Abby Buckingham's English Language Blog

Is English Language Changing and does Misusing it Make you a Lesser person? Another way of looking at differences between Standard English and other forms of English as that they are evidence of change https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/english-changing http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/changing-voices/ https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/usage/commonly-confused-words https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/10/03/continuous-tenses/ https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-mispronunciations-that-make-you-sound-stupid/ stancarey.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/language-correctness-corruption-and-doom/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th-fronting

Accent and Dialect revision sheet You must:   (in no particular order!) 1.     Learn the research/theories, and remember that how they connect and contrast in relation to the question should be the focus of your answer.   Have examples, quotes, statistics and know if the research was reliable. 2.               Briefly the theories are as follows: Cheshire (Reading Study) – she found that boys use more non-standard English than girls as a result of group pressure. Also it depended which social group children belonged to. Labov (Martha’s Vineyard Study) – locals strengthened their dialect (to emulate local fishermen) in order to differentiate themselves from tourists (covert prestige). Labov (Fourth Floor Study) – the pronunciation of /r/ (the rhotic r) is associated with higher status in USA. Giles (Capital Punishment study) and/or ComRes survey – rur...

‘Um’ vs. ‘Er’ – a worldwide debate that no one really cares about    Does it really matter whether I say ‘Um’ or ‘Er’ between my words when what I’m saying is actually the most um… important part? Abby Buckingham, December 2017 Are men and women really that different? An age-old question that philosophers and scientists alike have spent decades trying to answer. Numerous studies have been launched to find out how we speak differently to one another and whether that’s because of biology or because of society.  When trying to find your answer, if you dig deeply into the world of speech and keep going and keep going and keep going until you hit the most basic, simple part of our language you will find one glaring difference – ‘um’ vs. ‘er’. Studies have shown that women and teenagers constantly revert to the use of ‘um’, whilst men prefer ‘er’. Kim Kardashian once used ‘um’ 100% of the time in an interviews and Barack Obama said ‘uh’ 9 times. Now, if...

Robin Lakoff – Deficit Approach  Ten things women are more likely to use/do: (lack of linguistic power) 1) Hedges – ‘kind of’ ‘sort of’- uncertainty 2) Empty adjectives – ‘adorable’ ‘fabulous’ – avoiding strong opinion 3) Talk less frequently – weakest at conversation 4) Emphasis on certain words – italics/tone 5) Less swearing/taboo lexis 6) Tag questions – put on the end of sentences – ‘are they?’ ‘Isn’t it?’ - validation 7) Hyper correct Language – standard English 8) Super polite forms – a way of getting what you want without being direct – society rewards females for being polite 9) Apologising more frequently – weaker participant in social discourse 10) Indirect requests ‘do you mind if I…?’

Accommodation, Convergence and Divergence – Howard Giles Accommodation – trying to mirror the accent of the person you’re speaking to to make them feel more comfortable (accommodating them) Convergence – unintentionally using the same accent as the person you’re speaking to Divergence – when you try and differ your language to the person you’re speaking to

This is an opinion piece I wrote on political jargon: Political Jargon That Shows off Just How Immature Our MPs Can Be It’s no secret that politicians can be a little rowdy sometimes, just take a look at Boris Johnson, but there are times when they do need to learn that there is a line between behaving in a comedic way and behaving like an idiot. A prime example of this is a video my politics teacher showed me once to demonstrate the atmosphere inside of the House of Commons. It is titled “My favourite moments from the UK House of Commons” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWeaLGealHQ) and is basically five minutes of politicians jeering at each other whilst the Speaker acts like a supply teacher attempting to calm down a class full of teenagers. Naturally, to no avail. It was no wonder my politics teacher took it upon herself to reassure us that she was not the one who made the video and that the moments included were not her personal favourite. Admittedly, the video was quite ...

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/nov/30/politicians-bad-language-jargon Language and Occupation - Links http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-14653080  - 'Solutionising' business jargon Gillian Sharpe - BBC Scotland News - 26 August 2011 How business/corporate jargon is undermining business and making it hard to understand. Some people believe that it makes business seem more humourous and amusing than it actually is or that it confuses newcomers as they cannot understand it. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/643416.stm  -  Jargon 'baffles' office workers Tuesday, 15 February 2000 - BBC News "Jargon can be used to exclude and confuse others, as well as mask inexperience and lack of expertise." Paul Jacobs, Office Angels A negative, opinion article that criticises jargon and how people use it to exclude or confuse workers. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7457287.stm  -  50 office-speak phrases you love to hate Monday, 16 June 2008 - BBC News Maga...

What makes up a discourse community? - Swales' defining characteristics 1) Has a broadly agreed set of common public goals 2) Has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members (jargon) 3) Uses it participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback 4) Utilises and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims 5) In addition to owning genres, it has acquired some specific lexis 6) Has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise Lexicon – According to Swales  Politician Lexicon – standard, low-frequency English (e.g. legislation, mandate, representation) 1) Set of goals; pass legislation, represent constituencies, keep country running smoothly, keep economy stable 2) Intercommunication – emails, phone calls, meetings 3) Participatory mechanisms – debates, question-time, cabinet meetings 4) Furtherance of aims – News, house of commons channel, pu...