3 sources linked to my investigation

1. How a child's language development can be helped by hand movements: Gesticulating makes words 'easier to understand'  

Article - This is an article about how using body language can help a child's language development. A Chicago study shows that using body language can make it easier for children to understand what certain words and phrases mean.

2. Speech and Language Developmental Milestone - Article

 This is an article describing the milestones you reach for language and speech development as you grow older. It lists the stages at which your brain matures enabling a baby to absorb language.

3. Chomsky: Theorist

Noam Chomsky believes that children are born with an inherited ability to learn any human language. He claims that 'certain linguistic structures which children use so accurately must be already imprinted in the child's mind.

 

Mini Twitter Investigation

For this investigation we expect to see a frequent use of declaratives used to represent power and used data from Twitter as evidence to support our hypothesis. We used Fairtrade Foundation’s Twitter feed and chose every other tweet to study so the investigation was fair and reliable. Fairtrade is in a position of power therefore it was ideal to use their tweets; Ed Miliband’s Twitter feed was also one ideal for this use due to his position of power. We used the same method of choosing every other tweet as a form of systematic sampling. To obtain more of a diverse, random sample, we used the first page of a personal Timeline showing tweets from people followed. We also used the method of selecting every other tweet for our analysis.

After collecting the data from the Fairtrade feed, we studied four tweets. Two contained declarative statements, for example, “This special blend is darkly roasted to produce a rich and caramelly sweetness.” By contrast, the other two only contained interrogative statements, for instance, “Who pays the price for our clothing?” This feed both contradicted and agreed with our hypothesis equally. Ed Miliband’s feed differed from Fairtrade as it contained no interrogatives or imperatives. Out of four tweets we looked at through the selection process, such as, “I am grateful to the people who worked on our campaign,” all of them were declarative statements which support our hypothesis.

After selecting three tweets from the Twitter feed, the majority were also declarative such as, “The suffragettes didn’t fight to be left out of an entire GCSE history paper.” However, one tweet had an imperative mood, “Don’t ever stop being you.” It was interesting and valuable to use a random Twitter feed because of the contrast between average individuals and celebrities who have a higher position of power. Two individuals out of the three were celebrities, one used a declarative and the other imperative which again, both disagrees and agrees with my hypothesis.

Declaratives work alongside hashtags and tagging other users which are usually large and powerful organisations. For example, Fairtrade tag their other Fairtrade accounts such as @FairtradeUKNews to make them appear more powerful and a larger organisation. They also tag users not linked to their companies, such as @StarbucksUK to make their power base and connections seem more wide scale. They also use declarative hashtags to promote their tweets, such as #Fairtrade. By using hashtags and tagging other users, for example, @MichaelJackson in our random tweets feed, they are allowing more people to view their tweets. They display their power by making their tweets viral and shared.

In all of the Twitter feeds we have used as evidence, all use declaratives in the form of sentences and using the tagging feature on Twitter. However, some power was expressed in the form of interrogative rhetorical questions or imperatives. But overall the dominant sentence type appears to be declaratives. To better my investigation for the future, I will include a larger range of examples of Twitter feeds to support or disprove my hypothesis.

Geordie Shore – Transcript

 A: Are we gonna see a Geordie wedding this season (.) or coming up

 B: no (0.5) we’re not um I think (.) well (.) um in ooh

C: you lost for words babe

 B: [laughs]

 C: is she feeling alright (.) are you feeling alright

 B: I’m not lost for words I’m just struggling working out / things

 C:  / oh yeah okay

 B: [puts hand over his face] shut up

 C: I can’t believe this like

 B: we don’t have a / wedding

 C:  / got this on camera

 B: no [continues to put her hand on his face]

 C: this never happens

 B:  shut up (0.5) we have sort of like um an engagement party (1) so it’s kinda like in the right direction for a wedding but it’s not a wedding (.) so wu we’re moving [makes hand gesture indicating direction] (.) towards (.) a wedding but we’re still very far away from a wedding (.) stop putting so much pressure on us [buries head in scarf]

 A: I can’t think of anything worse than planning a wedding it must be a lot of / hassle

 B: / I can’t literally cause I’m so dreading the point where I have to do something like that (.) in real life we just had our engagement party like in one for all our friends and all our family /

 C: family that obviously couldn’t get there’ll come on the [mumbles] show / at that point

 B:  / and it was the most stressful time tryna plan it and /

 C: so much planning and so much /organising

B:   / oh yeah Ricci I bet your knackered after all that planning are ya

 C: [laughs]

B: yeah all those decisions ya had to make (.) all those emails ya had to send (.) meetings with the cake maker yeah (1) he did nothing until about a week before where he suddenly got interested and started demanding all sorts of ridiculous things (.) which were just not possible like monkeys carrying trays of drinks

A: [laughs]

B: so Ricci is not gonna be part of planning the wedding as he didn’t plan the engagement party and I’m not planning the wedding until I get a team of people to help us

 

Questions:

1. What is interesting about the language used?

There is a lot of slang used when these two people have a conversation, such as 'gonna' and 'like'. These are sometimes specific to the accent that they have which is Geordie. 

 

2. What theory could you use when analysing the transcript?

I could use the Robin Lakoff theory that analyses the way women speak, because in this transcript I can see that Vicky uses hedges throughout as well as using indirect requests towards Ricci.

 

3.  What could you title an investigation into data like this? (Use the title format of an interrogative e.g. How does… or a declarative e.g. An investigation into…

How true is Robin Lakoff's theory (1975)  to women in this modern world?

 

4.What real data could you collect (rather than just going to You Tube?)

A real life conversation between a woman and man,that was planned or prepared.

 

Speech on Education Costs

Obviously looking back on our primary school days, it seemed easy. But not so much for our parents. We all wanted to go on every single trip the school provided and we didn't want to be left behind. So inevitably, our parents had to pay. With constant competition against our friends, it was a struggle to keep up with the latest craze. Heelies, tamagotchis and the newest DS' - our parents had to fork out so much money to keep us happy.

In school, everyone has to wear the same uniform, and schools insist that everything is compulsory, right down to the aprons. If a school polo shirt costs £8, and you buy three a year for your twelve years at primary and secondary school, that's £288 for just the polo shirts, let alone the trousers, jumpers and PE kits. If you are someone who always had school dinners as opposed to packed lunches, you'll know how expensive lunch can be. It would roughly cost £4680 for school dinners for your entire time in school. Your parents also have to pay for your stationary and books in order for you to have everything you need, and any parent can tell you that none of that is cheap when you add it all up.

But it only gets worse when you start Sixth Form College. It only gets worse when you’re stuck in between childhood and adulthood. It only gets worse when you want to be independent, but are still dependent. Everyone wants a part-time job when they leave school but how are you expected to be available the hours your inconsiderate boss wants you to be? It’s not possible. You can either earn the money and watch your grades fall like Autumn leaves or ask your parents to pay for your new car or your festivals in the summer and put the job to one side. Not to mention the travel costs of getting to college. The First bus pass costs £455 per year – that’s just under £1000 spent on travel alone.

The thousands of pounds your parents have just spent will feel like nothing when it hits University time. Do you have £9000 to spare? For one year in University, that's how much it currently costs, regardless of the course you decide to take. On average, accommodation costs £150 per week, which is £600 per month. Total up food costs of £200 a month and other necessities, you end up spending over £15,000 for each University year.

Do you think it’s fair that to succeed in life, or even just to conform to the norms and values of education, this amount of money should have to be spent? If the government wants people going to university, then they need to be prepared to be realistic with these fees. We can’t go on paying £9000 a year, racking up debts over £27,000.We want change and we want it now!

In the future we want everybody to have the opportunity to go to university. Nobody should miss out. Nobody will, if you help to support us by signing our e-petition at epetition.direct.gov.uk.

Obama's Acceptance Speech Analysis

Obamas acceptance speech starts off with a lot of repetition to open the speech; he thanks America three times to show his appreciation. I can also see that there are regular applause breaks in between his speech; this suggests he is speaking slowly as there is enough time to initiate applause. Another main focus that Obama seems to focus on throughout his speech is the extensive use of personal pronouns. He uses a lot of these such as ‘It moves forward because of you’, ‘Tonight, in this election, you, the American people’, ‘Whether you pounded the pavement or picked up the phone’. This example shows how he uses words like ‘you’ to make the speech more directly aimed at his American people, and make it personal to every individual stood listening to him.

 Obama’s speech is a very powerful one, a technique that he tends to use is to use the power of three as we can see throughout the acceptance speech, ‘we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back, and we know in our hearts that for the United States of America the best is yet to come.’ This technique makes his words sound very powerful and inspiring.

Obama in this speech is very patriotic of America and he believes strongly in what his country can do. When he talks about the future of his children he goes on to say how proud of America he is. He says ‘We want to pass on a country that’s safe and respected and admired around the world, a nation that is defended by the strongest military on earth and the best troops this -- this world has ever known.’ At the very end he even goes on to say ‘and remind the world just why it is, that we live in the greatest nation on Earth.’ This is a very patriotic thing to do and Americans will want this from their president, so are applauding him a lot throughout his speech.

Obama also presents a very emotional side to him as he says ‘I’ve seen it in the soldiers who reenlist after losing a limb and in those SEALs who charged up the stairs into darkness and danger because they knew there was a buddy behind them watching their back.’ And ‘I am hopeful tonight because I’ve seen the spirit at work in America’. This shows how he can still express his power in this speech, while at the same time saying emotional words.

Finally when Obama closes his speech he uses a short sentence and the power of three again, to emphasise his words. But this time he repeats ‘God Bless’ as he says ‘Thank you, America. God bless you. God bless these United States.’ This shows his love and appreciation for being elected as president of the United States of America.

Language and power Presentation

Here is our presentation on Lisa Kudrow's speech on sexism in politics, from "Scandal" the TV Show.We see how Lisa gains power throughout the conversation, and how she expresses this through language, for example turn taking and framing.

How the interent is changing language

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10971949

 This is a piece of text describing how the interent has changed the way we speak and how the way we use language has changed, since we have access to the interent.