Planet Word ~ Stephen Fry

'Language and accent shape and define our identity'~ Stephen Fry 

'There is an extraordinary variety of accents'~Stephen Fry 

When speaking to someone in a business (e.g. a call centre) our first point of contact is with someone who has a local accent as it is seemed to be friendly and trustworthy. However, when there is an issue someone with received pronunciation speaks to you as it is the language of power even if they are saying the exact same thing the personal with the regional accent could be saying. 

 

Language And Identity

• Standard English: Most prestige and usually used in written text. It has a formal register and is classed as the language of power. Expect to see standard English in professions as it signifies status. Standard English isn't expected to be used in professions such as builders and postman. It can suggest someone's class. 

• Slang: Used in informal situations. Used more around friends and less around the work place and when talking to new people. 

• Dialect: Lexical features or variations of grammar. It is words not accent for example in Bristol it will be the 'err' at the end of a word but the choice of word such as 'gert lush.'

• Taboo: Offensive lexical choices. Tends to be used in social situations with friends. Can be seen as normal when used in certain context but not in others. 

• Technology influenced words: Tweets, texts and instant messenger heavily influence peoples language choice. 

• Neologisms: Coinage-new words. New words are constantly entering peoples everyday language.

• Occupational register: Jargon which is based on a shared knowledge of the job or situation. 

• Received pronunciation: The accent which is used to teach English and is also referred to as the language of power. People which hold authority tend to have this such as bankers, MPs and newsreaders. 

• Regional accent: Pronouncing words depending on where you live or where you come from.  

Facts Of Teen Language

• Teenagers develop a broad vocabulary of 40,000 words by the age of 16.
• Linguists have found that teenagers use 800 words on a daily basis even though they know many more.
• Tony McEnery found the top 20 words include 'but' 'yeah' and 'no' by analysing teenagers blogs and looking at 100,000 words. 
• Sheffield University have found teenagers know 40,000 words and graduates know 60,000 words.
• Jean Gross has said 'Teen's have always had there own language.' 

Teen language

Fleek and Bae are examples of teen speech, if these words were used in a transcript it would be very clear that the speaker is a teen. 

In the media, words such as lazy, rude, moody and disrespectful are used to describe teens, this results in a bad representation of teenagers and it tends to lead to the older generation being annoyed and aggravated by teenagers. Moral panic is then put in place where the media creates an amplification spiral which makes the situation worse. Due to this, there is a distrust between generations creating a generation gap. 

Joanna Thornborrow

" One of the most fundamental ways we have of establishing our identity, and of shaping other people's views of who we are, is through our use of language"

~Joanna Thornborrow 2004 

AQA Mark Schemes

http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/as-and-a-level/english-language-7701-7702/assessment-resources

This links you to the AQA specimen papers and mark scheme page for AS Language.

Make Up New Words

https://www.ted.com/talks/erin_mckean_go_ahead_make_up_new_words/transcript?language=en

This is a video from Ted Talks where Erin Mckean explains why we should be making up new words and not just sticking to words which already exist. She explains the six ways to create new words to "make language better at expressing what we mean." She explains that the reason we don't make up words, and why people don't like new words, can be due to grammar, when grammar actually has two different meanings. So as a matter of fact, it is a lot better if we make up words instead of 'borrowing' them from other countries. 

Brown and Levinson

These two linguists put ideas forward about politeness, they gave them the term positive and negative face needs.

Positive face needs refer to people wanting to be liked and what language they use when they want to be liked, this results in them using a positive politeness strategies. This is mainly used when you first meet someone and want to make an impression. This is usually done by: using humour, agreeing to avoid conflict (para linguistic language e.g. nodding), eye contact, asking questions and smiling. 

Negative face needs is the opposite and is mainly used when you are trying to say something difficult and therefore you are trying to be tactical about what you say. This means you tend to use negative politeness strategies such as: being indirect, being sympathetic/apologetic, questioning and hedging and avoiding humour. 

Your language choices change and adapt to what situation and context you are speaking in and these are some of the ways they change and why they do. 

Job Conversation Transcript

Job conversation transcript

A: have you got a job?

B: (laughs)no I don’t but I've applied for lots of places

A: where have you applied for?  

B: Um Argos, House of Fraser (Debenhams 

 -Overlaps- maybe due to the fact these two have known each other for a long time.

A: (did you not have any replies)    

B: No (.) well the people either ignore me or tell me that I don’t (.) have the right thing for the job (2) that didn’t make sense but yeah (laughs) 

A: Have you got a job C?

C: I don’t have a job but I’ve applied for many places (.)like B I’ve applied for (.) House of Fraser (.) my recent one I got (.) told I can’t work at Lush because I pat my thighs

- Non-standard English 

All: (Laughs)

C: That’s a bad (.) thing to have apparently (2)

   - Micro pause 

A: Oh (.) fair enough

                       The conversation follows an expected pattern which relates

 to Grice's Maxim of Conversation. The conversation 

is chaining in which it all links together and the topic

 does not change. 

C: I know its great

B: (laughs)

A: D have you got a job?

D: No I don’t have a job because (.) nowhere gets back to me so I’m still looking

A: Oh

-Conversation quality- very little being added to the conversation  

D: Mm (.) what about you? Have you got a job?

There are quite a few pauses throughout the conversation,

most of them are short pauses however some of them are

longer, and this could be due to people not knowing each 

other very well. 

A: Yeah I got a job I work at Costa (2)                          

All: (laughs)

- Paralinguistic language 

C: (we’ve had this conversation before)

D: (How many hours do you do?)

As this is a transcript, it is very difficult to comment on the 

paralinguistic features of the converastion; however it is 

imagined that due to most of the speakers knowing each other,

the body language would be very relaxed.  

A; 15 hours a week

D: Is that good or bad?

A: That’s good (.) but then it takes up all my social time so I got no friends anymore

- Non-standard grammar maybe due to the fact they are around friends and therefore not talking formally. 

C: (mm that’s sad)

B: (aw that’s sad)

A: Yeah I know

Speaker B and C have known each other for a 

long time which could be the main reason they overlap 

one another as they feel comfortable together. 

B&D: (laugh)

C: What Costa do you work at?

A: The one in Avonmeads

C: Oh yeah (the new one?)

D: (Do you get discounts on stuff?)
A: I get it free if I go into that shop (.) and then if I go into other shops (I get like 45% off)

C: (Okay I’m gonna go work at Costa)

-Ellison; the way it is spelled is the way it was said. 

The conversation is a quality conversation

due to the lexis spoken is the truth.  

A; (laughs)(but um yeah)

- Fillers/hedges/voiced pauses- used to keep the conversation going, mainly used by females.  

C: (yeah)

A: I’ve only worked there for like (2) I’ve only had two pay packets now so like two months (2)

Speaker D doesn't speak much and therefore doesn't 

have very much quantity of speech. This could be due 

to them feeling awkward around the people or just 

not wanting to participate in the conversation.

C: I need a job
B: So do I (.) I need money     - Phatic talk- small talk

C: It’s so sad

A: (this is just turning into like a)

All: (laughs)

A: (like a sad conversation)

D: Are we done?

Relevance: The conversation stays on topic

and no one diverts (side sequences) from the topic 

which began the conversation.  

A: (.) yeah

B: How do I stop it?

D: (laughs)              -Tag question- an answer is not needed just just an agreement 

C: how do you stop that?

A: We haven’t even been talking for a minute

D: that’s alright

Awkward Interviews

This is an awkward interview with Cara Delevingne and an American TV show. It is clear that this is very awkward as the paralinguistic features show this by their facial expressions and hand gestures. Also, the Americans do not understand the British humour and therefore are taking the jokes seriously making the situation slightly tense. There is a lot of small talk and not many elaborated answers suggesting Cara does not want to be there. The whole conversation is using adjacency pairs and quite a few hesitations showing the conversation is structured and there is no fluency. 

Animate Drawn Lecture Steven Pinker

Notes; 

• Indirect speech act- listener read between the lines and infer real intent; Pragmatics/implied meaning
• Language has to convey 
• Use politeness strategies e.g. the guacamole situation in the video 
• Dominance- communality- reciprocity : different situations are appropriate 
• Innuendos, even when obvious, hard to know when people understand

Spontaneous Speech Terminology Quiz

1) "A pattern of speech in which one utterance is followed by an appropriate linked response" - Adjacency pairs

2) Explain the term side sequencing- Relevance, not going off the topic of conversation. 

3) Give and example of a 'tag question' - Nice weather isn't it?

4) Three examples of non-fluency features - Fillers, Voiced pause and Hedges 

5) Explain the phrase 'phatic talk' and give examples - Small talk in a conversation e.g. 'What did you do today' and 'What are your plans for the weekend' 

6) Non-verbal aspects of speech or paralinguistic features such as fillers can help reveal a speaker's attitudes and feelings. Hedges and voiced pauses are also aspects of this. 

7) 'elp me orf this 'orse' is an example of elision spelling which means the spelling of words to represent how they are pronounced. 

8) Grice's maxims: 

Quantity - too little or too much 

Quality - truth in the conversation 

Relevance - on top/side sequence

Manner - clear communication

9) Grice was interested in suggesting what helps to create a chaining conversation.

10) When analysing spontaneous speech we don't refer to sentences but utterances. 

11) Politeness strategies we may employ if we want to be liked - tag questions, discourse markers and in a group jargon and slang. 

12) In order to analyse a transcript what three things much you establish an awareness of from the outset: Context - where the conversation took place, If the people know/knew each other and the topic of conversation.