MAIN CLAUSES are sometimes called "independent clauses".

LINKING is sometimes called "coordination".

NESTING is sometimes called "embedding" or "subordination". NESTED CLAUSES are sometimes called "dependent clauses", or subordinate clauses (or "subclauses").

LISTING is sometimes called "parataxis".

A) LINKING

Look at this bracketed example:

(1)[(The student) (resented) (the lecturer's example sentences)] but [(the lecturer) (loved) (them)].

Use ROUND BRACKETS to mark (PHRASES) and SQUARE BRACKETS to mark [CLAUSES].

In this sentence there are two main clauses (marked by the square brackets), each with its own "SPOCA" pattern:

(1a) S P O

[(The student) (resented) (the lecturer's example sentences)],

cj S P O

but [(the lecturer) (loved) (them)].

The two clauses are linked together by the conjunction but, so the sentence has two main clauses. SENTENCES WHICH HAVE MORE THAN ONE MAIN CLAUSE, LIKE THAT ABOVE, ARE CALLED COMPOUND SENTENCES.

When we add two clauses together as above, and make them into a compound sentence, this is an example of LINKING. The main linking words are and, or, and but - known as coordinating conjunctions (cj).

Linking can take place not only between clauses, but also at other grammatical levels, and hence between other units, like phrases and words. Examples:

brother and sister(N) cj (N) linked nouns

naughty but nice(Adj) cj (Adj) linked adjectives

the student or the lecturer(NP) cj (NP) linked noun phrases

over the rug and under the cupboard(PP) cj (PP) linked prepositional phrases

In sentences where the Subject of the linked main clauses is the same, English grammar allows us to miss out (or elide) the second ("understood") Subject, because it can easily be retrieved from the context:

S P A cj A P A

[(Jane) (laughed) (maniacally)] and [(then) (ran) (amok)].

Facts about Linking:

(a)LINKINGof clauses is what makes compound sentences

(b)LINKINGcan take place between clauses, phrases, words, etc.

(c)LINKINGcan involve two or more than two elements -

you can link as many elements as you like, in fact.

e.g.:

(2)X and X

X and X and X

X and X and X and X and X and X and X and X and X and X...

B) LISTING

The last two abstract sentence structures given in (2) above are exceptional, because when we use a sequence of 3 or more linked elements in English, we generally prefer to omit all 'ands' except the last 'and', and replace them (in writing) by a comma, so that we get:

(3)X, X and X(e.g. puffs, powders, and patches)

X, X, X and X(e.g. puffs, powders, patches and bibles)

X, X, X, X and X(e.g. puffs, powders, patches, bibles and billets-doux)

What we are doing in (3) is modifying the basic "linking" structure so that it becomes "listing".

We may go further, and miss out all the ands, replacing them by commas or other punctuation marks:

(4)X, X, X(e.g. puffs. powders, patches)

X, X, X, X(e.g. puffs. powders, patches, bibles. billets-doux)

Whenever we juxtapose the elements without using a conjunction like and, we will call the structure LISTING. So, in the above examples, (4) shows LISTING, (2) shows LINKING, and (3) shows a mixture of LINKING AND LISTING, which is actually normal when we coordinate 3 or more elements in a typical list in English writing.

A special kind of listing:

Look at the Noun Phrases underlined in (5). They look like a case of LISTING, but you could not insert 'ands' wherever you want: (Why not?)

(5)At Archie Schwert's party the fifteenth Marquess of Yayburgh, Earl Vanburgh de Brendon Baron Brendon, Lord of the Five Isles and Hereditary Grand Falconer to the Kingdom of Connaught, said to the eighth Earl of Balcairn,Viscount Erdinge, Baron Cairn of Balcairn, Red Knight of Lancaster, Count of the Holy Roman Empire and Chenonceaux Herald of the Duchy of Aquitaine, 'Hullo,' he said, 'Isn't this a repulsive party? What are you going to say about it?' for they were both of them, as it happened, gossip writers for the daily papers.

(Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies)

This is an extreme illustration of the structure called APPOSITION, where two Noun Phrases, placed together, refer to the same person, place, group, etc. In the above example there are only two people, but they have, respectively, 4 and 5 noun phrases in apposition to the first noun phrase referring to them. Note that apart from the last item in each appositional list, it would not be possible to LINK each pair of phrases together, as this would force the reader to think that there were more, different, people being referred to. Simpler examples would be:

(6)[(Peter Rabbit), (the eponymous hero of a famous children's story)...]

(7)[(My next-door neighbours), (Mr and Mrs Bloggs)...]

C) NESTING

There is another kind of sentence, called a COMPLEX SENTENCE, where one clause is part of another clause. For example, in (8) below the clause [that the weakness was in the region of the heart] is the Object of "gathered" (i.e. it is what Pemberton gathered). Hence it is part of the MCl shown by the outer square brackets:

(8)[ S P O[cj S P A]]

[(Pemberton) (gathered) [that (the weakness) (was) (in the region of the heart)]].

Other, more or less alternative terms which you may come across for nesting are embedding and subordination. The nested clause in (8), is the O of the main clause. In (9) it is the A of the main clause:

(9) A[cj S P O] S P C

[[While (Mick) (was delivering) (his lecture)]. (Dan) (was) (asleep)].

Notice that we find two SPOCA patterns in these two clauses, one within the square brackets indicating the structure of the nested clause, and one outside it, indicating the structure of overall MCl.

Often in prose a sentence contains two Main Clauses and a subordinate clause. This is called a COMPOUND COMPLEX SENTENCE, e.g.:

(10)[ S P O[S P O A ]] cj S

[(I) (know) [(who) (put) (the axle grease) (in the stew)]], but [(I)

P O ]

(won't tell) (you)].

So NESTING is a relation between grammatical units of the same rank, when one is included in the other, or when a unit of a higher rank is included in a lower-level unit. For example:

(11)[ S P A[cj S P O ]]

[(Curley's fist) (was swinging) [when (Lennie) (reached for) (it)]].

(John Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men)

In (10) and (11), the nested clause in each case fills up an entire SPOCA element (O, A), and acts as that element. In (12) below, the subordinate clause is embedded inside a Noun Phrase, this is called direct nesting, the whole Noun Phrase acting as the SPOCA element (S):

(12)[ S [ S P A ] P A

[(The student [who (slept) (through the lecture)]) (snored) (loudly).]

Things to Notice about Nesting:

(a)Nesting is when a clause has another clause embedded inside it.

(b)When a clause is nested inside another clause, it acts as an S, O, C, or A in that clause (in which case it is directly nested) - or sometimes, as part of an S, O, C, or A (in which case it is indirectly nested).

(c)There can be more than one clause nested inside the same MCl:

e.g.[[While the 10 o'clock lecture was on], Ray cleavered [whoever she could catch]]. = [MCl (A[AdvCl]) (S) (P) (O[NCl])]

(d)You can nest things inside things which are already nested (e.g. nested clauses inside other nested clauses:

e.g.[Ray cleavered [the student [who was eating the Mars bar [he had stolen]]]. = [MCl (S) (P) (O[RCl [RCl]])]

(e)As indicated in (a) above, we can nest phrases inside phrases as well as clauses inside clauses, e.g.:

(i)Hereditary Grand Falconer (to the Queen)) = PP inside NP

(ii)(the region (of (the heart))) = NP inside PP inside NP.

(g)With linking and listing, nesting accounts for our ability to build sentences as long and complex as we need them - even sentences hundreds of words long.

e.g.[This is the dog [that chased the cat [that killed the rat [that ate the corn [that lay in the house [that Jack built]]]]]].

(h)Subordinate clauses can be nested inside main clauses to occupy a number of different SPOCA slots. For example:

(14)What we want is more grammar.

has the overall structure SPC, with the NCl "What we want" as S.

(15)More grammar is what we want.

has the same overall structure, SPC, with the NCl "what we want" as C.

(16)I know what we want.

has the overall structure SPO, with the NCl "what we want" as O.

(17)He studied grammar because we made him.

has the overall structure SPOA, with the AdvCl "because we made him" as A.

ASSIGNMENT 2 (part 1):

  1. Find 2 examples of linking, listing and nesting each from any literary texts (please provide the source of your examples)
  2. Carry out SPOCA analysis on the linking and nesting examples.

SPEECH PRESENTATION

When I come to your place tomorrow, will your sister be there?

The discourse could be represented as below:

Addresser 1 MessageAddressee 1

The same discourse structure would appear to account for prototypical poems, like Wordsworth's 'Daffodils'. The poet, Wordsworth, appears to write directly to the reader, and so he is the addresser. There is no specific person that the poem is addressed to, and so by default the reader appears to be the addressee.

Addresser 1  MessageAddressees 1,2,3

When I met Sharon yesterday she told me that her sister was ill.

How many levels of discourse this time? Who are the addressers and addressees?

There are two levels of discourse here. Character A talks to character B, and in doing so, he reports what Sharon said to him on a previous occasion. Hence one discourse situation is reported, or embedded, inside another.

Because novels always have narrators present, as well as authors, readers and characters, they prototypically need three discourse levels in their discourse architecture.

In the 1st-person novel, the narrator effectively reports to the narratee what he or she heard one character say to another. So the reporting discourse is that between narrator and narratee and the reported situation is that between character A and character B.

In 3rd-person narration, because the narrator is not a character in the story, and is conventionally assumed to be omniscient, the effect is more like one where we 'look in' on the characters' conversation, as it unfolds, without the effect of report. The kind of narrator that a novelist chooses to use thus affects how we view the speech which is presented to us.

FIRST PERSON

Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable.

(The Adventures of HuckleBerry Finn)

THIRD PERSON

Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age. He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.

(Harry Potter)

Below are four sentences. They all report the same conversation between two characters which a 1st-person narrator in a novel reports to us.

Drag the sentences to what you think are the appropriate places on the scale below and then compare them with our ordering. Can you label any of the presentational forms (e.g. direct speech, indirect speech)?

She told him that she had not been there the day before.

She spoke severely to him

She pointed out his error.

'I wasn't here yesterday, you idiot,' she said.

The scale
'Know most detail about what 'she' said'

'Know least detail about what 'she' said' /
  1. 'I wasn't here yesterday, you idiot,' she said
  2. She told him that she had not been there the day before.
  3. She pointed out his error.
  4. She spoke severely to him.

What we have here are just some of the ways in which speech can be reported in real life and the speech of characters can be presented in novels. Effectively, we have a varying mix of character and narrator.

  • Direct Speech (DS)- thereported clause
  • it connects to thereporteddiscourse situation, exactly what the character said and the words and grammatical structures used to say it.
  • Main indicator: the quotation marks e.g. 'she said', which is normally called thereporting clausebecause it connects to thereportingdiscourse situation.
  • 'I wasn't here yesterday, you idiot,' she said.
  • Free Indirect Speech (IS)– between Direct Speech and Indirect Speech.
  • We know what was said, but it is difficult to know whether the words used to say it belong to the character or the narrator.
  • This kind of ambiguity is often very helpful for novelists in manipulating viewpoint relations
  • She wasn’t there yesterday, the idiot!
  • Indirect Speech (IS)- we know thepropositional contentof what the character said from the reported clause, but the words and structures used to report it belong to the narrator, just like those of the reporting clause, not the character.
  • She told him that she had not been there the day before.
  • Narrator's Representation of Speech Act (NRSA) - the words and structures belong to the narrator, and the only trace of the character is a summary of what she said, including an indication of the speech act used by the character.
  • Unlike DS and IS, there is no reported clause at all.
  • She pointed out his error
  • Narrators's Representation of Voice (NV) - all we know is that the female character said something to the other character. We don't even know what speech act was used, let alone what was said or what words were used to say it.
  • She spoke severely to him
  • Narrators's Representation of Speech Act (NRA)–no speech presentation involved here. The narrator just tells us what happens in the fictional world of the story and so everything we are told comes straightforwardly from the narrator.
  • She pushed him

For each sentence of the little story below, indicate which speech presentation category you think is involved.

IS =Indirect Speech
FIS =Free Indirect Speech
DS =Direct Speech / N =Narration
NV =Narrators's Representation of Voice
NRSA =Narrator's Representation of Speech Act
1. John told Mary, his fiancée the story of his upbringing. / NRSA
2. 'I lived in a pig sty until I was seven,' he said. / DS
3. He talked with a charming soft grunt. / NV
4. Then he rolled on his back on the floor. / N
5. Mary told him he ought to get up before her parents came back from the kitchen. / IS
6. And he really ought to stop that ridiculous snuffling too! / FIS
7. He damn well wasn't going to put up with personal jibes like that, he replied. / FIS
8. 'Either you love me for what I am or we're finished'. / DS
9. Mary apologised for her unreasonably swinist attitude. / NRSA
10. They lived happily ever after in a small bungalow near Damansara Damai. / N
Under narrator’s control

Under character’s control / Narrator’s report of voice (NV)
He spoke to her.
Narrator’s report of speech acts (NRSA)
He asked her about her future plans.
Indirect speech (IS)
He asked her what she was planning to do the following year.
Free Indirect Speech (FIS)
He finally came to the point. What was she going to do next year?
Direct speech (DS)
HE asked: “So … what are you going to do next year?”
Free Direct Speech (FDS)
“So… what are you going to do next year>”

The passage below is from a popular romance novel. Lais and Peach are two sisters who are alone on a cruise ship together, travelling from America to France. Peach is five years old. Lais, who is in her late teens, is meant to be looking after her. But she is more interested in having a good time dancing in the ballroom of the ship, and so is hastily putting Peach to bed in their cabin, before going back to the ballroom.