English language too 'overpowering'? - The Guardian

http://opinion.inquirer.net/89303/english-language-too-overpowering

"English-speaking natives in Korea are highly respected that companies pay them higher salaries than non-English-speaking locals who have graduated from good universities."
"Learning English is healthy because it connects nations to many parts of the world, but it will not be good if it “overwhelms” the other languages"

Features of spoken language

1. Ellipses- omission of part of a word
2. "Er", "um", "you know" are examples of fillers
3. Idiolect- an individually distinctive style of speaking
4. "sort of", "like" are examples of voiced pauses
5. Back channeling- listener feedback signalling support and understanding
6. Deixis- words which point to something outside of the text
7. pitch, pace, stress and rhythm are examples of prosodic features
8. "gonna", "gimme" are examples of elision
9. "We was going down the road" and "he didn't know nothing" are examples of non-standard grammar
10. hesitation, repetition and false starts are examples are examples of non-fluency features
11. Adjacency pairs- Question-answer pairs and greeting-greeting pairs
12. Phatic talk- small talk
13. "It's okay here, isn't it?" is an example of a tag question
14. Gestures and facial expression are examples of paralinguistic features
15. "Anyway", "So" are likely to be examples of discourse markers
16. Pragmatics is the study of- what a speaker means rather than simply the words they say
17. Rather than using the term sentence in describing spoken language we use the word- utterance

Language and identity notes

Standard English
- considered to have most prestige
- formal register, language of power
- expected in school and work, proffesional
- suggestion of class

Dialect 
- lexical features or variations in grammar
- specific to the area

Taboo
- deemed to be offensive
- swear words
- usual feature of conversation in social groups

Technology influenced words and phrases
- words normally found in written forms
- e.g lol, cba, tweets, texts
- used in social groups

Neologisms
- new words
- coinage
- e.g selfie, emoji
- influence of media

Occupational register
- jargon
- largely based on shared understanding

Received pronunciation
- 'correct' way of speaking'
- language of power
- expected of lawyers, news readers etc.

Regional accent
- the way you pronounce certain words depending on where you live
multi accents

Slang
- considered informal

Joanna Thornborrow

'One of the most fundamental ways we have of establishing our identity, and of shaping other people's views of who we are, is through our language'

Andrew Moore

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

Language and occupation:

 

-The forms and functions of talk; registers and styles of writing; historical and contemporary changes, where appropriate. In particular, they should examine:
everyday functions and activities (e.g. the role of interpersonal language)
discourse features.


in an explicit sense as those kinds of activity that we can name (job interview, team briefing, disciplinary tribunal, conference, marriage ceremony) or n a looser descriptive sense (discussing a problem, telling a manager about an incident, asking an expert for guidance). e.g communicating information, requesting help, onfirming arrangements,instructing employees or colleagues to do something, making things happen or enacting them 

-Occupations develop their own special language features, and use those of the common language in novel or distinctive ways.

Language interactions may occur between or among thosewithin 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.

 

-Some uses are exclusive, because they shut out people who do not know them. This happens when doctors share a common lexicon. e.g ECG, CAT-Scan

 

-You should also look at how speech interactions reveal hierarchies, and changing attitudes to these.

 

-Phatic tokens- These are ways of showing status by orienting comments to oneself, to the other, or to the general or prevailing situation (in England this is usually the weather).

Brown and Levinson: positive and negative face

The linguists Brown and Gevinson put forward some ideas about politeness. They identify what the term positive and negative face needs.

Positive face needs refers to the assumption that we want to be liked and approved in our dealings with others. As a result of positive face needs, we use positive politeness strategies. Brown and Levinson suggested these might include:

• Paying attention
• seeking agreement (safe topics)
• pretend agreement (white lies, hedges)
• use humour
• use appropriate address terms
• compliments

Negative face needs refers to the assumption that we deal with difficult conversational strategies in a tactful way. As a result of negative face needs, we use negative politeness strategies. Brown and Levinson suggest these might include:

• Being indirect
• questioning and hedging
• being apologetic 
• giving deference (reducing your own status)

Specimen papers and mark schemes

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

:Femvertising - The Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/12/femvertising-branded-feminism

Erin McKean: Go ahead, make up new words!

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

"I'm a lexicographer. I make dictionaries. And my job as a lexicographer is to try to put all the words possible into the dictionary. My job is not to decide what a word is; that is your job...Words are great. We should have more of them. I want you to make as many new words as possible. And I'm going to tell you six ways that you can use to make new words in English."

1. "Steal them from other languages" Borrowing
2. "squishing two English words together" Compounding (e.g heartbroken)
3. "kind of like compounding, but instead you use so much force when you squish the words together that some parts fall off." Blend words (e.g brunch)
4. "You can also make words by changing how they operate. You take a word that acts as one part of speech, and you change it into another part of speech. Functional shift
5. "You can take a word and you can kind of squish it down a little bit." Back formation (e.g editor to edit)
6. "Another way to make words in English is to take the first letters of something and squish them together." abbreviation (e.g National Aeronautics and Space Administration becomes NASA.)

Transcript

David Crystal Sunday Brunch: You Say Potato

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ybrai

Talking about the website they have created http://www.panmacmillan.com/book/bencrystal/yousaypotato where people from all over the word record themselves saying 'potato' to show the diverse range of accents and their book, 'an authoritative, entertaining book, about our accents and what they say about us'. 

Steve Pinker: Language as a window into human nature

https://www.thersa.org/discover/videos/rsa-animate/2011/02/rsa-animate---language-as-a-window-into-human-nature/