Tuesday, 23 February 2016

Word of mouth- Radio 4- Turn taking


This programme is about how turn taking is shown in conversation and how we know how to use it. 

• Children know they need to take turns when speaking but don't know how to show this e.g. "I haven't finished!" 

• Turn taking is shown by: 
Speaker A: bla bla bla 
Speaker B: bla bla bla 

•People can predict what other people are going to say and therefore prepare how to respond to the other person. The persons voice either goes up or down to show the end of a sentence 

•Turn taking seems plausible but not completely correct- turn taking involves breath control showing it may be older than language and relates to close species 

• Speaking 'rules' can be used in an unfair way such as someone can speak quicker meaning they have more turns 

• People have to be brave to stop people from interrupting the conversation even though it is very easy to do this with a younger child




Tuesday, 16 February 2016

Analysed Article







    



 http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/nov/28/conversation-brian-eno-yanis-varoufakis-interview
This is an article of two men, Brian Eno and Yanis Varoufakis, having a conversation. Throughout the transcript of their speech there is a lot of chaining where one topic leads to another to keep the conversation going. Due to this no pauses or fillers are shown in the text, maybe as they were not included in the typing of this transcript or the conversation was flowing so much a pause was not needed. 


Monday, 15 February 2016

Radio 4 Slang


Quotes: 

"Obviously English but it's an English full of in group low life words"

"We're all users of slang"

"What is slang?" "A counter language.....break down the slang lexis twisting, turning standard English, it's doesn't invent many words"

"Slang doesn't do love , caring or sharing" 

"Slang represents us at our most human, may not be our kindest.....slang is a linguistic safety valve"

"Slang is reusing standard English language" 

"'Yob' oldest slang word and is still used today" 

"Do different subcultures use slang differently...do people use it deliberately?"

"Slang is where certain types of people talk about different thing in different ways" 


Tuesday, 2 February 2016

Questioning your language


This article explains how the English language (and other languages) are so complex in a comical manner. It is used in a comical way due to age of the reader it is aimed at. There are 17 points which are made many of them explaining how English is so difficult to Lear due to there being so many different ways of understanding one word and how certain words can change the entire context of a conversation. 

Have we broken the English Language?



This article explains the reasons to why we are slowly 'breaking' the English Language. It's goes through the three main reasons why the writer believes the English language is breaking. 

1) Mucking about and changing the meanings of words, which isn't funny anymore 
2)  To use it is to teeter on the edge of a conversational wormhole
3) There isn't much to do: even when lexis are used in the correct manner people are surprised that the words have been used 

Tuesday, 5 January 2016