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Aeolienne

Do you speak British?

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The British trait of being too polite to speak one's mind has led to a table translating numerous hollow English phrases becoming an internet hit.

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:) So true! I feel like a foreigner! I am British, but find it very hard to speak "British"! I'll never understand why people can't just say what they mean! Although I guess it's kind of nice that we put so much thought into how we word things so as not to offend anybody! Puzzling though!

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Earworm alert!

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This table illustrated my old point on another thread where I explained the multilayer of a spoken English utterance :

 

Column 1 locution- what was said (I hear what you say)

 

Column 2 illocution –what was intended (I disagree and don’t want to discuss it further )

 

Column 3 perlocution –effect on the listener / what listener understood ( He accepts my point of view)

 

A small analysis of relationship between these 3 pragmatic forces

 

1 Speaker says : I hear what you say – pragmatically marked implicit, indirect assertion (3 conversational Maxims are flouted: quality ( truth), relevance and manner

2 Speaker thinks: I disagree and don’t want to discuss it further – an extreme case formulation with double negative, a strong confrontational verb “disagree” is impregnated with the negative connotation

3 Foreigner understood: He accept my point of view ???

 

I’m not sure that the latter is fair to the foreigners because from my point of view 1S wold be marked with at very least a few paralinguistic signals: intonation shift, face expression or body language, pauses, backchannel noises or discourse markers like hm or well . It’s quite probable that some foreigners are excelled at reading paralinguistic signals and could easily comprehend what 1S was designed to hide. And why not!

Next shot please:)

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Alolienne, that video is hilarious! :) My friend is a Morris dancer!!! "But I don't want to cause too much fuss!" :) Very funny!

 

Tanya52, I love your insight, as always. You are quite right of course. :)

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I just wanted to add to my previous post that there’s a good reason why people use these indirect phrases. The most important tacit rule of English conversation which every foreigner should observe is that a default answer in English conversation is always AGREEMENT!

 

We can mitigate and even U-turn but only after we agreed first:

Yes, but…

That’s very true, but…

I can see what you mean, but …

 

 

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How British is Britain?

 

A heat map of places according to the proportion of people who just ticked British as their identity in the census reveals London as a hot-spot. The top five local authorities for British identity are all in the capital, with Harrow at number one.

 

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I just wanted to add to my previous post that there’s a good reason why people use these indirect phrases. The most important tacit rule of English conversation which every foreigner should observe is that a default answer in English conversation is always AGREEMENT!

 

We can mitigate and even U-turn but only after we agreed first:

Yes, but…

That’s very true, but…

I can see what you mean, but …

 

 

Ha ha! Good observation! :)

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How British is Britain?

 

A heat map of places according to the proportion of people who just ticked British as their identity in the census reveals London as a hot-spot. The top five local authorities for British identity are all in the capital, with Harrow at number one.

 

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Gosh! That's eye opening! :)

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I'm not very British! - I'm too direct to talk 'British' lol

 

I prefer to think of myself as English (seeing as I was born and bred in England). I'm too logical, 'Britishness' is too vague for me.

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The British trait of being too polite to speak one's mind has led to a table translating numerous hollow English phrases becoming an internet hit.

Link

 

 

I am English and not British. The Scots also say they are Scottish, the Welsh well Welsh. But Many speak English. I don't like this patronising subject!

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What do you find patronising?

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