English Works

Using Metalanguage: getting started : practice writing sentences

Please refer to the VCA English Language Exam 2009: Got the message?  The passive-aggressive art of ‘talking’

Sample text 1: Crowded House: The Age, Joel Meares

Getting started: practise using linguistic terminology.

Introduction: article and function: expressive function and expression of identity

  • An opinion-style blog with a personal and sarcastic tone to inform “housemates” about the problems of communication in a “shared house”
  • Inherent to this blog is a comments section. Mr Meares writes his article in such a way as to invite commentary from his readers: “heyhay” and “nixon”.
  • Tenantese: the language of missed communication: to encourage people to think about the way they communicate in a shared house; to analyse the problems of communication; to use his identity as a flatmate to show that communication can be problematic.
  • Avoidance leads to more not less aggression

Paragraph 1:
Discourse features and situational/social context: a life-style blog article on The Age website;

  • Social purpose : to analyse the problematic consequences of “Tenantese” – a lack of communication
  • Social purpose: Drawing upon his identity as a tenant living in a shared house with “housemates” [4], Mr Meares seeks to educate his readers about “tenantese” (9) – a particular type of language that is “native to the share house” (9) and which is characterised by avoidance.
  • Discourse features (blog scenario): Meares presents his discussion as a problem-solution style of opinion, whereby he (coherently) foregrounds the problem which results from a communication barrier “doing everything to avoid a proper conversation” (2) and the solution: regular meetings to try to overcome the “passive-aggressive” (14) nature of shared-house communications.
  • Meares uses an informal register to entertain (enlighten) tenants who are in a shared-house situation. He uses the personal “I” pronoun (7) relating his personal experience and anecdotes : “most of the share house communiques I’ve seen” (7) and “I just haven’t lived in or visited them” (22)) to connect with his “tenantese” audience.
  • To build rapport, and to reinforce his congenial personality, he uses the “you” second person form of address. (“How do you let your housemates know”) (11)

Paragraph 2:

To fulfil his social purpose, Meares coherently focuses on two subject-specific fields: one is on shared house rentals and the other on communication problems.

  • Meares uses concrete nouns and terminology to refer to the shared house experience: “fridge”; “slammed doors”; “chores”; “housemates”; (5-6)
  • He also uses abstract nouns and adjectives relating to conversations and communication: “grievance”; “displeasure”; “sarcastic note”; “passive-aggressive” and “cunning” (3-6)
  • From a stylistic perspective, Meares entertains his audience with numerous colloquial lexemes : “chat” (3); “cask of goon” (25); alliteration and metaphoric references, “a Big Brother style house meeting” (22), to show the antagonism that arises in these shared-house situations;
  • 17-19: (Listing devices as well as stylistic features: phonology (rolling Rs” “Austrayan” and reference to morphology, “o”): The author uses an analogy with the Italian and Australian languages to show that “tenantese” also has its own idiosyncratic language style: “if Astrayan (is) known for the added ‘o’, tenantese might be the language of silence” (Lines 18 and 19).
  • Noun phrases such as “death stares” and “underlying tensions” (line 18-19) aid cohesion.

Paragraph 3:
From a stylistic perspective, Meares uses a combination of sentence structures and sentence types to focus attention on communication problems and resolution. His underlying social purpose/message is to show that the “language of silence” causes more problems than it solves.

  • Meares uses declarative sentences to introduce communication problems that arise in a shared house: “Communication in a share house means doing everything” (2). The author concludes the paragraph with another declarative to sarcastically suggest that by being passive-aggressive, one can better convey a message. “it can lead to some very interesting methods” (Lines 7/8). His point is that such behaviour is self-defeating and ignores rather than deals with the problem; his sarcasm seeks to protect the face needs of those he is criticising.
  • Mr Meares includes an interrogative sentence to question whether the tenants have a “grievance” (Line 3: “Got a grievance?”)
  • He includes informal syntactical features such as contractions and embedded clauses – “that bizarre form of communication” – (line 9) which help to build social rapport based on relatable and shared experiences born of frustration and simmering anger.
  • The author also uses a series of imperative sentences to inform readers, who might be in a similar situation, what a typical response would be. (Lines 3 and 4: “Don’t raise it at dinner”; “let it niggle for a while”; “then wait for the message to sink in”.). The mockery again conceals and exposes the problem.
  • (13-15) The author uses antithesis to differentiate between communication in a workplace or a family and communication in a share house. “In a workplace or a family squabbling parties often sit down and chat it out.” (13)
  • Using the passive voice and adjectives such as “passive-aggressive” and “cunning” the author contrasts the communication in a shared house which is “delayed” and “denied” – “cunning enough to be completely denied”.

This Resource is updated weekly.  Members: please send your requests!

OR To buy a bunch of Analytical Commentaries based on VCAA exams