Spoken English

[helen]

sorry about the new topic, but whats the difference between a reduction and an elision and can someone give me an example?

thanks thanks thanks
im struggling in english language...

[AppleThief]

• Reduction is dropping sounds at the beginning or end of a word. For example, "cos" for "because"
• Elision (or deletion) is loss of sound in a word. For example, "econmy" for "economy", or "prinner" for "printer"

I think that's right...did those first thing this year.

[helen]

Thanks HEAPS!

just another...what about the difference between an adjacency pair and a interrogative tag or question-answer format...?

Eg. WHat would you call...
how are you?
good.

[AppleThief]

Adjacency pairs: adjacent turns that have a close relationship with each other. By this definition, I would classify that example as an adjacency pair. The example I tend to see is
     Hello
     Hello, how are you?
Adjacency pairs aid fluid conversation, and are usually used to initiate conversation

Question-answer, to my knowledge, is not a term we have to know. But I guess it would be classified as that.

Interrogative tags are something else: questions formed by attaching a "tag" to the end of the statement. For example, "it's cold, isn't it?". They are usually used to confirm that their answer is correct or to hand over the floor.

Also, interesting to note that the "tag" part is often "opposite" to the statement. i.e. If the statement is positive ("it is cold"), the tag is negative ("isn't it"), and vice versa ("he won't call us, will he?")

[Mao]

* Mao slaps self for necromancy

I'd like to add, that adjacency pairs are clearly ordered pairs. Question-answer is part of adjacency pairs [and so is interrogative tag - response to some extent]
however adjacency pairs are not limited to these, and it can also include greetings "hello" -> "hi" and other stuff that I cannot remember right now

[helen]

whats the difference between active and passive voice? with examples please?

[ell]

whats the difference between active and passive voice? with examples please?

I don't do English Language, but I think it's something like: in active voice, the object or whatever you're talking about is doing the action, e.g.

The man jumped over the fence.

While in passive voice, the action is done by the object, e.g. the sentence would be:

The fence was jumped over by the man.

[AppleThief]

That example is correct. However, in active voice, it is the SUBJECT that does the action.

          The     man     jumped     over     the     fence
                  subject     verb                     object

In passive, the subject has the action done to it.

          The     fence     was     jumped     over     by     the     man
                    subject             verb                               object


I thought I may as well also add that you can tell if a sentence is passive if it has a by-phrase (e.g. the ball was thrown BY the boy)

Also, you should probably know agentless passive, which is when the agent is completely omitted. e.g. "the ball was thrown". Note that you can insert a by-phrase, and work out that it is agentless passive.

[Mao]

I thought I may as well also add that you can tell if a sentence is passive if it has a by-phrase (e.g. the ball was thrown BY the boy)

I killed your theory by the name of God.

[ell]

That example is correct. However, in active voice, it is the SUBJECT that does the action.

Ah yeah, that makes sense. I wish I did English Language.

[helen]

thanks alot guys! i completely forgot i had asked this question until it was on my sac today...ahahah
i couldnt even define a idiom!  oh the shame...