tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post7429258783122795249..comments2024-03-17T09:14:13.950+00:00Comments on John Wells’s phonetic blog: sound adviceJohn Wellshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13684304410735867148noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-16569723717862522592011-05-01T04:43:11.058+01:002011-05-01T04:43:11.058+01:00No doubt. I also got the sense that the police we...No doubt. I also got the sense that the police were specifically trained to present their testimony in such a way, and that an officer's career trajectory may depend in large part on their ability to deliver testimony in that fashion (combined with the ability to write reports, which doubtless require similar stylistics).<br /><br />To be charitable to them, it seems to me that, in contrast to the typical prescriptivist's peeve, the purpose of the police passives is to be very explicit about agency or lack (of knowledge) thereof.Dirckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01042165614834628133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-92071193880988186972011-05-01T03:09:54.854+01:002011-05-01T03:09:54.854+01:00Dirck,
Passive-speaking police officers in actio...Dirck, <br /><br />Passive-speaking police officers in action? Hmm, how psycholinguistically interesting on so many levels. I wonder if certain speech patterns might correlate with certain personality types like those that would tend to be drawn to law enforcement. No doubt there are studies on this already.Glen Gordonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02440249042894225949noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-7552652866821466252011-04-28T07:05:10.845+01:002011-04-28T07:05:10.845+01:00It also sounds like Sherlock Holmes-ese. It could ...It also sounds like Sherlock Holmes-ese. It could be turned into a good book by a good writer (or into a good film by a good director).Beatrice Portinarihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13626472955669713053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-51482795975409921432011-04-27T18:12:03.270+01:002011-04-27T18:12:03.270+01:00Sounds like typical police-ese. One of the most i...Sounds like typical police-ese. One of the most interesting parts of serving on a jury (in the Midwestern US) was seeing the police witnesses switch into official-testimony mode, which included passivizing quite a few sentences unnaturally.Dirckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01042165614834628133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-377103124456226005.post-21777241174449626222011-04-27T11:14:11.453+01:002011-04-27T11:14:11.453+01:00But it sounds as if you may have helped to avoid a...But it sounds as if you may have helped to avoid an injustice and perhaps deterred the police from falsifying statements, which is a good day's work in my book.Harry Campbellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01675794936870568336noreply@blogger.com