Lazy English or Why do we need to learn informal contractions?
статья по английскому языку на тему

Lyceum Student Scientific Society

English Language Section

Lazy English or Why do we need to learn informal contractions?

ChuprinaValentina , 6G

Municipal Educational Establishment

“Lyceum №6 Gorno-Altaisk”

Guided by:

Popova Kseniya Sergeevnna

Gorno-Altaisk

2016

Contents

1. Introduction……………………………………………………………..3
2. Contractions in general…………………………………………………4
3. Contractions that are not taught at school…………………………..6
4. What informal contractions do pupils of our lyceum know? ……..10
5. Conclusion…………………………………………………………….13
6. Literature………………………………………………………………14
7. Supplement…………………………………………………………….15

                                    Introduction.

English language is constantly changing, as any other language. New words and tendencies appear in its informal part, but as it is an everyday language some of its changes become very important for those who want to know it well, and what’s more important, to understand and speak it fluently.

           The currency of our work is caused by the following factors:

• the use of informal contractions on TV and in movies and songs ;
• the great popularity of blogs and chatrooms of online communication;
• the necessity to learnthe reduced forms used in daily speech for you to sound more like a native speaker of English. 
  
  The main goal of our work is to find out what modern contractions are not taught at school.

To reach the goal we were:

• to give a definition of contractions in general;
• to find out the main contractions in informal language;
• to find out the examples of usage of these phenomena in song lyrics.

Such methods of researching as analysis, comparison and opinion poll were used.

In grammar and morphology, a contraction is a shortened form of a word or group of words, with the missing letters usually marked by an apostrophe. Only one apostrophe is used in a contraction no matter how many letters are removed.

Contractions are commonly used in speech and in colloquial forms of writing.

Words containing two contractional clitics marked with apostrophes (such as shouldn't've' )are called double contractions. They are natural and frequently heard colloquialisms, though they look strange in print and are rarely seen in contemporary writing.The use of contractions is directly related to tone. In informal writing (from text messages and blogs to memos and personal essays), we often rely on contractions to maintain a colloquial tone. In more formal writing assignments (such as academic reports or term papers), avoiding contractions is a way of establishing a more serious tone.But  new developments in a language, it seems, tend to arise in colloquial speech, and to make their way gradually into the written medium.

Nevertheless, before deciding whether to use contractions in a writing assignment, consider your audience and your purpose for writing.

There are two main kinds:

1) The first category of contractions is those formed by an auxiliary verb or form of be plus the word not, with the o replaced by an apostrophe, e.g. don't, wouldn't, haven't. Notable exceptions include won't, shan't and ain't.

2) The second category is generally in the form of a pronoun (or occasionally a noun) plus an auxiliary verb or a form of to be, with the apostrophe replacing one or few  letters, as in it's for it is, or in I'd for I would.One of the largest such contractions is I'd've for I would have. Auxiliary verbs which can be contracted include will, would, shall, have/has, and had. In British English it is acceptable to form a contraction with the verb have even when it is used as the primary verb (as with the phrase "I've a date today").

The only commonly used English contraction of two words that does not fall into any of the above categories is "let's", a contraction of "let us" that is used in forming the imperative mood in the first-person plural (e.g. "Let's go [somewhere]")

Special Points to Remember:

• The verb 'be' as a principal verb can also be contracted
• 's can stand for 'is' in the present simple and present continuous or 'has' in the present perfect
• 'd can stand for 'had' in the past perfect or 'would' in conditional forms
• The modal 'may not' is not usually contracted

Contractions that are not taught at school.

If you want to listen and understand fluent speech, you have to learn about informal contractions. The difficulty is that they are not taught at school, but they are very important for fluent English communication. While a lot of grammarticians tend to think that these are incorrect, the truth is that it is perfectly okay to use these in any and all spoken English situations. Besides, contractions are important to use to help the rhythm of spoken English.  English is a stress-timed language, meaning we keep about the same amount of time between stressed syllables of spoken English. This leads to things like reducing vowels, and in turn, creating things like contractions, along with other spoken English features.It’s even common for native speakers to use them in informal writing (to friends, online chat, text messages) .It is your choice to decide to use them in your own speech or not.

Informal contractions often combine with the following words:

• + to
• + you
• + of
• + wouldhave
• miscellaneous

Informal contractions are contractions that break grammar rules and are only used in very casual speech. Two or even three words could be merged. An apostrophe is often not used.You cannot invent your own contractions. Here is a list of common contractions in English:

Then there are the less known combinations, often of more than two words.

One of them is wheredja.“Wheredja” is the combination of the words where + did + you. "I love your shoes. Wheredja get them?"

Whadja:“Whadja” is the combination of the words what + did + you. "Whadja have for dinner last night."

Howdja: “Howdja” is the combination of how + did + you. "Howdja like the movie? I thought it was great.

Still,  it is truly your choice to use or not use these words. They do have benefits of sounding more casual as well as helping with the overall rhythm of English. You will hear these words everywhere from informal conversations in a coffee shop or anywhere else to on TV and in movies and songs, and even now being used by the broadcasters for American news.

Opinion Poll.

We conducted an opinion poll among the pupils of 8-11 forms in our lyceum. 78 schoolchildren took part in it. The results of the poll show that the pupils know what the contractions are, when it’s proper to use informal ones and can give examples of the use of informal contractions in song lyrics. Let’s see what we found out.

We asked the respondents to give examples of the use of contractions in song lyrics.

Our opinion poll detected that the main informal contractions are well known, but only several pupils understand what they mean and what words the originate from.

Conclusion.

In common speech, we use contractions all the time. “Don’t run in the hallways,” “I can’t get this bottle open,” “She’s gotta car.” Many grammar experts argue for the use of contractions in writing, especially in a casual email, a letter, or a piece of fiction. But there are blogs, chatrooms and social nets, where you can use them.  In common speech and in writing, contractions can be a good way to say more with less, and to sound more informally and naturally.

Literature.

1. http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/contractions.htmWhat Are Contractions? (with Examples) 
2. (Douglas Biber, Susan Conrad , and Geoffrey Leech, Longman Student Grammar of Spoken English. Pearson, 2002)
3. http://tx.english-ch.com/teacher/princess/home/beginnerinformal-contractions-in-english/
4. http://www.pronuncian.com/materials/podcasts/Episode_13.aspx
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Contraction_%28gram
6. https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/contractions-informal.htm
7. http://reallifeglobal.com/how-english-is-really-used-colloquial-contractions-wanna-gotta-gonna/
8. http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Contractions
9. http://tx.english-ch.com/teacher/jun/others/informal-contractions/

Supplement 1.Contractions.

Supplement 2. Informal contractions.