Word Classes

Word class	Sub-class	Description	Example
Nouns	Proper	Refer to names of people or places	James, England
	Abstract	Refer to states, feelings and concepts that do not have a physical existence	love, anger
	Concrete	Refer to objects that have a physical existence	countable (can be pluralised, e.g., cup)
			non-countable (do not take a plural form, e.g., furniture)
Verbs	Material	Show actions or events	hit, jump, wash, build
	Relational	Identify properties or show states of being	be, appear, seem, become
	Mental	Show internal processes such as thinking	think, believe, wish
	Verbal	Show external processes of communicating through speech	say, shout, scream, whisper
Adjectives and adverbs	Base	The basic form of an adjective or adverb, modifying another word	big, interesting, carefully
	Comparative	A form used to compare two instances either adding ‘-er’ or using ‘more’	The parcel was bigger. That was a more interesting game. He read more carefully.
	Superlative	A form used to compare more than two instances, identifying a best example	That was the biggest parcel. The most interesting game. It was the most carefully he had ever read.
Pronouns	Personal	Refer to people and are differentiated in terms of person (1st, 2nd, 3rd), number (singular or plural) and gender (male or female)	I (first person singular), you (second person singular/plural), she (third person, singular, feminine), they (third person, plural)
	Demonstrative	Orientate the reader or listener towards a person, object, or idea either nearby or further away	this, these, that, those
	Indefinite	Refer to a person, object or idea that is non-specific	someone, anybody, everything
Determiners	Articles	Show that something is definite or indefinite	the (definite), a/an (indefinite)
	Possessives	Show ownership	my, your, her, our
	Quantifiers	Show either specific or non-specific quantities of a noun	one, two (specific), some, any, a few (non-specific)
Conjunctions	Co-ordinating	Link words or larger structures such as phrases and clauses together where they are equal	and, but, or, yet
	Sub-ordinating	Link clauses together to show one is dependent on another	because, although, while, for

Remember:

• When making comments make sure you support it by paying close attention to language features
• Make sure you relate to the context of the article - make comments on the significance to the text as a whole

Foo Fighters Review

*Contains offensive language*

Recently, I travelled to Milton Keynes to see on of my favourite bands live. The Foo Fighters, along with Royal Blood and Iggy Pop were absolutely amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. One thing I did notice was how the language they used really got the crowd going. 

The frequent use of the words 'fucker', 'fucking' and just 'fuck' in general by all bands seemed to encourage the audience to shout and sing louder. Maybe it was the fact that the taboo that we put on words like these make it seem so much more rebellious and crazy when they are spoken. All bands used swear words quite a lot, despite the fact that they knew kids were watching. But, this behaviour is what we expect from these kind of rock bands, and in some way it's what we love about them.

Overall, I really did enjoy this experience of seeing 3 amazing artists all in one night, despite the fact that Dave Grohl was stuck on his 'throne' all night, he did manage to pull off a sensational performance in which I would love to experience again.

Word of Mouth - The Top 20 Words in English by Michael Rosen

This radio show by Michael Rosen revolves around the most common words used in the English language today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06z2pmp

Joined by Dr Laura Wright, linguist at Cambridge University, they speak about the issue. From the conversation, it is gathered that the most common words used are: the, be, to, of, and, with, I, you and have. It is clear that there are no nouns included, and few verbs. 

They are later joined by Jonathan Culpeper from the University of Lancaster. It is apparent that we don't even realise that we say the most commonly used words, because it is programmed in our brains so much that we don't have to think about it any more. Another important point discussed is that the inbuilt sexism of language is shown with the word counts of lexis in English. 'He' is the 16th most commonly used, 'His' is 23rd and 'She' is only 30th in the list. This underlines the fact that sexism is even present in the language we use. 

Another point discussed is that we have grammatical words and content words in our language. Grammatical words are the small and useful words which act as a glue to how we form sentences. Whereas content words are the ones which have meanings. They talk about the fact that 'Google' won't even pay attention to the grammatical words, just the content words.

Jonathan speaks about the word frequency units that he counted for pop songs. The most popular grammatical words were 'I', 'me' and 'my' whereas the content words were 'love', 'make', 'baby', 'alone', 'rain' and 'sad'. This implies that artists are very ego-centric and also speak a lot about romance. 

One of the final topics they talk about is how technology allows us to make words frequency lists (like the lists above.) The ever growing world that we live in is developing and so this means that we can make statistical comparisons between the language used for different purposes. This means that we can track social attitudes, much like a lot of companies do nowadays. 

Word of Mouth - Slang by Michael Rosen

This radio show by Michael Rosen revolves around the use of slang from the past to the present day. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06wd268

He is joined by Dr Laura Wright, a linguist at the University of Cambridge to talk about this type of language. Some important points discussed included the fact that 'everyone uses slang to an extent' even though we may not realise it. It is language that has been around for generations and so greatly impacts how we speak. Michael even said that 'great' used to be a slang word in the 1960's when he was 14. His parents avoided saying it, by using 'super' instead.

They were later joined by Jonathon Green, a lexicographer of slang who wrote a short introduction on the issue. He explains some of his theories starting with the theory of 'slang' is a counter language, reversing the standard English that we use in every day life. He explains that a lot of people associate slang with 'bad' people, however slang originates from the 'correct English' and is misunderstood. 

Michael, Laura and Jonathon discuss the opinion that white working class men generated the English Language. However, many different classes, genders and ethnicities are influencing the language we use today. The overall agenda from the radio talk is that creating and using slang is a very innovative and clever way of speaking, and has no relation to the intelligence of the person. Slang is not something that only certain people use, everyone contributes to the ever changing development of our language.

Mind Your Language

http://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language

This page on the guardian is all about language use. It includes articles styled by The Guardian editors all about 'language usage and abusage.'

Eight words that reveal the sexism at the heart of the English Language

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/27/eight-words-sexism-heart-english-language

This article written by David Shariatmada states the opinion that the English language is sexist. Over the years, certain words have completely changed their meanings because of attitudes towards women and how they are seen in the society we live in. 

The Oxford dictionary is also discussed and how even the publisher is criticised for being sexist bias. In the book, its purpose is to show how words are used in the real world, and one certain example has caused an issue. 'Nagging' is followed by 'wife', being a word that relates to it in every day life. The OUP (Oxford University Press) stated that this was not an intentionally sexist action, but said 'The example sentences we use are taken from a huge variety of different sources and do not represent the views or opinions of Oxford University Press.'

From the 8 words that have completely changed meaning since when they were first used, here are some examples: 

• 'Madam' used to be the female version of 'sir' but now means 'a conceited or precocious girl or young woman; a hussy, a minx.'
• 'Wench' used to mean a young girl or unmarried woman, but now means 'a wanton woman; a mistress.'
• 'Tart' used to mean 'sweetheart' in the 19th century, whereas now it means 'a female or immoral character; a prostitute.'

Eight Things I Wish I'd Known Before Starting My A-Levels

http://www.theguardian.com/education/mortarboard/2016/jan/11/eight-things-i-wish-id-known-before-starting-my-a-levels

This article written by Aisling Wood highlights 8 things that as an A-Level student, she wishes she would have been told before going through the somewhat 'stressful' experience.

This includes; The jump from GCSE's is enormous; Sticking to your deadlines is a necessity, not a choice; There’s more to free periods than social gatherings; Everyone is too caught up in their own appearances to worry about yours; Getting work done is down to you, and only you; Maintaining friendships is important; Get involved in everything you can and You’re allowed to have fun.

Being at the start of my journey through A-Levels, I have found that reading this article has helped me a lot. Everyone has this whole idea of these 2 years being the hardest of your life. This is probably true, but I think a lot of people forget that it is also a time to have fun and appreciate your youth before being thrown into the real world.