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