Language

Style of writing

The language of the short story “Waiting for Spring” by Tamara Jones is generally easy to follow and understand.

The choice of words indicates an informal style of writing. Certain informal expressions, such as “what’s up” (l. 99), “get off” (l. 103), “top up” (l. 44), are used. Contractions such as “he’d”, “I’ll”, “haven’t”, etc. are present throughout the text. They are mainly used in the dialogue, giving it authenticity and conveying a feeling of familiarity between the characters. The text also makes use of slang terms and profanities such as “bugger” (l. 32), “little shite” (l. 56), “bloody” (l. 77). Grammatical errors such as incorrect pronoun forms (as in “me ears” (l. 6) instead of “my ears” are used to emulate a natural speech pattern especially encountered among speakers from northern parts of the United Kingdom. This speech pattern can also reflect the social background of the characters. Note that Albert, in particular, uses incorrect grammar when he sp...