Thursday 6 March 2014
Language and Gender website.
Useful Language and Gender website - http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/gender.htm
Language change - questions and answers.
What are the main reasons for language change?
- Media, technology, globalisation and economy.
What are the ways in which language changes?
- Grammar, spelling, lexis, pragmatics and structure.
What are the key influential factors on the development of English as accessible to all?
- Language of the internet, films, on Americans money and international pop music.
What is the difference between a prescriptive and descriptive attitude to langauge use? Find two quotes that represent each attitude that you can make reference to the exam?
- Prescriptive view is that 'attitudes toward language based on what id held to be the correct way to speak by socially prestigious elements and by teachers'.
E.g. - Prescriptive grammar would reject ‘He goes...', meaning ‘He said', as incorrect language
- Descriptive view is observing principles that desctribe the way the language is actually spoken.
E.g. - 'I am older than her' and 'I am older than she is'. The first is descriptive, the second is prescriptive.
What did Johnson think were the problems with his dictionary? Are these problems still edvident in dictionaries today?
- Based on guesswork, prevented him from detecing errors, spelling choices were inconsistent.
What is a 'lingua franca' and to what extent was/is English one?
Also called a bridge langauge, or vehicular langauge. A langauge systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.
- Definitley a lingua franca.
What are the prestigious forms of English now (overt and covert)?
- 'Overt prestige' refers to dialects. An overt prestige dialect is generally one that is widely recognized as being used by a culturally dominant group.
- 'Covert prestige' - speakers who chose to not adopt a standard dialect.
Prestige associated with that choice is gained from within social group identification.
How has politically correct langauge and the Sapir - Whorf hypothesis influenced modern English usages?
Sapir Whorf - is the idea that people speak different langauges and have differences in opinions and thoughts influenced by the langauge they speak.
Find three examples of obsolete English grammar that you can make reference to in the exam.
- Never start a sentence with and or but.
- Always use more than and not over when talking about numbers.
- Dont use free as an adjective.
Find three features of modern punctuation that take advantage of a lessening of prescriptivism.
- Love 'em
- R 'n' B
- Gross.
Find three neologisms from the past five years.
- Tweet cred
- Muffin top
- Chilax
Do an internet search to find an article that interests you on langauge uses. Find a key quote to memorise. How does that writer communicate their ideas?
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10971949
- But that is hardly a surprise, according to David Crystal, honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Bangor, who says that new colloquialisms spread like wildfire amongst groups on the net.
"The internet is an amazing medium for languages," he told BBC News.
"Language itself changes slowly but the internet has speeded up the process of those changes so you notice them more quickly."
People using word play to form groups and impress their peers is a fairly traditional activity, he added.
"It's like any badge of ability, if you go to a local skatepark you see kids whose expertise is making a skateboard do wonderful things.
Read at least one chapter from a book from a library about language change; identify how the attitudes expressed in it are a product of when it was written.
'Language Change' by Adrian Beard. Page 49-51 - Text Messaging.
Published in 2004.
Descriptive. - Although gives examples of how it would be prescriptive. Doesnt seem to take sides.
'emoticons are the stetch of imagination, iconic representations of an action or emotion'.
There are reasons for the conventions; the limit of words, 60 characters, to be playful and inventive, privacy - silly, sexual, informative.
'ideal for criminals, stalkers and bullies'.
When text langauge is used in a GCSE exam, is it really wrong? Should it be marked as incorrect? If people can understand what is meant, and thats how people in reality speak, why should it be any different in an exam?
What does gender theory reveal about English use through the ages?
- Over time,variations lea\d to language change, which occurs when a new linguistic form Not only linguistic variation between social groups, but also gender differences in speech play an important role in the promulgation of language change.
- Media, technology, globalisation and economy.
What are the ways in which language changes?
- Grammar, spelling, lexis, pragmatics and structure.
What are the key influential factors on the development of English as accessible to all?
- Language of the internet, films, on Americans money and international pop music.
What is the difference between a prescriptive and descriptive attitude to langauge use? Find two quotes that represent each attitude that you can make reference to the exam?
- Prescriptive view is that 'attitudes toward language based on what id held to be the correct way to speak by socially prestigious elements and by teachers'.
E.g. - Prescriptive grammar would reject ‘He goes...', meaning ‘He said', as incorrect language
- Descriptive view is observing principles that desctribe the way the language is actually spoken.
E.g. - 'I am older than her' and 'I am older than she is'. The first is descriptive, the second is prescriptive.
What did Johnson think were the problems with his dictionary? Are these problems still edvident in dictionaries today?
- Based on guesswork, prevented him from detecing errors, spelling choices were inconsistent.
What is a 'lingua franca' and to what extent was/is English one?
Also called a bridge langauge, or vehicular langauge. A langauge systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.
- Definitley a lingua franca.
What are the prestigious forms of English now (overt and covert)?
- 'Overt prestige' refers to dialects. An overt prestige dialect is generally one that is widely recognized as being used by a culturally dominant group.
- 'Covert prestige' - speakers who chose to not adopt a standard dialect.
Prestige associated with that choice is gained from within social group identification.
How has politically correct langauge and the Sapir - Whorf hypothesis influenced modern English usages?
Sapir Whorf - is the idea that people speak different langauges and have differences in opinions and thoughts influenced by the langauge they speak.
Find three examples of obsolete English grammar that you can make reference to in the exam.
- Never start a sentence with and or but.
- Always use more than and not over when talking about numbers.
- Dont use free as an adjective.
Find three features of modern punctuation that take advantage of a lessening of prescriptivism.
- Love 'em
- R 'n' B
- Gross.
Find three neologisms from the past five years.
- Tweet cred
- Muffin top
- Chilax
Do an internet search to find an article that interests you on langauge uses. Find a key quote to memorise. How does that writer communicate their ideas?
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10971949
- But that is hardly a surprise, according to David Crystal, honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Bangor, who says that new colloquialisms spread like wildfire amongst groups on the net.
"The internet is an amazing medium for languages," he told BBC News.
"Language itself changes slowly but the internet has speeded up the process of those changes so you notice them more quickly."
People using word play to form groups and impress their peers is a fairly traditional activity, he added.
"It's like any badge of ability, if you go to a local skatepark you see kids whose expertise is making a skateboard do wonderful things.
Read at least one chapter from a book from a library about language change; identify how the attitudes expressed in it are a product of when it was written.
'Language Change' by Adrian Beard. Page 49-51 - Text Messaging.
Published in 2004.
Descriptive. - Although gives examples of how it would be prescriptive. Doesnt seem to take sides.
'emoticons are the stetch of imagination, iconic representations of an action or emotion'.
There are reasons for the conventions; the limit of words, 60 characters, to be playful and inventive, privacy - silly, sexual, informative.
'ideal for criminals, stalkers and bullies'.
When text langauge is used in a GCSE exam, is it really wrong? Should it be marked as incorrect? If people can understand what is meant, and thats how people in reality speak, why should it be any different in an exam?
What does gender theory reveal about English use through the ages?
- Over time,variations lea\d to language change, which occurs when a new linguistic form Not only linguistic variation between social groups, but also gender differences in speech play an important role in the promulgation of language change.
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