Chris Hadfield meets Randall Munroe : 'Are we alone in this universe?' 

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/nov/28/conversation-chris-hadfield-randall-munroe-interview

The Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield spent five months in 2012 and 2013 twirling around the Earth in command of the International Space Station. Hadfield guesses he made several thousand orbits of the planet during that time, and though he was never exactly bored, he certainly found some novel hobbies. The American artist Randall Munroe knows something, too, about capturing an audience in the age of the fast and fickle online share; “romance, sarcasm, math and language." He is a longstanding admirer of Hadfield, and asked Weekend to get in touch with the astronaut, which is where this link leads to, discussing the hobbies they enjoy more than anything. They talk about a range of things, starting at pop culture...progressing all the way to debating about the recent attacks in Syria and Islamic  states.

Step away from your phone

Face to Face conversation is changing as technology improves!! 

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/nov/28/step-away-from-your-phone-the-new-rules-of-conversation

   

Young people today, along with their Snapchat and their selfies and their sexting, apparently engage in a practice known as “phubbing”. According to Sherry Turkle, the American sociologist of digital life, this involves maintaining eye contact with one person while text-messaging another. Are kids incapable of concentrating face to face with another person? 

If face-to-face conversation is dying , then it has something to do with our fear of feeling vulnerable. Nobody ever enjoyed feeling sad, or awkward, or stressed, or being put on the spot. But now we have a place to run and hide when those emotions arise: we can check out of the here and now, into digital space. We can edit our thoughts before we express them; we can hide our faces, and even our names; we can interact with others while holding them comfortably at bay. 

Leaving yourself exposed to the risk of awkward or upsetting conversations is bad, but picking up the bill, it seems, is even worse. In any case, those potentially uncomfortable conversations are what make life meaningful. Turkle quotes the comic Louis CK, in a routine on why he won’t let his daughters own smartphones, delivering, in the guise of comedy, a chilling warning: “Because we don’t want that first feeling of sad, we push it away with our phones. So you never feel completely happy or completely sad. You just feel kind of satisfied with your products. And then… you die." 

The world of social media gets criticised for ruining our traditional English language and altering it into absolute gibberish. It is also argued it is ruining our emotional connection to people as now all this is said and done online. 

Deficit 

Lakoff, 1975

Main features of women's language 

-Hedges and fillers 'sort of' 'kind of' 

-Empty adjectives 'divine' 'adorable' 

-Super-polite forms 'would you mind' 

-Apologise more

-Speak less frequently 

-Avoid coarse language 

-Tag questions 

-Hyper correct grammar and pronunciation (women perceive language to be inspirational)

-Indirect requests : 'I'm so thirsty' - asking for a drink. (pragmatics)

-Speak in italics (use tone of voice to emphasis certain words)

Criticisms of Lakoff 

-Since  her work there has been a lot of changes between the genders. 

- Her work lacks statistics 

Jenny Chesire, 1983

 (supports Lakoff's idea of 'hyper-correct grammar and pronunciation)

looked at certain grammatical variations in the speech of young children and found that boys used more non-standard English than girls. 

Difference 

(idea that women and men speak differently) 

Deborah Tannen , 1990 

-Identifies gender differences in terms of competitiveness (male) and co-operative (female). 

"There are gender difference in ways of speaking and we need to identify and understand them" 

Contrasts to differences 

Status vs Support - men use language and dominance. Women are likely to support and agree. 

Independence vs Intimacy - Men use language to show they don't need to rely on others. Women can connect with others. 

Advice vs understanding 

Information vs feelings 

Orders vs Proposals 

Conflict vs Compromise 

Language and Gender
Aqa Exam Question 

Question 

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

Mark Scheme 

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

Student Responses 

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

Improve Your writing
University of Bristol Guide to grammar 

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

              A – Handy for revision

                    B - Punctuation /Structure 

·         Order of the text

·         Register

·         Layout

·         Context

·         Graphology

·         Discourse (how the text addresses the audience)

·         Form, purpose, audience

·         Syntax (sentences, type? Compound syntax, complex syntax, simple syntax)

·         Spoken language = speak in utterances

·         Functions of syntax – Imperatives (command), Interrogative (question), Exclamative, Declaratives (declaring something).

           C – Comparatives  

·         Homophones

·         Lexis

·         Semantics

·         Pragmatics

             D – Exam responses

                               E – Other pitfalls and problem

F – Style

                 G – handy for revision

10 Reasons why English is weird 

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2)The farm was used to produce produce.
3)The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4)We must polish the Polish furniture. 
5)He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6)The solider decided to eat desert his dessert in the desert.
7)Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present. 
8)A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9)When shot at, the dove dove into bushes. 
10)I did not object to the object. 

The Guardian Dear Ms Morgan: in grammar there isn't always one right answer. 

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/nov/03/morgan-grammar-test-right-answer-spag-english-spelling-punctuation-grammar

Andrew Moore - Language and Occupation

Language and Occupation 

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

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.

Context is important for understanding meaning, especially the kind of special meanings that you will meet in occupational language. 

The forms of talk in occupational contexts 

-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).

 Some examples of general functions of language in occupational contexts

 -communicating information

-requesting help

-confirming arrangements

-instructing employees or colleagues to do something

-making things happen or enacting them.

Lexis in an occupational context 

Every occupation has its own lexicon which is specific to the occupation generally or more narrowly to the personal practice. Example...

-forms used only in the occupation, or

-forms in the common lexicon but used with meanings which are special to the occupation: justify means very different things to a printer or typesetter and to a priest.

AQA A Level English Language

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

This is the link to the examples and mark schemes of past papers.  

       http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/15/steven-pinker-10-grammar-rules-break

The Guardian 

 Steven Pinker -'10 Grammar rules its okay to break'

In this article there are talks about whether grammar should belong to that of an individual or if we should have to stick to standard English language. Descriptivists argue that language is a creativity of human nature and should therefore people should have free will to write or speak how they want to. It asks questions such as should English only stem form Latin? Or why can't one word change its meaning to to mean something else over time? It talks about old rules such as 'dangling modifiers' that argue normal day sentences we use aren't grammatically correct. But then i would argue that speaking and writing are completely different contexts as you would automatically change the grammar you use in different situations. For example talking to friends, your accent and slang will come across and be used, however writing on paper means no accent will be present and in a formal piece of writing standard English would be appropriate. In some written situations, such as text, then formal writing wouldn't apply as text speech would be most likely used. Pinker also talks about 'whom' and 'who' being used. It is said that 'whom' is used when people want to sound posh but he says that when people try to use the phrase in written language it is often used incorrectly as with many other terms. 

Grice's Maxims 

The Maxim of quality - where one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, and gives as much information as is needed, and no more. 

The Maxim of quality - where one tries to be truthful, and does not give information that is false or that is not supported by evidence. 

The Maxim of relation -  where one tries to be relevant, and says things that are pertinent to the discussion.

  The maxim of manner -   when one tries to be as clear, as brief, and as orderly as one can in what one says, and where one avoids obscurity and ambiguity

    Louis Vuitton Fashion Week Report 2015
                        British Vogue 
http://www.vogue.co.uk/fashion/spring-summer-2016/ready-to-wear/louis-vuitton

British Vogue is a magazine set up for all the public that are highly interested in fashion and all the social trends that build society we live in. It follows the lives of celebrities, which many are covered on the front of each issue, and it holds quite a high status itself in the journalism world. The language used in this magazine would be standard English grammar (no slang) due to the market they are targeting which are those of a higher education and more than likely of a higher income as the topics talked about are an expensive lifestyle to uphold. For example the link in this is to a report on Louis Vuitton's at fashion week and we can see in this article the typical language used. A metaphor is used by the writer, ' fashion is in the flux of a game of musical chairs' , empathising the fact that the magazine audience is for those who enjoy a more challenging and intriguing read.  

AS Spontaneous Speech Terminology Quiz 

1. 'A pattern of speech i which one utterance is followed by an appropriate linked response' - is the definition of which term? 

2. Explain the term 'side sequencing'. 

3.Give three terms that are examples of non-fluency features 

4.Explain the term 'phatic talk' and give examples of the language.

5.Non-verbal aspects of speech or paralingustic features such as 'fillers' can help reveal a speakers attitudes and feelings. Name two non-verbal aspects of speech. 

6.'elp me orf this 'orse' is and example of what language feature? 

7. List Grice's Maxims and briefly describe each one.

8. When analysing  spontaneous speech we do not refer to 'sentences' but ........

9.Brown and Levinson put forward some theories about politeness. Name four positive politeness strategies we might employ if we want to be liked?

10.In order to analyse a transcript what three things must you establish an awareness of from the outset? 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=awkward+david+cassidy+interview+

Interview with David Cassidy on This Morning

In this interview we see the competitive male language between David Cassidy and Eamonn Holmes. This is typical as many males are all about masculinity and dominance in  conversation. Stereo-typically, they like to talk without emotion. For example in this interview David Cassidy talks about his life troubles without getting upset about it or make it seem as though he wants sympathy from viewers or the interviewers. He seems to talk with no shame about his life which could suggest he wants to feel in control of himself and he does this by the way he talks. Also in this interview we see that Cassidy doesn't have much to say, which makes the interview very awkward, and he gets very defensive when Eamonn asks him personal questions. This could be due to the fact two males in conversation don't empathise with each other as such as what women would do, proving there is a difference in language due to gender.