The Tweed Shire Media Release also has informal comments. These provide an interesting contrast.
Residents of Tweed Shire use their Facebook page to ask questions and to communicate directly with councillors and to share information.
The use of emojis and adjacency pairs sets the personal tone of the interaction between the Council and the community, as residents express their thoughts in a direct and accessible manner.
The Your Say comments include non-standard punctuation and irregular sentence structures. Tim Sherman omits contractions – “its a health hazard” and “we cant go back to business cooking food” – and incorrect pronouns – “me and my staff are waiting” to alert he Council to the “pile of waste” that needs to be removed.
Likewise Rebecca Bright omits capital letters and contractions and includes sloppy spelling to enquire about the bus route. Inference is required to understand that the “608” refers to the number of the bus: “Is the 608 back running in bilambil heights around Simpson drive etc? as as i havent seen it up here scince the road was cut off at scenic or is this just a service to the recovery centre?
The Councillors use non-standard capital letters – This is 100% INCORRECT!” to refute the suggestion that raw sewage is being pumped into the ocean – “We ARE NOT pumping raw sewage”. – dogmatic authoritative tone to clarify /counter rumours (bust the myth ) about sewage.. The tone is forceful and urgent as in the sharp imperative setnence: “Do not play in flood waters’.
They also use more colourful and speech-like adjectives to praise the ADF – “fantastic ADF troops” – to personalise their message “helping us out here in the Tweed” (note the shortening of The Tweed Shire) – “great job team – awesome result”
Ros Davis uses cliches – that’s just a cop out – to convey his disgust exasperation dismay at the fact that the flood mud watesr are not being appropriate compostd.
- Return to: Contemporary examples 2022 for language variation
- Return to Essays Made Easy: English Language
- References to linguists and relevant commentators (which ones?)