Thursday, 20 October 2016

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  

Thursday, 22 September 2016

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

Tuesday, 14 June 2016

''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

Tuesday, 10 May 2016

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.

Text A YouGov website

The genre of this text is a website, funded by the government. Its primary purpose is to persuade the receivers to have a look at the various articles and read about the aspects that the receiver has the most interest in. This purpose is mostly illustrated by the use of a synthetic personalisation ''welcome''  at the very top of the website, which shows the positive approach that the producer has towards the readers. It also represents the 'bond' that the producer creates with the receiver, to make them feel appreciated; as this will make people want to stay on the website. The use of an interrogative ''What would you like to do?'' suggests of a wide range of options that the website provides for its readers; which helps to hook them into its content as they want to know what is there for them. It also presents that the readers have a choice, which means that the are not being forced to only read a particular article for instance. Whereas, the use a direct address ''you'' presents that the producer prioritises its readers and wants them to feel special and just as if they were being cared for. This will make an impression of kindness which will most likely persuade the readers to stay on the website. The secondary purpose of the YouGov website is to get the readers involved into various actions such as expressing own opinion in a daily poll. This is being done through the use of an affordance which is a 'take part' button, because it allows the readers to take part in the poll and present their views on the current issues. The main reason the readers are given an opportunity of expressing their views in a poll is because it will make them know that they can also contribute in certain actions rather than just read about them. Therefore, they might become willing on visiting the website more often in order to regularly contribute and express their views. However, the graphology of the website, such as its layout is a constraint, because the information is spread out across the page which might discourage some readers from reading further onto the website. The use of modern features such as animations and a combination of grey, white and red colours portrays that the website is aimed at young adults, because they will most likely get attracted to this theme and the unique design. The use of images supported by the range of words from the lexical field of business (membership, debate) present that the website also appeals to business people, as they will share the pragmatic understanding of current issues. The website also features a limited range of adjectives such as ''amazing'' and ''new'' as well as a superlative ''largest''. These present an innovation and improvement, which engages the audience to read the particular sections of the webpage in order to find out more. Whereas, the use of verbs such as ''share'', ''analyse'' and ''support'' represent the action towards significant changes, which can then persuade the reader to contribute in it by sharing their views for instance.