A Level English: Chapter 10 - TAJRIN SET

self

an individual's separate existence from other people

early childhood development

the physical, intellectual and social development which takes place from birth to primary school years

self-identity

an individual's awareness of their own characteristic in relation to the social groups around them

idiolect

the distinctive pattern of an individual's speech

Sociolect

the style of speech shared by people in a particular social group or religion

the imporant language features?

language maxims and language face

language maxims

Paul Grice (1975)

quality: dont say anything u believe is false, dont say something u lack evidence for

quantity: make it as informative as neccessary, dont make it more informative than neccessary

relation: be relevant

manner: avoid ambiguity and obscurity of expression, be breif and be orderly

cooperative principle

The principle that speakers usually mean what they say and that hearers accept this in trying to work out the meaning.

Conversational face

The image that a person has of themselves as a conversationalist

Face-threatening acts (FTAs)

linguistic strategies that threaten the negative or positive face of another participant such as commands, threats, warnings etc

Positive politeness

friendly strategies to make the participant feel good about themselves (compliments, use of title, mutually understood jargon, nicnknames,...)

E.g. Your presentation is really good, you could try speak a bit louder the next time

Negaive politeness

strategies intended to avoid giving offence and imposing on others by showing respect

E.g I hope u dont mind if I..... Would u mind if I asked u to...)

Adversive conjuntions

A connecting word which starts an idea opposing the one which has just been stated

E.g. Yes, but/ Yes, however....

Cognitive Skills

brain skills needed to perfrom mental and physical tasks. They relate more to the mechanisms of carrying out the tasks, rather than with knowlegde: perception, attention, memory, motor skills, language, visual and spatial processing

perception

recognition and interpretation through senses

Attention

Concetrating on a certain mental or physical tasks, and sustaing the concentrations over other distractions in the environent

Memory

Storage and retrieval of information in the brain: short-term and long-term

Motor skills

the ability to move the body and manipulate objects

language

the skill which changes sound into words to be spoken

Visual and spatial processing

The abillity to understand the relationship between objects and to visualise images and ideas in the imagination

What did philoshoper believe before the 20th century?

that language acquisition was part of a person's ability to reason,they had no awareness of the cognitive skills

What did linguists realise in the 20th century?

Language was not just learnign the names of objects and ideas, but it involved knowledge of how to put meaning on to words and phrases learned (cognitive skills involved in the brainn development alongside the lexis and grammar of a language learned)

4 theories

behavioursim, empiricism, nativism, innatism

Behavioursim

B.F. Skinner (1913)

Children learn through imitation and reinforcement (encouragment/ discrouragement)

explains the process/ HOW language is learned= the methos

based on empiricism (more specific than it tho)

Empiricism

John Locke (1690)

our sense of self-identity and knowledge come through our senses and experiences, not through reasoning or logical argument

Mind at birth was a clean slate/ tabula rasa

explains WHERE knowledge comes from = the idea

Innatism

Plato (Greek philosopher), Descarted (French mathematician and piholospher)

Mind is born with ideas, abilities and knowledge

humans are born with pre-existing mental structures

Against empiricism

Broader concept (everything inborn)

Nativism

Noam Chomsky

Based on innatism (but for language specifically)

LAD (Language Acquisition Device) - a built in system that enables the initial development of language which interacts with individual's childhood experiences = produce both language and sense of self

Language is inborn

e.g. I goed to the park

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

1929 Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf

Word and grammar of a language directly shape the thoughts of its speakers and the ways in which a person forms a view of the world

Linguistic determinism

Lingistuic reflectionism

Linguistic relativity

E.g. how theres more words for one thing in a diff language comapred to another language (snow. Inuit trbes of the Artcic had 3 words for snow)

Linguistic determinism

the idea that the structure of a language deternines the thought process of its speakers

Linguistic reflectionism

The idea that language reflects the thoughts and ideas of a culture, the opposite of linguistic determinism

language relativity

the idea that the structure of a language affects a person's view of the world, either very directly as in linguistic determinism or as a much more indirect and weaker influence

Critisism of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

examples with language differences relating to concepts of time, space and lifestyle when the Hopi Indians did not have a concept of time

They thought that a language acts like a prison, compared to Boas-Jakobson principle

Boas-Jakobson Principle

1950

a replacament to the Sapir-Whorf theory

in theory, every thought can be expressed in every language but that languages differ in the types of information they require speakers to mention when they use the language.

Universalism

Rik Pinxten 2011

all humans share the same cognitive processes which are reflected in every language so that ideas can be translated easily between different langauges (e.g. all langs have verbs and nouns)

Language and social equity

gender (policeman VS police officer, fireman VS firefighter)

Comedy (not joke about physical appereance)

Ethnicity (no racist slurs and insults)

Workplace changes (more women in senior roles = "boss" is not only a "he")

Age (no words like senile, aged, old etc; instead older person, seniors, etc)

Disability( handicapped VS disabled)

Religious beliefs (Christian Name VS First Name)

stereotype

A generalized belief about a group of people which often produces negative feelings about those concerned

Political Correctness (PC)

Avoiding discriminatory language to any group who may be seen to be at a disadvantag because of their race, gender, disability or any social disadvantages

convergence

when we make our language style sinilar to the speakers around us because we want to fit in

Divergence

when we make our language more distinctly different from those speakers around us

Speech communities

Groups of people who use the same variety of language and have a shared understanding of its style

Linguistic prestige

The degree of respect and value given to a particular style of language by a speech community

Research studies on language and social class

William Labov 1966, NY Study

Peter Trudgill, 1974, Norwich, UK Study

The Great British Class Survey, 2011

Basil Bernstein, 1971

William Labov

1966 NY Study

he researched a pronunciation of a separate consonant t after a vowel, which was considered speaking prestige

those in lower classes were chaning their pronunciation to sound like this

Peter Turdgill

1974, Norwich, UK Study

he found out that working-class women were more aware of the more prestigious form of pronunciation

The Great British Class Survey

2011- BBC concepts of upper, middle, and working class in modern Britain, often satirized in comedy shows, are outdated. However, clear divisions still exist, based on wealth and access to technical knowledge.

Basil Bernstein (1971)

Famous for distinguishing between the restricted code (used by people who have similar cultural background or know each other well) and the elaborated code (used by people who are unfamiliar with one another or with one another's culture)

contexts for language

formal

colloquial

slang (from NYC e..g. uptown bananas)

jargon (phrases used by specialist groups e.g. doctors)

code switch

switching between different varieties or registers of language

computer mediated communication

communication between people via electronic devices such as email, texting etc

Female and male language study

1970 Don Zimmerman and Candace West at Uni of California : found out that men interrupt more than women do

Characteristics of male and female language

men are less likely to give feedback (mm, really, yeah)

women are more cooperative in feedback, questions and turn takin

women do more hard work to keep the convo going by asking questions (Robin Lakoff 1975 . politeness princišle in womens convo e.g. thanks and please)

womens lexical choices are more evaluative and descriptive ( wonderful, lovely,...)

men use more grammaticlaly incorrect forms compared to women

Genderlect Theory

Deborah Tannen, 1990 compares the convos of men and women in Western societies (status vs support, independence vs intimacy, advice vs understanding, etc.) = mens convos tend to be more about giving and receiving of inforamtion, convos are often assertive w no strategies to avoid conflict VS Womens convos about building cooperative relationships e.g. compromising over differences of opinions etc

Other theories of gender and language

Standpoint theory (Harding and Wood): suggests that studies about women should be practised from a pov of women bc women experiences are significantly different than mens

The muted group theory (Cheris Kramarae): suggests that minorities in a society have less power than others and are thus silenced, which is women in speech

Inclusion

the making of certain people or groups gto feel that thez belong and are valued

Exclusion

the making of certain people or gorups to feel left out and unimportant

examples of social groups experiencing inequality

England (William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066=Norman French official language for 200 years- peasents continued to speak Old English)

Language and religion (Catholic Church opposed the translation of th Bible into English from Latin which happened in 1300=many people burned as heretics bc of their wish to worship in English)

South America (Under Spain's colonial rule, Spanish replaces Quechua and other Amerinian langs and Portuguese became the official lang in Brazil)

New Zealand ( English colonies wiped out Maori, and Maor was forbidden to speak in schools, but later maori became one of the official langiages)

South Africa (black children should be taught in Afrikaans not in english bc that would give them an advantage)

Examples of inclusion

fans of the same movie, show or a book create a fanbase / fangroups in which they use the same jargon, slang related to a certain topic which makes them relate even more. This excludes those who do not understand them.