Language as a Window into Human Nature - Steven Pinker

In this video, Pinker makes a point about the Indirect Speech Act. This is when we don't say what me mean, but we find common grounds with each other. The speaker hopes for the listener to understand, read between the lines and recognise that it's a polite request. For example, 'It would be great if you could pass the guacamole' is a request which uses the imperative but without the dominance. He talks about innuendos and how we are more comfortable in conversation when these are said as opposed to direct requests. 

He generally talks about how the language we use makes us more relaxed and easy when not using direct requests. Usually, using innuendos to swerve around the imperative verb makes it seem less dominant and forceful.

Grice's Conversational Maxims

In 1975, Paul Grice created elements of language which we need to include in order to be conversationally cooperative. They consisted of 4 elements:

 

• Maxim of Quantity - To give the most helpful amount of information
• Maxim of Quality - Information that is not false
• Maxim of Relation - The information must be relevant to the topic
• Maxim of Manner - To put what you say in the clearest and most orderly manner

  

As well as this, successful conversations need to:

• Have adjacency pairs
• Flow in an expected pattern
• Have a preferred response, not a dispreferred response



Conventions of transcripts

Recently, I have been looking into transcripts from a variation of different sources such as TV programmes and real life situations. Along with this, analysing them has been something I've had to do as part of my course.

Conventions of transcripts:
Pauses:

• Can be of various lengths
• A pause in replacement of a comma is called a micropause

Utterances:

• Sentences that don't start with a capital letter
• Indicates a sense of finality

Intonations:

• Difference in tone of voice
• Rising intonation would be a question
• Represented by an up ↑ arrow or a down ↓ arrow

Interruptions and Overlaps:

• Shown by a '/' where the second speaker talks
• An overlap is where the first speaker continues to talk
• They can both show dominance over speakers

Paralinguistics:

• Body language
• Actions
• Tone of voice
• Can be indicated by square brackets, '[ ]'

John McWhorter - Txting is killing language. JK!!!

John McWhorter gives a speech on Ted Talks about written, spoken and texted language. 

John explains that texting compared to proper written language is so different. Text language is very loose, without the worry of including punctuation and capital letters. We can write the way that we talk, which is something that isn't normally acceptable for formal writing.

He also tells us that language has existed for at least 80, 000 years, and in this time, we have spoken a lot more than we have written. This is because it's 'what we're probably genetically specified for'. One quote that I love because he relates it to a way in which we will understand is 'if humanity had existed for 24 hours, then writing only came along at about 11:07 p.m.' This really puts into perspective how recent written language is compared to spoken language.

So, McWhorter begins with contradicting himself when saying 'texting spells the decline and fall of any kind of serious literacy' before 'texting is a miraculous thing'. The first statement highlights what a lot of people think about texting, but really, it's developing into a wonderful thing. I definitely agree with McWhorter when he thinks that it's a 
'linguistic miracle happening right under our noses.'

Manspreading

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/28/manspreading-men-oxford-dictionary-sitting-position-gendered

A recent article 'Why should 'manspreading' be just for men?' has really made me question the rights of women in this world. As a feminist, I totally agree with Zoe Jewell's view that 'this seated position has become unnecessarily gendered'. 

Zoe makes a point at the beginning that 'men are aggressive and women are always pleasing, always good'. Is this expressing the opinion that it isn't acceptable for women to be sitting comfortably, but it is for men? 'Assertive behavior is still only associated with men' highlights the fact that equal rights in this world still hasn't been reached.

The Oxford Dictionary has now took this word and made it officially a part of its vocabulary. Adding the prefix of 'man' to the word has definitely touched a nerve for a lot of people. Zoe says 'In an admittedly minor rebellion, I started to sit like that too'. I think that it is important that we realise that women are allowed to be human and do human things. The fact that 'manspreading' is seen as 'unfeminine' just emphasises the point that our world today needs to be different to what it was 50 years ago.

'If my leg spreading annoys you, then tell me off for what it is, whether I'm male or female.'

Terry

'Terry the odd job man' is a Bristolian who uploads videos to Youtube, giving people language lessons. Being a Bristolian, I find his videos humorous mainly because I find the points he makes ridiculous. When he says 'Bristolians won't understand' if you say something in standard English, he is completely exaggerating the concept of how we speak. Despite this, I do find him funny, although I know a lot of people would find him offensive.

You say potato

http://www.panmacmillan.com/book/bencrystal/yousaypotato

Father and son David & Ben Crystal have come up with a great idea, to see how our accents compare with each other. This website allows us to look at the different ways people say 'potato' from all around the world. We can clearly tell the difference between a lot of places, but I have realised a a lot of places in England sound strangely alike. 

David and Ben also made an appearance on the TV show Sunday Brunch. They expressed the fact that accent is levelling across the country. The big cities such as London and Bristol are becoming so culturally and ethnically diverse that the well known accents are spreading to the outer suburbs of the cities. 

From David and Ben Crystal, I have learnt that there is no 1 accent. We have related a specific place onto how someone talks but really, no one has one accent.

Steven Pinker - What our Language Habits Reveal

This video uploaded in 2005 expresses the way we as humans converse with each other through language. He speaks about how language emerges from human minds interacting, and how that by the time a new dictionary is made, it will already be out of date. Although it is 10 years old, I still think that Pinker's theories are relevant and apply to how we speak every day.

In this talk, he explores the ideas of verbs. He states that they are the frameworks onto which the other words are bolted, so without verbs, sentences and how we form them wouldn't be the same. One aspect that he goes into quite a lot of detail about is how we word sentences completely changes the meaning, even though we might not realise it, For example, saying "Sophie gave Jason a headache" would be completely different to "Sophie gave a headache to Jason". The second one implies that the headache physically moved from Sophie to go to Jason. So, when we look closer at words in a sentences, we find that technically it means something different.

Pinker also speaks about how metaphors are used generally, every day. For example, we would use travelling from space to space as a metaphor such as 'From Paris to London'.  Using state as a metaphor, for example 'from sick to well' and lastly, time. 'The meeting went from three to four' is also a prime example that we don't actually realise we are using.

Another important point that I had never even thought about before is that language has two forms. The literal form is the safe way, using language that we are comfortable with to converse with people. And the implicated form, reading between the lines and implying a change in relationship with someone. Sometimes, when trying to break through the literal barrier, it can be awkward. This is because we misrepresent relationships between people. A perfect everyday example of this awkwardness is relationships between bosses and employees, and knowing what is acceptable to use in our language towards each other.

The main message we get from this speech is that we find common grounds between each other. We negotiate relationships in order to break through the literal and implicated barriers, even if we don't realise we are doing it. Furthermore, Pinker has come up with 5 factors that add up to human intelligence. Objects, space, time, causation and intention are what makes up our English language. 

I have discovered that Pinker is a very talented theorist, and I will be looking forward to his next pieces of work.

Ted Talks

I've recently discovered a website which is absolutely perfect for discovering and exploring every aspect of our world, especially English Language for me. With mindblowing and thought provoking ideas which cover theories that I would never have thought of, it's defintely somewhere that I will frequently visit.

 

 

Writing for audience and purpose

Gerard Gilbert

The Independent 

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/features/this-is-england-90-when-we-first-got-together-we-were-just-dysfunctional-10476528.html

• The form of this piece of writing is an article, we can see this because of the features like the headline - big, bold and snappy. Furthermore, this article could very well be aimed at people living in the 90's era. “Shane set up and a rave and put someone on the DJ box, played lots of music and gave us a beer and said ‘Go and have fun and we’ll film around you’." 
• This is evidence that it would be aimed at people who did drink and have fun in the 90's, so an article based around this would definitely appeal to this age group. Also, the fact that this is in the Independent highlights the fact that an older audience would read it, because it is Quality press.  
• I think the purpose of this article is to inform and entertain people about a popular TV show, bringing back old memories. It both states facts about the characters and includes things like talking about 'rave scenes' to entertain the reader.

April Clare Welsh
NME Reviews

http://www.nme.com/reviews/the-weeknd/16229

• The form of this piece of writing is a music review, "He may have softened his edge, upped the production and pulled in the stars, but The Weeknd remains an outsider." suggests that the reviewer is deciding the artists' position in the music industry, much like a reviewer would.
• The audience for this article is mainly focuses on pop and The Weeknd fans. We can tell this because of the references made about Taylor Swift as well as saying "collaboration with American megastar Ariana Grande". These references will attract a wider audience by mentioning other pop stars.
• The purpose of this review is to entertain. We can see this because of the consistent comments about how well the band are doing and mentioning his Top Five tracks.

Zoe Shenton

The Mirror

http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/size-16-model-ashley-graham-6451232

• The form of this piece of writing is an online article, the evidence being a bold headline to grab the attention of the reader.
• I think that it is mainly aimed at younger women, who are easily influenced and like to know the top gossip about fashion and other women. The word "supermodel" would appeal to young women straight away because the stereotypical ambition for women is to become one of these.
•  We can see that the purpose of this article is to entertain. With phrases such as "Singer turned fashion designer Victoria Beckham", the article uses well known celebrity figures to attract the attention of the reader.

Tom Sheen
The Independent 

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/chelsea-analysis-did-baba-rahman-ruben-loftuscheek-and-loic-remy-do-enough-to-force-their-way-into-the-team-for-arsenal-clash-10504662.html

• The form of this piece of writing is an online article. We can see this because of the bold headline, including a rhetorical question to get the reader involved and enticed.
• The audience of this article would definitely be football fans, but, Chelsea and Arsenal fans in particular. The picture on the cover with the teams on it would attract the audience before even reading it.
• The purpose of the article is to entertain. We know that people watch sport to be entertained anyway, so an article about it would be highlighting the important issues. "finally showing a bit of attacking flair" does just this and sums up one of the important issues surrounding the match.

Unknown
'Our Teenage Diaries' 
Post 3 - 12th October

http://www.stylist.co.uk/people/teenage-diaries

• The form of this piece of writing is a diary entry. We can clearly see this because of the "Dear Diary" at the beginning, 
• The person that this piece of writing is aimed at is the girl writing it. We can see this because she speaks to the reader about her experiences like she just wants to express her feelings. This is why informal language is used, because she's not trying to impress anyone. 
• I think the purpose of this article is to express the persona's feelings. "I was sitting with Ella and Olivia and Olivia said to Anna" includes a lot of the word "and", suggesting that she is ranting and trying to get the words out without thinking about it fully.

  

Uses and Abuses - Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry's programme showing on BBC Two is a great, fun way of learning about our English Language. While it may be sensitive to some people, I will warn you that the link below includes lots of cursing which some readers may find offensive.

  

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xqb28e_frys-planet-word-3_shortfilms

The first message that we got from this programme is that taboo comes from any language. At the beginning, Stephen goes to see the Turkana people in East Africa, remote to any form of other human contact. We quickly realise from the translations that these people base their swear words around concepts like sex and religion. They use these words in the same situations as us, despite the huge difference between our cultures.

Shortly after this, we meet Jess, a long term sufferer of tourettes syndrome. In this scene, we learn that being creative is a great way for people to understand how her mind works, and that people should celebrate and find humour in her creations, not her tourettes or the rude words that come with her tics. 

Later on in the programme, we are introduced to Leslie Duhigg, a man who has recovered from a stroke. From his interview with Stephen, we realise that after his stroke, the easiest words to say were the first ones to recover. After 3 days without saying anything, a swear word was the first thing to come out of his mouth, "I even surprised myself" he said. 

A large part of Fry's programme included Stephen putting his hand in a bucket full of ice. The first experiment was for him to say the word 'functional' every now and then, while trying to keep his hand in place for as long as possible. The next experiment was for him to then say his favourite swear word while doing the same thing. The experiment concluded that while cursing, Stephen was able to keep his hand in the bucket of ice for longer than saying the word 'functional'. So, he tolerated pain for a lot longer while he was swearing, no surprise there.

In a nutshell, this programme really gave me an insight to where swearing came from and how English swear words relate to foreign swear words. The various experiments and explanations of a brain on a computer screen told me that we curse when we are feeling uncomfortable, and it often comes naturally to a lot of people. So, swear words have created a huge impact on the world and so are very powerful. However, 

'the power of swear words comes from the taboo that we put on them.'

Framework

Phonetics, Phonology and Prosodics

• How speech sounds and effects are articulated

Graphology

• The visual aspects of textual design and appearance
• Including Purpose, Audience and Form
• Affected by technology a lot

Lexis and Semantics (words and meanings)

• The vocabulary of English
• Social and historical variation

Grammar and Morphology

• Structural patterns and shapes of English language
• At sentence, clause, phrase and word level

Pragmatics

• Contextual aspects of language

Discourse

• Extended stretches of communication occurring in different genres, modes and contexts

Key Terminology

The English Language has so many aspects that make up how we speak and write. But here is some of the terminology that we use, sometimes without even realising it:

• Verb - A doing word e.g. to 'run'
• Adverb - A word added to a verb to modify its meaning e.g. 'quickly'
• Adjective - A word used to describe a noun e.g. 'blue'
• Noun - A word that indicates an object, person, place or feeling
• Fillers - A word of little meaning included into speech e.g. 'like' or 'you know'
• Alliteration - Repeating consonants at the beginning of words e.g. 'slithering snake'
• Metaphor - Where one thing is described in terms of another e.g. 'her eyes are stars'
• Simile - Making a comparison between two things e.g. 'gloopy like mud'
• Rhetorical question -  A question that doesn't require an answer, often used persuasively
• Personification - Giving an object human characteristics e.g. 'the flames danced'
• Onomatopoeia - The formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named e.g. 'bang' or 'meow'
• Jargon - Specialised language used by a certain profession or group that others wouldn't necessarily understand e.g. medical jargon in a hospital
• Symbolism - The use of symbols to signify ideas and qualities e.g. a smile is a symbol for friendship
• Dialect - A particular form of language showing that the user belongs to a region or social group
• Synonym - A word similar in meaning to another word e.g. 'quick' and 'fast'
• Antonym - A word that is opposite in meaning to another word e.g. 'big' and 'small'
• Hyperbole - Exaggerated statements of figures of speech not intended to be taken seriously e.g. 'to wait an eternity'
• Clause - A group of words forming a unit within a sentence
• Prepositions - A word that relates one word to another e.g. 'in' and 'under'
• Assonance - A repetition within successive words of similar vowel sounds e.g. 'killed, cold, culled'

'From the mouths of teens'

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/from-the-mouths-of-teens-422688.html

Another article that I've come across is by the Independent. I like this one because, like other articles, experiments are used to gain the facts about our ever changing English language. However, this is the first one I've come across which actually gains a young person's perspective of the matter. And it's definitely something I think is important when gaining lots of information.

One experiment carried out included Gus, "a 13-year-old who attends an inner London comprehensive." A conversation overheard on a bus between two teenagers was given to Gus to hopefully decode. The article explains that the schoolboy "wastes no time" in doing so, easily picking out and defining the words like our very own urban dictionary. He finishes with "And begging means chatting rubbish" and doing so "with a flourish." Giving the impression that it's just natural to him. He then goes on to say that he speaks this way because "you hear the the cool kids saying these words and... Nobody wants to be uncool." This almost challenges the theory that people converge in order to accommodate who they're talking to, when really, some converge to fit in.

But despite the melancholy feeling you might have just come across when reading that kids speak with slang in order to 'fit in', it's not all bad. In a way, this development in language is creating a better Britain. "youth speak based on common culture rather than ethnic or social background" followed by "people are beginning to sound the same" creates a positive outcome. I think that this change is breaking down barriers between different ethnic groups, making this world a much nicer place to live in.

In a nutshell, we can clearly see that the English language is rapidly changing and developing, but is this necessarily a bad thing? Gus, the decoder of the two teens' conversation stated "you have to learn a whole new vocabulary every few months just to keep on top of it." This really emphasises the fact that even youths find it hard to keep updated on the language used just to be 'cool'.

But who knows? This may just be the foundations of our English language in 100 years' time.

'All Raait! It's a new black-white lingo'

Ever heard a young person introduce a word that you've never heard before? 'Wha gwan' or 'dope' or something different that seems alien to you? Well Steven Swinford and Laura St Quinton have investigated into slang as a universal language for the youths of today. An article in the Sunday Times written 10 years ago expresses data and information collected over the past years.

The overall verdict from this article is that young people are creating a whole new language. "Words and sounds from Cockney, Jamaican creole, Bengali and other languages" are making their way into this new way of communication. 

Professor Paul Kerswill, a sociolinguist, led a study to investigate the language of younger people. "In one group we had students from white Anglo backgrounds along with those with Arab, South American, Ghanaian and Portuguese backgrounds and all spoke with the same dialect."

I think that young people are always finding a way to relate and communicate whether it may be through social media or even over hearing a conversation. That's the beauty of it!

Even though social media does have a huge impact on the way we speak, it's not just things like Twitter or Facebook affecting us. "The spread of the dialect is being encouraged by a wave of successful London rap stars" - Dizzee Rascal being one of them. It is well known that artists like Dizzee Rascal commonly use slang originally from a different continent. The article says "Music is responsible for its spread" because so many people listen to it and are influenced by it. 

Another experiment that Kerswill carried out included "analysing the conversation of 32 teenagers ages 16 to 18" from a variation of backgrounds. "The vocabulary included words originating from the Indian subcontinent such as 'nang', meaning good" as well as "Traditional cockney words such as 'manor', also meaning home, were still in use." This shows that the younger generations are merging old and new dialect, an amazing thing.

Concluding this article, I think it's fair to say that youths are building a bridge across the "racial divide" that was once very present. Kerswill said "They all dress the same and speak the same - isn't that the beautiful thing?" Yes. Maybe the stereotypes that the older generations decided for us are being challenged, because, who are the ones converging to accommodate others?

Man and Woman: The difference of language

We can clearly see that by everyday language there is a difference between how a man speaks and how a woman speaks. But the data? They're all down to stereotypes.

First of all, establishing the difference between diverging and converging is important. Diverging in relation to spoken language is when a person carries on speaking as they always do, regardless of who they are speaking to. Converging, however, is when someone starts speaking like the person they're speaking to (whether it may be using an accent or dialogue). Stereotypically, women are the ones who converge the most. This is because they are the ones who want to make the person they're talking to feel more comfortable, and they want to accommodate them. Dissimilarly, men are more likely to diverge. This suggests that males are more confident in speech and do this 'hence to strengthen one's social identity' (as stated by Wikipedia).

So, we can conclude from this information that the Woman is the gender which empathises for people more. FACT: Woman have a DNA code to keep a community together, using language as a social gel. Hence why they are the ones which naturally converge, even if they don't know they're doing it.

Men, however are stereotypically the gender which projects confidence, so they therefore diverge more.

The theory behind English Language

The start of my AS English Language course has made me realise that the way we speak in certain situations is determined by who we are around. Analysing what language we use is something I find very interesting and I'm sure I'm going to thoroughly enjoy the upcoming year. Finding out why, as humans, we say the things we do is very intriguing.

One thing that determines the language that we use is context. For example, one conclusion that was made was that age is a common factor that differs language. The older the people we know, the more formal our dialect is. For example, talking to my grandparents would be completely different to speaking to my best friend. The same goes for parents or teachers. Generally, our speech changes to become more respectful as soon as we are in the presence of an adult or someone older than us.

Furthermore, the formality of our language definitely increases as we talk to important people such as our bosses at work, or when we are being interviewed for a job. The complete opposite trend seems to happen when we're speaking to siblings. So we wouldn't speak with a posh accent and received pronunciation in this situation because it isn't what is natural to us. Stereotypically, we are more relaxed with our family, in an informal environment and this affects our language used.

Factors to do with language such as swearing is also a very interesting thing to look in to. Obviously in some cases, people don't ever curse in any situation. But judging by the responses in my English class today, a lot of people do as well. The responses went from "I swear in front of and to my mum all the time, she doesn't care" to "I wouldn't dare swearing with any of my parents around, but when they're not there I swear with my sister, she won't tell". We can see that ages and genders don't determine whether people swear or not because in some cases it's seen as acceptable, and some it's simply not. The answers ranged from being able to swear with their parents around because it's just 'banter' and not doing it because it is 'frowned upon'. 

But what is the problem? Aren't they just letters in a random order? 

That's a personal opinion I guess, I'll let you decide. 

The Guardian's Grammar and Punctuation test

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/quiz/2013/feb/04/grammar-punctuation-quiz-test

An AQA guide to AS English Language

http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/gcse/english-language-4705/teaching-and-learning-resources