In this video, linguist Steven Pinker, talks about how the language we use reflects how we live our lives.
There is a strong focus on indirect speech acts which is reading between the lines and inferring real intent. This is all about the pragmatics and implied meanings, potentially through the use of innuendos. The example Pinker uses is from the movie Fargo; when the kidnapper is pulled over by a police officer andis asked to show his driver's license, he holds his wallet outwith a 50-dollar bill extendingat a slight angle out of the wallet. He says, "I was thinkingthat maybe the best thing would be to take care of it here in Brainerd", which is recognised as a veiled bribe. He says that we use language at two levels, it has to have content and to negotiate a relationship type. One way is the politeness strategy. An example of this would be if someone said, "if you could pass the guacamole that would be awesome". This is an imperative without the dominance. There are supposedly three main human relationship types: dominance, communality and reciprocity. Dominance is where one is superior over the other, communality is relaxed and usually between friends and family and reciprocity is where both parties exchange in favours. When both parties aren't on the same page then a divergent understanding could be awkward. Innuendos, even when they are obvious, are individual knowledge and simply implied and direct speech is mutual knowledge. We use indirect speech because overt language cannot be taken back which may make relationships awkward.
I found this article from the New York Times Magazine which I found quite interesting. It's an article based around the word 'privilege' and how it's become "provocative".
I didn't put this on my blog just because of the word 'privilege' but because it is just one example of the many words that do not mean the same thing as they did many years ago. Over time, lexis change and lose their old meaning to become something completely different.
This article, written by Zoe Jewell, is about the term 'manspreading' being added to the online version of the Oxford English dictionary. This caused a lot of controversy because the lexis is gender specific to males when woman can participate in the same activity without having women prefixed compounds.
The term 'manspreading' just means to sit with your legs open so that you're spread out. Jewell mentions that this is stereotyped to men and that it is often unfeminine for a woman to do such a thing which is why she expresses her anger in this article.
The point of the article is that men seem to have lexis with man prefixes for activities which are not gender specific and is being highlighted as wrong.
Terry on youtube, https://www.youtube.com/user/terrytheoddjobman, is a good example of someone who speaks with a regional accent. Linguist David Crystal pointed out that there is no one accent, known as bi-dialectism. This relates to Terry because he is just one example of people who live in Bristol; there are many other accents in the city, some strong like his, others weaker or a different accent altogether.
"If humanity had existed for 24 hours,then writing only came along at about 11:07 p.m."
- John McWhorter
This clip was posted in February 2013, which is fairly modern, yet it is already out of date. This is because language is constantly changing. With the use of modern technology, which is always developing and is more easily accessible now, our language is evolving faster than ever before.
This clip is of linguist, Steven Pinker speaking about what our language habits reveal.
He starts off by talking about language change and the different attitudes toward language. There are two types of attitudes, descriptivism and prescriptivism. Descriptivism is using words that are purely descriptive whereas prescriptivism is just standard English. These two attitudes show the divergence of dialect and the formation of new language.
Pinker shows a slide of language as a window onto human nature. It says that language emerges from human minds interacting with one another. It also says visible in unstoppable change in language such as slang and jargon, historical change, dialect divergence and language formation.
The communication model starts with the sender, then the message is created which goes to the receiver.
Euphemistic language is often used to avoid speaking the subject word of things that people usually don't openly talk about, such as sex. It all relates to social, historical and cultural context.
Indirect speech is used a lot in our day to day language. According to Pinker, "language is a way of negotiating relationships". For example, imperatives aren't always a way of showing dominance. However, language can be awkward if all parties involved aren't on the same page because the language can be misconstrued.
Pinker concludes the talk by mentioning that the complexity of language reflects human nature and how we can relate to one another.
Form - Music review Purpose - To hear someone's opinion on a type of music Audience - Music fans Evidence - "this album is long, indulgent and occasionally cringeworthy"
Form - Newspaper article Purpose - To inform about the Labour party and their leader Audience - Supporters of Labour and people who are interested in politics Evidence - "The new Labour leader"
Form - Newspaper article Purpose - To give information about what celebrities are doing Audience - People who like to read about celebrity gossip Evidence - "The tattoo was noticeably lighter when the former Spice Girls singer stepped out after her runway show for New York Fashion Week on Monday"
Form - Online news article Purpose - To give out news about events that are happening around the world Audience - The general public who like to know world affairs Evidence - "New border restrictions and a row over allocating migrants have shown bitter divisions in Europe over the crisis"
Form - A script Purpose - To entertain readers Audience - People who enjoy movies or actors/actresses Evidence - "BRUCE Oh, God, no! The hair's wrong. This is a bad sign. (calling out) We really need to get a make-up person?!"
It talks about how the English language is developing faster than ever before through the use of mobile phones and social media. This technology is helping dialect to evolve; a new word could be posted online and seen around the world within minutes. The article also mentions how text speak such as "gr8" and "m8" are now considered old by young people which is leaving the older generation confused.
Lexis and semantics (words and meanings) - Word-choice. Meaning at word and phrase level. The vocabulary of English, including social and historical variation.
Grammar, including morphology - How the language is built i.e. the structure and rules which underpin how we form sentences. The structural patterns and shapes of English. For example sentence, phrase, clause and word level.
Phonology, phonetics and prosodic - How we organise the sounds of our language to produce certain effects including rhythm, rhyme, intonation, stress and pauses. Speech sounds and effects are articulated and analysed, for example onomatopoeia and alliteration.
Pragmatics (context/meaning) - How we know what language means when it is used in a specific context sometimes described as 'reading between the lines'. The contextual aspects of language use.
Discourse (communication) - (i) How longer stretches of text are organised (cohesion - how it holds together e.g. use of discourse markers) (ii) The way texts create identities for particular individuals, groups or institutions for example the discourse of law, politics and the media.
Graphology (form, purpose and audience) - How the design of a text can contribute to meaning including use of fonts, graphics, colours and emojis.
Noun - a word used to identify a person, place, thing or idea.
Verb - a doing word.
Adverb - a word that describes a verb, usually ending in 'ly'.
Adjective - a describing word.
Simile - a comparing technique, usually using 'like' or 'as'.
Metaphor - saying something is something else.
Personification - giving an inanimate object human-like qualities.
Onomatopoeia - words that sound like the associated noise, such as 'boom'.
Pathetic fallacy - where the weather relates to the mood.
Fillers - pauses, like 'um'.
Jargon - subject specific language.
Hyperbole - over exaggeration.
Juxtaposition - two things being seen or placed close together with contrasting effect.
Oxymoron - a figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear in conjunction.
Litotes - understatement when expressing an affirmative by negating its contrary.
Triples - a set of three words.
Punctuation - the marks used to separate sentences and identify meaning, such as ""-()!?...,:;.
Dialect - the language of a specific region or social group.
Accent - the way the words sound.
Synonym - a word or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language, for example 'shut' is a synonym of 'close'.
Antonym - a word opposite in meaning to another.
Abstract noun - a noun denoting an idea, quality, or state rather than a concrete object.
Collective noun - a count noun that denotes a group of individuals.
Passive - denoting a voice of verbs in which the subject undergoes the action of the verb, such as 'they were killed' instead of, he killed them.
Clause - part of a sentence.
Alliteration - the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or close together words.
Rhetorical question - a question that is asked without expecting an answer.
Repetition - the recurrence of words.
Active verb - a verb that specifically describes what the subject of the sentence is doing.
This article is similar to the previous post on my blog. It's an article about the new way in which young people use multi-cultural words. Terms used in other countries are slowly creeping their way into the English language. It is believed that some teenagers are speaking this way to "stake out their own territory"; this may be because adults don't understand the dialect so they feel intimidated.
These linguistics are now spreading to other multicultural cities in the UK outside of London such as Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester. It is also being projected through music being played on popular radio stations like Radio 1Xtra. This shows that multi-lingual dialect is rapidly being spread throughout the UK.
At the end of the article, there are a lot of terms that are not considered part of the English language because they have different meanings. This is why it is so confusing for other people who don't know the terms to understand.
In this article, Professor Paul Kerswill, a sociolinguist, comments on the language being used. He mentions that the language being used originates from different backgrounds such as Jamaica, London and Bengali. This article is interesting because white British teenagers and people from other backgrounds, observed in London, were all using the same dialect. Jamaican words like "creps" for trainers and cockney words like "manor" for home were being used by the group of people.
It seems to me like the teens are converging their speech with the people that surround their daily lives. However, some people also seem to be conversing in other regional accents in the UK.
I find this article intriguing because I have heard people talk in this way before and I am curious about how a few schools seem to be trying to stop children from speaking this lingo.
