Text for pragmatic analysis. (A news item is being read by a radio reporter).

(A news item is being read by a radio reporter).

In Barcelona today supporters clashed, when England played their World Cup match against Spain, the present cup holders. England had held the champions to 1: 1 until half- time, but soon after play was resumed, a penalty was awarded against them. According to our reporter, Jim Bullock, the decision caused uproar among a group of England fans, and this in turn triggered an angry response from some opposing supporters in an adjoining section of the stand.

The referee stopped the game when violence spilled over onto the pitch, and there were several minutes of noisy confusion until local police restored order and ascorted alleged wing leaders out of the stadium.

Apparently, there were further disturbances in pavement cafes and bars in town after the match. No one seems to have been injured seriously either inside or outside the stadium. It is not known whether the police made any arrests. After order have been restored on the pitch England attacked vigorously, but the Spanish defence was too well-disciplined for them, and their hopes of appearing in the final were dashed when the opposition captain Marcus scored the winning goal, just 30 second before time.

Telling a story

When the speaker imposes upon himself the role of a ‘storyteller’, he tries to relate a certain amount of information to his listener, as well as to make him fully understand the whole idea by giving him hints, which are nothing but his own interpretation of the message. Thus, his choice of intonation means is not as scarce as when he simply reads aloud news or other texts.

Making up a story the speaker is guided by certain pragmatic rules: (1) information can be ‘given’ (already known) and ‘new’; (2) subject phrase is associated with already ‘known’ information and predicate phrase - with ‘news’; (3) parts of utterances containing ‘given’ information serve as anaphoric references pragmatically, and as links - syntactically; (4) ‘given’ information always precedes the ‘news’ (this may influence the choice of a lexical-grammatical structure of the utterance). Cf.:

(a) An uninvited GUEST + at the party she had GIven + was MORgan.

(b) Olivia WAIN + retired to a seaside COttage.

In (a) ‘Morgan” presents a ‘new’ information, so the subject position is not suitable, that’s why the word is used predicatively. In (b) predicate phrase contains ‘news’.

Apart from pragmatic arrangement of informative utterances (proposition) into tone units, the speaker inserts phrases of propositional type (containing attitudinal information (subjective information) which can be of two kinds: (1) aspective and (2) emotional.

‘Aspective’ information helps the listener understand whether the speaker is still keeping to the same topic, or the aspect has been already changed (c, d, e). ‘Emotional’ information helps evoke certain feelings in the listener (f, g). Cf.:

(c) According to our rePORter, + the decision caused

UProar ….

(d) I exPECT, well, …+ there wasn’t much point telling you

about TheREsa.

(e) ALso, + and that is rather SAD , + the treasurer

TELLS me that ...

(f) UnFORtunately, + today our→ aTTENdance is … + NOT as

Usual.

(g) Quite FRIENDly, + I regard this as the most serious

ASpect.

Tone units like ‘well, perhaps, that’s a bit strong, I can say’, etc. are used by the speaker to ease the progression, or to give him time to think out the next portion of his story. Cf.:

(h) I’m saying we should restrict the use of private motor cars

(i)Well, I think, I think first and foremost is what I called the environmental

case.

(j)You see, advertising pressures in the motor industry.

(k)Do you see what I mean, you could be heroically dangerous.

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