Section A: Individual Variation Flashcards
What are the 4 aspects of context? With meanings.
- Mode - the type of text it is
- Field - what the text is about
- Audience - who the text is for
- Function - why it exists
Pragmatics
The way meanings are implied in the context of a text
Semantics
Relationships between words and what they signify
What are 3 types of mode that texts belong to? With example.
- Spoken - e.g. conversation with friend
- Written - e.g. a letter
- Electronic - e.g. audiobook
What is meant by electronic mode?
A hybrid of speech and writing created due to developments in technology
What are the attributes of spoken English?
Low formality
Spontaneous
Interactive
No record
Private
Socially oriented
Context-dependent
What are the attributes of written language?
High formality
Planned
Solitary
Permanent record
Public
Message oriented
Context independent
What are electronic communication types of texts?
Emails
Text messages
Social media pages
Blog
What are ways that mode can impact lexis?
Slang more common in speech
Polysyllabic lexis more common is written
Monosyllabic lexis common in both speech and writing
Lexical words common in both speech and writing
Functions words common in both speech and writing
Complex noun phrases are more common in written
What can slang be also referred to as?
Colloquial lexis
What are ways that mode impacts grammar?
Written - will be more accurate with grammar, more formal so more grammatically accurate
Spoken - words can be dropped, discourse markers are more common as they mark boundaries between topics, interrogatives and imperative are more common in speech as they are typically interactive, mitigated imperatives are where function is to command but grammatical structure might be interrogative, ellipses where parts of a sentence are missing are more common, modals are more common to express attitudes and finally hedging is common too
What are the 3 ways of analysing the lexis of mode? With definitions
- Finding subject specific lexis - lexical choices that belong to the field of the text
- Finding Iexical fields - the groups of linked words that aren’t directly linked to the main topic
- Specialist lexis - words that are about the specific topic
Jargon
Words that have a technical meaning within a specific field
Field related jargon
Jargon that isn’t unnecessarily complicated (jargon usually is too complicated) but is specialised technical jargon that is needed for precise communication such as in surgery
What are the 4 approaches to language based on the gender theory?
- The deficit approach
- The dominance approach
- The difference approach
- The dynamic or discursive approach
What is the deficit approach?
-Robin Lakoff 1975
-androcentricity
-‘women’s language’ = hedges, empty adjectives like divine and exaggerating intonation - seen as weak and unassertive
-women were second class citizens
-Suggests that women’s language is weaker than men’s due to social conditioning
-tag questions (“isn’t it?”), and indirect requests, which reflect a lack of assertiveness
-This approach has been criticized for assuming female speech is inferior rather than different.
What is the dominance approach?
-Dale Spender 1980 - Zimmerman and West 1975
-Argues that language differences reflect men’s dominance in society - male dominance is enacted through linguistic practice
-Zimmerman & West’s research on interruptions in conversation, suggest that men interrupt women more, reinforcing male power
-language done by both men and women create male dominance and female oppression
-highlights gender as a reflection of societal power imbalances but has been critiqued for not considering individual differences
What is the difference approach?
-Deborah Tannen 1990
-Views male and female speech as culturally different but equally valid
-Tannen described men’s language as more competitive and status-driven, while women’s language is cooperative and relationship-focused
-Critics argue this approach oversimplifies gender and reinforces stereotypes
What is the dynamic/discursive approach?
-Deborah Cameron 2007
-Gender identity is a social construct not a social category - Zimmerman said that we do gender not that we are one
-Rejects the idea that men and women speak in fixed ways, emphasizing context, identity, and individual differences
-This is the most modern approach, recognizing flexibility in language use
What 7 factors affect ones Idiolect?
- Age - influence ones vocabulary, slang and speech patters, younger generations are likely to adopt new terms and communication styles that reflect a frequent use of social media and technology, older generations may continue to use words that were used during their youth but may now seem archaic or old fashioned. Age can also influence how one speaks in terms of accent as younger generations are likely to have weaker accents than their seniors due to technology and the contact with others from different areas.
- Gender - can influence word choice, intonation and communication styles, for examples, males typically use direct speech whereas women, stereotypically use more qualifiers and hedges. Because of societal expectations on gender and the idea that ones gender must be clearly shown through their mannerisms and behaviours, some feel forced into conforming into stereotypes within language and may see certain aspects of language as too ‘masculine’ or too ‘feminine’.
- Geographical origin - this impacts your accent and regional vocabulary, there are certain words that may be used in particular areas but not in others. Thus, the words that someone may use can clearly display their geographical origin. Geographical origin also plays a role in the public perception of someone, for example the stereotypes surrounding northerners, hence, some may try to deviate from the dialect of their geographical origin to fit in.
- Where you live - moving to a new location can cause shifts in your Idiolect as you adapt to local slang, pronunciation or cultural expressions to better fit in, thus a combination of local slang but also slang from your geographical origin play a large role in ones Idiolect.
- Social groups - the people that you surround yourself and interact with influence your Idiolect, one may use jargon that they previously didn’t know or they may mimic the communication style of a particular community or subculture. Social groups are unlikely to mix that often so the one you’re from is the one you will acquire language from.
- Occupation - they have their own technical terms, jargon, and formal communication styles. It is likely that one’s occupation may even influence how they speak outside of the workplace as they will acquire a lot of their methods of communication, terminology and character from their occupation and who they spend time with at work.
- Status - socioeconomic status may affect speech patterns, vocabulary, and accent
What did Lakoff propose women language contained?
- Hedge - sort of, kind of
- Polite forms - would you mind
- Tag questions - youre going out, aren’t you?
- Speaking in italics (intonational emphasis) - sooo
- Empty adjectives - lovely
- Hyper correct grammar and pronunciation
- Direct quotation (men paraphrase more)
- Special lexicon - women use more words for colours but men for words
- Question intonation in declarative statements - what school do you attend?
- Using wh- imperatives - why dont you open the door?
- Speak less frequently
- Overuse qualifiers - I think that
- Apologise more - I’m sorry but I think
- Modal constructions - should we do this
- Avoid coarse language
- Use indirect commands and requests - isn’t it cold in here - suggests to close window
- Intensifiers especially so and very
- Lack humour
What is a marked expression?
-Marked expression is the normal term used to describe something - known as unmarked (unnoticed) - a marked lexical item is deviant or different
What is overt marking?
-Overt marking occurs when we modify words to create marked version e.g. suffixes like manger or manageress, God or Goddess
What is semantic derogation?
-negative connotations attached to some lexical items - lexical pair where the male term suggests a positive attribute and the female term a negative one e.g. courtier and courtesan (another word for a prostitute), master and mistress (promiscuity), bachelor and spinster, sir and madam
What was the example for the word ‘rabid’ in the Oxford dictionary? Why did this anger some people?
-‘A rabid feminist’ - the example used in oxford dictionary for the word rabid
-Rabid = having an extreme or fanatical support of or belief in something
-seen as sexism in language - it reminded people of the way the culture sees women
Other examples of sexism in the Oxford dictionary?
-‘shrill’, the shrill of a woman’s voice
-‘grating’, her high grating voice
-‘nagging’, nagging wife Housework
-she still does all the housework
-he does the research
-Nurse examples used a female pronoun and doctor used male pronouns
What is collocation?
The likelihood of two words occurring together
What is Pejoration?
When the meaning of a piece of lexis gets worse over time - many say this is why some language is considered sexist - has developed negative connotations
What are some female equivalent, male terms of address that have undergone Pejoration? What is the significance of this?
Mistress
Hussy
Madam
Spinster
Courtesan
Wench
Tart
-These words now relate to subordinate status or sexual service to men - they used to all be equivalents but not anymore
How has the meaning of mistress changed over time?
-female equivalent of master and means a woman holding control or authority
-came from Norman conquest
-17th century onwards, it means a woman other than his wife with whom a man has a long lasting sexual relationship
How has the meaning of hussy changed over time?
-meant head of the household
-from the 17th century, it meant a woman of improper behaviour
How has the meaning of madam changed over time?
-female equivalent of sir and used as a mode of address
-18th century, it began to mean a precocious girl or young woman or a mistress or prostitute
-in 19th century, it became manager of brothel
How has the meaning of spinster changed over time?
-meant someone who spun thread as a husband-less woman would have to do this as a source of income
-now has been associated with unmarried women
How has the meaning of courtesan changed over time?
-meant courtier (attends monarchs court)
-the only meaning now is a prostitute
How has the meaning of wench and tart changed over time
-Wench = meant young unmarried woman and a century later meant mistress
-Tart = meant a contraction of sweetheart but from 1887 it began to mean a female of immoral character, a prostitute
Which generations are likely to lead language change?
-younger gen invent slightly new forms of language particularly with lexis, grammar, pronunciation - they drive change
Why do young people drive language change?
-To fit in
-To rebel
-To change interpretation of language and make it more diverse and accepting to all - how we dont use ‘he’ as a way of addressing all or refuse to say some words that the older generations may use as they are seen as derogatory
-To be different - separate from the older generation - dont want to be ‘old’
-Social media and developments in technology
How does age impact grammar?
- Innit used a tag question
- Changing use of like - example, to introduce a new topic, comparing, euphemistic word, verb, noun (likes on social media), quotative (used instead of a verb), preposition (just like his father), conjunction, heading, frilled pause
Subject specific lexis
lexical choices that belong to the field of the text
What can be the purposes behind a text?
-To inform
-To persuade
-To instruct
-To warn
-To entertain
-To advise
-Performative e.g. ‘I now pronounce you’ - completes an action
-Message orientated
-Socially orientated
-Ideational
-Interpersonal
-TRIPE
-4 sentence moods
What are the 4 types of power?
- Influential power
- Instrumental power
- Social group power
- Personal power
What is influential power?
-Relies on acceptance of power roles and status - we buy into the notion of someone’s power
-Power is used to persuade or influence others
What is social group power?
-Power that comes from the dominant social group - think about, class, gender, age, geography
What is instrumental power?
-Power that maintains and enforces authority - rules apply and there is usually some kind of penalty for breaking them
-Police, the law, courts
What is personal power?
-Power that comes from someone’s role or position, e.g. a teacher, policeman
-Power than comes from personal traits - e.g. being funny, popular, confident etc. - not to be underestimated!
Nominalisation
Verb turned into a noun - establishes formality - takes away subject
Standard English
The form of english grammar and vocabulary regarded as the standard, taught to learners of english, its the form used in formal situations and its the ‘correct’ English (encouraged to use in lessons)
DIALECT
Received Pronunciation
The accent of standard English - its not a geographical marker but a marker of social status - it’s considered BBC English or the Queens English, it may be viewed as classy or posh and only a tiny percentage if people actually speak RP, elocution
ACCENT
How did caxton impact what was standard English?
Caxton (inventor of printing press) chose one variety he would print in - based in south east and most of the power was asked in London so this was the variety he selected and went on to be SE
What may be different between dialects?
Different dialects may have differences in grammar and lexis
What is the covert prestige theory? Who created it?
-Prestige form of language are typically standard forms
-Covert prestige - phenomenon where non standard forms of language are viewed as prestigious by a particular group
-Speakers who used non standard dialects often believed their own dialect was bad or inferior
-Working class behavioural traits such as hard working and casual thus creating a specific identity for themselves
What did Peter Trudgill theorise?
Men are likely to over report their own usage of non standard forms whereas women will under report - men attached to covert prestige to these forms whereas women tend not to
Idiolect
How an individual speaks and their speech habits
-Unique to everybody - can be compared to a fingerprint
-Most obvious in spoken language but applies in written
Sociolect
How a group of people within society speak and their speech habits
Dialect
A variety of language typically connected with a particular area
What is plagiarism?
-Copying someone’s work
-When you write academic essays you must reference the idea of others
-Unis use software to scan students work and companies it to a huge database of published work and past students work
-Teachers also are good at getting to knows students Idiolect - particularly important with AI - use collocation, lexical density and the frequency of function words
What is literary authorship?
-Studying writing styles can help clear up questions of authorship - researchers compile statistical information about style over thousands of words
-Look at collocation - which words often appear close or next to one another
-Look at lexical density - the proportion of lexical words used - tends to remain the same for an individual writing in a particular genre
Corpus
Body of language
What are the uses of Idiolect?
Plagiarism
Literary authorship
Forensic linguistics
Why is English a world language?
-Many speak it
-Many are taught it
-Spoken internationally
-Learned by a large number of people as a second language
-Most widely spoken and fastest spreading - English has 840 million primary and secondary users worldwide
What is Kachru’s Model?
- Inner Circle - OG English and how it spread - speakers carried the language to Australia, New Zealand and North America. It used as a primary language: UK, US, Australia, and some of the Caribbean territories
- Outer circle - Imperial expansion in Asia and Africa - not the native tongue, but serves as a useful lingua franca. Used in Higher education, legal etc. - e.g. India, Nigeria, Pakistan
- Expanding Circle - countries where English plays no historical or gov role - still used as a medium of international communication - e.g. China, Russia, Egypt
Creole
Language mixed with a local language
Lingua Franca
Language understood by all
World Englishes
-Different world English’s have own standard varieties
-Some differences between world Englishes
Regional variation
-National varieties of English associated with Scotland, Ireland and Wales
-Regional dialects of England such as Yorkshire and Somerset
-City dialects, for example London, Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham
2013 research into online identity? Who?
-Schwartz et al.
-Recent research has looked into the typical postings of people on social media by age, gender and personality type
-75,000 social media profiles were analysed
-female - talks about relationships, empty adjectives, families, shopping, going out
-male - swear words, politics, gaming, battling and fighting, football
-as age increases, you start to talk about religion and relationships WAY more - less materialistic
4 personality traits? Attributes?
- Introversion - gaming, technology, anime
- Extroversion - going out, clubbing, parties
- Neuroticism - swearing, drunk, drugs, depression, loneliness
- Emotional Stability - religion, going out, plans for the future, places, sports
H dropping, th fronting, g dropping
No h
No th - replaced by f
No g - ‘n’ not ‘ng’
Colloquial phrase
Informal expressions in everyday speech - linked with dialects and sociolects
