Blurred Lines BBC Documentary

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0436qlw

Language and Gender Articles (with Research from Professors)

THE GUARDIAN: Do men and women speak the same language? Published 2007.

This is extracted from the book The Myth of Mars and Venus, published by Oxford Professor Deborah Cameron.

Extract:  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/oct/01/gender.books

Table of Gender differences in verbal/communicative behaviour adapted from Hyde, "The Gender Similarities Hypothesis".
"d" is the formula for indicating the size of the overall gender difference: minus values for d indicates females are ahead of males, and plus values indicates males ahead of females.
 http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2007/10/01/genderdifferences.pdf


THE INDEPENDENT: Gender stereotypes study. Published 15/11/2017- RECENT STUDIES.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/gender-stereotypes-language-men-women-technology-male-female-words-a7418616.html

Looking at words and topics that are considered "male" and those that are considered "female".

Ted Talks

https://www.ted.com/talks/celeste_headlee_10_ways_to_have_a_better_conversation

Celeste Headlee hear talks about how communication in the 21st century has been broken down and more people than ever are not talking face to face, but through technology. We are more divided and less likely to compromise than ever, found in a study of 10,000 Americans. The balance between talking and listening in conversation has been lost, partly due to technology. A third of American teenagers send more than 100 texts a day and are more likely to text their friends than talk face to face. She then goes on to give advice on conversing; how to have an interesting and effective conversation. She gives tips such as "don't repeat yourself", "ask open ended questions" and "listen".

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

Erin Mckean is a lexicographer. She talks about how people who speak a language have the freedom to make new words in that language.

2 kinds of grammar.

The kind of grammar that if you’re a native or good speaker of a language, you’ll have unconscious rules that you follow when you speak language, like when you make the plural of any word. This experiment was invented by Professor Jean Berko Gleason in 1958 at Boston University.

The other kind of grammar rules are more about manners. This is what linguists call Usage.

6 ways to make new words

1. Borrowing: Taking words from other languages. Eg. Ninja.
2. Compounding: Putting two existing words together. Eg. Hearbroken.
3. Blend: Mixing parts of two words. Eg. Brunch.
4. Functional Shift: changing a noun to a verb. Eg. Friend, and to friend someone.
5. Back Formation of Words: taking words from others. Ie. Edit from Editor.
6. Acronyms and Initialisms: Abbreviations of words consisting of initial letters. Either pronounced separately or together. Eg. NASA or BBC.

Word Of Mouth- Slang

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06wd268

This program is discussing the origin of slang, who uses it and what topics of conversation it is used for, ie. sex, death, men and women.

Notes:
Slang has a bad reputation, from it's earliest collection of criminal slang in the 16th century when it was used by 'bad' people.
Booze is arguably the oldest slang word, dating back to the first glossaries. However, it is so common today that it would be considered more colloquial language.

Txting is killing language. JK!!! - John McWhorter

http://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk

An ode to the hoody analysis

The writer, in the introduction, uses techniques to entice and entertain an adolescent audience, as a primary purpose. The tone is very informal and light-hearted. The lexical choice of “Arrgh” has an informal register, as it would usually be spoken and is not something typically found in a formal piece of writing. The secondary purpose of this introduction, I would argue, is to engage the reader. The writer knows that there is less of a chance that an audience of 18-25 year old male students will read the whole article and stay engaged, if it fails to engross them by starting with a formal, informative tone.

The audience of this article is 18-25 year old male university students and most likely to be living in a city. Lexis such as “co-op” and “cold kebab” implies this because they are most common within cities. The mention of “hangover” twice in the article, heavily suggests the audience is teenagers. However, the writer has said “friends are absent” and this suggestion of shared accommodation increases the age of the audience to university students. The proper noun “Nokia” dates this article as from the 90s and during this time, it wouldn’t have been as common for working class teenagers to have gone to university. This indicates that the audience would be middle class students. The writer has used male stereotypes and a male persona of the hoody to show that it is aimed at a male audience.

Examples of personification are used, “our best friend” and “no lavishing is required to keep him happy” when referring to the hoody.  This is the writer talking directly to the reader and creating a relationship between the hoody, the reader and the writer themselves, in order to make the audience engage and identify with the article. The masculine pronoun, “he”, is also used to give the hoody a male persona and give the audience a consolidation of the stereotypical, male ‘relationship’ they have with their hoody. This is emphasised by the fact that the hoody has been given more of an identity than the person wearing it. The writer speaks of the hoody not needing “ironing, folding, coat hangers” etc. Illustrating that men are untidy and reinforces the male stereotype that the writer has been building up and makes the readers connect with the article.

The personification of the hoody is used to show that it will always be there for you. Whilst also requiring no “lavishing of attention” in order to “keep them happy”. Implying that a hoody is better than a girlfriend as it requires virtually no maintenance, no emotional commitment and yet it will always be “patiently waiting to be called into action.” The writer describes it as “an undemanding presence always willing to serve and asking so little in return.” This description of the hoody would immediately resonate with a stereotypical male audience.

The simile, “mouth drier than a nun’s chuff” helps a young audience into connecting with the article. This ensures that they continue reading, even later when the register changes to serious and formal with a political message.

The writer uses the metaphor, “the weather is an enemy to our cause”. This has been used because the writer wants the audience to identify with the writing, and for them to relate to the stereotypical adolescent feeling of being an ‘outsider’.

Third person pronouns such as “our” and “we” are used in order to give the reader a sense of belonging. The writer has tapped into the common teenage identity of feeling like an ‘outsider’ and used this to persuade the audience that they are not alone and the writer is on the same side. The writer then uses the rhetorical question, “Are we going to stand by and watch these pen pushing, mackintosh wearing, jag driving pompous politicians deny us our essential piece of clothing because they feel threatened by them?” This technique has been used to provoke the reader into feeling passionately about the negative, unfair social connotations of wearing a hoody and prepares the audience for when the tone and register of the article later changes and the informal and humorous lexis is replaced by more formal and academic lexis.

FRAMEWORKS

Framework/Linguistic Method: 

               

•   LEXIS   

  Word-choice. Meaning a word and phrase level.                                         

• GRAMMAR                                 

    How the language is built i.e. the structure and rules which underpin how we form sentences.

• PHONOLOGY                      

   How we organise the sounds of our language to produce certain effects including rhythm, rhyme, intonation, stress, pauses, etc.

• PRAGMATICS

    How we know what language means when it is used in a specific context, sometimes described as “reading between the lines”.

• DISCOURSE

a)      How longer stretches of text are organised (cohesion – how it holds together e.g. use of discourse markers)

b)      The way the texts create identities for particular individuals, groups or institutions e.g. the discourse of law, politics, the media.

• GRAPHOLOGY

    How the design of a text can contribute to meaning including use of fonts, graphics,       colours etc.