Although this is a little dated, the model example here is an excellent piece. Pay particular attention to how it references transcripts and embeds theory throughout:
Exemplar material
Tuesday 8 November 2016
Friday 21 October 2016
Language Diversity Class Notes
Varieties of language:
- Regional dialects (estuary English, Northern)
- National varieties (Standard English)
- Personal and social varieties including
- Age
- Gender
- Occupation
- Sexuality
Identity can be something that is created by individual
characteristics thus creating a personal identity.
Factors that contribute to personal identity:
- Forbidden behaviours
- Rebellion
- Idols (celebrities)
- Cliquish exclusion- where teens exclude those who, they believe, have unacceptable or unattractive characteristics.
- Immigration and migration
Creating an identity through language:
- Specific lexical choices
- Grammatical constructions in speech
- Variations in phonology
- Its done consciously or subconsciouslyMyriad- large number of identities and cultures.Cultures that affect language:
- Religion
- Music
- Gender
- Age
- GenerationLanguage is organic, it grows and diesNeologisms- new words. They are constantly entering the English language. In 2013 & 2014 new additions to the dictionary included: bestie, selfie, twerking and emoji.Taboo- lexical choices which can be deemed to be offensive, it includes swearing or using words which are considered inappropriate and unacceptable.Dialect- Variation in words and structures associated with a particular geographical region.
Fry's Planet Word Notes
Episode 1: Babel Notes
- Language is complex, perpetually evolving
- Myriad of faces of language, humans are the only species to develop language
- Learn at an early age
- North east Africa à language used is close to the way it was when homosapiens first evolved
- Ideologies may contrast but language permeates these
- Nouns, verbs, adjective à rich and adaptable
- Link between language and culture
- Communication used in all species around the world
- Animal vocals linked with emotions e.g. apes
o Very little flexibility
- Apes can learn to understand sign language and symbol sequences
- Humans had to collaborate to acquire food à team work towards a common goal
o Enabled them to hunt efficiently
- Where speech comes from
o 2 letter gene difference foxP2 à2 amino acids difference between humans and chimpanzees
o 3 amino acid difference between mice and humans
- Mice with the foxP2 gene produce different squeaks to those without
- Strokes are linked with language ability
- Nurture doesn’t affect ability to speak
- Language uses most of the brain à 50-80% used in making language
- Robert Crum
o Stroke
o Unable to walk or talk
o Right hemisphere of brain paralysed
o Still able to think language but not actually able to verbalise thoughts
o Stammer produced brain to ‘re-wire’ itself
- Is language automatic or learned? à nature or nurture?
- French revolution
o Feral boy – Victor
o Unable to speak – needs to be learnt from others
o Within first 5 years
o Never learnt to talk
- Window for language acquisition à closes in early puberty
- Dr. Roy filmed son for 3 years
o 18 months phonemes
o 24 months 10 words a day
- Ruby
o 2 years old
o Siblings help with language
o 2 years 3 months – talking full sentences
- Steven Pinker
o Children acquire rules of grammar for personal thoughts
o Innovative word combinations
- 1958 – Jean Burko (wugs)
- Parental language before schooling age is essential
- Language can made up for comedy à ‘cling-on’ (star trek)
- Son learnt ‘cling-on’ successfully
- Sign language
- Cannot hear but can still communicate à visual language
- 200 variations of sign language
- Evolving signs start with a big name and an agreement is made to produce new signs
- Comical signs produce a reaction
- Adam and Eve
o Single word language
o Primary language
- Babel
o Grims founding scientific roots of language
- Grims law
o Consonants and language
o Proto Indo European (PIE)
§ 1500 years ago
o Language is what makes humans, humans
- 6000 languages spoken around the world
- English, French, Spanish, Arabic, German more used in the UN
- French and English are working languages
- Language defines who we are, our identities
Guardian Atricle- Leanring a New Language
Why has learning a new language become a foreign concept to the young people of today?
A recent study has revealed the shock-horror of the amount of young people shying away from foreign languages despite the myriad of options, nearly all British students are being offered. Figures are showing a dramatic 50 per cent decrease in A-level students who take French and German in the last decade; even the interests of Mandarin and Arabic have dwindled.
Physiological studies have found that being bilingual is not only a great asset for the future of work, but the development of the cognitive process; the brain is offered much more mental benefits than those who are monolingual. For example, the brain is able to be improved in the functionality of challenging it to communicate in a various range of language systems and negotiate meaning, thus advancing other skills, such as problem-solving tasks in addition.
Multilingual people, especially young children are skilled at switching between two systems of speech, writing and structure, and according to Pennsylvania State University, this “juggling” skill makes them skilful in multi-tasking and other researchers have found that, those who are bilingual are less likely to become distracted overall.
One of the key dilemmas to the British system is that English itself has turned into a variety of sub-languages. The idea of crass language or political correctness being unacceptable in public grammatical speaking no longer takes its place as important anymore, so English within itself as a source of irony, eloquence and poetry is now something very foreign to many people.
Can one really suggest that it all started to fall apart when children of Britain stopped learning “Bonjour, comment allez-vous?” Just to have a point proven, it can be said that, the old scholastic curriculum may have had its problems but, due to the limited options, Latin and Greek were all compulsory hurdles in which all had to take part in and funnily enough, they all jumped them. By restraining our knowledge in various other languages, we are unintentionally restraining our knowledge of other countries, cultures and deeper understanding. As Britain is currently one of the most multi-cultural areas of the world, diverse languages should be flooding our academic systems, wouldn’t you think?
Learning a foreign language draws your focus to the technicalities of language, including the grammar, use of words, and sentence structure making one more aware of everything around them, and the ways in which language can be structured and manipulated. These skills can make an individual a more effective communicator and more successful person within society. Language speakers also develop a better ear for listening, as they are skilled at distinguishing meaning from hidden messages.
What should be learnt is that, the joy of language lies in the freedom it gives us. By allowing the spread of different languages, we are able to travel in space and in time, through reading something we may not understand at first, of course and become overall better people for the future. Bon voyage.
An interesting link: Language and Human Nature
This takes an interesting look at some of the subtleties of language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-son3EJTrU
Word Classes
The following information has been copied from the following link: http://www.heckgrammar.co.uk/index.php?p=10736
You should have a detailed understanding of word classes. Note down any information you aren't familiar with.
The term word class refers to the category a word fits into. Words are categorised partially according to their semantic properties, and partially according to their 'behaviour' - what functions they can perform, changes they can undergo, and places they can occupy within sentences.
There are EIGHT word classes into which words can be placed. These are: NOUN, VERB, ADJECTIVE, ADVERB, PRONOUN, PREPOSITION, CONJUNCTION and DETERMINER.
You will find below a BASIC guide to the eight word classes: this will be of use if you have difficulty differentiating between one class and another. To get the higher grades (even at AS), however, you need to know more than this, and need to be especially secure and detailed on verbs.
NOUNS (N)
Nouns are words which are the name of a person, place or thing. Nouns sometimes modify or limit (describe)other nouns. There are four types of noun:
Nouns may change their form if they are made plural. Ways they change include:
To test a word to see if it is a noun, put the word into the following sentence (it works most of the time, but is not infallible):
I waited for ________ to become fashionable.
You could also see if you can put one of 'a', 'an', 'the' or 'some' before the word (if this seems to make sense, it is probably a noun).
VERBS (V)
Verbs express an action or state of being. They are words like 'go', 'eat', 'possess', 'delve', etc.
In their 'unchanged' form (the infinitive), they are preceded by 'to': 'to go', 'to eat', 'to possess', 'to delve' (this will be horribly familiar to anyone who ever studied modern languages...).
Verbs, particularly common ones, change according to tense, person, and number:
In many languages, verbs change (by vowel change, addition of a prefix/suffix etc.) when the tense changes. This sometimes happens in English, but is also done by using primary auxiliary verbs (AuxV) (parts of the verbs to be or to have), modal auxiliaries (ModAux) (words like 'can', 'will', 'should') and forms of 'do' or 'did' (known as the 'dummy auxiliary but treated as a primary auxiliary), which are placed before the main verb (MV). So the verb 'to sit' changes according to tense to give the forms: sit, am sitting, do sit, sat, was sitting, did sit, have sat, had been sitting, would have sat, should have been sitting, shall sit, shall have sat, etc.
English has specific constructions for expressing present and past tenses, but uses a number of means to express ideas of future time and of condition. It is a good idea to be able to distinguish different tenses:
Verbs can also be categorised, according to their meaning, as dynamic or stative: dynamic verbs express 'real' actions - generally one can see these being done, and could draw a picture of them - such as 'to run', 'to scream' etc; stative verbs are those which express actions which are largely hidden and could not easily be drawn, such as 'to think', 'to believe'.
Further distinctions between verbs can be made by considering whether or not a verb is transitive or intransitive - whether it uses an object or not. For example, 'to brush' is transitive since it requires an object (we cannot say 'I brushed' unless a listener already knows what has been brushed), whereas 'to sleep' is intransitive because it cannot use an object (we can say 'I slept', but not 'I slept the bed').
To test a word to see if it is a verb, try making it present tense and past tense. If the word changes and can change tense, it is a verb.
ADJECTIVES (Aj)
Adjectives modify nouns (or pronouns). They can be changed to comparatives by addition of '-er':
hot - hotter
or to superlatives by addition of '-est':
hot - hottest
To test for adjectives, see if the word can be modified by 'very'. Again, this generally works but is not infallible. Remember, adjectives can ONLY modify nouns.
ADVERBS (Av)
Adverbs are an odd class of word used as a dumping-ground for words which don't fit anywhere else. They are used to modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs, and are generally formed by adding 'ly' onto adjectives:
sad+ly = sadly
legal+ly = legally
safe+ly = safely
There are four types of adverb:
To test a word to see if it is an adverb, remember that adverbs can also usually be modified by 'very', but they CANNOT modify nouns - they modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.
PRONOUNS (Pn)
Pronouns are words which stand for nouns, noun phrases, or an aspect of a situation. There are several types of pronoun:
personal - I, her, them
possessive - my, hers, theirs
reflexive - himself, yourself
relative - which, who, that
demonstrative - this, that
The most obvious feature of personal pronouns is that they change according to PERSON. Pronouns are said to be either first person (referring to the speaker/writer, e.g. 'I', 'we', 'mine', 'our', 'us'), second person (referring to someone being directly addressed by the speaker/writer, e.g. 'you', 'yourself', 'yours') or third person (referring to someone or some people/things absent from the conversation, e.g. 'he', 'her', 'its', 'they', 'themselves').
Personal pronouns can also change according to NUMBER (so 'I' becomes 'we' in the plural, and 'she' becomes 'they'), CASE (so 'he' can be used as a subject whereas 'him' is an object and 'his' possessive) and GENDER (most pronouns are non-gender specific, but the third-person singular pronouns 'he' and 'she' - and all their variants in case - are always male and female in reference respectively).
PREPOSITIONS (P)
Prepositions show the relationship between things or people (usually spatial relationships):
She was in a stupor under the table at the far side of the room
Some prepositions are made up of more than one word, e.g. 'in front of'.
'Of' is also a preposition.
CONJUNCTIONS (conj)
Conjunctions join single words, phrases or sentences. There are two types of conjunction:
DETERMINERS (det)
Determiners express the definiteness and number of nouns and noun phrases. They include words such as the, a, some, those, each, that, which. They enable us to tell the difference between, for example, 'the Apple' (New York) and 'an apple' (any random Granny Smith, etc.). 'The' is known as the definite article, and 'a' as the indefinite article.
You should have a detailed understanding of word classes. Note down any information you aren't familiar with.
The term word class refers to the category a word fits into. Words are categorised partially according to their semantic properties, and partially according to their 'behaviour' - what functions they can perform, changes they can undergo, and places they can occupy within sentences.
There are EIGHT word classes into which words can be placed. These are: NOUN, VERB, ADJECTIVE, ADVERB, PRONOUN, PREPOSITION, CONJUNCTION and DETERMINER.
You will find below a BASIC guide to the eight word classes: this will be of use if you have difficulty differentiating between one class and another. To get the higher grades (even at AS), however, you need to know more than this, and need to be especially secure and detailed on verbs.
NOUNS (N)
Nouns are words which are the name of a person, place or thing. Nouns sometimes modify or limit (describe)other nouns. There are four types of noun:
- Proper nouns: Names of people or places - begin with capital letters.
- Common nouns: everyday things such as beer, chair, book.
- Collective nouns: singular words expressing plural concepts, such as team, gaggle, herd.
- Abstract nouns: words for intangible 'things' and concepts, such as love, pride, guilt.
Nouns may change their form if they are made plural. Ways they change include:
- adding '-s': bird - birds
- adding '-es': box - boxes
- adding '-en': ox - oxen
- changing the ending to 'i': nucleus - nuclei
- changing a vowel: goose - geese
- no change at all: sheep - sheep, fish - fish.
To test a word to see if it is a noun, put the word into the following sentence (it works most of the time, but is not infallible):
I waited for ________ to become fashionable.
You could also see if you can put one of 'a', 'an', 'the' or 'some' before the word (if this seems to make sense, it is probably a noun).
VERBS (V)
Verbs express an action or state of being. They are words like 'go', 'eat', 'possess', 'delve', etc.
In their 'unchanged' form (the infinitive), they are preceded by 'to': 'to go', 'to eat', 'to possess', 'to delve' (this will be horribly familiar to anyone who ever studied modern languages...).
Verbs, particularly common ones, change according to tense, person, and number:
- TENSE means that the verb 'to go', changes from 'I go' to 'I went' when the tense changes from present to past.
- PERSON means it also changes from 'you go' to 'she goes' when changed from the second to the third person.
- NUMBER means it changes from 'he goes' to 'they go' when the number changes from singular to plural.
In many languages, verbs change (by vowel change, addition of a prefix/suffix etc.) when the tense changes. This sometimes happens in English, but is also done by using primary auxiliary verbs (AuxV) (parts of the verbs to be or to have), modal auxiliaries (ModAux) (words like 'can', 'will', 'should') and forms of 'do' or 'did' (known as the 'dummy auxiliary but treated as a primary auxiliary), which are placed before the main verb (MV). So the verb 'to sit' changes according to tense to give the forms: sit, am sitting, do sit, sat, was sitting, did sit, have sat, had been sitting, would have sat, should have been sitting, shall sit, shall have sat, etc.
English has specific constructions for expressing present and past tenses, but uses a number of means to express ideas of future time and of condition. It is a good idea to be able to distinguish different tenses:
- Simple Present - I write (she writes)
- Simple Past - I wrote
- Present Progressive - I am writing
- Past Progressive - I was writing
- Present Perfective - I have written
- Past Perfective - I had written
Verbs can also be categorised, according to their meaning, as dynamic or stative: dynamic verbs express 'real' actions - generally one can see these being done, and could draw a picture of them - such as 'to run', 'to scream' etc; stative verbs are those which express actions which are largely hidden and could not easily be drawn, such as 'to think', 'to believe'.
Further distinctions between verbs can be made by considering whether or not a verb is transitive or intransitive - whether it uses an object or not. For example, 'to brush' is transitive since it requires an object (we cannot say 'I brushed' unless a listener already knows what has been brushed), whereas 'to sleep' is intransitive because it cannot use an object (we can say 'I slept', but not 'I slept the bed').
To test a word to see if it is a verb, try making it present tense and past tense. If the word changes and can change tense, it is a verb.
ADJECTIVES (Aj)
Adjectives modify nouns (or pronouns). They can be changed to comparatives by addition of '-er':
hot - hotter
or to superlatives by addition of '-est':
hot - hottest
To test for adjectives, see if the word can be modified by 'very'. Again, this generally works but is not infallible. Remember, adjectives can ONLY modify nouns.
ADVERBS (Av)
Adverbs are an odd class of word used as a dumping-ground for words which don't fit anywhere else. They are used to modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs, and are generally formed by adding 'ly' onto adjectives:
sad+ly = sadly
legal+ly = legally
safe+ly = safely
There are four types of adverb:
- time - e.g. 'soon'. Identifying question = 'when?'
- place - e.g. 'here'. Identifying question = 'where?'
- manner - e.g. 'quickly'. Identifying question = 'how?'
- degree - e.g. 'entirely'.
To test a word to see if it is an adverb, remember that adverbs can also usually be modified by 'very', but they CANNOT modify nouns - they modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.
PRONOUNS (Pn)
Pronouns are words which stand for nouns, noun phrases, or an aspect of a situation. There are several types of pronoun:
personal - I, her, them
possessive - my, hers, theirs
reflexive - himself, yourself
relative - which, who, that
demonstrative - this, that
The most obvious feature of personal pronouns is that they change according to PERSON. Pronouns are said to be either first person (referring to the speaker/writer, e.g. 'I', 'we', 'mine', 'our', 'us'), second person (referring to someone being directly addressed by the speaker/writer, e.g. 'you', 'yourself', 'yours') or third person (referring to someone or some people/things absent from the conversation, e.g. 'he', 'her', 'its', 'they', 'themselves').
Personal pronouns can also change according to NUMBER (so 'I' becomes 'we' in the plural, and 'she' becomes 'they'), CASE (so 'he' can be used as a subject whereas 'him' is an object and 'his' possessive) and GENDER (most pronouns are non-gender specific, but the third-person singular pronouns 'he' and 'she' - and all their variants in case - are always male and female in reference respectively).
PREPOSITIONS (P)
Prepositions show the relationship between things or people (usually spatial relationships):
She was in a stupor under the table at the far side of the room
Some prepositions are made up of more than one word, e.g. 'in front of'.
'Of' is also a preposition.
CONJUNCTIONS (conj)
Conjunctions join single words, phrases or sentences. There are two types of conjunction:
- co-ordinating - e.g. 'and' 'or' 'but'- a linking word.
- subordinating - e.g. 'so', 'after', 'because' - show some relationship between words or phrases, can show time, place, reason or condition:
It rained so I went home
DETERMINERS (det)
Determiners express the definiteness and number of nouns and noun phrases. They include words such as the, a, some, those, each, that, which. They enable us to tell the difference between, for example, 'the Apple' (New York) and 'an apple' (any random Granny Smith, etc.). 'The' is known as the definite article, and 'a' as the indefinite article.
Language and Evolution
Language and Evolution article
The following article raises some interesting points. Make notes of any key points.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1996/feb/01/language-and-evolution/
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1996/feb/01/language-and-evolution/
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