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Siapakah Alexander The Great atau Iskandar Zulkarnain?

Alexander Bukan Zulkarnain

Saya sedang memandu dari Ipoh untuk pulang ke Pasir Puteh Kelantan apabila handphone saya berbunyi. Melihat nombor panggilan yang tak dikenali, mulanya saya malas menjawab apatah lagi ketika sedang memandu. Tetapi setelah melihat kod 03 saya menjawab juga panggilan tersebut walaupun sedang memandu kerana mana tahu panggilan penting daripada Putrajaya. Tak kisah la walaupun sedang memandu, lagipun semua orang buat macam tu hatta anggota polis trafik yang dok sebok menyaman mereka yang menggunakan handphone semasa memandu pun buat macam tu. Standard la kata orang. Rupa-rupanya panggilan tersebut hanyalah dari Promoter Celcom 3G untuk mempromosikan video streaming terbaru mereka yang bertajuk Alexander Bukan Zulkarnaim (ABZ). Kalau nak tengok video tersebut langgan saja dengan bayaran RM5 sebulan katanya.

Sepanjang 50km perjalanan berikutnya saya asyik terfikirkan tentang Alexander ni. Tanpa melihat pada isi video ABZ tersebut pun dalam diam saya bersetuju bahawa Alexander bukan Zulkarnain. Yelah, Alexander tu namanya Alexander The Great tidak tercatat di dalam al-Quran pun tetapi Zulkarnain tu seorang nabi. Masakan mereka adalah orang yang sama. Tetapi siapa pula Iskandar Zulkarnain seperti yang disebut di dalam sejarah Melayu tulisan Tun Sri Lanang dalam Salatus Salatin? Adakah Iskandar Zulkarnain dan Zulkarnain adalah orang yang sama?

Walau apapun, saya amat setuju bahawa Zulkarnain bukan Alexander The Great. Kedua-duanya amat berbeza, kecuali kekeliruan sejarah yang menganggap mereka berdua sama orangnya.Kekeliruan ini ditimbulkan kerana ciri perkasa dalam cara mereka berperang dan menakluki dunia, sehingga tidak dapat membezakan akhlak dan visi mereka berdua.

Bila kita menonton filem Alexander, jelas menunjukkan perbezaan akhlak mereka. Alexander berkubang dengan nafsu bila mengahwini Roxana yang dalam satu adegan bertelanjang bulat. Jelas ini bukan tingkah laku Iskandar Zulkarnain. Filem Alexander dicipta dari segi visi Kristian. Ini boleh dilihat dari sudut usianya. Alexander mencapai segala kejayaannya dalam usia 33 tahun atau 35 tahun, menyerupai pencapaian keagamaan oleh Nabi Isa yang wafat atau diangkat ke hadrat Allah dalam usia 33 tahun. Walaupun ini tidak disebut, itulah yang disampaikan secara halus. Nama Zulkarnain, disebut dalam Surah al-Kahfi ayat 89-99, apabila Zulkarnain tiba di Armenia, penduduknya meminta pertolongan kerana selalu dianiaya oleh kaum yang dinamakan Ya’juj dan Ma’juj atau Gog-ma-Gog. Zulkarnain mendirikan dinding campuran besi dengan tembaga sebagai sempadan atau halangan daripada kaum Ya’juj dan Ma’juj itu, tanpa mengambil upah sedikit pun. Zulkarnain juga menyaksikan matahari terbit iaitu untuk menghayati kebesaran Allah SWT dan matahari terbenam di barat.

Alexander tidak berakhlak seperti Zulkarnain. Alexander dengan tenteranya yang besar membawa malapetaka kepada negara yang diserangnya. Di Mesopotamia atau Iraq, Alexander meruntuhkan Babylon dan menghanguskan kota Persepolis yang hebat itu. Walaupun Alexander membuka kota Alexanderia di Mesir, kebanyakan kota strategik, termasuk Kaherah dimusnahkan. Kota Alexanderia atau Iskandariah dirikan kerana kepentingan pelayaran di Laut Mediteranean untuk ke Greece dan menguasai lautan itu.

Perbezaan paling ketara antara kedua-duanya, Zulkarnain beragama Islam mengikut syariat Nabi Ibrahim sedangkan Alexander tidak beragama atau menganut fahaman Hellas atau Hellenism, suatu fahaman dalam masyarakat Greek waktu itu. Zulkarnain memerangi kezaliman, penganiayaan dan menegakkan kebenaran, agama dan kemanusiaan, sedangkan Alexander menyerang untuk keagungan diri, memusnahkan kemanusiaan dan menghambakan manusia.

Secara kesimpulannya jangan kita samakan Alexander dengan Zulkarnain yang memang agung menjadi contoh perjuangan untuk membina negara Islam kepada Nabi Muhammad SAW. Kisah Zulkarnain termaktub dalam wahyu Allah SWT, Alexander hanya dicatat dalam sejarah Eropah sebagai penjajah dan pemusnah kemanusiaan di seluruh dunia. Wallahua'lam.

Sila klik di sini untuk melihat video klip Alexander Bukan Zulkarnain

The Road Not Taken. An Analysis.

The Road Not Taken. By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I..
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.


Listen to The Road Not Taken here

The Analysis.

"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost is a poem that seems simple and direct but actually has a two-fold meaning. Frost lures in the readers with a rhythmic poem that could have a figurative or literal meaning depending upon the reader's assessment. Literally, "The Road Not Taken" is about a traveler who is walking in the woods and has come upon two roads. The traveler cannot travel both roads and thus must make a decision which one to walk. He evaluates both roads and chooses the road less traveled realizing that he cannot back. The poem ends by the traveler stating that his choosing the road less traveled has made all the difference.
Figuratively, "The Road Not Taken" can be applied to a person's life. The traveler is a person who has two choices, which are represented in the poem by the two roads in the woods. The person takes the time to consider both choices and all sides to them by examining the paths. The traveler cannot come back to the other road and as in life if a choice is made, it is impossible to redo. The person must choose between the choices many make or the choice that few make.
I love this poem mainly because I can relate to the figurative side of the poem. Many of the choices I have made were the roads less traveled by others. For example, I am a girl majoring in an agricultural field that is considered by most to be a man's field. I also show cattle, which is dominated by men. Many believe that I do not belong in either and that I am not man enough to handle my cattle or the job I have chosen for my future career. I was also criticized in high school for being the smart kid and for not partying with the popular crowd. I do not regret my choices because they have affected my life greatly. I have met countless people involved in agricultural who have touched my life. I am also proud that I studied in high school because of all the opportunities that keeping good grades have brought me. So this poem appeals to me because I have chosen the road less traveled and that has made all the difference.

The Road Not Taken: Use of Literary Devices
"The Road Not Taken", written by Robert Frost, is a poem that has four five-line stanzas with only two end rhymes in each stanza (abaab). Several kinds of literary devices can be found in the poem. One of the literary devices employed is antithesis.
The first stanza of the poem describes a traveler who comes to a fork in a road through a "yellow wood" and wishes he could "travel both" routes, but at the same time he realizes that the thought of traveling both roads is impractical and therefore rejects it. In the second stanza, the traveler says the other road has "perhaps the better claim/because it was grassy and wanted wear," implying that this road is "less traveled by." And then he contradicts his own judgment by saying that "Though as for that the passing there/had worn them really about the same." In the third stanza, he comes up with the idea of saving the first, (perhaps) more traveled route for another day, but then he sees that he's most likely not going to return, and therefore, probably will never have the chance to travel the more traveled route in the future. The line "Because it was grassy and wanted wear, in the third stanza is an example of personification because the poet says that the road "wanted wear" while we all know that a road can not think and would not have any desire at all. The poet has also used imagery as a literary device: "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood" (from the first stanza), and "And both that morning equally lay/in leaves no step had trodden black" (from the third stanza) to create a picture in the reader's mind.
The literal meaning of the poem is that a traveler who came to a fork in a road in a yellow wood and couldn't decide on which road to take but finally chose to take the one that seemed less traveled by. The figurative theme of the poem is the crucial nature of the choices people must make on the road of life. The story took place in a yellow wood in the morning time. The tone of the poem is gloomy because the traveler laments the possibilities that the necessity of making a choice leaves unfulfilled, as we can see from the words used in the poem such as "sorry" and "sigh."


The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost is an enjoyable poem that is a metaphor for life. On a superficial level, this poem is about someone walking through the woods, coming to two possible ways to go, and then choosing one. The narrator chooses the one less traveled, and later says that they do not regret it. The underlying meaning of “The Road Not Taken” is that the narrator is using the woods and paths as a metaphor for the choices people have to make in life. That is the main theme of the poem. It is obvious from lines six to ten that the narrator took the path that was less traveled. In other words, the narrator did not follow the crowd, but instead made his own choice. The structure of the poem is that the narrator is talking about how he had two choices, chose one, and then later in his life looked back and realized he did not regret it. The poem is broken up by spaces, which shows the reader that time has passed, further illustrating the fact that the narrator is looking back at this particular choice in his life. It shows that time has passed because the speaker is talking in the past tense at the end of the poem. There are many poetic devices in “The Road Not Taken.” The first one that jumps out at the reader is the use of figurative language. Figurative language is language that is not intended to be interpreted in a literal sense. One knows this from reading the poem because the poem is meant to be read with the idea that it has an underlying meaning. It is not meant to be read as a story about a man walking in the woods and having to decide which trail he wants to take. Frost meant for the reader to read what is happening in the story and then to interpret the idea that it is a metaphor for life’s choices. Another poetic device Frost uses is imagery. Imagery is words or phrases that create pictures or images in the reader’s mind. Frost uses imagery when he describes the setting (the woods) to get the reader to see it in their mind. This is obvious from lines one to five when he is writing about the “two roads diverged in a yellow wood.” He describes the woods, but does it in a way that the reader will understand that the two roads symbolize two choices. Critics almost always agree about what the themes in “The Road Not Taken” are, but they are not as consistent in evaluating it as a poem and as a success. Some critics praise Frost’s poem. In an article published in South Atlantic Quarterly, John T. Ogilvie suggests that the road is a metaphor for the “writerly life.” (Ogilvie 1) He says that “the choice the speaker makes here leads deeper into the wood which…though they hold a solitary privacy, impose a stern isolation endured not without cost” (Ogilvie 1). Ogilvie is going into the emotions portrayed in the poem. Other critics are pretty harsh about the poem and about Frost as a poet in general. In an article in The Yale Review, Isadore Traschen accuses Frost of “unrestrained sentimentality” (Traschen 1). Traschen is agreeing that most people are attracted to this poem because its ideas are familiar and many people prefer romantic ideas to realistic ones. Through the use of poetic devices, figurative language and imagery, Frost has written a beautiful poem. Although some critics criticize him for writing somewhat of a “romantic” style poem, it does not matter because it is based as a metaphor for life. Whether it sounds like it is based on romantic ideas or not, the idea of how people face life-affecting choices everyday still holds true. The idea of life choices is not unrealistic at all. In contrast to Isadore Traschen’s critique, the only unrealistic thing would be if people did not have to make choices every day, whether the idea of it is presented as a metaphor or not. In conclusion, the theme in Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” is how people are presented with many life affecting choices everyday, and that whether the choices come out the right way or not, everyone has to live with them.. Some are life changing, and some are small. The poem is in somewhat of a romantic style, even though it is a reality-based idea. The poetic devices in the poem add to getting the story across by making it a metaphor for life. By doing that the reader is given a better, more interesting way of thinking about what the poem’s point it.

Bibliography
Bibliography/Works Cited Page Robert Frost (1874-1963). Exploring Poetry. 1994 Word Count: 1657

An Introduction to English for Specific Purposes

The responsibility of the teacher
A teacher that already has experience in teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) can exploit her background in language teaching. She should recognize the ways in which her teaching skills can be adapted for the teaching of English for Specific Purposes. Moreover, she will need to look for content specialists for help in designing appropriate lessons in the subject matter field she is teaching.
As an ESP teacher, you must play many roles. You may be asked to organize courses, to set learning objectives, to establish a positive learning environment in the classroom, and to evaluate student s progress.

Organizing Courses
You have to set learning goals and then transform them into an instructional program with the timing of activities. One of your main tasks will be selecting, designing and organizing course materials, supporting the students in their efforts, and providing them with feedback on their progress.

Setting Goals and Objectives
You arrange the conditions for learning in the classroom and set long-term goals and short-term objectives for students’ achievement. Your knowledge of students' potential is central in designing a syllabus with realistic goals that takes into account the students' concern in the learning situation.

Creating a Learning Environment
Your skills for communication and mediation create the classroom atmosphere. Students acquire language when they have opportunities to use the language in interaction with other speakers. Being their teacher, you may be the only English speaking person available to students, and although your time with any of them is limited, you can structure effective communication skills in the classroom. In order to do so, in your interactions with students try to listen carefully to what they are saying and give your understanding or misunderstanding back at them through your replies. Good language learners are also great risk-takers, since they must make many errors in order to succeed: however, in ESP classes, they are handicapped because they are unable to use their native language competence to present themselves as well-informed adults. That’s why the teacher should create an atmosphere in the language classroom which supports the students. Learners must be self-confident in order to communicate, and you have the responsibility to help build the learner's confidence.

Evaluating Students
The teacher is a resource that helps students identify their language learning problems and find solutions to them, find out the skills they need to focus on, and take responsibility for making choices which determine what and how to learn. You will serve as a source of information to the students about how they are progressing in their language learning.

The responsibility of the student
What is the role of the learner and what is the task he/she faces? The learners come to the ESP class with a specific interest for learning, subject matter knowledge, and well-built adult learning strategies. They are in charge of developing English language skills to reflect their native-language knowledge and skills.

Interest for Learning
People learn languages when they have opportunities to understand and work with language in a context that they comprehend and find interesting. In this view, ESP is a powerful means for such opportunities. Students will acquire English as they work with materials which they find interesting and relevant and which they can use in their professional work or further studies. The more learners pay attention to the meaning of the language they hear or read, the more they are successful; the more they have to focus on the linguistic input or isolated language structures, the less they are motivated to attend their classes.
The ESP student is particularly well disposed to focus on meaning in the subject-matter field. In ESP, English should be presented not as a subject to be learned in isolation from real use, nor as a mechanical skill or habit to be developed. On the contrary, English should be presented in authentic contexts to make the learners acquainted with the particular ways in which the language is used in functions that they will need to perform in their fields of specialty or jobs.

Subject-Content Knowledge
Learners in the ESP classes are generally aware of the purposes for which they will need to use English. Having already oriented their education toward a specific field, they see their English training as complementing this orientation. Knowledge of the subject area enables the students to identify a real context for the vocabulary and structures of the ESP classroom. In such way, the learners can take advantage of what they already know about the subject matter to learn English.

Learning Strategies
Adults must work harder than children in order to learn a new language, but the learning skills they bring to the task permit them to learn faster and more efficiently. The skills they have already developed in using their native languages will make learning English easier. Although you will be working with students whose English will probably be quite limited, the language learning abilities of the adult in the ESP classroom are potentially immense. Educated adults are continually learning new language behaviour in their native languages, since language learning continues naturally throughout our lives. They are constantly expanding vocabulary, becoming more fluent in their fields, and adjusting their linguistic behaviour to new situations or new roles. ESP students can exploit these innate competencies in learning English.

JUE BU NENG SHI QU NI Lyric and Translation

JUE BU NENG SHI QU NI (Will never loosing you)
by : F4

(Jerry)
Mei You Ni, Wo Hui Shi Shui
(Without you, I don't know who I am)
Xin Ting Zai Na Li Dou Bu Dui
(Hati cemas di mana berada selalu tidak benar)
Na Jin Tian, Cai Diao Zhuo Tian .. Kong Bai Yi Pian
(Ambil hari ini, lepaskan kemarin … penuh dengan kekosongan)

(ZaiZai)
Na Yi Tian, Zai Na Yi Tian
(Ambil satu hari, di hari itu)
Ke Yi Jian Xu Wei Wan Qing Jie
(Boleh bertahan untuk akhir hubungan kita)
Zai Zhi Jiao Cha Dian, Shui Pei Zai Ni Shen Bian
(Baru diskusi yang mana, siapa yang menemani di sisimu)

(Ken)
Jiu Shuan Quan Shi Jie Dou Yao Ba Ni Fou Ding
(Walaupun seluruh dunia harus menyangkal kamu)
Ye Bu Neng Rang Wo Fang Qi Ni
(Tidak akan boleh untukku melepasmu)

(Vanness)
Jiu Shuan Wo Men De Guo Qu Dou Mei You Le Zheng Ming
(Walaupun kehidupan lama kita tidak ada hasilnya)

(F4)
Wo Yi Ran Shou Hu Ni ...
(Aku ‘kan tetap menjagamu)

OH BABY BABY BABY
MY BABY BABY
Wo Jue Bu Neng Shi Qu Ni
(Tidak boleh kehilanganmu)
Ni Shou Xin, Ni Sheng Yin
(Cinta-mu, suara-mu)
Hai Zai Ling Wo De Xin, Zhen Neng Wang Ji
(Serta hati yang selalu memperdulikanku, mana boleh dilupakan)
Xiang Ni Jiu Xiang Shi Hu Shi
(Memikirkanmu sama seperti bernafas)

OH BABY BABY
MY BABY BABY
Wo Jue Bu Neng Shi Qu Ni
(Tidak boleh kehilanganmu)
Bu Guan Ni Zai Na Li
(Di manapun kau berada)
Wo Yi Ding Hui Zhao Dao Ni ...
(Aku pasti akan menemukanmu)

You Ni De Shi Jie Lyric and Translation

You Ni De Shi Jie (My World With You)

Jimmy Lin

Sleep till dawn breaks, we thank that piece of beach land.
yi jiao dao tian liang, wo men gan xie na yi pian sha tan

Road has become wider, we thank that sun that shine far and wide.
lu bian kuan guang, wo men gan xie na yi ke si mian ba fang de tai yang

Don't think of anything else, two persons still have each other's shoulders to overcome sadness.
shen me dou bie xiang, liang ge ren hai you bi ci jian bang ai guo ju sang

Now still heating cold rice, thinking back the taste is even worse.
xian zai zai chao chao leng fan, hui wei qi lai zi wei geng zao gao

Turn, turn, time is in your hands.
zhuan, zhuan, shi jian zai shou shang

Accompany you to explore around.
pei ni qu si chu huang huang

See, see if the beautiful scenery is still well.
kan, kan qian shan wan shui an bu an hao

Finding if the dream we had together is still carved on the tree.
zhao yi zhao yi qi zuo guo de meng shi fou hai ke zai shu shang

With you, the world is no longer the same.
you le ni, shi jie bian de bu yi yang

Love can actually be such a wonderful place.
ai jing ran hui shi zhe zhong hao di fang

What colour is the sky, I don't care about that.
tian kong shi shen me yan se, cai bu zai hu ne

Just gazing at you, I'll have a good view.
wo yi shi zhe ni, jiu you yi pian hao feng guang

Loving you, even fatigue is no longer the same.
ai shang ni, lian pi juan dou bu yi yang

Loneliness and frustrations are all chased away.
gu dan fan zao quan bu bei gan guang guang

What is the temperature of a hug? Asking you who's in my arms, the answer is in your eyes.
yong bao shi shen me wen du? wen huai li de ni, jiu zai ni de yan shen

INTRODUCTION TO DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Prepared by Norazlina Binti Jaafar

Read the two texts carefully and answer the question that follows.

Text 1
And then, in the blowing clouds, she saw a band of faint iridescence colouring in faint shadows a portion of the hill. And forgetting, startled, she looked for the hovering colour and saw a rainbow forming itself. In one place it gleamed fiercely, and, her heart anguished with hope, she sought the shadow of iris where the bow should be. Steadily the colour gathered, mysteriously, from nowhere, it took presence upon itself, there was a faint, vast rainbow.
(D. H. Lawrence, The Rainbow, chapter 16)

Text 2
normally after + very heavy rain + or something like that + and + you’re driving along the road + and + far away + you see + well + er + a series + of +stripes + + formed like a bow + an arch + + very very far away + ah + seven colours but + + I guess you hardly ever see seven it’s just a + a series of + colours which + they seem to be separate but if you try to look for the separate colours they always seem + very hard + to separate + if you see what I mean + +
(Postgraduate student speaking informally)

+ indicates pauses

Analyse the texts above and comment how the two texts are different based on Paltridge’s (2006) argument for the differences between spoken and written discourse.


Answer.

The message or content in Text 1 and Text 2 are similar but they differ greatly in the way they were delivered or conveyed. The first one is in a written form and the second one is in spoken form.

In Text 1 , the rich lexis and well-organized structure are indications that the writer has taken time in the construction, and possibly reconstruction after several rewritings, of the final product. There are complete sentences, containing subordination, frequent modifications via adjectives and adverbs, and more than single predicates per referential expression. In Text 2, there are frequent pauses, often interrupting major syntactic units, repetitions, incomplete sentences, generalized vocabulary, fillers, and one example of a tongue-slip. The speaker planning in the here-and-now, possibly threatened with his interlocutor wanting to take a turn, typically repeats himself a good deal, using the same syntactic structure, the same lexical items, using the first word that comes to mind rather than hunting for the appropriate word or expression, filling in pauses with ‘fillers’. The overall effect is of information produced in a much less dense manner than is characteristic of written language.

Based on the elaboration above of the both text, there are a number of important differences between spoken and written language, which have implications for discourse analysis. The first one is grammatical intricacy. Writing is more structurally complex and elaborate than speech. Halliday (1989) argues that speech is no less highly organized than writing. Spoken discourse, he argues, has its own kind of complexity. He presents the notion of grammatical intricacy to account for the way in which the relationship between clauses in spoken discourse can be much spread out and with more complex relations between them than in writing, yet we still manage to keep track of these relations.

The syntax of spoken language is typically much less structured than that of written language. Spoken language contains many incomplete sentences, often simply sequences of phrases. But still it is comprehensible as illustrated in the extract taken from Text 2 below:
normally after + very heavy rain + or something like that + and + you’re driving along the road + and + far away + you see + well + er + a series + of +stripes + + formed like a bow + an arch + + very very far away + ah + seven colours but + + I guess you hardly ever see seven it’s just a + a series of + colours

(D. H. Lawrence, The Rainbow, chapter 16)

From the extract, we can understand that the speaker is trying to tell about the formation of a rainbow after the rain.

In written language and extensive set of metalingual marker exists to mark relationships between clauses such as: that – complementisers, when / while – temporal markers, so-called ‘logical connectors’ like besides, moreover, however, in spite of, etc. In spoken language the largely practically organized chunks are related by ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘then’ and, more rarely, ‘if’. The speaker is typically less explicit than the writer is: “I’m so tired (because) I had to walk all the way home”. In written language rhetorical organizers of larger stretches of discourse appear, like firstly, more important than and in conclusion. These are rare in spoken language.

Written discourse tends to be more lexically dense than spoken discourse. Lexical density refers to the ratio of content words to grammatical, or function words, within a clause. Contents words include nouns and verbs while grammatical words include items such as prepositions, pronouns, and articles. In spoken discourse content words tend to be spread out over a number of clauses rather than being tightly packed into individual clauses which is more typical of written discourse as illustrated in the extract from Text 1. The content words in this extract are in italics. There are many more content words than function words in this extract.
And then, in the blowing clouds, she saw a band of faint iridescence colouring in faint shadows a portion of the hill.
As compared to the spoken form as illustrated below that showed fewer used of content words than in the previous example of written text. The content words are italicized:
normally after + very heavy rain + or something like that + and + you’re driving along the road + and + far away + you see + well + er + a series + of +stripes + + formed like a bow + an arch + + very very far away
(Postgraduate student speaking informally)


There is also a high level of nominalization in written texts; that is, where actions and events are presented as nouns rather than as verbs. Halliday (1989) calls this phenomenon grammatical metaphor; that is, where a language item is transferred from a more expected grammatical class to another. Written texts also typically include longer noun groups than spoken texts. This leads to a situation where the information in the text is more tightly packed into fewer words and less spread out than in spoken texts. The analysis from Text 1 illustrates this. It shows the use of long noun groups that are typical of much written discourse. Another example includes an example of grammatical metaphor. Here, the verb ‘hover’ is changed into the noun hovering (clouds), an example of nominalization:

And then, in the blowing clouds, she saw a band of faint iridescence colouring in faint shadows a portion of the hill. And forgetting, startled, she looked for the hovering colour and saw a rainbow forming itself. In one place, it gleamed fiercely, and, her heart anguished with hope, she sought the shadow of iris where the bow should be. Steadily the colour gathered, mysteriously, from nowhere, it took presence upon itself, there was a faint, vast rainbow.
Whereas, Text 2, is an example of the typically low level of nominalization and shorter noun groups in spoken discourse. The noun groups in this extract are simpler and less dense than in Text 1 and there is no example of grammatical metaphor.

Writing is more explicit than speech. This depends on the purpose of the text and, again, is not an absolute. A person can state something directly, or infer something, in both speaking and writing, depending upon what they want the listener or reader to understand, and how direct they wish to be.

Furthermore, writing is more decontextualized than speech. This view is based on the perception that speech depends on a shared situation and background for interpretation whereas writing does not depend on such a shared context. This is generally true of conversation but is not true of speech and writing in general (Tannen : 1982). Spoken genres, such as academic lectures, for example, do not generally show a high dependence on a shared context, while written genres such as personal letters or memos do. Both written fiction and non-fiction may also depend on background information supplied by the reader and an active role of the reader to enter into the world of the text.

Speaking is disorganized and ungrammatical, whereas writing is organized and grammatical. As we have seen, spoken discourse is organized, but it is organized differently from written discourse. Spoken discourse does, however, contain more half-completed and reformulated utterances than writing discourse. This is because spoken discourse is often produced spontaneously and we are able to see the process of its production as someone speaks. This is not to say that written discourse is not at some stage half-completed or reformulated. It is just that the text we see (apart from synchronous online chat and discussions boards) is simply the finished product and as Halliday (1989 : 100) points out, ‘a highly idealized version of the writing process.’ With spoken discourse, topics can also be changed and speakers can interrupt and overlap with each other as they speak. Speakers can ask for clarification and they can correct what they have said. Misunderstandings, further, can be cleared up immediately. Also, spoken discourse is able to use intonation, gesture and body language to convey meaning, whereas written discourse is more constrained in that ways of conveying meaning are more limited.

Speaking also uses much more repetition, hesitation and redundancy than written discourse. This is because it is produced in real time, with speakers working out what they want to say at the same time as they are saying it. A further characteristic of spoken discourse is the use of pauses and ‘fillers’ like ‘hhh’, ‘er’ and ‘you know’. Speakers da this to give them time to think about what they want to say while they are speking. They also do this to hold on to their turn in the conversation while they are thinking about what they want to say, and how they will say it. Text 2 illustrates the use of pauses and’fillers’ like ‘er’ and ‘ah’. Here ‘+’ indicates pauses and the number of it indicates the length of the pause in seconds:
you see + well + er + a series + of +stripes + + formed like a bow + an arch + + very very far away + ah + seven colours but + +

To sum up, there can be no doubt that spoken discourse, even though, conveying same message as in written discourse, differ greatly in many aspects. The differences are in the form of grammar and syntax, nominalization, explicitness, contextualization, repetition, hesitation and redundancy.




BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brown, Gillian and Yule, George. (1983). Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Nunan, D. (2000). Introducing Discourse Analysis. London, Penguin Books.

Paltridge, Brian. (2006). Discourse Analysis. MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall.

Paramasivam, Dr. Shamala. (2006). Introduction to Discourse Analysis. Language
and Language Use. Directions and development of a BA Enlish Programme.
PEARSON. Prentice Hall