Accent and Dialect

https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/uk/regional-accents-losing-battle-standard-english/ comparing the accent of words in the 1950's and 2016.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/05/26/revealed-how-london-accents-have-killed-off-local-dialects-acros/ how accents from London have eliminated the way other places in England say things comparison of 1950 and 2016

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/im-professor-working-class-accent-get-over-it maths lecturer wasn't taken seriously because he didn't speak in RP and had a working class background.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/23/northern-accent-working-class-middle-class-northerner-barm-cake-john-lewis

Evaluate the idea that spoken interactions between men and women are characterised by miscommunication [30 marks

Evaluate the idea that spoken interactions between men and women are characterised by miscommunication [30 marks]

The idea that men and women are characterised by miscommunication has been researched for many years. It is proven that men and women have physical differences obviously, however there may be some underlying differences which are difficult to uncover about the use of spoken language between the two genders. The topic of men and women using language differently is a highly controversial topic and it is the ideal research topic for many linguists to either, support, oppose or create a new idea completely.

One language theory that supports the main idea that men and women are different is the Deficit Model, Robin Lakoff. Lakoff provided a vision and a template for generations of further research, she suggested that women are more polite and have a poorer sense of humour than men. It was also proposed that men speak more than women. It was also suggested that specific linguistic and discoursive features marked the powerlessness of women within society and their subservient role to men. An example of these is tag questions, for example “this is nice, isn’t it?” and the use of hedges, “I’m not an expert but, you might want to restart your computer”. The use of a hedge is to lessen the impact of an utterance.

Lakoff’s theory is supported by the data in the table above. It is evident in the first column of the table that men do speak more than women, the average turns per meeting for women was 9.9 whereas  the male average turns per meeting was 24.7 which is a staggering difference of 14.8 turns on average.

A contradictory view point of the deficit theory is the work done by William O'Barr and Bowman Atkins in 1980. They analysed courtroom cases and witnesses' speech. The result that they found challenges Lakoff's view on women's language. In researching what they describe as 'powerless language' they show that linguistic patterns depend on the situation, specific authority or power, not gender. This could relate to the data in the table above as the men may be the higher authority within the meeting room and women lower, for example the men may be managers and the women staff. This could then explain the anomalies in the table like woman D and man E who do not comply too the ‘norms’ of their gender average so as an example woman D could be a manager and man E being an apprentice.

The dominance model is another theory which was founded by Zimmerman and West in (1975). They found that men interrupt conversations more than women, whom they concluded from their study of 11 conversations between men and women where men interrupted a total of 46 times compared to the women which was a total of 2. They concluded that since men interrupt more they are dominate or trying to gain dominance.

As demonstrated in the table above, women were recorded to interrupt between 0 and 2 times per meeting compared to an astonishing difference of 2 and 8 for men. These findings also support the theory of the Dominance Model as the men are interrupting more than the women. However, it can be seen in the table that the men are interrupting the other men as well as the women. This could be said to show that the men were worrying about their social hierarchy within the meeting and wanted to show confidence and dominance to make them respected. This idea would also explain the anomaly of woman D; the men could be seeing her as more of a threat as she is talking at the same levels as the other men. If they were to see her as a threat to their dominance it would clarify why she is being interrupted more than everyone else. This is a theory that is not mentioned within the dominance theory. This means that the data in the table goes further to show the difference in miscommunication amongst the two genders than the theory itself. 

The third and final model is the difference model by Deborah Tannen in 1990, 'You Just Don't Understand'. The difference theory states that men and women belong to different subcultures, this approach avoids blaming or being prejudiced towards men or women, it merely suggests that they communicate differently. She has come up with a series of 6 contrasts which are: Status vs support, Independence vs Intimacy, Advice vs understanding, information vs feelings, orders vs proposals and conflict vs compromise.  In status vs support the difference approach suggests that men seek to achieve dominance over others in the conversation whereas women prefer supporting and giving conformation to the others. This would be supported by the data in the table as the women do not tend to interrupt anyone meaning they may try to be supportive and not discouraging to the others. In independence vs intimacy the difference approach suggests that men are focused on keeping their place in the hierarchy so refuse to ask if things are okay with their significant other whereas women indulge in the fact they console with their partners as a sense of intimacy. In advice vs understanding Tannen suggests that men would try and find a solution to the problem whereas women would give emotional support and stability. In information vs feelings the difference approach suggests that men only talk about informative subjects and that there conversations have a meaning behind them whereas women talk more about feelings and things that are not instructions or facts. In orders vs proposals men would tend to use direct imperatives when women say "shall we...” and "lets...”. This is disputed by the data in the table above as if men were only using direct imperatives then their seconds per turn would be lower than the women, but this is not the case. In conflict vs compromise Tannen suggests men will announce their problem vocally whereas women would comply but complain a substantial amount.

There has been a recent story in the media, 31^st May 2016, about Kit Harrington accusing the film industry of ‘sexism against men’. Harrington says that he accepts attitudes of sexism towards women in the industry however there isn’t much recognition for sexism towards men. He believes that if a woman said she did not appreciate being called a babe people would respect that whereas with him people laugh and say he is being silly or egotistical. Some bloggers have been criticising this as it would be argued that he was only employed for Game of Thrones because of his looks. Female blogger Jezebel pointed out that what Harington is talking about is feeling objectified, which is not something that just sticks with one gender. Harington’s comments have been ridiculed by many, including Jezebel who was quite clearly using sarcastic words when saying “wants the world to know there is more to him than being really, really, really ridiculously good-looking”.

Overall all the linguists that have research the differences between male and female speech all have valid, well-argued points however each of the arguments cancel out the other. There still needs to be an extensive amount of further research to actually prove whether men and women speak differently, nevertheless it may always be a matter of opinion. Many factors could affect many different people with the way they use language, nature, nurture and also people may face speech problems due to disabilities or issues. It is hard to separate the reasons why we talk how we do, it is also hard to tell what factors impact in different ways in how we use language. 

Evaluate the idea that spoken interactions between men and women are characterised by miscommunication

Evaluate the idea that spoken interactions between men and women are characterised by miscommunication [30 marks]

• Lakoff, Zimmerman and West and Tannen
• Stop calling women 'girls', patronising or sexually suggestive
• Johnson "why men interrupt"
• Terrible Female emojis.
• Film industry guilty of sexism towards men

2. Johnson, Why men interrupt?

• Soraya Chemaly " Every woman should learn the following ten words 'stop interrupting me. I just said that. No explanation needed'"

3. Terrible use of female emojis March 2, 2016

• "#Likeagirlcampaign" says that female emojis are terrible, woefully stereotypical
• At the date of this article the only female emojis were princess, bride, dancer in a red dress and a series of information desk characters. Two gender ambiguous athletes with long hair.
• Lucy Walker "Society has a tendency to send subtle messages that can limit girls to stereotypes, as someone who has studied sociolinguistics, I know the kind of impact even seemingly innocuous language choices can have on girls"
• Dove noticed "one size fits all hair type, straight and sleek, the tradition beauty ideal", they created their own curly hair emoji keyboard.
• Michele Baeten "We know that girls, especially during puberty, try to fit in and are therefore easily influenced by society. In fact, we found that 7 out of 10 girls even felt that society limits them, by projecting what they should or should not do, or be. The girls in emojis wear pink, are princesses or dancing bunnies, no other activites, no sports no jobs"
• This is an old article, since this was published at the beginning of march 2016 there has been recent emoji updates that include 2 construction workers, doctor, farmer, chef, graduate, teacher, artist, judge, firefighter, astronaut and various athletes. 
• This update was released on the 13th of september 2016, so 7 months later. 

4. Film industry guilty of sexism towards men: COMPARISON POINT

•   Kit Harrington has said he feels people are being sexist towards men in the film industry. " I like to think of myself as more than a head of hair or a set of looks"
• Feminist blogger Jezebel said “I think what he is actually describing is feeling objectified, which certainly isn’t a phenomenon belonging to a single gender.”
• the Wraps reported wrote:  "Game of Thrones star Kit Harington wants the world to know there’s more to him than being really, really, really, ridiculously good-looking.”

IMPORTANT LINKS FOR MYSELF

Recommended Reading List
http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-7702-READING-LIST.PDF
terminology 
http://www.slideshare.net/BCALevels/alevel-english-glossary
Past Paper 
http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-77011-SQP.PDF - past paper
MS http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-77011-SMS.PDF - mark scheme 
 
Exam Help
student response with examiner commentary 
http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-77011-CEX.PDF -
commentary
http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-77011-COM.PDF

Articles

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11574196/new-forms-of-social-media-terms-which-parents-do-not-understand.html
How children of the internet have "come up" with a language used on social media that parents don't understand. 

Synthetic Personalisation

Synthetic Personalisation is the process of addressing mass audiences as if they were in a one on one conversation. An example of this is an advertisement.

Martin Joos' Five Levels of Formality 1962

Level 1: Frozen Levels - Set phrases or conventional structures 
For example : Wedding vows - https://www.theknot.com/content/traditional-wedding-vows-from-various-religions
 

Level 2: Formal Level - Speaker and audience, speech, lecture, no ususal interaction or interruption. 
For example: Wedding speech - http://www.hitched.co.uk/wedding-speeches/example_best-man_speeches_1/adam_3013.htm?selection=Best
 

Level 3: Consultative Level - where interaction is the norm between anyone. 
For example: Tutor and student - https://goodreadingfor.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/a-dialogue-between-teacher-and-student_12.html
 

Level 4: Casual level - Informal setting between who know each other well, colloquialisms, interruptions. 
For example: work collegues - https://www.easypacelearning.com/all-lessons/english-lessons-level-3/1238-conversation-about-promotion-at-work-between-2-colleagues
 

Level 5: Intimate level - reserved for close friends and family in private, may have code words or shared context.  
For example: husband and wives - http://lqcollections.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/husband-wife-funny-conversation-must.html

Mumsnet.com forum analysis about Prom Fairs.

Paper 1 Language and Representations-example response

Text A is from Mumsnet and is a forum discussion about school Proms. The purpose of the discussion, initiated by the participant woollyideas, is to seek reassurance from other Mums about

her view that school Proms and unnecessary and extreme.  

The purpose of the website, Mumsnet is to promote the site and encourage other parents to join. Some affordances of using forums are: that an individual can interact with many users, and they are distant from other participants, so they can afford to convey their opinions strongly.   

However, some constraints of forums are that the absence of face-to-face conversation means that ideas mean that meanings can be misconstrued, mainly due to the fact that participants cannot use paralingustic features, emphatic stress and intonation.    

The overall representation of school Proms in text A is that they are ridiculous, extreme and unnecessary and Mumsnet is represented as authoritative, useful but also friendly.

The participant woollyideas uses the stative verb “want” in the interrogative “What sane parent would want to pay an entry fee to go to a “Prom Fair”...?” This represents parents as emotionally

involved in and passionate about school Proms which, as it is used within the interrogative shows that the efforts parents go to for their child’s Prom is ridiculous.  The expressing of strong opinions

like these represents Mumsnet as a place for debate. The mode of text A means that woollyideas is distant from the group of parents whom she is targeting, so she can afford to convey her opinion

more strongly without directly offending them. By attacking this group of parents, woollyideas positions herself above them.

Woollyideas  goes on to target this group of parents even more later on in the response when she

groups them by using the determiner “these” in the interrogative “Who are these parents who think that this sort of expenditure... is ok?”. In the post, woollyideas  goes from saying “What parent” to “these parents”- in the earlier part of the response; she is being more general and using the singular form, then she later using the plural grouping “these” parents in order to target them more directly, which again puts them in a lower position than herself.  It represents such parents as ridiculous and conveys woollyideas’ disgust at the amount of money they spend.

The participant MuckyCarpet uses the subordinating conjunction “although” in her response: “Don’t be a grump!, Although the helicopter is way OTT!”

At first, she expresses her strong opinion about Proms but makes this more moderate by using the subordinating conjunction to contrast her view. This allows her to conform with the other

participants, perhaps because she wants to avoid starting an argument or causing offence. This shows that whilst Mumsnet is a place for debate, it is still friendly. The use of the subordinating

conjunction shows that the participant has a balanced viewpoint.

Within the first paragraph of the text explaining the rules of the forum, a complex sentence is used:

“Please bear in mind that whilst this topic does canvass opinions, it is not a fight club.” The conjunction  “whilst” is used to introduce the subordinate clause “whilst this topic does canvass

opinions”. The fact that this clause is subordinate shows that the offering of opinions is not the most important thing about the forum. “It is not a fight club” is the main clause of the sentence,

which shows that the most important thing to the creators of the website is that users stay safe and that the debate is friendly. 

This represents Mumsnet as a safe place for debate that welcomes

everyone. A constraint of an online message board is that if arguments occur, there is not a person there to mediate as the interaction is not face-to-face. Therefore, the use of sentence structure here almost acts as this mediator. Furthermore, the positioning of this sentence right at the beginning of the forum makes it clear to participants the conventions of the debate in order to make them think before they post.