Pragmatics

Question 1

Pragmatics paragraph

Answer 1

• Tone/ passion
• Degree of politeness
• Societal norms/standards
• Communication/relationship

Question 2

David Crystal “The Standard Story” pragmatics theory

Answer 2

Crystal argues Standard English is an instrument of social exclusion and cultural and cultural domination.
Standard English could be seen more secure than ever, as the preferred language of international communication
Will the Standard last? EMC (Electronically-Mediated Communication) is changing the standards of English

Question 3

Bex 1996 Genre Change discourse/genre theory

Answer 3

Genres indicate what is regarded as important in society
1. Change within genre - way the text is presented (recipes)
2. New sub-genres - (celeb cook books)
3. New discourse communities - (online cooking communities)

Question 4

Biber informalisation of writing discourse/genre theory

Answer 4

Increased informalisation of writing over time
- Colloquialisation - adopting spoken language features (e.g. contractions, progressive tense)
- Economisation - fiction/news genres discourse becoming more concise (e.g. shorter sentences, paragraphs, direct quotations used)

Question 5

Jean Aitchinson pragmatics theory

Answer 5

Ease of articulation e.g. loss of terminal ‘-e’
Social prestige and changes in society - mass communication, informalisation of the media

Question 6

Conole and Dyke (2004) technology theory

Answer 6

Affordance and constraints

Question 7

Sapir Whorf hypothesis

Answer 7

Linguistic relativity - that cultures see the world in different ways and use language to encode the difference
Linguistic determinism - the way we perceive the world influences not only our language but the way we think

Question 8

Labov’s change from above and below

Answer 8

Below, unconscious from lower social class
Above, conscious deliberate change introduced by the dominant social class, speech community that have prestige or status