Hello all,
 
I've been following the non/restrictive modifier discussion and wanted to
list a few sources on speech/writing differences. A very good book that
covers various aspects of discourse, including specific descriptions of
linguistic features of writing vs. speech, is Evelyn Hatch's 'Discourse
and Language Education'. See also Michael McCarthy and Ronald Carter,
'Language as Discourse', which lays out an ideology and some ideas for a
discourse-based syllabus for 2nd-lg. teaching, but is very useful for
courses for native speakers, too -- I used it in a grad class at the CSU.
Another coursebook which is designed specifically for teaching (in this
case, to teach style features that make one's writing more 'mature' or
more like academic writing) is called 'Text and Discourse Analysis' by
Raphael Salkie (Routledge). This one is written at a level that would be
useful from high school through basic writing to freshman comp. It has
lots of exercises right in the text.
 
One of our colleagues wrote asking what the fuss is about non/restrictive
modifiers. I am not familiar with the 'harmful' language effects referred
to, but I know that not making this distinction clear can lead to
ambiguity or misunderstanding of the writer's intended meaning. I don't
know why students have so much trouble with this distinction, but they
do, all the way through grad school. It may be tied to changing
traditions in punctuation (my students don't use commas or nearly
anything else the way I do).
 
Here's an example I used once on an exam:
 
Hospital patients who are regularly deprived of their rights to full
information about their treatment have several means of legal recourse.
 
compare with:
 
Hospital patients, who are regularly deprived of their rights to full
information about their treatment, have several means of legal recourse.
 
The second version implies that ALL patients are regularly deprived of
their rights, while the first simply singles out patients who are
deprived of their rights as a subcategory of all hospital patients.
 
Another one: All the bus passengers who were injured in the accident were
taken to the hospital.
 
Put in commas, and  it means that all the passengers in the bus were
injured; without the commas, there is no such implication.
 
If a relative of yours was on that bus, you'd care about the commas!
 
Cheers!
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics              ~
English Department, California Polytechnic State University   ~
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407                                     ~
Tel. (805)-756-2184  E-mail: [log in to unmask]      ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~