CLA Articles

Language and Technology

Over the years, Technology has progressed rapidly. Therefore, we must adapt our modern day language in order to accommodate this rapid change.
Some theories about technology are;

Grice's Maxims (1975)

Maxim of Quantity - Do not say too much or too little in a conversation.

Maxim of Quality - Be truthful when speaking.

Maxim of Relevance - Keep to the point and to not evade the question.

Maxim of Manner - Speak in a clear and orderly way.

Shlegoff's canonical sequence (1986)

1) Summons/ answer. - opens the channel of communication.

2) Identification/ recognition. - not needed for Face-to-face.

3) Greetings sequence.

Gile's Accommodation Theory

Convergence-move speech closer to other person downward to upward Divergence-Move speech style further away from other person

Language and Power

During Spoken and written language, a certain person may insert their power by using certain language aspects.

Norman Fairclough - in 1989 wrote a book called language and power.
His theory was;

Synthetic Personalisation
This was the use of the pronoun 'you' when directly addressing someone.This shows power because it shows direct contact with someone. It can be used in various ways in advertisements and marketing discourse.

Different types of power;

Three Types Of Power
1. Political - power held by those working with the law e.g lawyers, politicians, police
2. Personal - power as a result of occupation e.g. teacher, employee
3. Social - power as a result of membership of a group

Then there is:
Instrumental Power - power used to mantain and enforce authority
Influential Power - power used to influence and persuade others
source: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1283612
During spoken discourse, when there is one person that is more powerful than the other (powerful participant), there may be power asymmetry. This may mean that one holds more power due to their occupation or due to their social class.

Power in spoken discourse
Power Asymmetry/ Unequal Encounter - the power one speaker has over the othere (Fairclough)
Powerful Participant - speaker with higher status in given context who is able to impose a degree of power
Less Powerful Participant - speakers with less status in a given context who are subject to constraints imposed by the powerful participants
Constraints - a way in which the powerful participant blocks or controls the contributions of the less powerful participants e.g by interupting or controlling content

Sinclair & Coulthard
Classroom setting
- Initiation Response Feedback
- Formulation -> teacher rewording contribution of student in order to impose a meaning or understanding
source: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1283612

Positive/Negative Face;
During spoken discourse, if someone holds more power, they may use various strategies in order to force their opponent to answer questions or do something for them.

Brown and Levinson came up with the theory; 

Politeness in Conversation
Face - a individuals self-esteem or emotional needs
Positive Face - the need to feel wanted, liked and appreciated
Negative Face - the need to have freedom of thought without feeling imposed on
(Brown & Levinson)

Politeness Strategies
Positive Politeness - e.g 'I really appreciated all the music you've lent me, can i borrow this soon?'
Negative Politeness - e.g 'I'm really sorry to ask you again..'
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1283612

Language and Gender

In English Language, there may be variances in the way in which people use lexis or their lexical due to them being male or female. 

Gender Theories;

Robin Lakoff -  in 1975, Lakoff published a book called 'Language and Women's place'.
Her theory consisted of;


1) Men interrupt women more than vice versa. 
2) Women are more communicative than men. 
3) Men do not give verbal recognition of the contributions in the 
conversation made by women. 
4) Men curse more than women. 
5) Women gossip more than men. 
6) Women talk more with one another than men do. 
7) Men speak more comfortably in public than women.
source: http://semantics.uchicago.edu/kennedy/classes/sum07/myths/myths4-gender.pdf

Deborah Tannen - This theorist came up with the difference theory which specifies the different language aspects that women use compared to men.
For Example;

Status v. support

Tannen states that, for men, the world is a competitive place in which conversation and speech are used to build status, whereas for women the world is a network of connections, and that they use language to seek and offer support. 

Advice v. understanding

Women seek comfort and sympathy for their problems, whilst men will seek a solution to the problem.

Information v. feelings

Tannen states that men's conversation is message-oriented, based upon communicating information. For women, conversation is much more important for building relationships and strengthening social links.

Orders v. proposals

Men will use direct imperatives ("close the door", "switch on the light") when speaking to others. Women encourage the use of superpolite forms, however ("let's", "would you mind if ...?").

Conflict v. compromise

Tannen asserts that most women avoid conflict in language at all costs, and instead attempt to resolve disagreements without any direct confrontation, so as to maintain positive connection and rapport. Men, on the other hand, are more likely to use confrontation as a way of resolving differences and thereby negotiating status. 

Independence v. intimacy

Difference theory asserts that in general men favour independence, while women are more likely to seek intimacy. Tannen demonstrates this with the example of a husband making a decision without consulting his wife.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_theory


Peter Trudghill theory;

This theory contained the differences in social class and claimed that women would often use discourse to show that they were in a higher social class. The men would use low prestige and use basic pronunciation.
He also said that women tended to use more 'empty' adjectives than men.

Word Classes - Verbs

Reference; http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/types.html

Normal Verbs

to run, to walk, to eat, to fly, to go, to say, to touch, etc.

Examples:

• I eat dinner every day.
• I am eating dinner now.

Abstract Verbs

to be, to want, to cost, to seem, to need, to care, to contain, to owe, to exist...

Possession Verbs

to possess, to own, to belong...

Emotion Verbs

to like, to love, to hate, to dislike, to fear, to envy, to mind...

Examples:

• He is needing help now. Not Correct
• He needs help now. Correct

• He is wanting a drink now. Not Correct
• He wants a drink now. Correct

Mixed Verbs

to appear, to feel, to have, to hear, to look, to see, to weigh...

List of Mixed Verbs with Examples and Definitions:

to appear:

Donna appears confused. Non-Continuous Verb
Donna seems confused.
My favorite singer is appearing at the jazz club tonight. Normal Verb
My favorite singer is giving a performance at the jazz club tonight.

to have:

I have a dollar now. Non-Continuous Verb
I possess a dollar.
I am having fun now. Normal Verb
I am experiencing fun now.

to hear:

She hears the music. Non-Continuous Verb
She hears the music with her ears.
She is hearing voices. Normal Verb
She hears something others cannot hear. She is hearing voices in her mind.

to look:

Nancy looks tired. Non-Continuous Verb
She seems tired.
Farah is looking at the pictures. Normal Verb
She is looking with her eyes.

to miss:

John misses Sally. Non-Continuous Verb
He is sad because she is not there.
Debbie is missing her favorite TV program. Normal Verb
She is not there to see her favorite program.

to see:

I see her. Non-Continuous Verb
I see her with my eyes.
I am seeing the doctor. Normal Verb
I am visiting or consulting with a doctor. (Also used with dentist and lawyer.)
I am seeing her. Normal Verb
I am having a relationship with her.
He is seeing ghosts at night. Normal Verb
He sees something others cannot see. For example ghosts, aura, a vision of the future, etc.

to smell:

The coffee smells good. Non-Continuous Verb
The coffee has a good smell.
I am smelling the flowers. Normal Verb
I am sniffing the flowers to see what their smell is like.

to taste:

The coffee tastes good. Non-Continuous Verb
The coffee has a good taste.
I am tasting the cake. Normal Verb
I am trying the cake to see what it tastes like.

to think:

He thinks the test is easy. Non-Continuous Verb
He considers the test to be easy.
She is thinking about the question. Normal Verb
She is pondering the question, going over it in her mind.

to weigh:

The table weighs a lot. Non-Continuous Verb
The table is heavy.
She is weighing herself. Normal Verb
She is determining her weight.

Some Verbs Can Be Especially Confusing:

to be:

Joe is American. Non-Continuous Verb
Joe is an American citizen.
Joe is being very American. Normal Verb
Joe is behaving like a stereotypical American.
Joe is being very rude. Normal Verb
Joe is behaving very rudely. Usually he is not rude.
Joe is being very formal. Normal Verb
Joe is behaving very formally. Usually he is not formal.

NOTICE: Only rarely is "to be" used in a continuous form. This is most commonly done when a person is temporarily behaving badly or stereotypically. It can also be used when someone's behavior is noticeably different.
to feel:

The massage feels great. Non-Continuous Verb
The massage has a pleasing feeling.
I don't feel well today. Sometimes used as Non-Continuous Verb
I am a little sick.
I am not feeling well today. Sometimes used as Normal Verb
I am a little sick.

Word Classes - Nouns

Word Classes;

Nouns -  http://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/nouns_different_types.htm

Common Nouns

A common noun is the word used for a class of person, place or thing.

Examples:

• Car
• Man
• Bridge
• Town
• Water
• Metal
• Ammonia

Common nouns are further classified into:

• Abstract nouns – things you cannot see or touch (e.g., bravery, joy)
• Collective nouns – words to describe groups (e.g., team, choir)
• Compound nouns – nouns made up of more than one word (e.g., court-martial, pickpocket, water bottle)
• Concrete nouns – things you can see or touch (e.g., tree, cloud)
• Non-countable nouns (mass nouns) – things you cannot count (e.g., food, music)
• Gender-specific nouns – words which are definitely male or female (e.g., vixen, actress)

Proper Nouns

A proper noun is the name of a person, place or thing (i.e., its own name). A proper noun always starts with a capital letter.

Examples:

• Michael 
• Africa
• Peking
• Dayton Peace Accord
• United Nations
• The Tower of London
• Uncle George
(Uncle is written with a capital letter because it is part of his name.)
• My favourite auntie is Auntie Sally. 
(In this example, the first auntie is a common noun, but the second Auntie is part of a proper noun.)
• The Red Lion

Collective Nouns

A collective noun is the word used for a group of people or things.

Examples:

• Choir
• Team
• Jury
• Shoal 
• Cabinet (of ministers)
• Regiment

The big question with collective nouns is whether they should be treated as singular or plural. The answer is: They can be treated as singular or plural depending on the sense of your sentence. This is covered in more depth in the lesson Collective Nouns – Singular or Plural? and in the Beware section on the right of this page.

Pronouns

A pronoun is a word used to replace a noun.

Pronouns are one of the eight parts of speech which are: adjectives, adverbs
conjunctions, interjections, nouns, prepositions, pronouns and verbs. 

Even though they are classified as a different part of speech to nouns, pronouns are nouns. They always play the role of a noun in a sentence.

• James is the first choice for the post. He has applied for it twice already.
(He is a pronoun. In this example, it replaces the proper noun James.)
(It is a pronoun. Here, it replaces the common noun post.)  
• Some / Who / This
(The term pronoun covers lots of words, and all three words above are classified as pronouns. There is whole section dedicated to pronouns.)

Verbal Nouns 

Verbal nouns (also called gerunds) are formed from verbs. They end -ing. They are a type of common noun. 

• I love swimming.
(swimming – the name of an activity; it is formed from the verb to swim.)
• Lateral thinking is required to solve this problem.
(thinking – the name of an activity; it is formed from the verb to think.)

Verbal nouns are different to other nouns, because they can take an object or be modified with an adverb.

• I love swimming this lake.
• Thinking laterally is required to solve this problem.

Compound Nouns

Compound nouns are nouns made up of two or more words. Some compound nouns are hyphenated. Some are not, and some combine their words to form a single word. (This is covered in the lesson Hyphens in Compound Nouns.)

Examples:

• Mother-in-law
• Board of members
• Court-martial
• Forget-me-not
• Manservant
• Pickpocket
• Paper-clip

Language Frameworks - definitions

Language Frameworks

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=language+frameworks&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=wd_9Uq7fDOWO7Qa31oCIDA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=923#q=english%20language%20frameworks&tbm=isch&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=ZAr7rUVrAoDZTM%253A%3B4Fg8LXZNmzowAM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fenglish.edusites.co.uk%252Ffiles%252Fellb1-7.gif%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fenglish.edusites.co.uk%252Farticle%252Faqa-english-language-and-literature-b-

ellb1%252F%3B500%3B203 

In relation to Language Change;

Lexis/ Semantics - Archaic lexis is language that would have been used by older generations but are not used today. They have 'died out'.

Examples;

Afore - Original meaning was 'before' 

mayhap - 'perhaps'

prithee - an expression of wish or request (was used by Shakespeare)

teen - 'injury' or 'grief' - much different meaning to today which means 'teenager'  

Grammar - This has changed over the years and could be argued that it has become less formal.

Examples;

shall - in older times, people would use this auxiliary verb, however, in modern times people would choose to use 'will'.

thee, thou, whom - these were more formal pronouns, however, they are almost archaic in our modern language.

'to' -  this preposition has died out during the 1940's. For example, people used to say 'i started to walk', however, nowadays we are more likely to say 'i started walking'

Discourse - how written and spoken lexis has changed.

'one' - in older generations it was common for people to speak in the 3rd person when referring to themselves. Nowadays we use 1st person 'I'.