Niall's English language blog

Summary of the guardian article - https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jan/29/how-words-influence-thought Whorf believed that the language you use can influence thought  Whorf hypothesized his idea of relativity as having to have the same linguistic background to perceive things differently  Hopi - native american tribe who were said to have no concept of time, this made Whorf hypothesize they could not conceive the idea of time  As linguistic advancements progressed, this idea of 'Whorfism' became less credible   Language and colour perception research - the number of words you have for different shades of colour can make conceiving colour different to other cultures who may have more or less  Namibian Himba - only have 5 categorizes for colour,  compared to our 11 basic so colours can look vastly different but may fall under same category  Determinism- way you use language determines you as a person  'Woke' article...

Police Text Analysis How does text A use language to create meanings and representations In text A, we are presented with an informal interview with a police officer who is questioned on the subject of ‘policing’. The writer aims to appeal to the audience through the language, in this case the intended audience is teenagers who are interested in policing. This is done through such techniques as incorporating colloquial terms that the age group are familiar with. The noun ‘cop’ is used by the writer to relate the website with the intended audience as it is a term commonly used by adolescents. This informal tone is carried throughout the interview with the officer producing anecdotal responses which are not littered with sophisticated language a younger audience would otherwise struggle to understand. Furthermore, we again see the writer try to appeal to their audience, this time through the technique of graphology. This can be seen through the graffiti style font used on the w...

Plan  Intro: strongly agree with the question, brief opinion on the question  para 1:(for argument)people that speak such accents as brummie, cockney and scouse seen as 'inferior' accents and face criticism of from other parts of the country. leads some to change language. Joe Lycett described himself as being brought up in Birmingham but not acquiring the accent as being a product of him 'being brought up better' . stigma behind the use of certain accents makes people adopt other accents they see as more desirable. Dr Andrew Hamer(dialectologist)  believes accents shouldn't be classified as 'inferior' to other accents, impacts people's identity and is a contributing factor to 'dialect levelling' (for argument) it can be argued these accents are least liked as they are some of the most popular accents in the UK and big in British culture, lesser known accents may be less likeable but aren't aswell known, such as the wakefield accent.  ...

Task 1 Cockney Accent Article  In the article, the writer immediately highlights how the 'slang is dying out amid London's diverse, multi-cultural society' which we take for being the truth as it is brought forth by 'research, which was conducted. the article continues to discuss how a survey was conducted that found the use of the 'world famous' accent appeared to be declining. The article gives examples of popular cockney slang such as 'mother hubbard','bacon and eggs' and discusses how many in London have lost understanding on it. The writer also discusses how the use of the slang stopped as it gradually gained popularity.  Task 2 1. Cockney is no longer spoken in East London, has moved to Essex with the minority  2. Believe its been replaced by multi-cultural London English  3.Increase in number of different ethnicity's in the area means they have created their own identity, grime has also given rise to the slang...

Is the truth 'hyde-ing' in plain sight?  Language gender theories have been coming increasingly relevant over the last 3 decades but is there any clarity over why there is such a gaping difference in how the males and females of society communicate with one another. A recent study into FTSE 100 (Financial Times Stock Exchange) found that only 22 out of 100 of the businesses had a female executive, this was the highest its been since 2015. Making only just over a fifth of the total, it begs the question : Why are there so little women in these types of position? Deborah Tannen, a well known theorist, published a report, titled 'You Just Don't Understand' (1990)which discussed how men and women use the same language in their conversations but with different goals. For example, one of Tannen's points was this idea of 'status vs. support' which discusses how men were shown to use language as a means of asserting dominance but saying women used language ...

Analyse how text uses language to create meanings and representations The example text is taken from the mirror website, in the money section and discusses the amount boys are now spending on prom. The text is presented to be rather informal as it attempts to appeal to the audience of adults and teenagers looking to go to prom yet it does not implement any colloquialisms. The purpose of the text is to inform the audience how much teenagers typically spend on the event and the pressure they face. Some affordances of this website article is that it gives a platform for writers to inform the audience on issue yet a constraint of that readers are unable to respond to the writer. The website is structured to encourage the audience to trust the site through such things as the use of the simple sentence; 'Advice you can count on', as it is the slogan,it represents the websites values and what it aims to give the audience.  As we read the articl...

Response: compare and contrast how text A+B create meanings and representations In both texts, the writers use language to convey shock at the amount of  money being spent on prom. In text A, the writer highlights the sheer amount o money is spent, saying "it's crazy the amount of money some people spend", example text B also highlights this as it  discusses proms as "sending sales of tuxedos rocketing". The adjective 'crazy' is used to represent the amount of money people spend on prom and how it is ridiculous. The use of the progressive verb 'rocketing' is used to represent the increase in expenditure by boys on prom.  In both texts we also see girls being represented as 'prom obsessed' which is typically a stereotype society interpret. This is evident in text A where the writer discusses how they feel forced to "browse the wares of limbo hire companies, tiara makers photographers, etc.?" the use of this list is used to ca...