Language change and issues

1. ‘Perjoration’ is a process by which words increasingly acquire negative meanings
2. ‘Ethnic cleansing’, ‘collateral damage’ and ‘nuclear deterrent’ are examples of euphemism
3. ‘Dialect levelling’ is a decrease in dialect differences
4. ‘Prescriptivism’ is the study of language with the intention of controlling it- by dictating rules of usage
5. 1755 is significant for the development of the English language because Samuel Johnson published his dictionary
6. ‘Jargon’ is technical language or highly field-specific vocabulary
7. ‘Amelioration’ is a process by which words become more socially acceptable or prestigious
8. Which one of the following processes could the word ‘cupboard’ not be used as an example of:     borrowing
9. The ‘etymological fallacy’ is the mistaken belief that the earliest historical meaning of a word is its only true meaning
10. Time was once pronounced more like team, see like say, now like noo, and so like saw; and are all examples of the phonological differences brought about by the Great Vowel Shift
11. ‘Fax’, ‘flu’, ‘celeb’, ‘bike’, ‘gym’ and ‘memo’ are all examples of abbreviations or shortening
12. The use, in the USA of phrases such as ‘I guess’ ( for ‘I think’) and ‘gotten’ are examples of Americans retaining an earlier English form after its use has largely died out in Britain
13. ‘Bidialectialism’ is a  term used, by Crystal and others to describe the ability to use two dialects of the same language
14. ‘Government’, ‘peasant’, ‘crime’, ‘justice’, ‘fashion’, ‘biscuit’ and ‘leisure’ are words loaned from French
15. The prescriptive ‘Short Introduction to English Grammar’ (1762) was written by   Bishop Robert Lowth
16. The printing press was introduced into England by William Caxton in 1476
17. ‘Accommodation theory’ was developed by Howards Giles to suggest we adjust our accent/speech in response to the person we are addressing
18. The words ‘Children’, ‘oxen’ and ‘men’ are among a handful of now irregular plurals that are a hangover from a time when English had a greater number of inflections
19. What is Jonathan Green describing as ‘the counter language… the language of the rebel, the outlaw, the despised, the marginal, the young’?   Slang
20. ‘The Sapir- Whorf hypothesis’ put forward the theory that language controls or determines the way we think

Revision links

Student response -paper 2


http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-77022-CEX.PDF


Article about gendered language:


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/23/allow-me-to-womansplain-the-problem-with-gendered-language


Word of Mouth- Michael Rosen
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08lh6r1
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08g5533

Language questions and answers

What is a ‘question and answer’ and ‘statement and response’ called?  Adjacency pair.

What is a term for saying ‘yeah’ or ‘uh huh’ while someone else is talking? Back- channel agreement.

What is it called when talk flows swiftly from one turn to the next? Latched talk

What’s it called when you affect the data you are studying by investigating it? The observer’s paradox


Your investigation data needs to be ethical, comparable and….? Reliable

What does AO3 award marks for? Context 

What does GRAPE stand for? Genre         Reception              Audience          Purpose          Expectations

You need to analyse texts for how they make meanings and….? Representations

Name two terms from the framework ‘lexis’. Synonyms and Antonyms

Which of the Ds was Tannen’s theory? Difference

Name three deficit features. Tag questions, empty adjectives and hedges

What did Cameron say? ‘’Your genes don’t determine your jeans’’

Where did Trudgill do his NORMS research? Norwich

Did the island locals in Martha’s Vineyard show over or covert prestige? Covert prestige

Was there more or less pronunciation of the post-vocalic R sound in more expensive stores in Labov’s ‘fourth floor’ study? More  

What is it called when children apply standard grammatical rules to irregular verbs and nouns? Overgeneralisation

How many morphemes are in the following quote? ‘’now you can’t exactly be like Jesus (0.5) instead you just get some help’’ 15

What is it the stage after the two-word stage called? Telegraphic stage

What was Halliday’s function for getting your needs met? Instrumental

Who did the research on his son and discovered that caregivers simplify the utterance around a word that is about to be learned? Dr. Deb Roy  

Child Language Development (CLD)

Theory:

• Noam Chomsky FoxP2 - medical research which has identified DNA that is in charge of language. This DNA code enables us to develop language from birth.
• Deb Roy-  ''the speech home project'', where Deb Roy recorded his son's speech every day, since the day he was born until he reached 2, to find out how the child's language changes. In order to do so, the parents converged their language to adapt to the certain development stage (when they child was using simple words the did to, however as the child started using more developed language the parents' language also became more complex). The experiment highlighted that child's semantic awareness outstrips their phonological ability.
• Stephen Pinker- found out that children say things they have never heard before, therefore they are born with an ability to speak.
• Jean Berko Gleason- developed a 'Wug test' which is a strong evidence that we are born with an ability to speak. Therefore, parents/care givers should provide children with different opportunities to speak in a different context, as it enables them for further language development.

Language:

• Language is a unique ability that defines us as humans.
• It is also a sophisticated skill, that children learn with minimal effort.
• If a child is exposed to two languages at the same time they will learn them both.
• At the very early stage of life, children are ale to communicate through the five senses (sight, touch, smell, hearing, taste) without using words

Language development:

• At around 18 months a child learns about 10 words a day (this mostly includes: concrete nouns, proper nouns and common nouns)
• If a person develops language after puberty, they will never be able to fully acquire language
• Children at the age of 18 months will have a productive vocabulary of around 50 words
• We develop our language through: listening to others speaking, imitation and reinforcement (copy+ reproduce), play and using language with others in different contexts

                                                                                                                                                                                       
Useful links:
http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-7701-7702-GLOSSARY.PDF - glossary of key terms
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qtnz/episodes/player -''Word of Mouth'' episodes

''Men keep their turn by avoiding pauses at clause boundaries, by using utterance incompletors ('firstly..' 'but..' and 'so..') by fillers ('mm,' 'er'), by raising their voices, speeding up and avoiding 'nominating' eye contact.''


Source: ''Sociolinguistics'', author: Peter Stockwell 2002, London: Routledge

The Comparison of Text A and Text B

Both texts significantly vary in the types of features that are used throughout. Text A uses attractive graphology; animations and images which are quite eye-catching and will mostly appeal to young adults. Whereas the text B features only two images which are not particularly related to the topic. Therefore, this text will mostly attract older audience, because they are more likely to care about the content rather than the images. Looking closer into linguistic features of both texts, text A includes numerous imperatives such as ''find solutions'' and ''take part'' to persuade the readers to interact and engage in what the website has to offer. On the other hand, text B features a range of declaratives ''turnout was'' and ''looses included'' which role is to inform the readers about the results of the elections. Therefore, the purposes of both texts also vary.

Text B BBC News Report

The genre of this text is an online article written in the form of a news report, published on the BBC website. The headline, which is a declarative; ''Labour wins majority on Bristol City Council'' is quite simple because it gives the readers an overview of what the report is actually about. Therefore, readers who have supported the Labour party may be interested in the report, whereas those who are oppose it may not bother reading it, as they can already assume that most of the report will be mostly focused on the Labour party. The use of a dynamic verb ''wins'' gives across a strong meaning as it portrays the success of the Labour party. Providing the reader with a clear summery of the result; may be useful for those who do not have the pragmatic understanding to be able to understand the remaining content of the report. However, the use of a noun ''majority'' is almost like a surprise, because it does not state a particular figure. This noun might have been used to interest the readers and make them want to read the report; as it will be the only way to find out about those figures. Throughout the report I can spot various abbreviations such as '' Greens'' and ''Lib Dems'' which will already be familiar to readers who have an interest in politics. Therefore, the intended audience are adults who have an interest in politics and elections. Another simple yet powerful sentence is '' UKIP lost its only seat in the city'', which suggests of the lack of focus on the UKIP party since it was only mentioned briefly. The use of verb ''lost'' brings out the connotations of failure and disaster, which represents the negative image of the UKIP party that could also possibly suggest the dislike of the party shared by the producer of the report. Different candidates were also represented in different ways, for instance George Ferguson a leader of the Labour party since 2012 was represented as an ''independent candidate''. The adjective 'independent' portrays Ferguson as a strong and successful candidate who managed to hold his position for over 4 years. The producer of the report also stated that Ferguson held a ''leadership position'' which suggests that he had influencial power over others.