'Manspreading' article.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/28/manspreading-men-oxford-dictionary-sitting-position-gendered

Zoe Jewell posted this article confused as to why it was only acceptable for men to spread their legs and take up room on public transport or anywhere else for that matter, however if a women was to do that then it wouldn't be considered polite or 'ladylike.'

Recently the word 'manspreading' was added to the online oxford dictionary, Zoe Jewell says 'I felt surprisingly pissed off about it.' I think the main reason for her being so pissed off about it is because men and women are treated differently even narrowing it down to the way people sit. If a women was to sit like that people would be mortified to see it however when a man does it, it is considered normal and a way of which is normal for men. She says that people think women should make themselves small and polite in public places, and that is  most definitely something she doesn't agree with.  

John McWhorter

https://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk

John McWhorter, a language expert spoke about how he believes texting is killing our language. Using the word 'lol' has now become sufficiently more common than ever before. It is being used to continue conversations, start them and fill them. The word 'lol' meaning, laugh out loud, has recently lost its meaning because of the everyday use of which it has.
During his speech he says a series of quotes, these are;

"The idea is that texting spells the decline and fall of any kind of serious literacy, or at least writing ability, among young people in the United States, and now the whole world today."

"One thing that we see is that texting is not writing at all."

"If humanity had existed for 24 hours, then writing only came around at about 11:07pm."

"Linguists have actually shown that when we're speaking causally in an unmonitored way, we tend to speak in word packets of maybe seven to ten words."


"Texting is very loose in its structure."


"Texting is...fingered speech."

"Examine this linguistic miracle happening right under our noses."


"Increasing evidence is that being bilingual is cognitively beneficial. Thats also true of being bodialectal."

All of these quotes are expressing the opinions of which are his own and come from what he believes about texted language. Clearly as you can see he isn't the biggest fan of the texted language and prefers written, standard english. From the title of the article, it is clear that he believes that the language of texting is destroying our language. 

Steven Pinker, language habits.

https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_language_and_thought

Steven Pinker, language expert, talking about our language habits.

He finds some people say language is language, no matter how its been adapted or changed  throughout generations and societies, however some people also say that language has a set way in which it should be spoken regardless of the factors influencing it. It is seen as being standard English.

VMA music review 2015. 

http://www.theguardian.com/music/live/2015/aug/30/mtv-vmas-2015-live

Purpose - explaining and talking about the highlights and the dramas of the 2015 VMA awards.
Form - Review/newspaper article.
Audience - Anyone who watched or wants to find out about the VMA's.

Queens longest reigning record article. 

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/sep/08/the-foundations-for-queens-record-reign-were-set-by-victoria

Purpose - The purpose of this article was to reflect and admire the longest reigning queens record in England.
Form - Formal newspaper article.
Audience - This is directed at people who are interested or want to know more about the royal family.

Film review for Jurassic World. 

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/14/jurassic-world-review-dinosaurs-jurassic-park

Purpose - This article/review is to talk about the improvements and disappointments of which this person found whilst watching Jurassic world.
Form - Film review.
Audience - Anyone who likes the films or is looking to go see them.

Traffic accident article.

http://www.onemk.co.uk/news/traffic-and-travel/roads/2015/7/traffic-huge-three-car-and-car-transporter-accident-on-m1-milton-keynes-junction-14-290720150008.html

Purpose - To inform people of the accident and disaster which came with it.
Form - Traffic accident article.
Audience - Anyone who could be heading that way and what to consider and avoid or people who want to find out more about the accident and details surrounding it.

Controversy of charity advertisements.

http://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2013/nov/19/charity-shock-tactics-do-they-work

Purpose - This article is talking about the controversy in which things such as the NSPCC, Feed the children atc. inflict on us and is it really working?
Form - Newspaper article.
Audience - People who agree with the article and those who are just interested as to what it has to say.

Steven Fry documentary notes.

Documentary By Steven Fry.

'Uses and abuses'

- He has found that there is a limit as to what swear words people will aloud to be broadcasted in the media.

- Many different things are only acceptable in certain languages, for example, somewhere in india might not take some swear words as offensive however in English it would be looked at in a completely different way.

- some swear words, like 'fuck' can be used and said in many different ways, for example, as an adjective, verb or noun.

- Words only make a difference when they are said in a specific way, for example, this lady who had touretts, swore in a real context and it was only that that which made her get in trouble for it, regardless about the fact she swears on a regular basic all through the day.

- The lower part of the brain controls the language reflect, therefore, someone who has had damage to that specific part knows how to do nothing but swear. This condition is a lot worse than touretts. With this condition it is almost impossible to control. This happens to many people after having gone through a stroke.

- For many people swearing is used instead of physical contact, learning to use vocal anger instead of physical is also a way of people controlling their anger, instead of punching, kicking etc.

- There was an experiment carried out whereby two men; one extreme swearer and one not so frequent swearer, stuck their hands into ice cold water, first time attempting to hold it in for as long as possible without swearing and saying just an ordinary word. The results were...

- Non swearer, first time, without swearing - 38 seconds.
Swearing, second time - 2 minutes, 29 seconds.

- Frequent swearer, first time, without swearing - 1 minute, 27 seconds.
Swearing, second time - 1 minute, 22 seconds.

- For the non swearer, swearing helped him a lot to relieve the pain of the cold water. However, it was clear that the person who swore frequently didn't have that much of impact and it didn't help him to withstand the pain of the cold water.

- Throughout this experiment it became almost certain that the theory of swearing reliving pain. There are many mixed views on whether swearing is a positive aspect to the society or whether it is negative.

Frameworks Terminology.

Phonetics, phonology and prosodics - How we organise the sounds of our language to produce certain effects including rhythm, rhyme, intonations, stress, pauses etc.

Graphology - How the design of a text can contribute o meaning including use of fonts, graphics, colours etc.

Lexis and Semantic - Words and meanings, the vocabulary of English including social and historic variation.

Grammar including morphology - How the design of a text can contribute to meanings including use of fonts, graphics, colours etc.

Pragmatics - How we know what language means when it is used in a specific context, sometimes described as 'reading between the lines.'

Discourse - extended stretches of communication occurring in different genres, modes and contexts.

Register - How language varies in relation to audience, purpose, and context e.g. a formal letter uses a different register to one written to a friend.


Mode - How language may vary according to the channel of communication (speech, writing, and mixed modes) e.g. how you would write something down as a message would be different from how you would pass it on orally.


Idiolect - The unique way one person expresses themselves due to their personality, belief systems, social experience etc.


Sociolect - The way of expressing themselves that a social group have in common e.g. we could generalise the way teenagers speak, students speak etc.


Dialect - The variation in word choice and grammatical structure due to where someone lives e.g. 'cheers drive' is a Bristloian saying, as is the grammatical structure 'Where's she too?'




The terminology which will be used commonly in my writing.

Terminology for english language.

http://www.slideshare.net/BCALevels/alevel-english-glossary

A level english, terminology.

Teens Slang Article.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11426737

'Teens slang' article.

Teens are named as the worst people for using 'slang', and Emma Thompson says that 'sloppy' language drives her insane and she mainly criticises teens for using the words like 'innit' and 'like.' Like is now known to be used in many sentences, as a filler or even a pause.
She explains that, in her eyes, using the word 'like' in a sentence is a crime to the English tongue.
Teens are constantly victimised for being the main users of slang, and whether or not that is statistically true, all teens are being categorised as one another, and in my eyes i don't believe that is fair.

In this generation, to fit in you have to mirror and duplicate everything anyone else is doing.  This is why the language of slang is multiplying rapidly around the whole of the world. People are trying more than ever to fit in, especially at the adolescence life stage, this is because if people see you as anything more or less than them you will not be accepted. 'Like' is now being used as so much more than just a word, it is fillers in conversation, a facial expression, a speech descriptive and more. 

All raait! article summary.

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/article209405.ece

In this article it is talking about the issues surrounding the development of casual speaking, mainly between young teens. Professor Paul Kerswill; a sociologist at Lancaster university, talks about his theories surrounding the issue. He said, "inner city Londoners are using a new kind of English as their every day speech, their completely internalised way of speaking, parallel to local dialect such as cockney or Geordie.” He is showing the way people are altering the way they speak due to things they have heard through the media and personal contacts. For many years the way someone spoke was determined and affected by your ethnicity however recently it has been more of a universal thing, following all the trends. Studies have shown that 32 teenagers from Hackney and East London; aged 16 to 18, half from British backgrounds and half from immigrant families all speak using the same language regardless where they are from. 

During the article, they talk about how 'music is responsible for its spread' the main reason for this theory, i believe is because teenager are under the influence of the music industry for the majority of their teen lives. 

In the school Lilian Baylis in South London, the use of patois has been banned whilst in the classroom, they are trying to retain the standard english during their lessons. They have said that they believe 'The language in the formal world of work is standard English.' Therefore they are trying to limit the amount their students use it whilst at school.

From the mouths of teen article summary.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/from-the-mouths-of-teens-422688.html

'From the mouths of teens' article.

This article is focusing on how the youths of today have changed the modern every day language. Someone heard two teens conversing on the bus and noticed that the use of slang has increased and change during the recent years. Many words used in slang have the same meaning. however, they are changed completely to now fit into the category of 'slang'. Many people older than todays adolescence, would be extremely confused if someone talked to them in this way. Following on from this, the newspaper reporter conferred in a London grammar school student, to find out about modern communication of which people use in this era. During this he translated the words like 'creps' and 'wasteman' to something that he would understand. He then explained that if you didn't know this language at his age, then you were considered 'uncool.'

Most of the language people would commonly use to speak to people, would reflect on where they originated from, for example, if you were from Buckinghamshire then you are stereotypically thought to be posh, whereas if you were   from Hackney in London then you would be stereotyped to not be as well spoken and more likely to use slang. However now a days, you would follow the 'slang trends' no matter where you were from.

Grammar test.

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/quiz/2013/feb/04/grammar-punctuation-quiz-test

A/AS level, specification

A/AS level, english language specification.

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