Tuesday, 7 October 2014

Child directed speech
During the nappy change routine (Bruner, L.A.S.S), the mother continually refers to herself in third person ‘mummy’ to reflect the child's language and perhaps to reiterate her powerful position (despite the child being in control of the content of speech – egocentric) with the use of imperatives ‘do some talking’.
Closed questions ‘are you hungry’ and scaffolding (Jerome Bruner) ‘ that's that's his’ are used to encourage the child to speak in turn (turn-taking pragmatics) and to respond when spoken to. The window for the child to speak is highlighted by the pause shown by the number indicated in the brackets ‘(2.0)’.
The powerful participant – the mother – uses recasting to subtlety alter and improve the child's language range - Briony: PP Mother: Please – however the ‘p’ may be difficult for the child to pronounce due to the difficulty in phonology. 

Monday, 29 September 2014

Thursday, 25 September 2014


Can you apply Skinners theory to the list of 50 first words?

The terms ‘please’, ‘yes’ and ‘no’ all test the operant conditioning theory due to the reinforcement that is expected from the correspondent due to imitation of observation and perhaps past experience.                                                                                                                                                                                                      Skinner stated: ‘humans are like rats they can be taught to perform tasks as long as it’s broken down into stages and they are rewarded for their correct actions’ terms from the child’s first 50 words reflect this, for instance ‘juice’ – this could be viewed as a command to do a physical action ‘to drink’, this could have been rewarded by the child getting  given some juice.

However, the term ‘wassat’ objects to Skinners theory due to the logical mistake of imitation of sound (phonology) but this error could be the result of an accent/dialect from the speaker present.



Monday, 22 September 2014


Could do my investigation on 2 transcripts comparing the language between a healthy ad against a unhealthy advert.

USING YOUTUBE - tv commercials - http://www.uktvadverts.com/facts/?list=ch4

unhealthy - avoid statistics, random

unhealthy - cadburys
healthy - innocent smoothies

e.g.
MCDONALD'S:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI-PPoDvxSk - mcdonalds portryaing a healthy image https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ9H2M9kd_A - mcdonalds catering to the budge economic needs of its consumers

SKITTLES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17tShjZFUcM - rhetorical questions in use

WALKERS CRISPS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox8ltyyisq8

GUINNESS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcdDg30VBgo

INNOCENT SMOOTHIES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeXgxN24loc - repetition of the term 'good' paints a healthy, tasty picture of the product

CHANGE4LIFE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMiT-tdNKTY



same company, completely different products-

GLACEAU VITAMIN WATER:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkvhc83QENg

COCA COLA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4KUaiGCmGU

NOT ACTUALLY A HEALTHY DRINK - '''https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVBFdU3oIN8''''
made by Coca Cola to try and cateer to all drink needs by creating new product -  its not actually good for you (false presentation of LANGUAGE)




I could look at how 2 drinks are varied in promotion by the same company (Glaceau vitaminwater vs Coca Cola)...




http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=glaceau+vitamin+adverts&FORM=HDRSC2#view=detail&id=CD9648A33DFF47E70D9C358DC31A98012EC10C61&selectedIndex=0



http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=coca+cola+adverts&qs=n&form=QBIRMH&pq=coca+cola+adverts&sc=8-17&sp=-1&sk=#view=detail&id=71D0B30D8CA5FA84D797965B172F6E11635CDAE2&selectedIndex=179

Monday, 15 September 2014

Could look at how a given company alters its use of language over different mediums e.g. via social networking sites, to its official website, to posters, to TV adverts and how the language changes between healthy and unhealthy advertisements.

For example:

Healthy brand - Change for Life:
                           * Posters
                           * TV advert
                           * Official website

Unhealthy brand - McDonald's:
                           * Posters
                           * TV adverts
                           * Official website
Could look at how adverts gain interest of the audience, e.g. via characters

Could look at how UNHEALTHY food is portrayed in adverts persuading you to buy the product versus adverts trying to convince you to not eat unhealthy (food warnings).

Food warnings...


Promotion of healthy foods...



Unhealthy adverts generally avoid any real detail about the product specifically - it focuses upon PUNS and slogans to turn attention away from the underlining fact that it is bad for you.


Unhealthy trying to portray a healthy image...



Unhealthy products have started to try and cater for the healthy, get fit social trend at present - to not loose customers but to gain new ones.

For instance - Coca Cola sponsored the Olympics





Thursday, 11 September 2014


What clues can you gather from this list of 50 words on how a baby might acquire language?


A baby I believe would develop its use of language through imitation and repetition of words that are used consistently for a specific meaning. The routine of these words helps to build up the child’s vocabulary, developing the child’s knowledge about the given language.
The child will receive help from guardians and teachers, whose names are likely to be learnt quickly due to the child having the ability to state who their talking to whilst speaking to gain maximum attention and clear direction of message – this would have been learnt through the child observing and participating in conversations (learning the pragmatics). The infant would also gain insight into language through the media. Many TV shows aimed at the kids market target the aspect of ‘learning’ – this is done in a fun, exciting way to make the audience want to learn. Sounds (like onomatopoeias) are used to capture interest and to portray a subject in an easy, memorable form e.g. woof woof = dog.
Whilst studying the 50 words, I discovered that many imperatives have been used. Perhaps this is because the child is at the holophrase stage - yet to develop its language and sounds to form full sentences, so is using body language and direct words to illustrate meaning.

Monday, 8 September 2014

Where will I find data for my subject area of advertising?

* Magazines
* Google images
* Newspapers
* Internet
* TV
* You Tube adverts
* General posters e.g. bus stop adverts
* Leaflets


Potentially useful sites for my topic of advertising...

http://advertising.about.com/od/copywriting/a/The-10-Most-Powerful-Words-In-Advertising.htm

http://web.stanford.edu/class/linguist62n/

http://www.superdream.co.uk/best-advertising-slogans/

Wednesday, 3 September 2014

A2 Personal Investigation ideas...

I would like to investigate the language used within advertisements, though the focal point hasn't been decided upon yet.  I have a few ideas I came up with whilst brainstorming...

1.Look at how different food groups use language to persuade you to buy it - e.g. fruit & vegetables (healthy statistics) and chocolate (imagery of cosy, luxury, delight)


2.How language varies with different types of holidays


3.How language alters with objects of different prices

4.How language changes throughout the seasons






5.How the same product has been presented over a given period of time






Sunday, 22 June 2014

            Oxford English Dictionary terms 

1.   New words have entered the English language through ‘borrowing’ whilst being in contact with people of different cultures with diverse languages, for instance ‘The word cushy was borrowed from Urdu by the British military in India’, words were also formed as a description to the conditions they were in.
2.       Whilst reading through the article I had to look up the following words to receive their definition: ‘spike bozzle’ (meaning to badly damage or destroy an enemy weapon), ‘napoo’ (meaning that there is no more of something, it’s gone, finished - oringally army slang, presently rarely used) and ‘maconochie’ (meaning vegetables stewed with meat in a tin).  

3.       The OED have chosen 100 terms to include in the list within the article to provide a ‘record of social history’ – I feel they have chosen a broad range that covers multiple years and numerous segments under the heading ‘War terms’ – it shows how the war effected everyone, e.g. ‘domestic and civilian life’ and ‘life in the trenches’.
4.   I could use this corpus of terminology to investigate how many terms are used today or how many of the words today’s generation know the definition to, perhaps to understand how effectively social history has been captured through learning about historical events. 
5.     This article could be linked to transcripts written with present modern day speech from various dialects, socialects and idiolects so that a comparison can be made to portray how language has altered over the years but to also identify what has stayed the same, maybe due to high significance or simplistic catchy terminology. 

Tuesday, 10 June 2014


Discussion of a hero text.
Our group decided to focus upon the Twitter text due to the minimal wording content- this suggests that what's written is of high significance and has been thought about carefully to propose a certain message (however it could be the result to the quick interaction on the popular social networking site).

This blogger has aspects of influential power, an indicator could be the statistical timings of each tweet, the close relationship in time could show how this particular tweeter has a lot of information to share, which in large sums potentially appeals to varied markets (more viewers) - however the target audience is filtered through the use of jargon.
          The term 'retweeted' shows that the given content was vastly influential so was shared to hopefully receive a reflecting, positive impact upon the new audience.

Friday, 21 March 2014


Men and women are of the same species therefore their power should be adequately equivalent but that view was absent when the English language was generated…

Dominance:
When partaking in convocation with mixed-genders and varied statuses, dominance becomes apparent as people try to achieve their convocational aim. It has been said that when convocation takes place between man and women; men are more prone to interrupt.

Dale Spender - 1980-
“Male dominance of lexis leads to female negative space.”  Dale Spender has discovered that as men were the dictionary author’s words often refer to their gender e.g. ‘women’ contains the term ‘men’- stating men’s power upon language.
In connection, the term ‘butch’ refers mainly to women addressing that they have manly assets/habits but the word can be expressed towards men; whereas the word ‘camp’ is purely specified towards men referring that they have feminine conducts  (women are not generally said to be camp). This illustrates how men have terms dedicated to them where as women have to share a term.

Job description- http://www.snagajob.com/job-descriptions/host-and hostess/                                                      
A job description has a sub-heading - ‘What do Hosts and Hostesses do?’  almost referring to the alternated term as a completely different job.  These marked terms stress how male dominance is shown with great clarity. It continues to state both variations of the word throughout the whole piece of text – perhaps this is to avoid offense from one gender if only a single term was used or to redefine that the job is open to males and females (the text’s purpose is to inform and maybe persuade people that this job is most efficient for them).
                 Further down in the text the job implies that the job is perhaps desired for a male ‘work their way into manager jobs.’(manager – male, manageress – female)  – this could however have been done accidently because the term ‘their’ has been used to imply that there are numerous candidates that have equal chance.

Friday, 7 March 2014


I am looking at Text C and E and comparing the way in which they express their language through two way communication.

To communicate Text C uses high frequency lexis in a polite tone because the form is a children’s book and the target audience is children. The book uses simple terminology perhaps so kids can read the book themselves or maybe it’s purely so they understand the content when guardians are reading it to them - this explains the polite tone the characters possess 'Good afternoon'; its sending a positive message to the younger generation to preserve and develop their manners. During the convocation between Mr Muddle and Mr Bump in text C, the relationship between the characters becomes apparent - 'Do you know what my name is?' 'You're Mr Carefull' . The characters obviously know each other yet due to the forgetting nature of Mr Muddle the answer he gives to Mr Bump is incorrect even though they may be well acquainted.               

Text E also uses high frequency lexis but in a subconscious manner - as the text is in the form of a transcript that’s not been rehearsed (convocation between a customer and vendor) so it is full of terminology people use in day to day speech, this illustrates why fillers 'er', pauses and overlaps are present.          The two subjects are not very familiar with one another but have a relation towards the content of the matter at hand (newspaper account). This could be why subject B hazards a guess towards the title of the enquiry 'It's 135 Penny Street isn't it'.

Friday, 28 February 2014

Comparing texts-


TEXT A:

The most insanely delicious pizzas.
You want to eat them and we want to make
them. That's why, at Domino's good will
never be good enough.
 
 
TEXT B:
 
With 160GB of storage, iPod classic can hold up to 40,000 songs, 200 hours of video or 25,000 photos. iPod classic means you can always have your entire music and video library with you.
 
 
 
Both of the apparent texts I have collected have the same purpose - to persuade its audience to buy its product and its secondary purpose to inform of  the values of the product. Both of the texts I feel are of great success due to the popular brand identity the companies already have, so they have loyal customers. In addition to their effective message, both texts use personal power to convey connection to their customers, to make their audience believe the product was designed just for them.
 
However, text A varies from B because A has assests from Fairclough's synthetic personalisation - 'You want to eat them', it is presuming that the mass audience is wanting what the company is offering without feedback from the viewers to see if it is actually true. Whereas, text B just uses the term 'you' to show personal connection 'you can always have your entire music...' - both are successful persuading techniques as the customer feels special and that the product is expecially for them but which one is more effective depends on the customer, their needs and if it implies to them.
My Target...

I aim to learn more Power technology so that I will be better equiped for any related questions and to further my knowledge. To achieve this goal I will set out to learn 5 - 10 new terms and learn the definition; I can review myself by doing a vocab test.

Sunday, 2 February 2014

TEXT 1:
An extract from Martin Luther Kings speech - I have a dream:

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today!

TEXT 2:
You tube clip for Educating Yorkshire:
TEXT 3:
 Will Smith interview with Jonathan Ross extract:

TEXT 4:
Outnumbered clip:

TEXT 5:
The Power of Language
By Sandra Ford Walston, The Courage Expert 
During my 14 years of interviewing employees for my work , oncourageous leadership, conducting ,interpersonal skills training, and coaching people on how to use courage, I became aware of the importance of language and how we use it to describe our domain.  Our words create our reality.
According to Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership by Joseph Jaworski, “It is through language that we create the world, because it’s nothing until we describe it.  And when we describe it, we create distinctions that govern our actions.  To put it another way, we do not describe the world we see, but we see the world we describe.”
When you speak, you are “acting.”  Linguists technically call the process “performative acts.”  A word or words, sentences, or utterances are performances—meaning they make something happen.  Promises, requests, offers, or words to persuade are performances that provoke action.




Monday, 27 January 2014

This advert entices its target audience of women by the use of aesthetics – pink coloured, floral background and an icon of Beyoncé; this appeals to women and makes them believe that if the phones something Beyoncé would possess then they would like it too. By highlighting the term ‘imagine’ – in a pink font relating to the imagery –it portrays that the phone is high up, modern, amazing, by emphasizing its presence. Starting the main paragraph is the phrase ‘At last’ this again reiterates the launch of this new product and the power it will have over society as it sounds like it is something that has been longed for, for a long time.

The advert focuses on the idea of doubles: double personalities, dual-faced phone, double image of Beyoncé – this could purely reflect the indication that this phone is twice as good as the current and because of its numerous sides.

Friday, 10 January 2014



Mini investigation: Language and Technology

My hypothesis, according to David Crystal’s research that there is no consistency between texters, is false. I will test this theory on a sample of people but due to the minimal subjects and communication aspects of convergence and accommodation between my samplers - from within a social group – language will be affected subconsciously due to linguistic features like sociolect; meaning my theory will therefore not be generalised.
The reason there aren't any quotes visible is simply because I am yet to ask permission to use the text messages.