Language Change Revision-Synchronic Change

Synchronic Change-This is where language is being analysed at a certain moment in time.
Diachronic Change-This is where language is being analysed over several moments in time.

Political Correctness:
This is a modern term used to describe something which can be seen as offensive. For example, it can describe language, policies or certain measure which are designed not to offend of disadvantage any group of people. This has been used since around the early to mid 20th century  and is still being used to this day. Whereas in the 20th century is was used to mean giving correct political positions within certain matters now in modern language it can be applied to many things. A key example of this would be looking at things such as a person's sexuality and where it was deemed appropriate for people to call a gay man a 'faggot' where political correctness deem this inappropriate as the correct term would be to call the man a 'homosexual'. This can also be applied to race where the word 'half-caste' is becoming less common as describing someone of two races would now be someone of 'dual-heritage' or 'multi-national'.

Plain English Language:
This is referred to as 'layman's terms' which means writing in a way in which all people can easily understand what is being said without the use of specific topic jargon for example 'parent and sister companies' when discussing multiple establishments who are owned by one big company. It was often seen to contain more Germanic and Anglo-Saxon words rather than applying more words which derived from Latin or Greek. A famous example of this is George Orwell's 'Politics and the English Language' essay in which he wrote to parliament saying how the language was 'in danger' of the 'ugly and inaccurate' contemporary written English especially in politics. However, as language become more modern and more varied in terms of words which were 'borrowed' from other languages coupled with things such as 'broadening' and 'weakening' Plain English Language was no longer seen as the way forwards.

The Crystal Mark:
This puts a clear stamp on all documents, especially in the USA and the UK, to communicate clearly with the public. This stamp means that the document has been approved at understandable for those who read it and will know how to act upon the given information. If this is not the case, the stamp will not be approved and is currently being used by around 1600 organisations. There is a certain criteria in which The Crystal Mark looks for before deeming a document applicable to obtain the stamp. The things they initially look for are as followed:

• a good average sentence length (about 15 to 20 words)
• plenty of 'active' verbs (instead of 'passive' ones)
• everyday English
• words like 'we' and 'you' instead of 'the insured', 'the applicant', 'the society' and so on
• conciseness
• clear, helpful headings with consistent and suitable ways of making them stand out from the text
• a good type size and clear typeface
• plenty of answer space and a logical flow (on forms)

Not only is The Crystal Mark used as a way of analyzing documents but they can also be applied to things such as websites, magazines, long books and computer software. They can do this by having specific stamps for specific items meaning that almost anything which may require this can obtain it. 

Dog Whistle Politics:

This is a way of making language carry more than the one given or perceived meaning. This means that an organisation or person can use coded language to mean one thing for the general population but have the additional, different or more specific meaning which can be understood by a targeted sub-group. An example of the term 'dog whistle' would be the subtle tweak in question-wording which can have a major effect on results when giving those listening the slightly differing questions. An Australian politician named Robert E. Goodin says that this is a problem because 'it undermines democracy, because if voters have different understandings of what they were supporting during a campaign, the fact that they were seeming to support the same thing is democratically meaningless'.

World Englishes:

This is a term used to signify the expansion of different countries developing the English language. These are seen a localized or indigenized varieties of English which are more common to be found in territories which have had influences on them from the USA or the UK. There are three main groups in which English is used by other groups.

1. A native language-This is the main language that a country uses ans is seen as the majority way of communication throughout the population i.e.USA, UK, Australia
2. A second language-This is seen as an additional language that can be spoken over a group's first tongue. They're seen as multi-lingual and can use this as a way of international communication i.e.India, Nigeria and Singapore. This is a result of imperial expansions in which the language was brought to multiple parts of the world.
3. A foreign language-Used primarily for international communication and will not commonly be used in a group's home country i.e.Japan

Why Does Language Change?

Factors that makes language change:

External Factors-Cultural changes/technological innovations/social conventions

Changing Social Ideas-LGBT to replace terms that could be seen as derogative

Cultural Changes-Losing the words original significance 'Guy' to mean any man replacing the word 'fellow'

Internal Factors-Can effect semantic change for example an actual virus can be likened to a computer virus

Simon Heffer language article:
https://elevate.cambridge.org/elevate/Reader/viewer.aspx#book/151/Ch16_04/pos_48.357478065700874
What processes of change does Heffer make reference to in some of his examples?

'Rubbish' becoming an adjective i.e. 'a rubbish football team'/'a rubbish film' and he goes onto say that this isn't needed as the English Language has multiple way sin describing something which is of low quality or inadequacy

In this article, Heffer adopts a strongly prescriptivist stance. What words or phrases does he use to illustrate his opinions?
(SEE LINK)

What other attitude towards language change can be identified?
(SEE LINK)

Language Change Notes

Language Timeline:

• Old English-5th Century
• Middle English-11th Century
• Early Modern English-15th Century
• Modern English-18th Century
• Present Day English-20th Century

https://elevate.cambridge.org/elevate/Reader/viewer.aspx#book/151/Ch16_02

Lexical Change:
Links to the creation and disappearance of words in language.
Lexical change is frequent and noticeable

Neologism-New words i.e. selfie and unfriend

Borrowing-Where a language 'borrows' a word from another language i.e. yoghurt(Turkish) Ukulele(Hawaiian)

Compounding-Combining two words to create one new word i.e. smartphone and stir-fry

Clipping-Shortening a word i.e. omnibus>bus and perambulator>pram

Blending-Similar to compounding however words are combined to make a new word i.e. motor+pedal=moped and spoon+fork=spork

Acronyms-Takes the first letter of a series of word to make one word i.e. NATO and AIDS

Initialisms-Similar to acronyms however pronounced as separate letters i.e. BBC and OMG

Descriptivist-Someone who welcomes language change and is not opposed to it i.e.David Crystal

Prescriptivist-Someone who doesn't welcome language change and is opposed to it i.e. John Humphries.

Do not confuse lexical change for semantical change as lexical change is a new form of language whereas semantical change is where words take on new and different meanings.

Textisms Then and Now

What are Textisms?

Textisms are words or abbreviations that are commonly used in texting.

Popular examples of modern textisms are LOL, LMAO and ROFL.

Some common examples of past textisms are TTFN (ta ta for now) and Swalk (sealed with a loving kiss)

Textisms are a relatively new concept due to the advance of technology however, textisms were also used before the this advance and is totally dependent on the generation in which you’re talking to or analysing.

Textisms Then:

Although platforms such as texting and social media were either not around or as popular as they are now, textisms were still used. 

Although the textisms are still similar on how words are cut and chopped to make them simpler to read and write it depended on the generation of people to show how this happened.

As a common modern textism is ‘LOL’, one that was used in a 50’s radio show was ‘TTFN’ meaning ‘ta ta for now’. This shows that despite the lack of platforms to promote textisms, they were still being used by earlier generations.

What is also different is that they have been used to simplify phrases rather than actions with ‘LOL’ being an action a person may do and ‘TTFN’ being something a person would say rather than do as it is not an action.

Textisms Now:

In modern day language textisms have become very common and not just in texting. Some words or abbreviations have become so popular that some have been entered into the OED. Words such as ‘selfie’ have become so popular due to texting and social media that it is being recognised as part of the modern English language.

Abbreviations such as ‘LOL’ have also been included in the OED but as an ‘interjection used mainly in electronic communication’.

Due to the increase in the amount of people using mobile phones and social media, textisms are becoming more and more popular and can even been seen as easier to type out then standard English

Jean Aitchison Metaphors

Jean Aitchison is a professor in communication and language and has devised three metaphors in which she thinks that language change occurs and if it is a positive or negative thing.

The Infectious Disease Model:
This model looks at how language is changing. She looks at language change happening in terms of people 'catching' it from other then spreading that language 'like a disease'. It continues to change through social contact and people pick it up from others and then apply it to their own speech. This model has a descriptive approach and the language change is not seen as negative.

The Damp Spoon Model:
This model looks at language change being 'distasteful' and 'lazy' and described it as putting a damp spoon into a sugar bowl due to peoples laziness of not finding another spoon to use. An example of this would be dropping an apostrophe and contracting words incorrectly. This model is seen to have a prescriptive approach and is seen as negative due to language being used incorrectly.

The Crumbling Castle Model:
This model treats language as an old beautiful castle and presumes that at some point in time the language was perfect. This model looks at how the language needs to be preserved to prevent more language change from occurring. Overtime, some words or phrases may fall out of use due to those not doing anything to evolve language. This model has prescriptive approach and is seen as negative because of the fact that the language at some point in time was seen as perfect and is now not.

Language Change Comparison

When looking at the lexis used with the description of London in 1827 we can see that the lexis used is much different than what it would be today. For example, there is use of pejoration within this text with the word 'gay'. Back in 1827, the noun 'gay' would have been used in a positive fashion meaning 'happy' or 'carefree' which would've been a common association when describing people back in the 1800's. However,due to language change the noun 'gay' now has a much more negative connotation meaning 'a gay man' which in more modern times is used as a negative slur.

We can also see the language change due to the surroundings in which people were used to in the 1800's. For example, the quote 'commended a piece of music' shows what was the norm back then as in more modern days someone would not play a piece of music to signify a coach arriving. Due to the advances of technology coaches are not seen as a common mode of transport, and a coach guard will not be playing music as people now have technology such as phones which can play music for one person. This means that a guard playing music is now obsolete.

Language Change Module

Task 1:
Autotune-a device or facility for tuning something automatically, especially a piece of computer software which enables the correction of an out-of-tune vocal performance
Birdhouse-North American term for nest box
Comedy of errors-A comedy of errors is a narrative work (often a play) that is light and often humorous or satirical in tone, in which the action usually features a series of comic instances of mistaken identity, and which typically culminates in a happy resolution of the thematic conflict
Dartboard-a circular board marked with numbered segments, used as a target in the game of darts
E-cigarette-another term for electronic cigarette.
Forensic Science-Forensic Science is any science used for the purposes of the law, and therefore provides impartial scientific evidence for use in the courts of law, e.g. in a criminal investigation and trial
Go-fish- card game in which each player in turn asks an opponent for a particular card and is told to “go fish” from the undealt deck if denied. Matthew and Gordon had started another game of cards, this time go fish. We played another game of war, and then some go fish.
H20-Chemical symbol for water
Jeggings-tight-fitting stretch trousers for women, styled to resemble a pair of denim jeans
Kettlebell-a large cast-iron ball-shaped weight with a single handle
Marco Polo-Italian explorer of the late thirteenth century
Photobomb-spoil a photograph of (a person or thing) by unexpectedly appearing in the camera's field of view as the picture is taken, typically as a prank or practical joke.
Retweet-(on the social media website Twitter) repost or forward (a message posted by another user)
Skort-a pair of shorts with a flap across the front (and sometimes also the back) to give the appearance of a skirt.
Tweeting-make a posting on the social media website Twitter
Uber-denoting an outstanding or supreme example of a particular kind of person or thing.
Vape-inhale and exhale the vapour produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device
Webisode-an original episode derived from a television series, made for online viewing.

• an online video that presents an original short film or promotes a product, film, or television series.

Young gun-a young man regarded as assertive and aggressively self-confident

Task 2:

• Prescriptivism-Linguistic prescription (or prescriptivism) is the practice of elevating one variety or manner of language use over another. It may imply some forms are incorrect, improper, illogical, lack communicative effect, or are of low aesthetic value.
• Descriptivism-In the study of language, description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a group of people in a speech community.
• Synchronic change-The study of a language at one period in time (usually the present).

Task 3:

TED Talk-Descriptivism as he is analyzing how language has changed over a number of years as well as analyzing how certain parts of lanaguage has been chnaged to mean different things than they would've done in the past.

John Humphreys article- Prescriptivisim as he is showing how certain forms of speech is being used over others (text speak). He is also looking at how these types of language may effective the use of language in the future and currently in the present.

Stages in Child Development

Cooing Stage: This is the first stage of a child's language development. This stage can develop as early as siz weeks and the infants will start making spontaneous cooing noises such as "aaa, ooo, ahh". At its earliest stage, the child is trying to manipulate their tongues, mouths and breathing by making a series of sounds. This is often the case when the child is alone as they're experimenting with different noises.
At 8-20 weeks the child's phonology allows the child to improve their voice control meaning that the child is now producing softer sounds in order for them to test their new communication skills. The 'comfort' sounds consist of a constant vowel or consonant sound such as "coo, gaa" and "goo"

Babbling Stage: This is the second stage of a child's language development. Starting at infant stage, the child begins to try articulate sounds and uttering without any recognized words. This will go on to around 12 months when they will then be able to produce recognizable words though babbling may continue.
The types of babbling are reduplicated babbling "da da da da" and Non reduplicated babbling "ka da bu ba mi doy doy doy"
After 9 months the child will start to use gestures and body language to show that they're understanding the language but cannot express it.

Verbal Scribbling: This is the third stage of a child's language development. Starting around 20-30 week period the babies will begin to test their voices by changing pitch, volume, rate and quality. Over time the child will be able to use consonant and vowel sounds, be able to adjust pitch through playing an experimenting with their voices.
They will also begin to play with sounds from the nasal such as "mmm" and "nnn" and fricative such as "fff" are produced. They practice variety of sounds such as glides low-high and high-low and towards the end of the stage the child will be able to put together the vowel and consonant sounds which is the start of babbling.

Melodic Utterance Stage: This is the fourth stage of a child's language development. Starting from 9-18 months a child will begin to use intonation (tone), melody (pitch) and rhythm (pattern) of their voices. While developing some of their uttering may be misheard as a question due to them not learning how their tone of voice works and over time and depending on nationality of the child, will start to follow different rhythmical patterns such as "tum-ti-tum" for English children and "rat-rat-rat" for French children.

Lexical and Grammatical Development
Stage One: Holophrastic
These are single words used to convey many meanings. Starting at around the 12-18 month period, the child will utter their first word and build a vocabulary on this at holophrases which can reach about 50 words. (10x more words learned). They convey a meaning of a sentence/phrase through the body language, intonation and volume but the words will relate to the child's everyday life.

Stage Two: Two Words
These are two words formed together to make/use a sentence. Starting at 18 months The child is now able to choose the word order for their sentences which makes a simple grammatical analyses of the meaning of these 'sentences'. These are much more flexible with grammatical functions which are (1 action affects an object (2 actor performs an action (3 object given a location. However, the sentences may not make sense still for example "mummy-daddy" still has no grammatical correctness. But, the child will now have correct syntax (my bed), begin to use prepositions (on head), use possession words (my cat) and use pronouns (she cold).

Stage Three: Telegraphic
This is when the child begins to use sentence of up to four words in length. Starting at 2-2.5 years, a child will learn how to form proper sentences but still with some sentences being filled with gaps. This is where non-lexical words like 'and,'but', 'if', conjunctions such as 'the', 'a', articles such as 'is' and auxillary verbs are sometime missing and endings such as 'ing' are also missing. At this stage the child will use three conventions to get across what they want and these are statements, questions and commands.

Stage Four: Post Telegraphic Stage
This when a child has language to a point where they're able to give enough information in a sentence. Starting from around age 3 a child will begin to use this and increase their vocabulary from 50 words to around 13,000 words. The sentences are very basic for example “mummy eat carrot". At the end of stage, a child is likely to use plurals and joining words in order to try to grasp language and their tense.

Coursework Theories

Language and Power Fairclough 2001
The first theory is Norman Fairclough's language and power theory which looks at how language is used to assert power over others and how it can be used to gain  power over those who may oppose a certain person. This is relevant to my investigation as I will be able to look at how different managers use power language features in order to gain the respect of those in the press conference rooms and how they may deploy power language features to reply to any FTA's that may be said or how they may avoid them.  An example of this may be a manager may try to interrupt the media during questions if they feel that his team may come under criticism for how they may have played and by using these features may win the room over regardless of result or performance.

Brown and Levinson-Politeness Theory
The second theory is Brown and Levinson's Politeness Theory. This is relevant to my investigation as I am looking at different ways that football managers deal with FTA's during press conferences after games. Not only this but this theory will allow me to dive into how managers of different prestige and nationality deal with these.  For example, a manager from a lower league team and from England may be more inclined to be more polite when facing an FTA, whereas a foreign from a high level team may be more impolite when facing a FTA as he may see his team as on e to be respected at all times.

Wareing 1999
The third theory is Wareing's theory of the three types of power within language which are political, personal and social group. For my investigation the most relevant one is Personal power because a manager will have power due to his occupation. This may come in use for my investigation as manager may use this type of power to keep the media from using any FTA's as his occupation means he should be respected and he shouldn't need to be treated in this sort of way.

Source 5 Summer Task

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/33623590

For the last source we look at Bristol Rovers manager Darrell Clarke in his pursuit of a new deal after guiding his team to the Football League at the first attempt since their relegation twelve months ago.

His response from his interview was that “Bristol Rovers are a great club with great supporters, I'm looking forward to building on the success we had last season. There was never any question of me not agreeing to sign a new contract, we just needed a little bit of time to iron out all of the details". This is a positive face as he has not tarnished his reputation by not signing a new deal and then ultimately leaving the club. This is a good thing for all those involved at Bristol Rovers by him signing a new deal.

When we compare all of the sources we can see that those managing at a lower level for example Steve Cotterill of Bristol City are more open to answer questions from the media regarding trnafers and tactics for the dream than those managing at the top level of football. Equally though managing in countries other than England tend to be more open to the media about plans they are working in within the club.

Source 4 Summer Task

http://www.goal.com/en/news/462/netherlands/2015/02/27/9336542/de-boer-confirms-he-will-stay-at-ajax-in-2015-16

For this source we look at Ajax manager Frank De Boer and speculation linking him away as manager of Ajax. The main question being asked is whether or not he will stay on as manager of Ajax for the 2015/16 season.

When asked if he would he responded by saying “Liverpool can call Marc or my agents or another club. But they'll hear 'no'. At this moment, nothing is going on". Although this is a positive face to those involved at Ajax it is also an FTA to those involved a Liverpool as he has publically come out and denied a move to another club with a firm “no". As is it a positive face it shows that he is currently loyal to the club he is managing and this is a good thing to those involved at Ajax football club.

Source 3 Summer Task

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3203384/Rafael-Benitez-unconcerned-Real-Madrid-s-relative-goal-drought-pre-season.html

In this source we look at Real Madrid manager Rafael Benitez and his comments about how his team have not scored many goals during their pre season friendlies.

 The question being asked to Benitez by media reporters is “are you concerned at your teams lack of goals during pre season?" This is an FTA as the reporter is trying to see whether the manager doesn't have faith with those in his squad. Ultimately Benitez's response is a face saving act and a positive face with him saying “it does not concern me, we had 22 shots and I am convinced that will bring us goals". This is a face saving act and a positive face because he is telling the media that his team will be capable of scoring the goals needed to win games once the season has begun and that he is not panicking about the situation because the games area friendlies and area not seen as mist win games.

Source 2 Summer Task

http://m.bristolpost.co.uk/BRISTOL-CITY-Manager-Steve-Cotterill-expresses/story-27618330-detail/story.html

This source focuses on Bristol City manager Steve Cotterill and how he is managing to try to get players signed with the club. This is another good source for looking how managers of different prestiges deal with FTA's as just like Source 1 there are subtle FTA's being asked towards the manager. For example, Cotterill was asked whether the team have other targets to try to buy after failing with an £8million bid for Crystal Palace striker Dwight Gayle. This is a FTA as the reporter seems to be sceptical about whether city are able to attract talented players. Cotterill responded with “we have loads of them, but its just a matter of whether we can afford them or not". This is not only a face saving act but also a positive face as the manager is reassuring those associated with the club and the reporters that despite failing to buy top targets they're able to find others to fit the team style as they have pin pointed alternative players to go for.

Source 1 Summer Task

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/louis-van-gaal-qa-manchester-6144019
For each source I have decided to look at FTA's and how managers of different prestiges and countries deal with these. (All sources will be linked to before the season started from the months of June to early August)

The first source looks at Manchester United manager Louis Van Gaal in a Q&A situation. Within this conference he is asked a number of question regarding transfers that may happen and how he feels the squad can perform over the coming season. This is a very good source because of the way he handles the questions. For example, one question asked was whether his team could win the league. This, although very subtle, is an FTA as the reporter is questioning his credentials. His response is a positive and face saving act as although he doesn't say whether they can or can't he gives subtle hints as to whether his team are up to the challenge by saying things such as “We at Manchester United buy only players who can contribute to our level”. This shows he has faith in his team and if he feels that they need to strengthen it must be a player who can better the squad.

Twitter Investigation

A2 English Language: Investigating Language on Twitter

Introduction:

I predict that women will be more emotional when tweeting because this is the common stereotype.

Reason: It can be easily compared to male tweets.

Links to language and gender because of the stereotypes associated to men and women.

Methodology:

Every third tweet was used in order to make my data unbiased.

I didn’t cherry pick tweets to fit my hypothesis as this would have made my investigation biased and unreliable.

A limitation of my tweets could be the length of them because they may be too short in order for me to analyse it.

Analysis:

In my findings I have found that women are more likely to use facts and opinions to show emotion however, men tend to use more rhetorical questions to show emotions. This proved my hypothesis correct although not in the way I expected as I expected women to be overly emotional due to the common stereotype between emotions and women. I also found out that women tend to be more with the reader when tweeting while men are more likely to be against the reader.

Conclusion and Evaluation:

My findings have proved my hypothesis because women are more emotional than men. However, they do this by using lots of facts and opinions rather than being emotional throughout due to the common stereotype between women and emotions.

I think that my investigation was very successful as the data I collected was able to be easily analysed meaning that I was able to prove my hypothesis.

For the Future:

Length of tweets were often too short although I was able to analyse all of the tweets I collected.

Power Speech Analysis

Cyberbullying Speech Analysis

The first language feature that has been used to express power is rhetorical questions which is part of AFOREST. The first line of the speech “How many times have any of you encountered cyberbullying?” is a rhetorical question and what this does, is make this question personal to the audience and make them reflect on times where this may have occurred. What this also does, is makes the speech seem as if it is directed at an individual who is listening to the speech allowing the speaker to have power over an audience. 

The second language feature that has been used to express power is statistics which is part of AFOREST. The line “Did you know that that 12% of all cyberbullying cases turn out to have started in person and 4% of these are considered not serious enough to be dealt with by a higher authority?” is a statistic and this shows that the speaker has power over the audience as there are numbers that back up the points brought up by this speech allowing for the speech to have a more persuasive tone to it.

The third language feature that has been used to express power is the use of modal verbs. The line “There’s no denying that cyberbullying might not be a myth but with this sort of evidence you can see where we’re coming from” incorporates a modal verb. The modal verb within this line is “might” which shows that the speaker is looking at the topic of the speech from both points of view meaning that the speaker is influential with the points that he has brought up, he demands respect when speaking and it displays confidence through speech.

The final language feature that has been used to express power is the use of the modal verb. Leading on from the previous point, the modal verb “might” is also used for epistemic modality meaning that he is expressing his opinions on a certain statement within the speech. By having this within the speech, the speaker has total power of the audience because he is looking at the statement from two different views.

Language and Power-Speeches

Language and Power-Speeches
Modal Verbs:
I WILL ensure that
You MAY find that
We CAN
It is important that we MUST

Modal Verbs:
Influential
Displays confidence
Certain/Making a promise-Commands Respect

Epistemic Modality:
When a modal verb is used to express the speeches opinions about a statement, for example 'It MIGHT be true'
Deontic Modality:
When a modal verb is used to affect a situation, for example giving permission 'You CAN go when you are finished'

Modality-Power:
Unity+Bonding
Intelligence
Strength+Determination
Epistemic Modality
-Used to avoid a face threatening act or could be used as an FTA
In some cases creates a sense of likeability

What is the relationship between a speech maker and their audience?
Speeches Persuasive Features:
Alliteration
Facts-Grounding in truth
Opinions-To persuade the audience to think the same
Rhetorical Questions-Thought provoking
Emotive Language-Personal,sympathy evoking
Statistics-Factual information
Tripling-Constant repetition for emphasis

Churchill Speech:
Use of pronoun 'we'
-Unity+Bonding
Emotive Language is used throughout
Modal Verb 'shall'
-Encouraging
-Determined
Repetition

Parallelism:
Synonymous Parallelism
-Sometimes the second half echoes or develops the first half
-Are similar to show that the ideas are equal in importance
-Adds balance and rhythm and, most importantly, clarity to the sentence
Antithesis:
-Establishes a clear, contrasting relationship between two ideas by joining them together or juxtaposing them
-The contrast of two terms or ideas,is useful for making distinctions or clarifying differences which might otherwise be overlooked
Anaphora
-Repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences
Epistrophe
-Repetition of the same word or words at the end of successive clauses or sentences

Martin Luther King Speech:
Epistrophe
-'together, together, together'
Anaphora
-'100 years later'x4
-'we can NEVER be satisfied'
-'let freedom reign'
'go back to Mississippi, go back to Atlanta'
'we cannot walk alone'
'the great American declaration of independence WILL go down in history'
Modal Verbs
-'we CANNOT'
Alliteration
-'sweltering summer'
Tripling
-'free at last'
Metaphors
'drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred'
'lips dripping with..'
'band of justice'
Deontic Modality
-'we cannot walk alone'
'We' shows unity+bonding

Half Term Homework Text I Exam Question

Language and Power Exam Question

How is power asserted through language?
The first type of that this text asserts power, is the occupation of the person speaking. As this is a school talking to their new year sevens, the headteacher will address them. This means that the headteacher has instrumental power because this is held by individuals or groups that enforce authority.

The second way that the headteacher asserts her power is through the concept on Brown and Levinson's politeness theory. As the headteacher is trying to make a good impression on her new students, she is trying to come across as nice approachable person. The headteacher does this by using a positive face by using phrases such as “we are delighted at that because that means we can retain our quality staff increase our resources further to provide the very best education and experience for your son or daughter”. The phrase “provide the very best education and experience for your son or daughter”,shows us that the headteacher has used positive words such as “best” to try to persuade the parents and students that this is the best choice for them.

The headteacher also uses all of Grice's maxims. Grice's maxim of quantity is used when the headteacher says “it's all about making sure they're happy here and er feel safe and secure”. This shows us that this is one of the main points that the headteacher would like to get across to those in the presentation. This is also a persuasive technique as these two things are reassuring to new students' parents. Grice's maxim of quality is used when the headteacher says “two hundred and eighty five people applied to as their first choice”. This shows us that the headteacher is giving us approximate figures to how many students applied which once again is also persuasive as no student would want to reapply for another school. Grice's maxim of relevance is used when the headteacher says “we're all about students making the progression from key stage two to key stage four”. This shows us that the headteacher is keeping to the relevant topics that need to be discussed at this presentation and is not going off topic just to fill time. Grice's maxim of manner is used when the headteacher says “ I'd like to welcome you all this evening”. This shows us that the headteacher is being polite and is avoiding using obscurity and ambiguity in order to give a good first impression to the people arriving at the presentation.

Half Term Homework

Task 1
The Theories:
Brown and Levinson's Face Theory-Politeness theory is the theory that accounts for the redressing of the affronts to face posed by face-threatening acts to addressees. These include positive and negative faces and face threatening acts (FTA).
Grice's Maxims-This looks at the principles that are used during conversation to keep the conversation from ending or going off topic. These maxims include the maxim of quality, whatever is said is seen to be accurate, maxim of quantity, whatever is said is not too informative, maxim of relation, whatever is said is relevant to the conversation and the maxim of manner, whatever is said avoids obscurity of expression.
Task 2
The Newsroom Analysis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16K6m3Ua2nw
The Newsroom Analysis begins with agenda setting. Will, one of the candidate leaders, sets the agenda as he has complete control of the debate right from the very start. For framing the student who initially asks the question opens the discourse while Will closes the discourse after his rant. For turn taking, Will has the most turns and also has the longest turn as his turn lasts around a minute and a half. For interruptions, Will interrupts the opposing candidate to continue his rant about America. For politeness, there is none as Will uses an FTA within his rant and is moaning about society as a whole. Will's only hesitation is when he has reached the climax of his rant and is becoming more reflective about America's society. One of Will's prosidic  features that he uses is that he shouts the word "Belgium" when destroying his opponents opinion in America, and he uses all of Grice's maxims apart from manner.

For lexis he uses taboo language when swearing, factual support when he is ranting about America and he uses Unity and bonding when he says "we stood up for what we believed in".

For syntax Will uses lots of juxtaposition by contrasting his opinion of America to those of the opposing candidates, and he uses lots of rhetorical questions because he wants to be more persuasive and he knows that deep down the other candidates and the students may agree with him on some points.

For pragmatics Will uses assertion as his opinion is backed up by facts and statistics.

Task 3
Class Notes on Language and Power:
Two types of power Instrumental and Influential
Instrumental-When it is used by individuals or groups to maintain and enforce authority
Influential- When it is used to influence and persuade others.

Three types of power political, personal and social group
Examples
Political-Held by politicians, the police and those working in law courts
Personal-Those who hold a position of power as a result of their occupation or role such as teachers
Social Group-Those who hold power as a result of social variables such as class, gender and age. Typically (but not exclusively) white, middle-class men hold positions of power.

What does it mean to be powerful?
Respect
Assertive-to be "in charge"
Authority
Encouragement
Knowledge
Being a role model
Confidence
Leadership
Intimidating (in some cases)
Responsibility
Narcissism(in some cases)
Being decisive
Depending on context age, class and gender

Interviews
The interviewer has instrumental power
The interviewee has influential power
Expected to use formal language and lexis
Complete unfamiliarity in terms of discourse
Put on the spot
Use Maxim of manner, relevance
We project or try to project confidence in our body language-maintain eye contact
We try to control the way we speak (volume/tone/etc.)
Interviewer uses interrogative
We use declarative and model verbs
They have the power to give us the
-Assertive
-Decisive
-Higher position of power

TED Talk Analysis

Could your language affect your ability save money?
In this TED Talk,Keith Chen, an Asian American economist, talks about whether or not the language you speak has an effect on how much money you save in any given year. Keith Chen goes on to talk about future language speaking countries and those who do not use a future tense in their language.His findings show that the country with the highest GDP in the world is Luxembourg and the one with the lowest is Greece with the UK and USA the next two lowest.

With this information, he has worked out that countries without a future less language are more likely to save more money as a separate household. Luxembourg,who don't use a future tense saved around 45% on their GDP than Greece who barely managed 15%. However, although countries without a future tense save more on their GDP, those who do use it are 25% more likely to have saved more money over a life time.

My opinions on this TED Talk are positive ones as I found this particular video very interesting as it uses common knowledge about the GDP of countries around the world and puts an unusual hypothesis on the topic saying that certain language structures do effect how much money you will save in any given year. I defintely recommend watching this TED Talk.