Blurred lines- the new battle of the sexes

We live in a patriarchal society- a male dominated society (include in introduction/conclusion)

• In the 21st century, it seems to be that men feel able to be negative about women and I would argue that one of the main influences is technology.
• Kirsty Wark- journalist 
• Often, forms of prejudice stem from humour and then are brushed off as 'banter', almost turning it around to make out the other person is in the wrong.
• Is the language that is offensive to women socially acceptable? Is it ok to use it if it is a joke?
• Technology enables people to write and make comments- written language is more permanent.
• The difference between sexism now and sexism 20 years ago is that it is now written down. It used to be private whereas now it is public.
• 'Blurred lines'- lyrics in a song are different to someone going out into the world and carrying out these actions.
• Sexist humour can facilitate sexism- makes it more socially accepted.
• The online abuse of women in the public eye is only possible because of social media.
• Can women in the public eye, escape trolls?
• Is language different online? Is it less real?- Kirsty Wark
• Dr Clare Hardacre- gender focus analysis of trolls..
• Sexist views in the media become amplified online. Then there's a feedback loop and then it becomes more amplified in the media- often known as an amplification spiral.
• Who owns the media?- White men
• Internet hasn't created mesogyny- it has facilitated it.
• Taboo language e.g slag, slut, whore.

The Guardian- What language barrier?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/oct/01/gender.books

Summary

• Brain sex/sex on the brain are books that explain that the difference between men and women is a product of nature, not nurture.
• The sexes communicate differently. The female brain excels in verbal tasks whereas the male brain is better adapted to visual and mathematical tasks. Women like to talk; men prefer action to words.
• Many employers share the call-centre manager's belief that women are by nature better qualified than men for jobs of this kind, and one result is a form of discrimination. 
• Male job applicants have to prove that they possess the necessary skills, whereas women are just assumed to possess them. 

Deborah Cameron wrote "the myth of Mars and Venus"  and it is simply the proposition that men and women differ fundamentally in the way they use language to communicate. All versions of the myth share this basic premise; most versions, in addition, make some or all of the following claims:

1.  Language and communication matter more to women than to men; women talk more than men.
2. Women are more verbally skilled than men.
3.  Men's goals in using language tend to be about getting things done, whereas women's tend to be about making connections to other people. Men talk more about things and facts, whereas women talk more about people, relationships and feelings.
4. Men's way of using language is competitive, reflecting their general interest in acquiring and maintaining status; women's use of language is cooperative, reflecting their preference for equality and harmony.
5. These differences routinely lead to "miscommunication" between the sexes, with each sex misinterpreting the other's intentions. This causes problems in contexts where men and women regularly interact, and especially in heterosexual relationships.

The book is patronising to towards men.

Deborah Tannen's book, 'You just don't understand' is all about her theory in which she adopts a neutral position on difference in genderlect, making no judgements about use of language by either gender.

Robin Lakoff suggested that socialisation played an important role in ensuring the female language remained less assertive when compared to that of men. She argued that the differences between male language and female language, are socially constructed rather than biologically based.

Past paper 2

http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-77012-SQP.PDF - the paper itself


http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-77012-COM.PDF - examiner expectations


http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-77012-CEX.PDF - student response

Bristol University- guide to grammar

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/exercises/grammar/grammar_tutorial/index.htm

1. Handy for revision
    
2. Structure- written punctuation, graphological features - visual aspects, discourse- addressing the reader, fpa, syntax –simple, compound and complex, clause- main and subordinate) Spoken Utterances, Syntax- imperative, interrogative, exclamative, declarative.
    
3. Common confusions- Homophones, comparatives, euphemisms- hidden meaning, lexical semantics- analysis of word meanings, pragmatics- text organisations.
    
4. Exam responses- For my essay
    
5. Conjunctions, split infinitives..
    
6. Style- Form, Purpose, Audience
    
7. Handy for revision

Theories

The dominance approach sees women as an oppressed group and interprets differences in women's and men's speech in terms of men's dominance and womens subordination. Researchers and theorists taking this view include Robin Lakoff (1975), Dale spender (1980) and Zimmerman and West (1983). Deborah Cameron in verbal hygiene (1995) argues that theorists like Lakoff and Spender see gendered language in terms of power and powerlessness for this reason: throughout Western culture the masculine/male has been the unmarked norm in language, the feminine/female the marked form. However, the marked forms are politically incorrect.

The difference approach sees women as belonging to 'different sub-cultures', who are differently socialised from childhood onward, and who may therefore have different problems in communication and culture. Deborah Tannen (1989) is an exponent of this position. Tannens view also identifies gender differences in terms of competitiveness (male) and co-operative (female).

Cameron challenges the whole idea that there are two different and contrasting languages for men and women, argueing that this is a deficit model approach (one language is inferior to the other). She asks whether gender alone is at the end of individual identity- is the term genderlect more precise or less than idiolect. 

The way women (or men, or men and women) talk in a variety of situations (casual conversation, service encounters, occupational contexts etc) may reveal the effects of disempowerment or may signal the effects of other variables, including socio-economic status, education, context, peer group, even personality.

Jennifer Coates (1993) identifies two approaches which she describes as dominance and difference:

• Patriarchal society 
• Male dominated world
• Males dominate positions of power
• 51% women

Instrumental power- explicit power of the sort imposed by the state, by its laws and conventions or by the organizations for which we work. It operates in business, education and various kinds of management.

Influential power- the power to have an important effect on someone or something. If someone influences someone else, they are changing a person or thing in an indirect but important way.

Institutions of power

• Government- instrumental
• Media- both
• Family/parents/friends- both
• Schools/colleges- both 
• Role models/celebs- influential 
• Royal family- instrumental 

10 reasons why English is weird

Homophone- each of two or more words having the same pronunciation but different meanings, origins, or spelling.

1) Wound- We unconsciously know how to pronounce the homophones as we know the differece between a verb and a noun. The first wound is a verb and the second is a noun.
2) Produce- The farm is the subject as it is what the sentence is based around. The first produce is the verb and the second one is a noun.
3) Refuse- The first refuse is pronounced as it is spelt and is the verb and the second one is pronounced with more emphasis on the 're' (noun).
4) Polish- The first one is a verb and the second one relates to the country Poland.
5) Lead- This one is like refuse as the first one is pronounced how it is spelt and it is the action of leading a group (verb) and the second one has more emphasis on the 'le' and it is a noun.
6) Desert/dessert- The first 'desert' is the verb. Then 'dessert' is the noun and finally the second 'desert' is a noun because it is a place.
7) Present- The first one is the adjective, the second one is the verb and the third one is the noun.
8) Bass- The first bass is the noun (fish) and the second one is also a noun (the bass guitar.
9) Dove- The first one is the noun and the second is the verb.
10) Object- The first one is the verb and the second one is the noun.

Why do I make less than my male co-stars?

'Why do I make less than my male co-stars?' is an article, which was published on the social networking site 'facebook' by the female actress Jennifer Lawrence. This article was published to highlight the fact that in some professions, women don't get paid the same amount as men, even if they have the same role within the job and to also make others aware that female inquality still takes place nowadays. Secondly, the article was also published to possibly generate debate within the online community and to allow people of all different age's and gender's to argue their point. Although this is a serious article, Lawrence includes taboo language such as 'fuck that', 'bullshit', to make it a little more light hearted.

Male and female language features:

• Men don't care if they come across as 'difficult' or 'spoiled', whereas women do.
• Men consider expressing their opinions as normal, but when women express theirs, they are made out to be 'personal' or offensive'. I think this is due to men feeling as though their dominance is being threatened so they react with words such as 'whoa' to patronise the woman to make her doubt herself.
• Women are stereotyped to state their opinion in an 'adorable' way.
• Men don't contemplate what angle they should use to have their voice heard, it is just heard.

Genre stereotypes in spoken language:

• Women gossip
• Women talk about domestic and personal trivia
• Women have soft and gentle voices or have loud, strident voices and they screech.

• Men are strong and silent
• Men talk about important topics e.g business.

Joanna Thornborrow

'One of the most fundamental ways we have of establishing our identity and of shaping other people's views of who we are, is through our use of language'- Joanna Thornborrow (2004)

Stephen Fry

'Language and accent shape and define our identity'- Stephen Fry

Language and identity

Standard English- dialect of English that's considered to have the most prestige.
Slang- referring to words and phrases, which are considered informal.
Dialect- can be lexical features or variations in grammar.
Taboo- lexical choices, which could be considered to be offensive.
Technology influenced words and phrases- words and phrases in speech, which are normally associated with written terminology forms such as tweets.
Neologisms- new words are constantly entering English language- coinage.
Occupational register- sometimes stemming from personal interests, an occupational register or jargon is based or shared understanding between certain groups or individuals.
Received pronunciation- this accent is used in the teaching of English as a foreign language and is used in dictionaries, which give pronunciations- language of power.
Regional accent- this is the way you pronounce certain words depending on where you live.

Spontaneous speech transcript

 

This is my spontaneous speech transcript, which I have analysed.

Universal teacher- language and occupation

http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/occupation.htm

• Occupations could not really exist without language, especially those in which many people work together, and need to pass on information about how to do things, or about current tasks.
• Occupations develop their own special language features, and use those of the common language in novel or distinctive ways.
•  We can understand forms
  • in an explicit sense as those kinds of activity that we can name (job interview, team briefing, disciplinary tribunal, conference, marriage ceremony) or
  • in a looser descriptive sense (discussing a problem, telling a manager about an incident, asking an expert for guidance).
• Language interactions may occur between or among those within a given occupation, or between those inside and those outside (customers, clients, the “general public”). This distinction will affect significantly a speaker's (or writer's) language choices.
• Some uses are exclusive, because they shut out people who do not know them. This happens when doctors share a common lexicon (think of things like ECG, CAT-scan, myocardial infarction, prima gravida).
• You should also look at how speech interactions reveal hierarchies, and changing attitudes to these.
•  Almost every occupation has its own special lexicon - a vocabulary that is specific to the occupation.
• New media and technology have created new forms (or radically adapted old forms) of communication. These are fascinating to linguists (they are quite easy to study - the data are readily available, and already in computer text form) and a popular subject for students to investigate. You should certainly consider electronic mail (e-mail), instant messaging and net meetings.
• "Face" (as in "lose face") refers to a speaker's sense of linguistic and social identity. Any speech act may impose on this sense, and is therefore face threatening. And speakers have strategies for lessening the threat. Positive politeness means being complimentary and gracious to the addressee (but if this is overdone, the speaker may alienate the other party). Negative politeness is found in ways of mitigating the imposition:
  
  • Hedging: Er, could you, er, perhaps, close the, um , window?
  • Pessimism: I don't suppose you could close the window, could you?
  • Indicating deference: Excuse me, sir, would you mind if I asked you to close the window?
  • Apologizing: I'm terribly sorry to put you out, but could you close the window?
  • Impersonalizing: The management requires all windows to be closed.

AQA assessment resources

http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/as-and-a-level/english-language-7701-7702/assessment-resources


Specimen papers, mark schemes, example answers and more.

Femvertising

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/12/femvertising-branded-feminism


How brands are selling #empowerment to women.

Awkward interview- Roy Keane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFulcDJDJEU






This is an awkward interview as Roy doesn't hold back when someone's phone goes off. It is clear that this bothers him due to his paralinguistic features. This includes the change in his tone of his voice, which determines his attitude without him having to actually comment on how he feels.

Awkward interview- Joaquin Phoenix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENJr98KXs5g

This is an awkward interview as Joaquin comes across as very uncomfortable, which makes the audience feel uncomfortable. There is no example of chaining in this interview, which is another reason it is so uncomfortable because it doesn't flow. Also, the quantity is very limited as he doesn't really say much. David Letterman uses many fillers and phatic talk to try and keep the conversation flowing smoothly.

Speech Terminology Quiz

• Adjacency pairs- A pattern of speech in which one utterance is followed by an appropriate linked response.
• Side sequencing- lasting for a number of utterances, it may effect topic or clarify something previously uttered.
• An example of a tag question is, 'It's cold isn't it?'
• Three examples of non-fluency features are, hesitations, repetitions and false starts.
• Phatic language is small talk e.g. 'Hi, how are you?', 'Doing anything nice today?'
• Non-verbal aspects of speech or 'paralinguistic features' such as 'fillers' can help reveal a speaker's attitudes and feelings. Two other non-verbal aspects of speech are facial expressions and pitch of voice.
• 'elp me orf this orse' is an example of phonetic spelling, which means the spelling of words to represent how they are pronounced.
• Grice's maxims: quantity- too much/little, quality- truth, relevance- on topic, manner- communication.
• Grice was interested in suggesting what helps to create an informative conversation.
• When analysing spontaneous speech we do not refer to 'sentences' but utterances.
• Brown and Levinson put forward some theories about politeness. These are four positive politeness strategies we might employ if we want to be liked: Positive face- the need to be connected, self and other- don't say anything e.g. look in bag for pen and person next to you may offer one, positive politeness- gives a greater risk for the speaker of suffering refusal and on record- if speaker directly addresses other as a means of expressing the speakers needs.
• In order to analyse a transcript the three things you must establish an awareness of from the outset are: establish the context- who wrote it, code your material- assigning attributes to specific units of analysis and examine the structure of the text.

Grice's conversational maxims

Maxim of quality- Speakers should tell the truth. They should not say what they think is false, or make statements for which they lack evidence.

Maxim of quantity – A contribution should be as informative as is required for the conversation to proceed. It should be neither too little, nor too much. (It is not clear how one can decide what quantity of information satisfies the maxim in a given case.)

 

Maxim of relevance – Speakers’ contributions should relate clearly to the purpose of the exchange.

 

Maxim of manner – Speakers 'contributions should be perspicuous: clear, orderly and brief, avoiding obscurity and ambiguity.

Language as a window into human nature

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-son3EJTrU

Summarising key points:

• Indirect speech act- Veil our intentions in innuendo, hoping for our reader to read in between the lines e.g  "Would you like to come up and see my etchings?" is a sexual innuendo.
• Language has to do two things:
• 1.  It's got to convey some content as a bribe, command or proposition.
• 2. It's got to negotiate a relationship type.
• Dominance- Inherited from the dominance hierarchies/ Kin selection and mutualism
• Communality- share and share alike. Would be classed as appropriate e.g. among friends.
• Reciprocity- You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours/ business like (tit for tat). Would be classed as appropriate e.g. a restaurant.
• What you can get away with in a communality relationship, you can't get away with in a dominance relationship.
• A divergent understanding can lead to awkwardness.
• An obvious innuendo still seems more comfortable than a direct overture.
• Individual knowledge = A knows x and B knows x 
• Mutual knowledge = A knows that B knows x and A knows that B knows A knows x /B knows that A knows x and B knows that A knows that B knows x.
• 'The Emperor's new clothes' is a story about mutual knowledge. Everyone knows that everyone knows that everyone knows. It gives them 'collective power' to challenge the dominance of the Emperor.
• Innuendos provide individual knowledge.
• Direct speech provides mutual knowledge.

Terry's Bristolian language lessons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhgUeY1BExk

The stereotypical view on the Bristolian accent.

What Our Language Habits Reveal

https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_language_and_thought

Form, Purpose & Audience

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=138484

Form- Review

Purpose- Inform people about the film

Audience- Anyone

https://www.makewav.es/story/137501/title/mydiaryentryonmyschoolholidays

Form- Diary

Purpose- Fun

Audience- Themselves

https://www.makewav.es/story/137501/title/mydiaryentryonmyschoolholidays

Form- Instructions

Purpose- Inform

Audience- Younger women

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scripts/the-syndicate-s3-ep1.pdf

Form- Script

Purpose- Entertain

Audience- Viewers

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3236739/Corbyn-makes-PMQs-debut-Cameron-told-low-key-Labour-MP-arrives-Commons-silence.html

Form- Article

Purpose- Report & Inform

Audience- Readers 

Terminology

• Noun- a word (other than a pronoun) used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things. (Team/abstract noun)
• Adjective- a word naming an attribute of a noun, such as sweet, red, or technical.
• Verb- a word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the main part of the predicate of a sentence, such as hear, become, happen. (Passive/active)
• Adverb- a word or phrase that modifies the meaning of an adjective, verb, or other adverb, expressing manner, place, time, or degree (e.g. gently, here, now, very ).
• Pronoun- a word that can function as a noun phrase used by itself and that refers either to the participants in the discourse (e.g. I, you ) or to someone or something mentioned elsewhere in the discourse (e.g. she, it, this ).
• Clause-
  a unit of grammatical organization next below the sentence in rank and in traditional grammar said to consist of a subject and predicate
• Repetition- the action of repeating something that has already been said or written.
• Personification- the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something non-human, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.
• Rhetorical question- a question that you ask without expecting an answer.
• Onomatopeia- the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named (e.g. cuckoo, sizzle ).
• Simile- a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g. as brave as a lion ).
• Metaphor- a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
• Pathetic Fallacy- the attribution of human feelings and responses to inanimate things or animals, especially in art and literature.
• Jargon- subject specific language-
• Preposition- a word governing, and usually preceding, a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element in the clause, as in ‘the man on the platform’, ‘she arrived after dinner’, ‘what did you do it for ?’

Frame works

http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/as-and-a-level/english-language-7701-7702/subject-content-as/language-varieties/methods-of-language-analysis

Phonetics, phonology and prosodics: how speech sounds and effects are articulated and analysed.

Graphology: the visual aspects of textual design and appearance.

Lexis and semantics: the vocabulary of English, including social and historical variation.

Grammar, including morphology: the structural patterns and shapes of English at sentence, clause, phrase and word level.

Pragmatics: the contextual aspects of language use.

Discourse: extended stretches of communication occurring in different genres, modes and contexts.

Comparison

In comparison of the two articles, I think that, 'From the mouths of teens' explains more about what specific language is used and when it is used, where it is used and who uses it? and, 'All raait.....' is more about the opinions on what language is used and what can be done to prevent it or to control what circumstances it is used in.

'All raait! It's a new black-white lingo' Summary

This article contains many opinions from a range of people, who are aware of the language being used. Many believe that the dialect is really useful as it means that people of different ethnicities can interact with each other, without feeling like outsiders as everyone is able to communicate in the same way. As well as this, it has been said in this article that the language is 'fashionable' and 'cool'. This is why it is so appealing as many want to be those two things, which is why they tend to pick up on it and start speaking like that themselves. A really interesting point made in this article is that the media is one of the main reasons why slang is so naturally accepted. The radio is one of the main sources of media, which encourages slang as most artists use non-standard English words in their music and listeners pick up on the lyrics and assume it is normal. However, there are some concerns as to whether or not it could affect grades. A school in London has banned the patois in the classrooms as they believe it will improve the results. Also, the school teaches pupils about what dialect to use in what circumstances, as they may not have any knowledge on where and when to use it, as they are so used to it. Another really interesting point made in this article is the fact that the patois is not trying to be devalued but there is a time and place. I think that is a really interesting point as it emphasizes the fact that people still have the freedom to use what dialect they wish to use.

From the mouths of teens

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/from-the-mouths-of-teens-422688.html


This article tries to make sense of why slang from inner city London has spread across the country. It highlights the fact that the slang was originated in England by young adults who replaced proper English words with shortcuts . However, many people from different ethnic backgrounds are now merging it in with their dialect as well. This is due to the language being so common nowadays that people don't even think twice when using it as it is accepted as part of the English language. This article also explains that people who go into higher areas of work tend to use more formal dialect as slang isn't as openly accepted as if you were in a less formal area of work. Finally, there is the question as to whether or not teens will grow up and be able to identify where and when such language is acceptable and/or if they will continue to use slang for many more generations to come; resulting in standard English dying out.

Grammar and punctuation test

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/quiz/2013/feb/04/grammar-punctuation-quiz-test

AQA Course Specification

http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/english/gcse/english-4700/spec-at-a-glance