Language observations in a letter

The short link to this page:

http://bit.ly/maelt_twletter

The letter below was sourced from the Scuba community's website. The linked words and phrases are analysed using corpus evidence in the name of language observation. The point is that students encounter vocabulary in a single context and although they can observe some features of a word or phrase in that single context, they cannot be sure if these are standard. By looking in an appropriate corpus, this usually emerges unequivocally.

The Vocabulary Profiler at the Compleat Lexical Tutor site provided this breakdown of the vocabulary levels in this text. The results and comparable data are here. Other examples are shown on the Frequency page in this website.

After reading the letter and following the links, go to the next page for a follow-up discussion about the relevance of this to vocabulary teaching and learning.

Happy reading.

Managing Director

John Lewis Superstore

London W1A 1EX

21st November 2004

Dear Mr Still

Good tidings to you and all your staff for the festive season ahead (Christmas).

Now to the crux of the matter-in-hand: I am a fully qualified Santa Claus and am wondering whether you might consider me to run my own "Santa's Grotto" in your store.

But WAIT! You're probably thinking: "What makes him so special?"

Well, first of all, I have made several changes to the characterisation of Father Christmas. Rather than greeting the children with shouts of "Ho, ho, ho!" I prefer to whisper the phrase "Dependence is not unfathomable in this cruel world we live in". In addition, my gifts are ALL hand-made, ranging from felt hoops to vanilla-pod holders.

You will note also, from the enclosed sketch, that I have radically redesigned Santa's outfit and have renamed my character "Lord Buckles". Would you be interested in employing me? I promise NEVER to let you down.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes

Robin Cooper