English is weird

Dear Ms Morgan: in grammar there isn’t always one right answer - The Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/nov/03/morgan-grammar-test-right-answer-spag-english-spelling-punctuation-grammar

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).