Monday, 20 April 2015

In text E a girl and her father are reading a book together. The girl is 6 years old which means she is in the post telegraphic stage of lexical and semantic development. The are reading the book together at bedtime. This is important in a child's reading development as they like routine and having the same routine will help them to have a healthy progress.

The caregiver in this text plays an important role in the development of the girl's reading. In this text the caregiver is the girl's father. In terms of pragmatics the father uses tag questions to help a turn-taking technique. This is seen when The girls says "we don't eat any meat" and the father replies saying "no, but we like ketchup, don't we", the "don't we" in the statement makes it a tag question. This encourages the girl to engage in conversation using a typical question-answer technique. This supports Bruner's social interactionist theory, that interacting with the child helps them to understand turn taking.  

The father also uses recasting to correct the daughter. This is seen when he corrects her saying "portion" as she partly pronounces "port" This supports Goffman's face theory as he is saving face by not discouraging her development in learning to read by saying abruptly " no you are wrong." Also, this makes learning to read less daunting for the daughter as it can b very scary for them and by correctly her in a friendlier way she is encouraged to proceed with reading. The father uses phonology to help recast, he uses intonation; this is when he says "tonight" and puts more emphasis on the "night", he does this because the child asks how to pronounce the word. This could supports Bruner's social interactionist theory, that interacting with the child helps them develop and improve their language.

The girl uses discourse features, such as questions "what's that?" when asking her father what portion means. This shows the girl is trying to engage in her environment by asking questions about it, this links with Halliday's functions of language, heuristic. This also reflects Aitchison's research on network building as she is learning about the meanings of different words in her surroundings.

The child uses incorrect grammar. Such as, abbreviations, this is seen when she says "cos" instead of "because" this shows that the child may have already picked up from her environment, for example she has picked it up from the sociolect. However, on the other hand it could be seen as a phonological mistake. The child may not be able to pronounce the "be" in "because" therefore, she is omitting a consonant cluster. This could support Piaget's, cognitive development theory as her cognitive understanding is more developed than her physical pronunciation. This could reflect Jean Berko's "fish experiment" where the child could understand the word "fish" but kept pronouncing it as "fiss." 

Sunday, 12 April 2015

AQA June 2012 past paper- Jess text


Jess is three years old and in text A she is doing a jigsaw puzzle with her mum. Jess and her mother are both at home so the register of the language tends to be more informal and the tone will be more chatty and Jess is in her comfort zone.

The caregiver plays an important role in the text, in this her mother is the caregiver. The mother asks a lot of interrogatives. "where does this one go" and "where's the nurse"  this is important to jess' language development as she is trying too negate conversation and tries to show jess how to create questions and a question- answer response. By asking questions, the mother is helping Jess build up network building, for example; by asking Jess "what's that" and Jess replies saying "umbrella" it encourages Jess to think about her surroundings when looking at the picture cards and encourages her to talk. This idea was proposed by Jean aitchison and is called labelling. Also, this can be seen through the mother recasting Jess. Jess answers her mother saying "gloo" and her mother replies by just simply saying "igloo" This links with the face theory proposed by Goffman, this links to the theory as the mother uses recasting to try and avoid telling Jess off for pronouncing the word incorrectly because she is saving face and doesn't want to discourage Jess in her speech. 

Jess is in the telegraphic stage. We can see this in text B, as we can see she tries to form sentences and questions; " penguins(.) what's that" this shows that is she is able to structure questions to interact with her mother. This supports Bruner's theory of social interactionist. This supports his idea that turn taking is a way of interacting with children and it helps to educate children on important linguistic features. Here jess could have learnt to form questions from her mother interacting with her through a question-answer response.

Jess is in stage 2 of bellugi's negation stages. This is when she uses the negative word in the correct place but doesn't use an auxiliary, foe example " I not know" this shows that she have some understand of how to use a negative word but her understanding has not quite developed fully yet as she doesn't use an auxiliary. 

Jess omits consonant clusters; this is shown when she tries to pronounce "policewomen" and "chocolate"  this shows that she finds it harder to pronounce longer syllables. this could support piaget's theory that  children have a cognitive understanding of language and how to function the English language, however, their physical pronunciation is not as developed ad their cognitive understanding. 

Wednesday, 4 February 2015

Newspaper analysis

Comparing the 1912 newspaper to the newspaper article from 1999, there has been a lot of lexical and semantic change. "thereon" , this an archaic conjunctions which is not used very often in the English language today. Also, the word "gantries" has been narrowed meaning road signs today and then it meant any big boulder, this shows how words can come in and out of language in a short time period. In the 1999 text, there is a lot of monosyllabic words used, especially the conjunctions such as; " and" and "but". This reflects the target audience as it is for working class people and they need to make the language accessible for them to read it easier. Also, it could be argued that it is a cheaper newspaper, therefore they have to limit the words and language used.

There is a lot of grammatical differences in the two texts, the 1912 text uses more compound sentences, for example; "the real thing, after that is relatively abstract preparation, was the concrete battle with resistant matter" compared to the 1999 text which uses simple sentences "that is clearly not true." this links with the audience as the target audience of the 1912 text is middle class Englishmen compared to the second text which uses more accessible language to match the target audience which is the working class. The 1999 newspaper constantly uses the collective pronoun "we" this creates a relationship between the reader and the newspaper, making it more personal and  a friendly register. 

In the 1999 the discourse structure reflects the context in which it was written. It is in the layout of a typical modern tabloid with capitalisation and bold headings. This is to catch the audiences' attention to the newspaper, this reflects the idea that the purpose of the newspaper is to inform but also to make sales and make money. Compared to the 1912 article which was mainly written for the purpose to inform. 


Tuesday, 3 February 2015

Oxford Dictionary Videos

How to decide what to include in a dictionary?

  • Words are added if there is enough evidence of use.
  • more rare and technical terms are included in the larger dictionaries and in smaller dictionaries there are more high frequency words included
  • In Dictionaries for primary school children, adult terms will be left out 
  • In smaller dictionaries its how widely the word occurs and in larger dictionaries the aim is to be as comprehensive as possible

What is the origin of "posh"?
  • it is from the acronym " port out starboard home"
  • this refers to the fact that on sea voyages between Britain and India the comfortable cabins were on the port side of the boat going out and on the starboard side coming home. The cabins were in the shade so they were much cooler, therefore the most expensive 
  • The people operating the boat would print "posh" on the tickets 
  • However, there is no physical evidence, no tickets have ever been found with tis word printed on them.
Oxford Dictionary's word of the year is "selfie"
  • found evidence for the use of "selfie" as far back as 2002 in Australia
  • Mainly popular on social media sites 
  • Extended to other media sources, such as; newspapers , magazines and television
Discovering OED appeals
  • 150 years ago the public sent in material that formed the core of the dictionary
  • In 1879 James Murray published a list of words he needed help with
  • They have kept this tradition and collaborated with many different sources, especially in the last decade.
  • They will use social media to help with interaction.

Tuesday, 27 January 2015

Language Change- recipe analysis 

In the first recipe from 1747, there is grammatical differences compared to the recipe written in 1998. The "s" and "f" are used interchangeably, for example "fmall" instead they replaced the "s" with and "f". This could be due to the era the recipe was written in. The recipe was written before standardisation of the English language, this means that there was not a wrong or right way to spell or write particular words- before the printing press started producing dictionaries. This shows that society in the 18th century was not prescriptivist. 

In terms of Lexis and semantics, there are many words in the 1852 recipe that have now been broadened in the English language today. For example; "scum" in the 19th century it meant the juices from the food cooking, however, it has been broadened today to mean an unpleasant person. This shows that some words stays in our language throughout hundreds of years however, ,any have changed their meanings over this time. In the 1998 recipe the writer uses a lot more adjectives "gentle" and "fresh" this shows that food has become more "fashionable" and people take pride in their cooking as if it now more of an art and the method you use to cook. Furthermore, in the 1998 recipe they use more in-formalised imperatives "heat", "add" and "stir" this shows that the language used is more chatty and that recipes are not formal texts any more, the get straight to the point.

In terms of discourse structure, the 1998 recipe uses more minor sentences when listing the ingredients. "1 tablespoon sunflower" and "1 onion, thinly sliced" the context of this recipe is during a busy society, therefore, the simple sentences may represent being quick and simple as people are busy and rushing around they want quicker and easy meals to do as they have lots of other things to be doing. Compared to the 1852 recipe which uses compound sentences throughout the whole recipe "A thrifty housewife will not require that I should tell her to save the liquor in which the beef has been boiled; I will therefore take it for granted that the next day she carefully moves the grease." however, during this time women were seen to be the one who prepared all the meals, hence the reference "housewife", and therefore, she wasn't seen to be out working so she had more time to read recipes and make long meals compared to today's society.


Language Change

Lexis

anorak- Greenland
Barbecue- Arawakan(Haiti)
Barrack-French and Spanish
Blizzard- American
Bongo- Latin American Spanish
Bonsai- Japanese
Boomerang- Dharuk
Budgerigar- Aboringinal
Bungalow- Hindu
Chipmunk-Ojibwa
Chutney-Hindi
Dinghy-Hindi
Dungarees-Hindi
Gnu- Dutch
Haiku- Japanese
Hamburger- Germany
Igloo- Canada
Kangaroo- Aborignal 
Karaoke-Japanese
Ketchup- Chinese
llama-Spanish 
Mohair- Arabic
potato-Spanish
puma-Spanish
Pajamas- Hindu
Safari-Arabic
Sauna-Finnish
shampoo-Hindu
Sherbet-Turkish
Ski- Norwegian
Skyscraper- American
Taboo- Tongan
Tattoo-Dutch
Tea-Chinese
Toboggan- French 
Tortilla-American Spanish
totem- Ojibwa
Trek- South African
Tycoon- Japanese
yeti- Tibetan



Task two 
phonological

The article addresses the problem of accents being "flattened" for the sake of fitting in and when attending a job interview. A study carried out found that a third of people questioned were ashamed to "flatten" out their accent. The writer of the article has a friend that was Asian and has christened their children with English names to "make it easy" for them to fit in. Therefore, the writer of the article believes that accents should not matter anymore and we should not be ashamed to have an accent. If we change our accent then it is changing something that is vital to the person you are.


In my experiences of accents i have always been judged as i used to be very Bristolian, also, people view you to be less intelligent if you have a specific accent, for example, the Essex accent.



Grammar and Lexis


The diary entry is made up of minor and compound sentences. Also, the word order is very different to how we would order sentences today, for example "as ever i saw" the adverb " ever" is written before the subject " i", also, today we would shift the tense slightly for example we would tend to say "seen" not "saw." we now have standardised which order to put adjectives, nouns  and verbs into a sentence, for example " a good looking tall man" we would tend to say "tall" before "good looking" today.  Also, the length of the sentences are very long, the third paragraph is made up of two sentences. The use pf prepositions used in that time showed there wasn't a standard way of using them for example "opposite to my window" the use of two prepositions are not used today, this could be due to standardisation of the English Language when dictionaries where starting to get printed.




















Tuesday, 20 January 2015

Language change

lean :  thin, especially healthily so; having no superfluous fat. 

  • Broadened, Amelioration- this is because it has become a more positive definition of the word as before it was more associated with someone being thin due to starvation. However, now it is used for healthy and fit people.


Novice:  a person new to and inexperienced in a job or situation.


  • Broadened- The meaning before was linked just to people part of a religious group, however now it is associated with people in any job or situation.

Revolutionary:  A gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually                             more complex or better form.
  • Amelioration- The meaning has become more positive as before it was meant someone who favours overthrowing the government.

Lewd: Crude or offensive in a sexual way 

  • pejoration- this is because the word has taken on a more negative meaning as before it meant someone who didn't have an official position in church.

Sunday, 12 October 2014

comparative systematic analysis of the menus

Menu B uses a lot of verbs to build up noun phrases "Smoked" this could reflect the target audience, which is upper class people; they have more knowledge of particular foods as they can afford a more expensive cuisine and have been educated more of foods from all over the world.

The text also has many prepositions "on a " this helps build up a descriptive image of the food. This could link with the context, that the menu  is more for the "food experience" and having a sit-down meal, compared to text A which is more of a fast menu.

In menu B there is a lot of French words used, "melange" this reflects the target audience, which is upper class people, as they are educated more in areas such as different languages, therefore, they will have experienced these types of words before and will know what they mean. Also, the menu uses asterisks, the pragmatical meaning behind this links with the target audience because they are more upper class and can afford more expensive dining then they will have come across these before and will understand what they mean.

 In contrast, menu A uses ellipsis "pot tea" the writer of the menu has deliberately eliminated the word "of" to make it a quicker read for customers. This links in with the context of menu A, that it has to be read quickly because the customers are constantly travelling and will not particularly have time for a sit-down meal, this links with the idea that the menu only uses the key nouns in the menu "steak + kidney" this makes it easier to read and save a lot of time for the target audience.

The graphology of menu A uses capitalisation, "INC POT TEA" again, this helps the customer read the menu quickly as the idea of the menu is for it to be simplistic as the target audience is always on the move and has little time to read a lot in the menu.


Thursday, 2 October 2014

Thoughts and ideas about Sophie homework

When Sophie was aged 2 years and 4 months she used the pronoun "me" incorrectly. This supports Ursula Bellugi's research on the development of pronouns in child language acquisition, She said stage two in the research is when the child uses the pronouns "I" and "me" but interchanges them, therefore the child does not completely understand the appropriate context in which to use these pronouns but the have some sense of understanding because she uses these pronouns when she is referring to herself.

Sophie shows that at the age of 2 years and 4 months she is in stage one of negation. She uses the word "no" at the front of the phrase. This shows that she has limited understanding of making a phrase negative. When adults who have developed language states a negative phrase; they add an auxilary and then "not" to show negation. However, this is very difficult for Sophie's level of understanding of language, therefore, she just uses "no" at the beginning to indicate she doesn't want something.

Sophie uses deletion of unstressed syllables "nother" this shows that her pronunciation is basic and is harder to develop as she hasn't pronounced the syllable correctly. This supports halliday's  research on the heuristic stage. This stage involves the child asking questions to gain information about it's environment. 

When Sophie was 3 years 5 months she uses time expressions. "Tomorrow" this shows that Sophie understands the concept of time and context in which to use these expressions. This supports Piaget's theory that language improves with understanding, this is supported by the cognitive approach which believes pragmatics and context is vital when acquiring language, thus understanding of words and phrases helps you to create more complex sentences. 


Sunday, 28 September 2014

Initial coursework ideas

My initial coursework idea is to investigate the language used by policemen to exert their power compared with how criminals use language towards authority.

I have initial theories that I expect to find in my investigation, for example, instrumental and influential power. I expect to see the policemen using more instrumental power as they will use this power to enforce law. Also, I will be looking for power in discourse and power behind discourse. Lastly I will investigate to see if the police force use personal power in the language they use.

The frameworks I expect to investigate are semantics and pragmatics, within these areas I expect to hear law terminology that the police and high authority figures of the law will understand. Also, I will investigate the grammar the policemen.

My methodology will involve watching police programmes from youtube and other sources and investigate the language they use to exert their power. I will look at the language used by different levels of authority within the police force. Also, whilst watching these programmes/ clips, I will note down the transcript of the language used by the policemen which will help me annotate the language used after.

However, ethical issues within my investigation are not applicable as the television programmes have already been given permission from the policemen and criminals to been shown on television.

Sunday, 14 September 2014

How a baby might develop language

Katherine Nelson(1973) identified four categories that the first 50 words learnt by a child within the first year of their life could be grouped into . These categories are naming, actions/events,describing/ modifying and personal/ social words. The first 50 words learnt by a child are content words and not function words; content words have open word classes and function words have closed word classes.

A baby may develop naming words such as; "book" and "socks" because they are mainly everyday objects that the baby is associated with on a daily basis in a household, thus the semantics of the words are important for the child as they do come across these objects in everyday life. Also, within the first year of a child's life, their language is not very developed. The phonology of these words learnt is simplistic and each words only has one or two syllables.This suggests that these words are easier to learn for the child.

Moreover, the action words learnt in the first year of a baby's life are crucial, for example; "poo" and "cuddle"  these type of action words help the baby communicate with their parents to aware them on what it needs as it isn't independant at a young age.

The social words learnt are all words that help the child communicate in a basic conversation; "yes" or "no" these also help the child to communicate with it's parents to understand what it needs or wants. Also, the social words developed immediately help with their social skills for when they grow older; " bye-bye" and "hiya" this helps the child later in life in social situations. This could also be seen as politenes, "ta" and "please"; as society is a very polite, the child needs to learn how to adress people in a formal manner to help them converse with different people as they grow older.

I think a baby might develop describing and modifying words to help it understand what their preferences are; "hot"and "nice" this helps the child decide what they like and don't like, and may help their parents to understand too. Again, these words do not have many syllables, therefore, the phonology is simplistic for the child to pronounce and learn.


Wednesday, 3 September 2014

conversation between and pupil and teacher, showing power
http://goodreadingfor.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/a-dialogue-between-teacher-and-student.html

Monday, 28 October 2013

First 500 words of my monlogue

No Escape
Peter has been in a mental home for 20 years. He suffers from schizophrenia. He is sat alone on his bed, staring at a blank white wall with a flat expressionless gaze.

They tell me to do bad things…I don’t know who they are. They tell me to do bad things. To hurt myself. I’ve given in before. (Hitting his head whilst rocking back and forth) why wont they go away? Ahh! (Screaming to someone that he claims to be sat next to him) Stop talking to me! They tell me to do bad things. I must hurt myself, that’s the only way they will disappear, I must hurt others too- they tell me. But I can’t. My helpers tell me to do activities I enjoy, I enjoy jigsaws, but I can only concentrate for 10 minutes before they, they come back, back into my head, taunting, teasing and tormenting me. (Tears suddenly rush down his face) The torture of my disorder is making my life unbearable; my life is like an episode in hell. They’re there again… Go and die! Why are you laughing at me? Stop.
I can’t sleep at night. I toss and turn in my cold, dusty sheets. I’m often too scared to enter my room because they might be sat there. Daring me to do terrible things. They tell me to do bad things. I always creep cautiously into my bed after brushing my teeth; I never know when they will appear and how extreme the tasks they have in mind for me are. Nobody can fathom what I have to go through, every day is a tiring struggle. (Reflecting) I could be conquering the world. I would have become a lawyer. I would have earned thousands. Instead, instead I am stuck in this grotty, unpleasant, vile, vulgar, ghastly place.
They tell me to do bad things…
(Suddenly calming down) I count down the days until I get to see my daisy, she said it was for the best, she didn’t want me to go, she promised. I miss her. Our wedding was the best time of my life. She looked so beautiful. I am the luckiest man alive, well despite them. I would give my right arm to go back to our wedding day and relive it forever. She doesn’t visit me a lot, but I understand, I think. Once every two months, if I’m lucky. Then again, I don’t believe in luck, what is luck? Luck is overrated. Here they are again.  Stop.

I hate my life, why me? I don’t understand. I think I done someone bad in a past life to deserve this now. I told you to leave me alone. Stop. They’re telling me to find a razor.  I should do it otherwise they won’t leave me alone. They tell me to do bad things. I can’t do it. A few seconds of pain may be worth it, just to see them fade.

Wednesday, 11 September 2013

Rewrite of a text in a different register

Original text
 I met Steven, we walked for a bit wif my friend Nat then went back to my house. When he had 2 go hime i walked him to the bus stop and kissed him, but i didn't feel anything. I felt really bad as he is such a nice person. I told him last night how I felt and he completely understood. We iz going to the cinema on saturday together. Neway, I sat my french general exam yesterday and i got my results back today. I got 31 out of 32 so i'm quite happy. Claire was really upset in english and i wish i could help her b happy but the only one who can do that is tony.

Rewrite
When one met a young gentlemen; named Steven, we embraced the nature by going for a walk, alongside a great companion, Nat. Afterwards, we went back to my house. When Steven had to go home, I kindly accompanied him to the bus stop, where we interlocked our lips, hoping for emotion and sparks to which there wasn't any. I felt guilty as he is such a pleasant human being. Steven was understanding later that night- when i told him one's emotions. Claire was very upset in English , I wished I could of showed sympathy for her but the only person who could achieve this was Tony.

Effective texts

Effective styles of writing

I found this debate effective because both the women use simplistic language which I feel is appropriate for middle-aged women. However, the simple language used suggests that the women are of a lower intelligence level. The tone in which the women speak is very chatty and makes women readers feel they are not alone- as if they can confide in these women. The two opposing arguments makes this debate effective as it shows two different opinions but they back up their opinions with explanations.


I found this article successful as it had a headline that told the reader a bit about what the article is about to tell them, then it is followed by a by-line which gives more information to the reader about the article. This headline makes the reader want to read further because the writer uses statistics to emphasise how tragic the accident was. Throughout the article the writer uses quotes from interviews with people, who witnessed the accident, to make it sound more realistic to the reader. Again, this article is very simplistic, however this is beneficial to the reader as states what happened clearly, without having the need to use difficult language.



This piece of writing is very different to the others I have chosen. This is an informative piece of writing. The variation of language used through out if more complex and the way the punctuation has been used; the punctuation is more varied and the writer hasn’t just used simple punctuation. Also, the way the sentences are structured and the complex wording tells us that the target audience if for highly-educated people.  However, this piece of writing is very informal as it is very chatty “even worse news” this makes the report more personal to the reader.