Peter Trudgill and Robin Lakoff sociolinguistics research

Peter Trudgill

Peter Trudgill researched speech in Norwich in the 1970s in an attempt to find out why people speak differently. One of the variables that he studied was the end of words such as ‘walking’ and ‘talking’ which people often shorten down to ‘walkin’ and ‘talkin’. He related this to class, gender and other factors and then attempted to work out if there were any correlations between these factors.  He wrote; "Nearly everywhere in the Eng-speaking world we find this alternation between higher-class/formal ng and lower class/informal n. It goes back to the fact that in Old English (and later) there were two forms, a gerund ending in -ing (walking is good for you) and a present participle ending in -end (he was walking). The -end form was the ancestor of -n' and -ing (obviously) of -ing. "

These were his findings;

1. “In all social classes, the more careful the speech, the more likely people were to say walking rather than walkin'.”
2. “The proportion of walkin' type forms was higher in lower social classes.”
3.  “The nonstandard -in' forms occurred much more often in men's speech than in women's, and this was true for all social classes.”
4.  “When women were questioned about what they thought they were saying, they tended to say they used the standard -ing forms more often than they really did.”
5. “When men were questioned about what they thought they were saying, they tended to say they used the nonstandard -in' forms more often than they really did.”

Robin Lakoff

Robin Lakoff is a professor of linguistics who is credited with the introduction of language and gender to sociolinguistics due to her 1975 book, ‘Language and Woman’s place’ which has inspired many different strategies for studying language and gender. She claimed that men and womens’ language could be distinguished in numerous ways, such as;

1.       “Hedges: Phrases like "sort of", "kind of", "it seems like"”
2.        “Empty adjectives: "divine", "adorable", "gorgeous"”
3.        “Super-polite forms: "Would you mind..." "...if it’s not too much to ask" "Is it o.k if...?"”
4.        “Apologize more: "I'm sorry, but I think that..."”
5.        “Speak less frequently”
6.        “Avoid coarse language or expletives”
7.        “Tag questions: "You don't mind eating this, do you?".”
8.        “Hyper-correct grammar and pronunciation: Use of prestige grammar and clear articulation”
9.        “Indirect requests: "Wow, I'm so thirsty." – really asking for a drink”  
10.     “Speak in italics: Use tone to emphasis certain words, e.g., "so", "very", "quite"”

She suggested that women changed their language and linguistics to suit different situations.

Additionally, she has developed theories such as the ‘Politeness principal which went by a set of three maxims, which were;

1. "Don't impose."
2. "Give the reciever options."
3. "Make the reciever feel good."

Language and gender

•   I think that the language of men is much different to the language of women, however there are many exceptions.
•   I think that swear words are much more masculine words and it would have been more shocking if you heard a woman swearing in comparison to hearing a man swearing however I think that this is changing and women are quickly gaining equal status to men in terms of language.
•  I think that both genders have quite different language features such as the lexis they may tend to use etc.
•  Rap music seems to be very derogatory of women and I would be interested in finding out more about this
•  There also may be dominance involved in language and gender in which the male speech is more dominant than female speech.
• Men tend to state factual information whereas women tend to work on building and maintaining relationships through language.
• Men tend to use paralinguistic features such as backchannelling less frequently than women.
• Women tend to ask questions more frequently than men do.

Some of the effects of technology on the English language

Blog post 1:

• In the first blog, the writer of the article; John Humphrys, takes a stand against texting because he thinks that it is destroying the English language; he says '...pillaging our punctuation; savaging our sentences; raping our vocabulary. And they must be stopped.' He implies that those who text are similar to savage and primitive barbarians or tribal people with the use of words such as 'pillaging', 'savaging' and 'raping' which has connotations with battle, a medieval setting etc.

Blog post 2:

• In the second article, the writer; John Sutherland, also does not seem vaguely pleased about the uprising of the text message, etc. He mocks the (what may be considered as a) form of communication when he says 'It's writing on Kleenex. One blow, then throw. Snot-talk, if one wants to get nasty about it.' The writer questions why texting has taken off so explosively in the article.

Blog post 3:

• The third article; written by David Crystal, highlights some of the good points of texting and supports the plight of texting and so is quite opposed to the first two articles. He says; 'There is no point in paying to send a message if it breaks so many rules that it ceases to be intelligible. When messages are longer, containing more information, the amount of standard orthography increases.'

• Words have been brought about by the internet such as 'Rick-rolling', which means when someone expects to see a certain video when clicking on a link, however, a video of Rick Astley's 'Never gonna' give you up' plays alternatively.

• By many articles and their writers, texting is often called '...penmanship for the illiterate...'.

• I think that text messaging and messaging over the internet has allowed the more primitive, spoken language to be put into use as texting etc. is much more similar to spoken discourse as opposed to written discourse. Writing is slow and deliberate, whilst spoken discourse is very subconscious and rapid (as is texting and instant messaging). Therefore, texting could almost be compared to a new kind of talking which is developing it's own rules and conventions. Some words used in modern language via text can have hidden meanings. For example, 'LOL' is not always used to express joy or laughter, it can be used simply to signal basic empathy between the two people involved in the conversation which eases tension and creates a feel of equality for the speakers. Therefore, rather than having a meaning, it can be used to convey a feeling or an attitude.There are always many people banging away on their smartphones who are fluently using a code/language separate from the one they use in actual writing, and there is no evidence that texting is ruining composition skills. Although text messaging may be  very useful, I personally do not see the point in many of the abbreviations which are used and I feel that it is actually the older generations that use text speak and abbreviations more prominently. I feel that younger generations have adapted texting and often use full written discourse in their texts because much of what is seen as text talk does not really make sense, so it is far easier to get your point across using regular written discourse (from my personal experience, this is often the case). 
  

Blog analysis of blog on relations between Obama and Pope Francis

This blog is comes from the telegraph and discusses the relations between Barrack Obama and Pope Francis. The blog post begins with a rhetorical question: '...they both get on really well?' The writer then goes on to use what seems to be a filler or language that is from their particular dialect when they say: 'That's sort of just happened on a global scale.' The writer then uses an ellipsis which gives the impression to the reader that it has a more informal, spoken feel which therefore makes the reader feel more comfortable and as if they are being spoken to whilst reading the piece (as opposed to have a formal, written feel) when the writer puts 'This is from the man who brands his opponents as extremists and refuses to negotiate with anyone on anything...'.

The writer then begins the next paragraph with an exclamatory sentence which is what seems like a stark contrast to what the prior paragraph was like when the writer puts: 'What the heck is going on here?!'. In addition to the informal feel because of the spoken feel that the writing has, the writer shortens words such as 'The Prez probably...' (meaning the president) as well as '...Catholicism is incompatible with Obamamania...'. The writer also adds a humorous feel to the blog post by using fairly dry humour. For example, the writer says: '...but the tone implies that Obama believes he's found a new political bedfellow.'

Travel writing analysis

The writer heavily fixes the reader's attention to the fact that the jungle is bursting with life; even when the tired travellers are ready to sleep. He continually describes the ants which are pestering him as he tries to sleep as if they are similar to a liquid (in terms of their movement and sheer volume). '...dark ants poured down...'. The writer says this in hope that it will allow the reader to make sense of how many ants there truly were around the author in this situation. This verb also gives the impression that there were so many ants that the amount of them was comparable to a constantly flowing stream. The writer yet again compares the ants to a liquid when he writes '...I brushed the first wave off...'. This constant comparison allows the reader to deduce that the ants are difficult to get rid of (as is water if one falls into it), as well as that there seems to be a never ending flow of the elephant ants with '...massive pincers...'.

Features of travel writing

• Depicts personal experiences of travel.

• Travel writing is often informative and entertaining.

• It is often used to inform a reader about a place.

Stylistic features of good travel writing;

- It focuses on a specific place and provides the reader with a unique view.

- It has a central theme.

- It is written in the first person.

- It sometimes directly addresses the reader.

- It has an interesting opening paragraph which hooks the reader.

- It aims to involve the reader emotionally through senses.

- Use of exaggeration for effect.

- It can have a spoken feel to it.

Features of a dramatic monologue

• The title is fairly significant (may be ambiguous or humorous).

• Stage directions are used in dramatic monologues to set the scene.

• They often have a narrator (the author must create an individual 'voice' for the narrator.

• The syntax in a dramatic monologue should reflect the style of speech.

• Typical language devices used in dramatic monologues could include;

-Verbal fillers

- Personal idiolect expressions

- Intensifiers

- Euphemisms

- Deliberately vague language

- Unfinished utterances

- Deictic references

- Tag questions

- Contractions