Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

Clauses and sentences in informal writing

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Headers and tails, along with tags, so common in speech, also occur increasingly

in informal writing:

He’s a man who loves to play tricks on people 

is TV presenter Noel Edmonds.

(a more ‘written’ version of this sentence would be: ‘TV presenter Noel

Edmonds is a man who loves to play tricks on people’. The tail not only adds

emphasis to the statement but it also imparts an informal character to the

writing.)

The following examples, taken from an advertisement for the Chrysler Jeep

Cherokee vehicle, indicate the spread into written text of irregularly punctuated

clause fragments more commonly associated with spoken grammar (

Û

87b

):

In these parts, you’ll need a car that’ll keep you on the road as well as take you

off it. 

Which is why the locals drive a Jeep Cherokee … Instead of the usual soggy

4

4 handling, the Cherokee is taut and responsive. Not only does this make it

safer to drive, it also makes it more exciting to drive. 

As does the 4 litre engine

under the bonnet.

Journalists also achieve impact and get on a ‘conversational’ wavelength with

their readers by using common spoken discourse markers and purposefully vague

language as well as response tokens such as definitely, certainly, exactly, which in

the following examples serve as ‘replies’ in projected conversational exchanges:

[magazine article]

So there I was sitting in Mick Jagger’s kitchen while he went about making us

both afternoon tea. 

Well, you can imagine how long it took to get him to talk

about the band’s latest album. 

Exactly. You’ve got it. Over two minutes. 

238 | From discourse to social contexts

Cambridge Grammar of English

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[magazine article]

He was talking about sport, Wimbledon, the World Cup, US Open Golf 

and

that sort of stuff.