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. 

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.

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.

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'.

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.

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:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emB9MxevBAs  

TEXT 3:

 Will Smith interview with Jonathan Ross extract:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX5c6IofR10

TEXT 4:

Outnumbered clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs52F49JiIE

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.