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Description: | Harry talks about working conditions when he first started as a farm hand and recalls how he and his brothers were driven to seek work elsewhere because of the permanently low wages. The Downs is the area of chalky upland around Firle.
lexis
wurzel = mangel-wurzel (root crop used as cattle feed); clamp = mound of earth or turf lined with straw, in which potatoes, etc., are kept during winter; cake = substance (such as cotton-seed, linseed, etc.) compressed in flat form and used for feeding cattle; cause = because; nigh = nearly; fore = before
phonology
H-dropping; rhoticity; + V ® [d]; occasionally voiced ® [d] (the [d@], with [wId] and there [dE@`])
MOUTH [EU]; PRICE [VI]; FACE [{I]; GOOSE [Uu:]; GOAT [OU]; THOUGHT [A:]; NORTH [O`:]; START [A`:]; NURSE [@`:]; SQUARE [E@`]; BATH [{:]; LOT [A]; TRAP [{]; lettER [@`]
note also boys [bUIz], year [jI@`], so many [s@ mEni] and so much [s@ mVtS], potatOES [p@t{It~@`z], bullocks [bUlUks], little [lId=L/], father [f{:D@`], very nigh [v@`r/ nVI], don’t [dVn] and wasn’t [wA:nt]
grammar
for to + infinitive (the farmers that time of the day would come and pick the biggest boys out of school for to go with their horses with the carters; beautiful sugar he had come there for to feed them with; the farmers wouldn’t take each other’s men, not for to give another lad a chance to get on a little higher; you don’t give us enough money hardly for to live on)
third person plural was (if they thought they was big enough they didn’t mind what age they was; when the time come we found that things was moving a bit; your brothers was thatchers; they was good workmen); second person was (so you had to stop where you was for a while)
zero indefinite article (he was _ Irishman; my good father got killed in _ accident)
preterite knowed (I never knowed the first year as ever a man would grow so many)
relative pronoun ® as (I never knowed the first year as ever a man would grow so many)
non-standard word order with ever (I never knowed the first year as ever a man would grow so many potatoes in my life = I never knew the first year that a man would ever grow so many potatoes in my life)
adjective as adverb (he regular dwelt on it)
preterite see (then if you see another job going on another farm you’d try for it)
preterite come (when the time come we found that things was moving a bit)
preterite give (when we give our notice in, me and my brother, the farmer said, “What be you leaving for?”; and he give me another two shillings a week and I stopped a little longer)
independent personal pronoun (when we give our notice in, me and my brother, the farmer said, “What be you leaving for?” = my brother and I)
second person be (the farmer said, “What be you leaving for?”; oh, be ye?); first person singular be (I be going to a place where I be going to get a little more money; I don’t want you to know everything of my business because I be leaving you; I’m very happy where I be)
multiple negation (you don’t give us enough money hardly for to live on; because you didn’t give us no money)
zero auxiliary (wouldn’t matter so much if we had done, we shoudn’t _ got it)
use of ye (oh, be ye?; don’t tell anybody I got it for ye; oh, can ye?; you get more money I expect, don’t ye?)
zero plural marker on noun (I got eighteen shillings a week and milk and vegetable; I had three or four year there)
determiner, those ® them (up on them Downs)
note the construction wouldn’t matter so much if we had done, we shoudn’t got it = we wouldn’t have got it | License: | http://www.bl.uk/services/copy/permission.html | Rights holder: | British Library | Source: | Collect Britain | Creator: | University of Leeds | Identifier: | http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personal... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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