Accent abuse
by Daria Jakubisiak for 'Young linguistics' magazine

Three quarters of people in the UK think they hear a lot more accents in every day life than they used to and almost 80% enjoys hearing a variety of accents. What about the remaining 20% of the nation? Does the diversity of accents bothers them?

Teachers from St. Bernard's High School in Ealing, London carried out the survey where they asked a group of teenagers from different ethnic backgrounds about how they feel towards their accents. The results were absolutely shocking. 42 out of 50 students admitted to converge their accents in order to fit into the community. Even harder to believe is that the only reason for it was to avoid the issues which could be caused by other student's negative attitudes towards accents. This is truly outrageous. Being forced to hide the sense of your personal identity just so you don't get discriminated.

Accent stereotyping is one of the main issues which have always existed. People make assumptions about others based on where they come from. 'Can you hear that received pronunciation? She must be very arrogant as she is definitely from London.' However, not everyone realises that sounding 'posh' does not make you arrogant. It makes you sound intelligent, which presents your high status. To be able to speak with the received pronunciation you don't need to come from London. You can come from any part of the world, because it is about the way you were brought up. You don't like someone's accent? That is completely understandable as everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But remember not to make any wrong assumptions towards others based on their accents as you can offend them.                                                            

We are judged by the way we speak on a daily basics, friends may laugh at us just because our accent might sound 'funny' to them as well as many employers may turn down our chances of employment due to their dislike towards our accent.. but is this the right thing to do? Being discriminated just because of the accent might cause mental breakdowns for many of us as well as other health issues which link to it. It can also make us feel isolated and disliked by others.No form of discrimination is acceptable so why would accent discrimination be right?

Analysing the NHS parking notice

The car park notice is mainly aimed at people parking at the hospital car park who may be visitors, patients and staff working at the hospital. Some people may not pay attention to the sign, however some may feel 'forced' to read it because they may want to avoid the parking fine.
The primary purpose of the parking notice is to inform the reader about the terms and conditions of hospital car park. The name of the NHS health organisation is written at the very top of the notice to inform the reader about the text producer. NHS being a national health organisation is much more official than any other private organisations, due to its high status. Therefore it also holds influential power as it has influence over the nation by providing advice and support as well as persuading individuals to act in certain, acceptable ways. This power and strength of the NHS makes drivers think that the notice is actually very important therefore they should read it. The graphology of this parking notice consists of variety of different fonts and sizes as well as colourful images.'Terms and conditions' sign is written in capital letters, using bold type of font in order to make it stand out. The use of this type of font, will make the text very clear for readers of all ages. It will also catch everyone's attention, even those who may have their car parked further away from the sign. Underneath, the 'Terms and conditions' sign there also is an important notice written in capital letters and its context written in slightly smaller font. As the capital letters will catch reader's attention, they will be more likely to also read the rest of the notice as it will already make them interested in its context. ''Do not park in this car park unless you agree to the Terms and Conditions in full''. The contraction 'don't' is replaced with 'do not' in order to make the piece more formal. This important notice is almost like a warning to all drivers, as a mean to avoid the disappointment which could be caused by the misuse of the car park.

The secondary purpose of the notice is to make the reader aware of the possible consequences which can be caused by parking beyond the permissible period of time. The notice is split into four little paragraphs followed by a picture provided for each of them. This layout of the text allows the producer to include everything that is necessary and make the reader aware of all the information that they need to know about. Instead of writing the terms and conditions in one big paragraph, the text producer decided to split it up into several sections which also helps to make the notice more interesting and easier to read. The sentences are either simple or compound, in order to keep the context very brief yet informal and easy to understand. The lack of complex and minor sentences suggests that the use of them would not be as effective and would not make the reader hook into the context of this informative text. Throughout the context, the verb 'notice' is being used very frequently. ''Vehicles must not park in a time controlled zone beyond the permissible period'' The verb determinates driver's behaviour by adapting it to the command that they were given. It also makes them feel more obedient and act in the way they are told to in order to avoid the penalty.
Despite the use of strong, informative lexis there are also more soft and polite phrases. ''..Please be aware that you may receive a Parking Charge Notice..'' The mitigated imperative 'please be aware' makes the sentence sound more polite and makes it come across more as a request not a command. The use of mitigated imperatives is important because it makes the reader feel more respected and it also creates the synthetic personalisation, between the reader and the writer.
The receivers expect the text to be formal and informative therefore they will not be surprise after reading it all.

Re-drafting the paragraph

In the transcript proper nouns are used a great number of times especially when the barrister is speaking. The barrister refers to other participants by their names for instance ''..according to you Mr Neil(.) this ill feeling(.)this grudge on Mr Peterson's..''. The use of proper nouns rather than pronouns make the barrister seem more formal and intimidating which presents that he is the powerful participant, as he is holding the power over the conversation. The Barrister also repeats the proper nouns several times, constantly referring to Mr Neil by his name adding tension and making Mr Neil feel under more pressure.''Police have been to see you so many times Mr Neil that you can't remember''. Some people may interpret it as a humorous part, which was used to keep the audience interested whereas some may find it more sarcastic. However it perfectly reflects the unequal encounter which was a part of the courtroom conversation. The role of the instrumental power which barrister holds, is to make Mr Neil feel stressed and uncomfortable which will make him feel forced to tell the truth.

''Why Do I Make Less Than My Male Co-Stars?''- Jennifer Lawrence

What are the important contextual features of this text?

The context of the text is Jennifer Lawrence responding to the leaked news by expressing her opinion after the Sony incident when she found out she earned significantly less than her male co-star workers. At the beginning, Lawrence presents her uncertainty on the topic of feminism: ''When it comes to the subject of feminism, I've reminded ever so-slightly quiet.'' According to her she does not like when the topic is 'trending' which is the reason she did not speak about feminism before. However after the incident, she finally decided to share her opinion with everyone and stand up for herself as well as other women who may not have equal job opportunities or those who may be treated unfairly. ''I don't think I'm the only woman with this issue. Are we socially conditioned to behave this way?'' The rhetorical question and personal appeal, makes the readers think that due to the stereotypes women are being treated less favourably than men. Therefore Lawrence wants to make everyone aware that they have equal rights and should be treated and respected equally.

Comment on the 'male' and 'female' language features in this text. What is their effect on the reader?

Throughout the text I can detect the mixture of trends of male and female language which are part of Lakoff's ideas of the deficit model. Jennifer Lawrence used several swear words such as f**k and a**hole to express her anger on this issue. However these words may simply belong to her every day speech and be a part of her idiolect. The use of swear words might make some readers think that Lawrence has a lack of politeness and it could result in people starting to dislike her since the way she speaks is not ladylike. According to Lakoff's theory, males swear more than females yet in this case it is very arguable as Lawrence clearly contradicted it. Lawrence did not express any sense of humour whatsoever, which supports Lakoff's idea on the female language. However this could have been done on purpose, because she wanted to get her point across and make it easy to understand for every reader. Therefore this can cause a slight confusion for us readers, as we don't exactly know whether the lack of humour was intended. Lawrence did not use any tag questions, empty adjectives or hedges which presents that she did not entirely followed Lakoff's ideas of female language. This might make readers think that this text was against Lakoff's theory as most of the features were not supported by it. I completely agree with this assumption as most of the Lakoff's female theories have not been covered in this piece.

Do you agree with her conclusion?

I do agree with Lawrence's conclusion, because she stood up for herself and shared her honest opinion with the entire world. ''I'm over trying to find the 'adorable' way to state my opinion and still be likeable! f**k that.''  Lawrence presented her bravery and power by saying that all she wants is to get her point across even if this would mean loosing fans. She also expressed her regret and disappointment with her previous actions.''I'm sure they were commended for being fierce and tactical, while I was busy worrying about coming across as a brat and not getting my fair share''. Rather than being angry at the studio for paying her less, she was angry at herself for not being a tough enough negotiator. The reason why Lawrence used this tough and manly language throughout the text, was to present her anger on treating women unfairly and possibly show her personal change, which is 'fighting' for what she deserves.

Change in accents and dialects

Change in British accents and dialects

The United Kingdom consists of a number of dialects shaped by thousands of years of history and change in generation which had influence the language we speak nowadays. English language which is spoken in Britain is divided into different dialects such as Received Pronunciation, Cockney and Midlands English. Received pronunciation is what foreigners may classify as a standard British accent due to the stereotypes of it being posh. In the past, the received pronunciation was only used by people of a higher status, who wanted to emerge and show the power that they have. Margaret Thatcher transformed from a Lincolnshire accent to sounding like the Duchess of Devonshire, to present her power which she had as the prime minister. This also pertains to other famous people such as David Beckham who has changed his cockney dialect into received pronunciation. The reason for this action could have been influenced by the status of his popularity and importance which has increased over the years. The example of David Beckham shows that nowadays people do change their accent to the received pronunciation whenever they want to sound 'posh' or show others that they come from a higher social class.
Possibly the second most famous British accent is cockney which originates in the East End of London. This accent has a number of features which characterises it and makes it recognisable for people living in other parts of England. One of those features is Th-Fronting: The th in words like think or this is pronounced with a more forward consonant depending on the word: thing becomes “fing,” this becomes “dis,” and mother becomes “muhvah.” The cockney dialect also has its own slang- a type of slang in which words are replaced by other words or phrases they rhyme with, for instance apple and pears- stairs. According to one of the BBC articles and a research which found that a new form of accent is replacing the traditional Cockney in some parts of East End. "The majority of young people of school age are of Bangladeshi origin and this has had tremendous impact on the dialect spoken in the area," said Sue Fox, a research fellow at Queen Mary College, University of London. Accents are influenced by the society, as the society changes the accents change too. Midlands English can be divided into East Midlands and West Midlands, however the most famous of these dialects is Brummie which is Birmingham English. The main feature of Midlands English is
a variety of unusual vocabulary where some East Midlands dialects still feature a variant of the word “thou!”. The dialect changes over the years, as there are new words being introduced however some traditional words and phrases are still in use such as Ay up mi duck- hello there.

Why do dialects change?

Many factors influence different dialects and change the way they are. The main factor is age, because as we grow up we adapt our dialect to suit our age. The difference between generations is an evidence of language change. New words are being created and particular dialects are starting to be recognised by them. Young people play a massive role in dialect development and change, as they share those dialects with others, allowing people to learn something new and perhaps make it their idiolect. People moving all around the country or even abroad, they spread their dialect. However some may also try to fit in by changing their dialect in order to make it more similar to the one used in the particular area/country.

Bibliography:
http://dialectblog.com/british-accents/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22183566
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4171644.stm

The barrister transcript

The genre of this text is a transcript which is a part of a cross-examination in a Scottish court. The use of language and its different techniques makes the transcript more powerful as it allows the receiver understand what the conversation was like in real life, and the relationship which each of the participants shared with one another. The use of proper nouns which are 'Mr. Peterson' and 'Mr. Neil' present that the barrister refers to the participants by their surnames. Referring by the surnames shows the profession of his role and the respect which is shown towards the individuals. Perhaps, they could also be used to clarify who the barrister is talking about and avoid any confusion. There are parts of the dialogue which seem to be prepared and practised beforehand, for instance the majority of barrister's speeches. There is a time limit for the trail to be run. Therefore knowing the speeches helps to fit in the time frame and it also seems as if the barrister is well-prepared. The spontaneous parts of the dialogue are those which were said by Mr. Neil.''Er I accidentally (.) bumped it slightly with er the rear of my car'' is an example of the spontaneous speech. The use of 'er' indicates the long-thinking process which Mr Neil has experienced quite frequently throughout the trail. It could also mean that he was unprepared or unsure of what he was going to say. The brief pauses may suggest the beginning of the new sentence or a short break to take the breath back. The spontaneousness of Mr Neil may make other participants think that not everything that is being said is the truth. ''I was prosecuted (0.5) possibly a week or so later I believe'' This doesn't give us a straight forward answer, as the participant took a longer time to think and the answer which he provided didn't specify the date in which he was prosecuted. Therefore this may suggest that Mr Neil was unprepared as no adequate answer was provided. Barrister seems to be the most powerful participant in the dialogue as he has the control over the dialogue and he is the person who keeps it going. ‘’You can’t remember whether they came to see you or not?’’ is a repetition of a question which was previously asked. The use of repetition may suggest that Mr Neil was lying due to the hesitation whilst replying, therefore the barrister has asked him again. Barrister uses complex questions and sentences, to find out as much as he can about the event that has happened, however Mr Neil’s replies are short and blunt often consisting of ‘no’. This also suggests that the barrister has the most power, as he is the one asking questions and making the dialogue flow. One of barrister’s speeches sounds very interesting just as if he was attempting to introduce a bit of humour into the conversation. ‘’Is that because the police have been to see you so many times Mr Neil that you can’t remember what they were up to see you about one incident (.) as compared to another incident?’’ The emphasis on ‘’so many times Mr Neil’’ might make the receiver think that Mr Neil had been in a similar situation previously.

Commentary on character's opinions- controversial issue

Both of the blogpost comments are opinions of two characters on the same sex marriage.The first character Chloe, comes across as an educated teenager. The language which she uses throughout the comment is rather sophisticated and it includes an explanation for the existing ideas through the use of a selection of simple and complex sentences. At the begining of the blogpost Chloe used a phrase 'over the moon' to express her hapiness on legalising same sex marriage. The moon ilustrates the brightness which is the eternal love that people of the same sex share. The use of abbreviations such as ‘sis’ and ‘gf’ suggests that Chloe is a teenager as both words belong to slang. They also are a part of the colloquial language. The word 'strongly' presents how much she supports it and the importance which it has to her. The use of 'miserable' and 'lonely' puts a massive effect on the noun 'life', as it shows that the quality of life can be affected by the same sex orientation. Both negative adjectives were used against straight people, which shows that Chloe may be discriminating them. ''This made me absolutely angry'' presents the anger that she experienced after reading the comment from a man from one of the major Christian groups who did not support same sex marriage. The word 'absolutely' shows the level of anger, which can suggest that she dislikes people who have different views and is not tolerant about opinions of others. Reading throughout the post we can also spot ‘LOL’ which stands for ‘Laughing out loud’ . In this context it is used to show how ‘pathetic’ someone else’s opinion is. The phrase ‘it’s a complete joke’ supports the fact that Chloe did not like the opinion that she seen in the BBC article, and she completely disagrees with it. She also makes a comment about Christian Groups and Catholics who according to her 'hate' on gay people. This phrase was used to present her idea of the lack of sympathy which is shown by Catholics towards same sex couples. She used quite a few lexis which include ‘-ly’ suffix such as ‘lonely and ‘equally’.  Her overall opinion on same sex marriage seems to be very positive and we can clearly see that she strongly supports it. However she seems to be very disrespectful and rude towards people whom decision is different, as she tries to tell them that they’re wrong and they should change. The reception of this blogpost may be quite negative. The audience, which are possibly same age readers or anyone wanting to get to know more about the issue, may feel that their views are being affected by Chloe's comment. Some may feel forced to change their personal opinion yet some may feel persuaded and their opinion and point of view might change after reading the post. The purpose of Chloe’s comment is to tell the readers how she personally feels about the issue and get her ideas across. She makes quite a few relevant points such as ‘people of the same orientation should be able to live a normal life, adopt children’ which many other people would agree with. However towards the end of the comment Chloe seems to be quite selfish and only thinks about what she wants not others. The expectations of the readers are met as they see someone else’s opinion just as they expected but they might be shocked with how biased it is.The second character Lily, seems to be older than Chloe, I tended this character to appeal to be in the stage of an early adulthood, 25 years old. This is because she uses standard English throughout her comment instead of slang. She doesn't use any abbreviations neither which can suggest that her idiolect doesn't consists of them.  Lily used capital letters to write some words such as 'wrong' to emphasise its importance which she wanted to draw the readers attention to. At the beginning she says that in her opinion same sex marriage is completely wrong, however towards the end she made it clear that everyone should have their own opinion, which should not be influenced by anyone else’s. She makes a strong link to the Catholic religion, as she says that ''Gay marriage is entirely against God's actions''. This may be slightly controversial as not every reader will agree with it,yet she still openely expressed her personal opinion which shows her braveness and love which she shares towards her religion. '‘Same sex marriage doesn't create a 'healthy' family’'. This quote presents her view on same sex marriage, and adjective ‘healthy’ can be defined in a variety of different ways. In this context, Lily uses ‘healthy family’ to refer to the family consisting of male, female and their biological children, whereas for the same sex couple this would be impossible. Lily used inverted commas to express ‘real’ and ‘parent’ to show that in real life it is a complete opposite, as it is impossible for same sex couples to be the real parents of their children.  She also used some rhetorical questions to closely appeal to the reader and make them feel just as someone was directly speaking to them. ‘’Would you rather live a normal life just as other members of your family or life that you would possibly regret when you're older? '' This quote might affect some readers opinion or even their actions as they may think that what they do may not exactly be the right thing. The audience of this post were people at the same age range and those who are gay/lesbian and consider a future commitment. The main purpose is to share the personal opinion and to inform people about their actions and possible future outcomes, by the use of rhetorical questions which make readers re-think their actions.The readers expect the post to be mainly based on Lily’s personal opinion yet it is slightly persuasive and tries to tell us that our views should be created based on how we feel not how someone else wants us to feel.

Controversial issue- same sex marriage

Chloe

''I am over the moon with the fact that same sex marriage is being legalised in many countries. I strongly support same sex couples as my sis is a lesbian and seeing her happy with her gf makes me smile every time. She didn't choose to be a lesbian, she was born this way. I love her, as she's my family and I strongly support her life choices. People of the same sex orientation can't help who they fall in love with. I think it's great that they find their other half, instead of living a miserable and lonely life. A year ago, when I heard that gay marriage has been legalised in England and Wales I thought that gay couples will finally be treated equally. It is a wonderful thing that people of the same sexuality can be fully open about it and have the same rights as everyone else. Reading one of the BBC articles I came across the comment of a spokesman for the one of the UK's major Christian groups who said that they believed same- sex couples should not get the same rights as married couples. This made me absolutely angry. It's like saying that smokers shouldn't have the same rights as other people just because they smoke. LOL.. it's a complete joke. I thought that Christian groups were meant to support people instead of discriminating them for their lifestyle choices.  We are all humans and we all should have the same rights and opportunities no matter what our sexual orientation is. We are all equal in the eyes of God. Therefore I don't understand why Catholics are 'hating' on gay people.  People of the same orientation should be able to live a normal life, adopt children and teach them that love is more important than other people' opinions. That also means that a lot more of orphans would be given loving parents, a better home, and a proper education.
I am happy that the society which we live in is slowly adapting and supporting gay marriage as this is what we all should do.''

Lily

''I know everyone has their own opinions on this topic, however I think that same gay marriage is completely WRONG! First of all, it is against the Catholic religion. I am a Catholic myself and I find gay marriage very offensive. God created Adam and Eve for a reason, which was to give us all lives. Whereas gay marriage is entirely against God's actions. I personally find it disrespectful towards God as we should follow the path we were given instead of making our own. Same sex marriage doesn't create a 'healthy' family, it creates an awful environment in which kids are forced to grow up and think that same sex couples are completely normal and there's nothing wrong with same sex marriage. Despite, this the kids will never be the 'real' kids as there's no blood relationship with nether 'parent'. Reading Chloe's comment above, it is gross that she encourages people to support gay marriage and tries to tell someone they're wrong just because they're against it. We live in the 21st century where everyone has the right to express their own opinions. Society SHOULD NOT change their views just because an individual puts a pressure on it. What would happen if everyone right now turned gay/lesbian? We humans would become extinct, as there would be no babies born. Whether you're gay or straight it is entirely up to you. This is the choice you make when you grow up, NOT when you're born. Just think about it first, do you want to have children of your own which you proudly call yours or would you rather adopt a child that would be distant to you. Would you rather live a normal life just as other members of your family or life that you would possibly regret when you're older? ''

Sources used:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4493094.stm
http://www.tfpstudentaction.org/politically-incorrect/homosexuality/10-reasons-why-homosexual-marriage-is-harmful-and-must-be-opposed.html

PEE analysis of two articles

In article 1 from the Guardian website, portrays the news story in a very empathising way. For example it uses words such as ''cheat'', ''scandal'' and ''inundated''. The publisher uses these kinds of words to exaggerate the crisis in order to appeal to the target audience. Only negative phrases seem to be exaggerated in this article as to make the crisis itself seem worse and possibly a larger scale problem. As well as this, it could be used to influence reader's opinion on the matter itself and could cause even more problem for Volkswagen. Article 2 also uses this language technique for similar results. The words it uses are ''scandal'', ''cheating'' and ''rogue'', from this we can see it uses two of the same exaggerated words. This suggests both articles had similar intentions and shared the same view of the topic. The downside of this could be that readers are getting 'fed' the same information from different sources which limits their ability to judge the situation themselves.
Article 1 uses many different quotes as well as variety of statistical figures. For instance the quote from the head of the Society of Motor Manufacturer and Traders in Britain and also figures such as ''4,000 cars, which represent about 3% of the car group’s UK stock''. The use of these techniques allow the reader to gain an insight into the scale of the issue and quotes from different groups help the reader to apply to story to life. Whereas the second article does not consist of any quotes and only includes a few figures. Some of the figures present are: ''The cars taken off the market represent 3% of VW's stock in the UK.'' Therefore this article is not as affective as the first one and does not give the reader as much information about the issue.

Article 1: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/oct/01/vw-suspends-4000-vehicles-sale-uk
Article 2: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34410390

Language related poem

Extinction by Daria Jakubisiak

Everytime I hear youngsters speak
I think; what happened to the older speech?
The beauty of language that I have learnt
is passing by quickly with everyday.
The words and phrases are not the same,
completely different they became.
Everytime I try to understand,
completely new words are being made.
It feels like drowning in the sea of confusion,
when I try to understand the language illusion.
Everytime I think of a language I once knew,
it feels very distant and it will not renew.

Evaluation of the article

Things that went well:
The purpose of the article and its message is clearly presented to the reader by the use of informal language. The use of rhetorical questions makes the piece look more professional and make the contact with the reader. Explaining different slang terms makes it easier for the reader to understand what slang is about. The use of pictures in the article also makes the article more appealing.

Things that need to be improved:
Use sub-headings, quotes and facts to make the article more clear and interesting, and to engage the reader even more. Try to think of some figures and statistics and also try to plan the article out first so then you know what you'll write about and you will not run out of time.

English language is being shaped by slang

English language is being shaped by slang

English language has been changing over the years, some words became more popular than others and some completely new words have been created for the slang purposes.  There are many words which our parents or grandparents never heard of and they have no idea what they mean. Whereas
we teenagers use them on a daily basis and treat them as if they were a part of the dictionary.
 
Terms such as ‘bae’ and ‘fam’ are one of the most used terms by teenagers. ‘Bae’ is a term of affection, which is often used whilst speaking to best friends or a partner. It stands for ‘before anyone else’ which represents the importance of a person whom it is addressed to.  ‘Fam’ which is a short term for ‘family’ is being used when speaking to people close to us who we treat as our family even though they’re just friends.


Slang abbreviations used by teenagers nowadays

There are also many slang acronyms which are used whilst texting.  ‘Wuu2’ (What you up to), ‘Wby’ (What about you), btw (by the way) are only some of the examples of the ‘texting language’. Why do teenagers use those abbreviations? One of the answers for this question may be that they’re short and easy to type, so that many people don’t have to worry about making any spelling mistakes. However some teenagers may only use those abbreviations just to ‘fit into’ the society.
 
Another change in language is use of emoticons, which are called emojis. Few years ago, emoticons were also used however not as frequent as today. Since the emoji emoticons came out everyone has been obsessed with them. People use emojis in almost every message. There is a variety of different kinds of emojis, from yellow faces which express different emotions, to animals, clothing, food items and even country flags. Are emojis a good invention? People may argue over this statement as emojis might bring humour into text messages but they might also possibly cause some arguments.

Some of the Emojis which are available for Android and IPhone users

To be continued...



The patterns of advertisement slogans

Majority of the advertisement slogans consist of 3-5 words therefore they're very short and usually quite catchy. This makes the slogans easy to remember which is the main purpose of it as it increases the sales for the companies. The slogans are usually aimed centrally at the audience for instance ''You're better off at Asda''. The way that these slogans are aimed makes us feel just as if someone was speaking directly to us, perhaps giving us a friendly advice and helping us out. Some of the slogans may also consists of a command for example ''Just do it'' . The use of 'just' represents how easy something can be; it's like saying 'Just do it and get it done' as it's quick and simple. ''Just do it'' is a slogan of Nike clothing brand which mainly sells workout clothing, therefore the slogan may also be a form of a motivation for many people.There are also slogans which include abbreviations ''I'm lovin' it'' by McDonald's, or alliterations ''P-P-P Pick up a penguin'' slogan of a Penguin chocolate bar.

Diversity of language

Valuing diversity of language

According to 'http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alissa-stern/valuing-languages_b_7002682.html' language diversity brings many benefits such as 'each tongue contains a wealth of knowledge' which means that loosing a language would be the same as loosing knowledge from its history. Language diversity also allows us to look into how other people view the world.

In the article 'http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/article209405.ece' it says that multi-ethnic groups are allowed to speak the dialect at any time apart from essays and debates which shows that the dialect is being valued and they allow diversification.

De- valuing diversity of language

In some countries in the past, for instance America, the government and other societies didn't like the diversity of language within the country. Therefore they wanted to eradicate this issue. Even nowadays, in some institutions, people feel pressured to speak one language instead of their native, because they're the minority in the society.

According to 'http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/article209405.ece' everyone speaks the same dialect due to the peer pressure that they're under.

Favourite and disliked words

Firstly I would like to talk about my favourite and disliked words which I use or can't stand using on a daily basis. As we all know English as any other language consists of a wide range of different types of words. Some people may use some words more often than the others. For instance it is more likely that teenagers will use slang words on a daily basis rather than using formal types of words.
However we all have our favourite words and also those which we dislike.
Personally I love using different types of adjectives, no matter whether it's in a speech or a piece of writing I just think they make the piece much better and more professional. Adjectives such as 'incredible', 'thrilled' or 'mysterious' are some of my favourites due to the effect that they give to a piece of writing and the emotions that they put on a reader. Other words which I use quite frequently and really like using are 'however, therefore, despite' etc. These conjunctive adverbs make any piece more complex and allow the writer express their view or opinion in more detail.
There is way more words which I like and use very often but it would take me years to talk about them all, therefore now I will mention a few words which I don't like and don't use too often or not at all.Some of these words are slang words used by a large number of teenagers nowadays such as 'bae', 'dodgy' or 'dope'. There are also adjectives like 'lovely' which I cannot stand. The reason for it is that most people nowadays use this adjective to describe almost everything. It makes me feel that it's not as unique and it doesn't sound as nice as other adjectives which can easily be found in the dictionary.

The second subject of this post are my own uses of language. What I mean by 'my own uses of language' is the type of language I use when I speak to my friends, teachers or strangers, when I use formal language and why I use it.
When speaking to my friends I usually use quite simple English, sometimes I might also use some slang phrases. This is because I interact with teenagers and I know this is the language they speak too, if I suddenly started using a formal language I think they would be quite surprised and possibly laugh at me. However when I speak to teachers or other adults I try to use more complex, sophisticated language as I know the language I use presents the person I am, for instance when an adult speaks to a teenager who constantly uses slang words they might think that they have a limited range of vocabulary or knowledge. I only use formal language when I write letters, emails to adults or when I take part in any kind of interview.