Dr Robert Winster: How children produce and aquire language

This video discusses how children acquire language, in the video it states that children use a different part of the brain to adults when acquiring language which explains why it is easier for children to learn a language than it is for adults to learn a new one. he explains why children are unable to vocalise words at a young age, this is due to the larynx being higher than an adults which means that they are able to breath and drink at the same time but cannot voice most sounds. this changes at around the age 1 and the larynx moves down around 1cm which uncovers the voice box therefore enabling the child to voice sounds and words.
As the video progresses we are introduced to a number of children, one being Moira who is 2 and a half years old, it is said in the video that on average she will learn 10 words a day. this backs the theory of vygotsky social interaction and nurture theory as she is picking up language due to interactions with other adults. also there is an argument for nature theory as  the video states that there are very little times that children get grammar wrong unless there is an exception to the rule for example 'runned' instead of ran.

Broken homes 'damage brains of infant children' Comment

I agree with the points raised in this article as i believe that if children of a young age are exposed to supposed 'broken homes' his could be damaging to their brains. This is because at a young age the mind is very susceptible to outside influences and is prone to picking up words, phrases and characteristics of those who surround them on a day to day basis, this is why for example if parents are showing high amounts of anger then the child who is exposed to this will replicate this behaviour. this will have an affect on them and their mentality as a child who is exposed to this type of behaviour is very unlikely to have the full mental capacity in comparison to a child who has seen and been around a fully functional family, this is why in the long term it could affect their language as conversations and emotions could become hard to handle if this was not something they saw happen regularly as a child.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2016/apr/15/why-superlatives-are-the-absolute-worst-unless-youre-donald-trump

This article is aimed at at most people, as it is about the excessive use of superlatives. the viewpoints put across in this article are that of distaste for the use of superlatives in certain situations such as in the example used where the writer had written a previous blog to see the comments of a reader saying it was the 'worst blog he had ever read' this, as he says in the text, shows the exaggeration used in this statement as more likely than not this statement is not strictly true but just an exaggerated option to get the point across. also in this textthe writer states that the use of superlatives are something that should be cut down on and used more sparingly as if not we will be seen as living in 'constant excitement'. he links this to the political situation of USA as he says the reason why Trump has enjoyed success is due the high use of superlatives in society that therefore makes people listen and take notice of some of the outrageous statement that he makes.  overall the opinion of the writer for the use of superlatives is that of a negative one as he believes that it had caused an overall downfall in comments, advertising and even politics due to the language being used and the exaggeration put into every opinionated statement made in society.

Self evaluation

In my most recent assessment I feel as though I have done well however although I feel as though in order to get better I need to improve on my strength of argument and support it more with AO1 language levels. also I think I should create more of a balances argument and improve on my level of knowledge on theorists and give a strong and clear opinion at the start and throughout my essay in my next evaluative essay.

Print Advert Analysis

Analysis of print advert

The purpose of this advert is to warn those who drink and drive to stop and it does this by using an imperative sentence 'stop the violence, don't drink and drive' this impacts those who read it as it is telling you to do it rather than asking or warning. the advert uses very little lexis as the focus is on how the ad looks and how it will impact those who see it, this is done by the black background which makes the picture of the man and fist with cars drawn on more as there is colour there. this would make it more eye catching as the colours stand out more on the black background. this advert also uses non standard capitulation in order to emphasise the message being relayed from the text as the words 'stop' and 'violence' are both capitalised as they are the main focus of the advert as well as to stop drinking and driving which is written in red text in order to help it stand out more. 

Eakins and Eakins - 1976
In seven university faculty meetings, the men spoke for longer. the men's turns ranged from 10.66 to 17.07 seconds, the women's from 3 to 10 seconds.


Edelsky - 1981
In a series of meetings of a university department faculty committee, men took more and longer turns and did more and longer turns and did more joking, arguing, directing and soliciting of responses during the more structured segments of meetings. During the 'free-for'all' parts of the meetings, women and men talked equally, and women joked, argued, directed, and solicited responses more than men.


Herbert & Straight - 1989
Compliments tend to flow from those of a higher rank to those of a lower rank.


Herring - 1992
In an email discussion which took place on a linguistiucs 'distribution list', five women and 30 men took part, even though women make up nearly half the members of the Linguistic Society of America and nearly 36% of subscribers to the list. Men's messages were twice as long, on average,as women's.
Women tended to use  a personal voice, e.g 'I am intrigued by your comment....'. The tone adopted by the men who dominated the discussion was assertive: 'it is obvious that..'.


Holmes - 1998
Women managers seem to be more likely to negotiate consensus than male managers, they are less likely to just 'plough through the agenda', taking time to make sure everyone genuinely agrees with what's been decided.


Holmes (2005), Holmes and Marra (2002)
Contrary to popular belief, women use just as much humour as men, and use it for the same functions, to control discourse and subordinates and to contest superiors, although they are more likely to encourage supportive and collaborative humour.


Hornyack- 1994 
The shift from work talk to personal talk is always initiated by the highest- ranking person in the room.

Tracy and Eisenberg-1990/91
When role-playing delivering criticism to a co-worker about errors in a business letter, men showed more concern for the feelings of the person they were criticizing when in the subordinate role, while women showed more concern when in the superior role.

Norman Fairclough

Fairclough theory synthetic personalisation is where the producers attempt to gain a manufactured relationship with their consumers. Fairclough describes adverts as being dialogic by constructing a 'product image' that helps and pushes to position the receiver as a potential consumer. Adverts use synthetic personalisation as the producer doesn't come into contact with the consumer. This theory includes other ideas such as

• Power behind discourse is concerned with the organisation of institutions and the effect of these on language. 
• Power in discourse is concerned with situations where relationships are set up and enacted. 
• Critical discourse analysis is a type of analytical discourse that studies the way that power, dominance and inequality are enacted and reproduced.

CDA follows certain rules which include:

• Power relations are discursive
• Discourse is ideological & constitutes society and culture. 
• Discourse is historical and a form of social action. 
• The analysis of discourse is interperitive and explanatory. 

Erving Goffman

Erving Goffman

Erving Goffman developed a theory known as the face theory where an individual has a positive and negative face. 

-       Positive face – associated with the feelings of being valued and appreciated 

-       Negative face – associated with the feelings of not being imposed upon and independence

During any encounter or conversation between two individuals, the two individuals involved will have a certain face and will perform actions in order to maintain and not threaten the other individuals face. For example when at a bus stop with an elderly lady an individual may have to be involved in small talk and to not threaten the face of the elderly lady this individual although not willingly will participate in the small talk. However in a casual talk with friends the individuals involved will not be as considerate towars the other faces as they are less bothered about threating their positive face and are more inclined to be insulting as they are with a group of friends.

Paul Grice

Paul Grice – Grice’s Maxims

Paul Grice developed a theory of the cooperative principle which consists of 4 maxims, these 4 maxims are: 

-       The maxim of quantity, where one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, and gives as much information as is needed, and no more.

-       The maxim of quality, where one tries to be truthful, and does not give information that is false or that is not supported by evidence.

-       The maxim of relation, where one tries to be relevant, and says things that are pertinent to the discussion.

-       The maxim of manner, when one tries to be as clear, as brief, and as orderly as one can in what one says, and where one avoids obscurity and ambiguity.

These maxims according to Grice should be followed in every conversation however there can be overlaps during conversations and there may be situations where these maxims do not get followed due to the context and situation of the conversation.

William Labov

William Labov 

William Labov developed a structure known as narrative categories which has 6 categories:

-       Abstract – the indication that the narrative is starting.

-       Orientation – the what, where, when and why of the narrative.

-       Completing action – the main body of the narrative.

-       Resolution – the final events of the narrative.

-       Evaluation (internal/external) – additions and highlights to the narrative which also gives attitudes.

-       Lada – a sign to show the narrative is over and may include a return to reality e.g. ‘back to work now’.

Bachelor origin

Bachelor
The first meaning of the word bachelor was related to war and being a young knight who is not old enough, this was first spoken in 1297. at this time it as spelt as 'bachelir'.
in 1936 the meaning had changed to 'One who has taken the first or lowest degree at a university, who is not yet a master of the Arts' whilst the more modern meaning of the word relates to the definition '
in 1938 it had a change in meaning and spelling again it was spelt as 'bachilers' and now meant an unmarried man, this shows the word had slowly been an extension in the word. One of the more modern meanings to relate a bachelor to an attractive un-married male who has a lot of female interest and has a 'bachelor pad' in the city where he invites females.


Slag
The first meaning of the word slag was that it was 'A piece of refuse matter separated from a metal in the process of smelting.' this was spoken first in 1552.

Questionnaire Analysis

What are the attitudes towards the afro Caribbean influence on Standard English Analysis?

I gave my questionnaire to 20 people and the answers that came back had a range of opinions towards the influences of afro Caribbean language on standard English, the general consensus was that it had had an impact on English language but in a positive way as it gave higher amounts of variety.

Was there a difference of attitude between age groups of BEV and standard English?

There was a very apparent relation between the answers given and the age of the person giving the answers, this relation was that the younger the candidate was the more positive they were in terms of the way the viewed the impacts of BEV on Standard English. The majority of the group were between the age of 31-35, 60%, and everyone in this age bracket said the impacts were positive. The group were all teachers at Shenfield High School so therefore were well educated and professional in the way in which they answered the questions.

Responses to the questions

Of the 20 people asked 90% of people said that standard English had changed and of that group most used the reasoning for this as the influx of other cultures into the country as to why standard English is changing. Also of the 20 people asked 70% of people said the impact was positive and the other 30% said that although there were positive impacts there were also negative impacts due to these changes in language. When people were given two options of sentences all candidate chose the standard English example as the correct way to say the statement. When asked what they would define English all people said something along the lines of the “correct way to speak” “Queens speech” or “proper English”. However no one went on to explain what they meant other than some small additional information saying something like it is the variant English that should be taught to children, which shows the attitudes towards standard English and the status it holds even still. This is shown also in the theory of Peter Trudgill who was a sociolinguist that said that Standard English was only spoken by a minority of people and was seen by most people as a prestigious way of speaking and very much linked to the status of the person themselves if they spoke this way, this is very much translated to the way in which we think today as we mostly think that posh people or very well educated or rich people speak in this manor.

Attitudes towards BEV and other variants of English language

When asked what their opinion on other variants of English Language most people said that there were some dialects that they did not like and thought were not proper English but most people felt as though the other variants of English language were positive and gave “good variety”. Also the main cause of these variants according to the 20 people asked were the influence of foreign people and also the different areas in which we live in.