Reith Lectures 1996: The Language Web
This article is about the English spoken language, and how Jean Aitchison is ashamed to let foreigners hear it. Aitchison blames the people on the radio and television calling them 'idiots' and describing them as 'dregs of humanity'.
English is a major world language, and linguists state that 'no part of language is ever deformed or bad', which contradicts to the statements being made by Aitchison. In the 18th century, it was said that there was no "correct" way of speaking English and all languages have their own "rules". But as in English we usually place the verb inside a sentence, in Welsh the verb comes first, and in Turkish it comes last, without these genuine rules, communication would break down.
People who tend to miss words out of their sentences, are labelled as being 'lazy' but the only true lazy speech is 'drunken speech', this was proved by a University in Texas.
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Tuesday, 22 October 2013
Page 28
Activity 22
a) 9
b) 5
Page 29
Activity 23
payment ... with the payments we need you to give
should be paid ... should be paid straight to us
payment ... payment to us
being sent ... being sent to us
cannot be done ... with us cannot be done
is not received ... is not received to us
will not be ordered ... will not be ordered from us
cooperation ... cooperation with us
will be much appreciated ... will be much appreciated to us
Activity 24
I can tell these participants have a friend type relationship due to the language, and the taboo words, that wont be seen as expectable language to other readers. Also the 'x' at the end of some sentences suggest their friend or partner type of relationship. B seemed to be more dominant than A, so this can suggest the higher in status between the two, as it seemed that A put in more of an effort to keep the conversation friendly, this is why I think A is a girl due the 'x' and friendliness.
Their was a lexical wording or words like 'bastard' , 'nicked', this is seen as a cockney London spoken language, this could suggest the background of the characters. Their was no capital letters at names, or even full stops, this explains the relaxation between the two and how informal it is.
Theory B ad it gave background information on some key terms used in the text
Activity 22
a) 9
b) 5
Page 29
Activity 23
payment ... with the payments we need you to give
should be paid ... should be paid straight to us
payment ... payment to us
being sent ... being sent to us
cannot be done ... with us cannot be done
is not received ... is not received to us
will not be ordered ... will not be ordered from us
cooperation ... cooperation with us
will be much appreciated ... will be much appreciated to us
Activity 24
I can tell these participants have a friend type relationship due to the language, and the taboo words, that wont be seen as expectable language to other readers. Also the 'x' at the end of some sentences suggest their friend or partner type of relationship. B seemed to be more dominant than A, so this can suggest the higher in status between the two, as it seemed that A put in more of an effort to keep the conversation friendly, this is why I think A is a girl due the 'x' and friendliness.
Their was a lexical wording or words like 'bastard' , 'nicked', this is seen as a cockney London spoken language, this could suggest the background of the characters. Their was no capital letters at names, or even full stops, this explains the relaxation between the two and how informal it is.
Theory B ad it gave background information on some key terms used in the text
Thursday, 17 October 2013
Page 26 Activity 19
1. Extract from The Guardian
a) From a first look at this poster I think the function is a pursuation to buy these heels, but by seeing it's written by the Guardian I can imagine from past experiences that the if is a underline meaning.
b) When I read the text, this poster portrays a informative function. I know this as the basic message of the poster is that we take things for grantige, as we can buy stilettos shoes from Selfridges for £129, but females in Liberia have this as a bribery to go to war.
c) I think this poster was effective as it compared a little problem of paying for shoes, to a serious problem happening in Liberia. It achieved its purpose by the colour co-ordination, the light colour of the 'Selfridges' and 'Liberia' context shows the two contexts, and the seriousness of the difference, and how we take advantage of what we have.
2.
The sentence structure implies on when the Guardian wants the reader to stop, think and start again
c) I think this poster was effective as it compared a little problem of paying for shoes, to a serious problem happening in Liberia. It achieved its purpose by the colour co-ordination, the light colour of the 'Selfridges' and 'Liberia' context shows the two contexts, and the seriousness of the difference, and how we take advantage of what we have.
2.
The sentence structure implies on when the Guardian wants the reader to stop, think and start again
Tuesday, 1 October 2013
Analysis of my transcript
The mode of this piece was a transcript, with a field based upon 'X-Factor', and a function to show the effectiveness of X-Factor and how language changes when around family or friends. This was a informal and phatic transcript, as it has abbreviated words like 'isn't' and 'enet' this shows the people in this transcript feel comfortable with each other to shorten words, that the other people in the conversation will still understand. This transcript is also context dependent as you would have to know about the topic 'X-Factor' to understand what it is and how it effects people's Saturday nights. Their is also graphology in this transcript, when 'Mum' says 'Wow...' , this shows the audience the that their was pause because mum was so indulged in the t-v. Also the ellipses portrays how the program effected mum that she was left speechless.
When Grandma asks 'does anyone want their dinner?', the locution is 'no', while the illocution is not now, while the perlocution is that they are busy watching t-v, and cant come to eat now. When mu states that its dark outside, and everyone replies with 'hmm', this is the pragmatic as this is important to inform the audience that no-one was really bothered in what mum was saying, as people were concentrating on the t-v, this was also colloquial as everyone was speaking together. But by mum saying its getting dark 'quickly' this is the modal expression as this indicates the exaggeration from mum to the audience. Their were also fillers in this transcript, by the 'little outbursts of laughter' this shows how intrigued everyone was with the t-v that their was some sense of awkward silence, even the pause between the question for dinner and response, this also showed how everyone was intrigued. Their was also a cultural assumption by 'cousin', by saying she should go on x-factor, this was a joke that only here family or friends could understand, because she is not good at signing.
The mode of this piece was a transcript, with a field based upon 'X-Factor', and a function to show the effectiveness of X-Factor and how language changes when around family or friends. This was a informal and phatic transcript, as it has abbreviated words like 'isn't' and 'enet' this shows the people in this transcript feel comfortable with each other to shorten words, that the other people in the conversation will still understand. This transcript is also context dependent as you would have to know about the topic 'X-Factor' to understand what it is and how it effects people's Saturday nights. Their is also graphology in this transcript, when 'Mum' says 'Wow...' , this shows the audience the that their was pause because mum was so indulged in the t-v. Also the ellipses portrays how the program effected mum that she was left speechless.
When Grandma asks 'does anyone want their dinner?', the locution is 'no', while the illocution is not now, while the perlocution is that they are busy watching t-v, and cant come to eat now. When mu states that its dark outside, and everyone replies with 'hmm', this is the pragmatic as this is important to inform the audience that no-one was really bothered in what mum was saying, as people were concentrating on the t-v, this was also colloquial as everyone was speaking together. But by mum saying its getting dark 'quickly' this is the modal expression as this indicates the exaggeration from mum to the audience. Their were also fillers in this transcript, by the 'little outbursts of laughter' this shows how intrigued everyone was with the t-v that their was some sense of awkward silence, even the pause between the question for dinner and response, this also showed how everyone was intrigued. Their was also a cultural assumption by 'cousin', by saying she should go on x-factor, this was a joke that only here family or friends could understand, because she is not good at signing.
Analysis of Example C: from a Chartroom of the week, Tim Dowling, The Guardian, Thursday 2nd January 2003
Example C, was very context dependent, meaning you have to know the background information on the topic before you can understand what some of the people are saying. For example a person called 'jenni@boughtledger' constantly kept stating 'I'm still Jenni from the block'. This was released in September 26, 2002, meaning you had to of known or heard this song to understand what this character was saying. This chartroom was also very informal, I knew this because the people were using abbreviated words like 'cos' and 'gonna', this could suggest that the people knew each other as they felt comfortable to use abbreviation to shorten words they were trying to say. I also think the people knew each other because they felt very comfortable to talk about serious topics like 'Saddam Hussein' and 'Micheal Jackson throwin his baby out the window'.This chat also had ellipses like 'any new years resolutions Bronco', this was a conversation starter
Sunday, 22 September 2013
Transcript
Mum: Isn't X-Factor on now?
Cousin: OH YEAH!
Auntie: Qu-ick Qu-ick !
*X-Factor is turn on*
*silence, with little bursts of smirks and laughter*
Mum: Its getting dark, quit quickly these days
Everyone: hmmmm
Cousin: OH-MY-DAYS... his such a good singer!
Auntie: he is, isn't he
Mum: wow...
Grandma: does anyone want their dinner?
...
Cousin: na
Auntie: Nope
Mum:No thanks
Cousin: I think i should go on X-Factor next year... enet I'll be good... I'll be lively
Everyone: *laughs*
Terminology
The first Terminology, is Locution. This is the literal sense, for example if a child asks his mum to go out to play, and the mother replies 'its raining'. This is the locution as its a justification by the mother on why the child cant go out to play.
The Illocution is the implied meaning, going back to the last example, the illocution is what the child implies from the mothers comment. In this instant it will be 'no', as this is what the child takes from the question, of can they go outside.
The Perlocution is the perceived meaning, in other words its the overall message. Going back to the example in the last two paragraphs, the perlocution will be 'your not going anywhere', this is what both ,the child and the mother imply from the question.
The Cultural Assumption is a joke based on where you live, this could also be seen as comedy or a sarcastic comment that people only based in the country (city) can understand.
For example this Cultural Assumption picture, is a mockery towards the airport Heathrow. This picture is labeling Heathrow as a zoo, due to how busy Heathrow gets. Only people that use Heathrow frequently will understand this joke. Overall the picture is stating the people should choose Luton airport because its got private terminals, instead of going to a busy Heathrow.
Thursday, 12 September 2013
BBC's Method of Communications
The BBC have many ways in which they communicate their news.
One way and the popular way is by the t-v, this is an interactive way in which communicating. I think the BBC communicate in this way, as t-v are a very frequent thing to have in a household, as most households will own at least one t-v. This is very similar to the laptop and PC, as these are also quit a popular thing to have in a house, and on the PC or laptop, you can watch the BBC news via t-v or you can listen to it via the radio. BBC also do emailed news to their subscribers, this also is another way the BBC do interactive communication.
The BBC also do one way communication by using 'Twitter' to send tweets, and by using podcast, so BBC fans can catch up on old or missed news. This just shows that BBC vary their ways of communication between interactive and one way.
The BBC also do one way communication by using 'Twitter' to send tweets, and by using podcast, so BBC fans can catch up on old or missed news. This just shows that BBC vary their ways of communication between interactive and one way.
Electric Modes
In these modern days i use a wide variety of technological modes. For example my most frequent / popular mode is the mobile phone, this is an interactive device, meaning I talk on the phone to various different people. Radio's and recorders can be labelled as 'old fashioned' interactive devices. As in this modern era, i have the opportunity to use a various of different interactive devices, like tablets, laptops, PC's and Skype videos or calls. This just justifies that their are a lot of different ways to interact.
On the other hand I also use social networking, so when I send a tweet or post a Facebook post, this is seen as one way communication. As I am not directly talking or interacting with someone, I am tweeting / posting to no one in particular.
This is a tweet by a footballer called 'Luke Shaw', via the social networking site 'Twitter'. This tweet is about Shaw showing his commiseration and thoughts towards those who unfortunately lost their lives in the tragic '9/11 attacks'. I think this tweet was aimed at the suffering families of the attacks, and just to show his remembrance towards the horrific attacks. The purpose of this tweet, was maybe to show respect of the dead, by Shaw hash tagging (#) '#NeverForget' this explains the function of the tweet. Meaning it was to show that he would never forget the tragic things that happened that day.
Friday, 6 September 2013
George Orwell "Politics and the English Language, 1946"
George Orwell feels very strongly towards the revolution of the English Language. He feels the English Language is in a 'bad way' and nothing can be done to resolve it. From Orwell starting of his blog in this manner / tone, shows his hatred and frustration in the way the English Language is heading. Also according to Orwell, the English Language has become 'ugly' and 'inaccurate' due to our thoughts being 'foolish', leading to the 'slovenliness' of our language. This portrays Orwell's pettiness upon our modern language. These gestures are also similar, as Orwell describes that our words are used without knowledge or meaning i.e. 'rift'. It seems to be like Orwell is mocking the terms and showing hatred towards the English Language.
Orwell also describes the English Language as elimination of simple verbs and producing them as phrases made up of noun or adjectives. In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning. So Orwell is painting the picture, that words like 'romantic and plastics' are meaningless. Towards the end of the blog, Orwell emphasis that rules have been broken and he quotes ' one can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase'. Overall i think Orwell's main objective of the the blog was to show his passion of hatred towards English Language, but to also hope habits are changed.
In my opinion, i agree the English Language has changed dramatically, but that's basically the whole point of different generations. If Orwell was able to use his English today, he would look unorthodox, and out of place.
George Orwell feels very strongly towards the revolution of the English Language. He feels the English Language is in a 'bad way' and nothing can be done to resolve it. From Orwell starting of his blog in this manner / tone, shows his hatred and frustration in the way the English Language is heading. Also according to Orwell, the English Language has become 'ugly' and 'inaccurate' due to our thoughts being 'foolish', leading to the 'slovenliness' of our language. This portrays Orwell's pettiness upon our modern language. These gestures are also similar, as Orwell describes that our words are used without knowledge or meaning i.e. 'rift'. It seems to be like Orwell is mocking the terms and showing hatred towards the English Language.
Orwell also describes the English Language as elimination of simple verbs and producing them as phrases made up of noun or adjectives. In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning. So Orwell is painting the picture, that words like 'romantic and plastics' are meaningless. Towards the end of the blog, Orwell emphasis that rules have been broken and he quotes ' one can often be in doubt about the effect of a word or a phrase'. Overall i think Orwell's main objective of the the blog was to show his passion of hatred towards English Language, but to also hope habits are changed.
In my opinion, i agree the English Language has changed dramatically, but that's basically the whole point of different generations. If Orwell was able to use his English today, he would look unorthodox, and out of place.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)