Eng Lang Unit 4 AOS 1

Standard variety of language:

- A standard dialect or language results from an elaborate process of direct and deliberate intervention by society.

- The variety must be chosen and codified by an authoritative body so as to become the agreed and institutionalised norm to be used for all societal functions, including bureaucratic, educational, scientific and academic.

- It must have written dictionaries and grammar books to dictate a 'correct' form of use.

Breakdown of Standard English

- Standard English is the language of educated English-speaking people.

- It has been codified in dictionaries and grammars.

- It is a variety without a home.

- It is more easily recognisable in writing.

- It is a variety involving vocabulary and grammar but can be spoken with any

accent.

Lexical Features of Australian English

- Distinctively Australian lexemes: barrack for (AUS), root for (US) in Britain where "barrack" is another word for "jeer." In Aussie English, "barrack for" means to encourage, to support,

- colloquial language:

e.g bludger, crook

- incorporated little from Indigenous Australian languages

e.g bung (broken), yakka (hard yakka), kangaroo, Geelong (cliffs)

Grammatical features of Australian English

Higher up on the social scale speakers fall, the more closely these speakers are aligned to the standard language

- Nonstandard traits are more characteristic of lower socioeconomic classes

PRONOUNS

Colloquial usages:

- plural second person pronoun 'yous' (yous'd worked on it)

-Demonstrative 'them' in place of 'those' (one of them things)

-Possessive 'me' in place of 'my' (He's me youngest)

VERBS AND VERB PHRASES

- increasing use of 'of' in place of 'have' after modal verb forms could, should and would (I would of waited)

- Modal use of better and gotta in place of 'had better' and 'have got to' (We better go, you gotta do it)

OTHERS

-Double negation (I never said nothing, not bad)

- Invariant negative tage isn't or innit (that's a big building, isn't it?)

- Sentence-final hedging 'but' (He's a bit of a dickhead but)

Morphological features of Australian English

- striking use of diminutives

e.g my mate Kevo, a weird journo from Freo

e.g poor dero couldn't get compo

These shortened expressions are a reflection of cultural values such as informality, mateship and egalitarianism.

Phonological features

3 overall accent varieties: broad, general and cultivated.

- broader varieties have 'slower' diphthongs.

- [h] deletion typical of broad accent

(e.g "arry's in a bituva'urry)

NON RHOTIC R

non-rhotic language - we don't pronounce [r] at the ends of words like 'father' or where it occurs before a consonant as in 'cart'

WEAK T

between vowels [t] tends to be flapped as to sound like a [d]

e.g city, get it

SOUNDS IN CONNECTED SPEECH

elision and assimilation in its consonants

e.g give us a 'gissa'

(didyabringyagrogalong)

HIGH RISING TERMINAL

- questioning intonation in clauses, such as declaratives, which are not used to ask for information.

Regional Variation

Many lexical differences regionally in Australia

Medium size glass of beer

- melbourne: pot

- sydney: middy

- adelaide: schooner

These differences symbolise identity

National Variation

Accent:

- broad accent more prevalent in North Queensland

- cultivated accent more prevalent in South Australia, may be attributed to the large numbers of German settlers who settled there during colonisation

Migrant Ethnolects

marked by various lexical, grammatical and phonological features that are distinct from SAE.

- Their use stresses common cultural knowledge and signals solidarity between interlocutors within the same group.

- carry overt prestige in society

Slang/media cashing in on 'Australianness' MEDIA EXAMPLE

In film and in the media, fairly traditional notions of Australian identity are projected, notions that arguably no longer reflect our reality.

However, despite this disjuncture, advertisers and celebrities continue to 'trade' on this image

e.g Four n Twenty 'Save Our Slang' Campaign

Conforming to language norms MEDIA EXAMPLE

Citizenship applicants will need to demonstrate a higher level of English proficiency as a result of the Turnbull Government's recent changes to the Australian Citizenship Test.

Australian values reflected in language

- mateship

- fair go

- easy going

- egalitarianism

Shift away from formal language in the public domain MEDIA EXAMPLE

Barnaby Joyce launched tirade against at Pauline Hanson after the One Nation leader said "Islam is a disease"

The Deputy Prime Minister slammed Senator Hanson's comments as "bat-poo crazy stuff" and "plain dumb".

- exemplifies the increasing acceptance of colloquial and informal language in poitics

Shift away from formal language in the public domain - growing acceptingness of profanity - MEDIA EXAMPLE

Whilst most taboo language is spoken, there has been a recent move to see certain taboo lexemes or expletives printed in newspapers. For example, in August 2017, sports journalist Mark Robinson for the Herald Sun printed that Gold Coast coach Rodney Eades was told by the club that he has "inherited a shit sandwich"

Playfulness of Australian language MEDIA EXAMPLE

AAMI ad - 'up ship creek', 'woop woop'

Language and Identity - David Crystal Quote

"More than anything else, language shows we belong, providing the most natural badge or symbol or public and private identity." (Crystal)

Language and Ethnicity - Kate Burridge Quote

"Ethnicity is an important part of social identity and something that people want to demonstrate through their use of language (Burridge)

Broad accent and gender - Kate Burridge Quote

"A broad Australian accent and the use of conventionally tabooed language become desirable macho markers of gender identity." (Burridge)

Broad accent & gender MEDIA EXAMPLE

Positive connotations around use by male politicians e.g Tony Abbott ---> "true blue bloke"

Strong distaste when used by female politicians such as Jacquie Lambie --> "unintelligent, uneducated"

Swearing and identity - Kate Burridge Quote

In periods of patriotism, it was felt that "swearing and a strong, broad Australian accent, for example, are associated with toughness and strength and these can be highly values qualities." (Burridge)

Cultivated Accent - Quote Kate Burridge

Cultivated Australian English can be seen as snobbish and "one often encounters hostile or amused reactions to the cultivated accent." (Burridge)

Slang - David Crystal quote

"The use of slang is a means of marking social or linguistic identity." (Crystal)

Swearing - David Crystal Quote

"Swearing has important social function." (Crystal)

Why don't Aboriginals proficient in Standard English speak it at home?

- Fear of 'flash talking' and appearing to have adopted the symbols of the 'white-man's' way of speaking.

It is risky for speakers to alter aspects of their linguistic behaviour. For one, it means giving up their allegiances to their social group — turning their back on the values, aspirations and accomplishments of those people they most closely identify with.

Australia's shunning of the cultivated accent

"Put simply,talking 'posh' doesn't have the same prestige it once had." - Kate Burridge

- All over the English-speaking world, growing egalitarianism and social democracy is seeing the solidarity function of dialects and accents gaining over the status function.

- Many people are now trying to speak more 'down-to-earth', wishing to avoid the 'crème de la crème' connotations of the Standard and its associated accents.

- Certainly in Australia it is not uncommon to encounter hostile (or amused) reactions towards these more prestigious varieties.

Standard language is only practical in the context of written language

The label 'standard' entails not only 'best practice' but also 'uniform practice'. This is only practical in the context of the written language, more especially formal written language.

The writing process (and the conscious self-

censorship that accompanies it) has a straitjacketing effect that safeguards the language

to some extent from 'the boundless chaos of a living speech', as Samuel Johnson put it in the preface to his dictionary — in other words, the flux and variance that is the reality of language.

Recording is a modern phenomenon — previously no one had proper access to

live unsolicited speech.

It is hardly surprising, then, that our dictionaries

and usage books have placed so much emphasis on the written word and that writing

has been held up as the model for correctness.

Language is continually changing - Quote Kate Burridge

"Linguists will argue all constructions are equally good and that change and variation are

natural and inevitable features of any thriving language"

e.g When social changes saw the disappearance of thou, you took over and dialects

have been evolving new plural pronouns like youse, you-all and you-uns ever since.

Discrimination towards users of NSAE and broad accents - Kate Burridge Quote

"Despite our current era of equal opportunity and equality for all, many are still discriminated against for using non-standard dialects and low-status accents."

Social Functions of swearing

1. expletive function - to let off steam

2. abusive function - to offend, name-call

3. social functions:

- means of marking social distance

- way of signaling social solidarity

borrowings fromAboriginal English help establish national identity

There's place names and nouns, many of which derive from Aboriginal languages, which will always be with us as they define where we are and who we are, from Tumbi Umbi to Tuggeranong and Woy Woy to Wagga Wagga.

Lexical Features of Aboriginal English

Within the extended family, there is widespread use of English terms of address, suchas 'cuz' (cousin) between same generation relatives no matter how distant. 'aunty' and 'uncle' are used as a term of endearment to refer to older people who are significant in their life.

It is important in Aboriginal culture to acknowledge respect due to older people,

Slang

Gunyan Aboriginal slang for a police officer.

Gubba aboriginal slang for a "white" person

Often incorporate these words into an English sentence.

Aboriginal English has a number of dialects along continuum

There are a number of continua of Aboriginal English dialects, ranging from close to Standard English at one end ( the 'light' varieties), to close to Kriol at the other (the 'heavy' varieties). Heavy Aboriginal English is spoken mainly in the more remote areas, where it is influenced by Kriol,

Phonological Features of Aboriginal English

One of the most distinctive features of the Aboriginal English sound system is the addition of a vowel sound to English words which start with a h sound:

→ The traditional Aboriginal languages have no 'h' sound.

Aboriginal English standard English

"Enry's hat" "Henry's hat"

Also, the addition of the h sound to English words which start in a vowel, as in:

Aboriginal English Standard English

"Huncle Henry" "Uncle Henry"

Grammatical Features of Aboriginal English

It is common for Aboriginal English speakers to ask a question using the structure of a statement with rising (question) intonation.

→ This structure is also used sometimes in colloquial Standard English.

It is common for Aboriginal English questions like this to be finished with a question tag.

In much of Australia this tag is eh?, in South Australia it is inna, and in the south west of Western Australia, it is unna.

Aboriginal English

"They bite, eh?"

Standard English

'They bite, don't they?"

Man From Snowy River