Investigation Methodology

Methodology

In my investigation, I will focus on Language and Gender theory, paying particular focus to Deborah Tannen. She suggests that men and women acquire different traits in language. For example, men are more concerned about Status, Independence, Advice, Information, Order and Conflict. They are more prestigious, always looking to provide logical and hard evidence in a situation. This contrasts against women who possess kind, sympathetic and soft characteristics. 

In order to do so, I am going to gather data from the presidential debates from 2016. By looking at the speeches that both Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump have made in response to the same questions, I will be able to analyse the transcripts which will enable me to evaluate Tannen's theory. I will look at the phonetics of their speech, the specific lexis they use, discourse markers, grammar as well as the pragmatics of their speech. While doing this, I will apply it to Deborah Tannen's theory.

I will also analyse how both male and females cope well under pressure. Because of the nature of the debate, it will be interesting to see what techniques the candidates do to cope with the on-the-spot questions and comments.

Comparability

Because I am looking at two candidates running for the same position of the 2016 election for president, a lot of the factors will be the same. Trump and Clinton would be in the same environment on the same day, with the same questions being asked. This way, the only factors that are different are their beliefs and the fact that Trump is a man and Clinton is a woman. Both are hoping to gain full support of the American people, and will use different techniques to do so. 

Reliability

Because not all sources found on the internet are reliable, I will look at videos on Youtube of the real life debates. Instead of picking a transcript of their speeches online and analysing this, I am going to transcribe certain sections of their speeches myself so that I know all of the utterances were actually spoken by the candidates.

Ethics

In the circumstances of my investigation, considering whether my research is ethical is reasonably easy. Because the candidates already know they are being filmed and broadcasted everywhere, it is not necessary to ask for this permission because they will have already been informed about what will happen. 

Zachy Transcripts

Zachy Transcripts Analysis 

In this transcript, often, Zachy's speech does seem less fluent. A contextual reason for this could be that his mother is asking him questions about the robot he is building. This could have an impact on his speech because she is putting him on the spot, meaning he has to think of a response quickly. At times, it is evident that Zachy seems more fluent in his speech. For example, 'Yeah I need one more bit of tape' after his mother says 'is that what you're saying?' Vygotsky's theory is relevant here as Zachy's mother is providing the 'scaffolding' support for him to become more fluent in his speech and speak with more sophisticated grammar.

In the first conversation, Zachy's mother is setting the agenda by asking a lot of interrogatives in order to find out more about the robot. Zachy then responds with declaratives, mostly followed by his mother saying 'because...' to encourage him to expand on his speech. Latched talk is present here, Zachy and his mother are frequently uttering preferred responses, showing adjacency pairs in the transcript. In the second conversation of the transcript, it is evident that Zachy is setting the agenda of conversation. When his mother suggests they eat breakfast while waiting for the robot to 'heal', Zachy says 'it's gonna be a long time though (.) but we're not gonna have breakfast still.' Zachy is declaring what the agenda is, taking control of the situation.

By comparing the two transcripts which were set 13 months apart, we can see by analysing the speech that Zachy has developed in a number of ways. Zachy's language is a lot more sophisticated by the time he is aged 3 years and 5 months. His grammar structure is more mature, for example, he says 'it's gonna be a long time though (.) but we're not gonna have breakfast still.' He is beginning to grasp the concept of connectives and what words are suitable to go where. He has more of a pragmatic understanding of how sentences should be formed. In the first transcript Zachy says 'Look (.)/ blown way' when talking about his book. From this, and the whole transcript, we can tell that zachy does not form long, complex sentences. He is very restricted to his known simple sentence structure. This means he has not yet grasped the concept of connectives and more sophisticated language.  This supports Jerome Bruner's theory of constructionism because by comparing the two transcripts, he has reached the border of the Symbolic stage - information is being stored as language. By the age 2 years and 4 months, he has reached the Iconic and Enactive stages, but not yet the symbolic stage.

The vocabulary Zachy uses in the second transcript is a lot more advanced. When he was aged 2 years and 4 months, Zachy generalised lexis because he had not learnt a lot of terms, so could not use them. When he looked at his mother's bolognaise, he said 'what's this lasagne?' as an overextended term. He was familiar with what lasagne was, and knew that the bolognaise was not lasagne, but wanted to find out the correct term for the food. This implies that he has not yet got a full range of vocabulary. However, in the second transcript, he is using a wider range of lexis. 13 months is a long time for Zachy to learn and understand new terms, for example, 'sellotape', 'robot' and 'glue'. It could be argued he did not know these terms before, and has learnt them through experience. Vygotsky's theory can support the fact that Zachy overextended the term 'lasagne'. He was aware of the fact that the food was not lasagne, but used an interrogative to ask his mother what it actually was. He was using the 'scaffolding' of his mother to cross the 'Zone of Proximal Development' and learn new things.

Various examples of non-standard grammar are used throughout the transcripts by Zachy. For example 'look (.)/ blown away' is used in the first transcript by Zachy. Zachy is using a phrase which is non-standard English, but it still has the effect he desired for the listener. This phrase is an example of Halliday's Regulatory function. He is using the imperative 'look' to make his mother understand what he is talking about. So, even though he is not using standard grammar, he does not need to, because those 3 words were enough to gain a preferred response. Similarly, in transcript 2, Zachy does use a lot of non-standard grammar. For example, 'doo doo doo doo...' at the beginning. This does not make sense unless you understand the context of the speech. Even though Zachy has more of a sophisticated vocabulary, he still uses non-standard forms which could contradict theories such as Bruner and Piaget. This is because the transcripts were written 13 months apart, but in some ways are not that different.

Overall, the data provided is reliable because the transcripts can be supported by a variation of theorists. Their theories are backed up by evidence from the sources, showing that aspects of the transcripts are down to child's language development. A lot of the evidence in the transcripts show that 13 months can cause a lot of development and maturity when it comes to language, such as a more complex grammar structure, vocabulary and pragmatic understanding.

Zachy Transcript

Halliday's Functions of Speech closely relate to the Zachy transcript I have been analysing.

Michael Halliday created 7 functions which are present in child's language acquisition: Instrumental, Regulatory, Interactional, Personal, Representational, Heuristic, Imaginative.

In reference to the Zachy transcript, here are some quotes which can be explained by Halliday's theories.

Instrumental - A child uses language to express their needs
'It doesn't go frough' is an utterance made by Zachy when explaining that the pen will not fit in the binding of his notepad. This is a declarative, because he stating that the pen will not go through. However, it's also a cloaked imperative - Zachy is implying that he would like help from his mother with this task. He is using this phrase to express his need to carry out a particular action.

Regulatory - A child uses language to influence the behaviour of others
'Look, blown away dose papers' is an utterance spoken by Zachy to explain what is happening in the book he is reading. The imperative 'Look' commands his mother to see what he is seeing, persuading her to do so.

Interactional - A child uses language to develop social relationships
'Mummy' and 'Daddy' are address terms used frequently by Zachy towards his parents. This signifies the personal relation he has with them - one that is unique to these particular people. It also implies he has a close relation to his parents, because not all children will use this lexis to address their parents.

Personal - A child uses language to express personal preferences and individual identity
'I don't like bolognay' is an utterance which implies a personal preference of Zachys. The declarative shows that he has an opinion in which presents his individual identity.

Representational - A child uses language to exchange information
'I can't get it up dere' is a declarative uttered by Zachy expressing the fact he can't move an interactive part of the book he is reading. As well as this, it's a cloaked imperative of the fact he wants help with this action, most likely from his mother.

Heuristic - A child uses language to learn of and explore the environment and to learn
'What's this lasagne?' is an interrogative spoken by Zachy to ask what his mother is eating. This is an example of an overextension of the term 'bolognaise' because Zachy has recognised that they are similar things. This utterance also shows that Zachy is curious about the objects that are around him, and he wants to find out more

Imaginative - A child uses language to tell stories and jokes, creating an imaginary environment
'Oh, we're in the railway station' is an utterance spoken by Zachy to explain what is happening in the book he is reading. He is using a declarative to describe to his mother what the setting is, therefore setting the environment in his book.