English Language

The UK holds numerous different accents, even though to many of us English is our first and only language, we still fail to fully understand one another. The characteristics of each accent range dramatically, with each of them distinctive and totally different to another. This is almost unbelievable taking into consideration the size of the UK, and the number of different accents. Each city holds its own opportunities for; jobs, families, universities, housing etc. This is causing people to move across the country, mixing accents and causing confusion. Everyone has experienced the awkward interaction with those of a different accent to their own. There is almost bizarrely a language barrier, they may as well be speaking in a ‘foreign’ language because only very little is being understood. The rate at which technology is developing, has also allowed a mix in accents. Technology is becoming more and more important in our everyday lives as we pretty much rely on it nowadays for school...

The sign’s purpose is to inform those who are using the Hospital’s car park, of the legal obligations that are brought upon them when they enter. For the fact that the car park is based in a hospital, we would expect that the majority of people receiving this information are patients or are some form of relation to the patient. The state, in which they receive this information, will depend on the context (why they are visiting the hospital). They may be stressed or rushing, to visit their loved ones because they are in a serious state or they don’t know what state they are in. In this case the receiver is far less likely to read the car park instructions. For this reason, the manufacturer of the sign has purposely enhanced and enlarged the most important parts of the texts. This is done by using a large and bold text for the “terms and conditions” and “IMPORTANT NOTICE” which is in capital letters to emphasise the severity of the statement. The text is short and concise purpos...

Following the Sony hacking scandal late last year, a lot of sensitive information was widely leaked across the globe. Revealing the wage of many well respected actors and actresses. Hunger games star Jennifer Lawrence with a net worth of 60 million dollars, noted that she was paid substantially less than her male co-stars and various other male actors. This subsequently led to Lawrence posting a Facebook update expressing her opinion. The post lead to much debate over the gap in pay due and its link to gender, which was immediately all over the internet after its release by Lawrence. The photo received 173k 'likes', 8.2k comments and 25k shares meaning that anyone friends with the person who shared the post could see it as well, rapidly spreading the post and its contents everywhere. Proving that this was one of the biggest debates and uprising of interests in concerning gender equality in recent years. Lawrence is correct; it is proven in the majority of cases that men ar...

In the transcript, proper nouns are utilized an abundance amount of times. This is predominantly when the barrister refers to each different character by their name. For example 'according to Mr Neil(.) this is feeling(.) this grudge on Mr Peterson's(.)' The use of proper nouns in comparisons to pronouns give the impression that the Barrister is formal, giving him power over the rest of the court room as he speaks. His formality of his language, could suggest, without actually hearing him and analysing his pitch, tone and volume that the Barrister is quite intimidating. This is supported by the fact that Mr Neil, begins to increase the number of minor sentences  he produces, throughout his time being questioned which seems to be intense taking into consideration the short duration of the transcript. His constant referral of 'Mr Neil' by his name directs the tension and responsibility on to Mr Neil himself, making him seem weak. The contextual information of this tr...

One theory from a 1930’s linguist is that ‘all English-men are branded on the tongue from birth and that a person could tell so much about another as soon as they opened their mouth, in particular not just the region they came from but also the social class they aspired to’. Our dialects form and are a part of our identities whether we like them or not. It was a century ago that George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright wrote that ‘no English man can open his mouth without another despising him’. It’s remarkable that 100 years on this is still incredibly true, that so much about ourselves is judged by the way you speak. Assumptions of your class and in some cases intelligence levels can be formed on the basis on just your language. Did you know this? From the size of the UK in comparison to countries like America, Russia and China, you would assume that the amount of dialects spoken is minimal, however this couldn’t be further from the truth. There are roughly above 30 distinct...

  collocate- a word or phrase that is often used with another word or phrase, in a way that ​sounds ​correct to ​people who have ​spoken the ​language all ​their ​lives, but might not be ​expected from the ​meaning: In the phrase "a hard ​frost", "hard" is a collocation of "​frost" and "​strong" would not ​sound ​natural.   tessellate- Specialize connotations- an idea or feeling which a word invokes for a person in addition to its literal or primary meaning. Hyperbole- exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally cliché- a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.

The text is a transcript of a trial, someone who would have heard this text would probably think that the trial is quite informal. The barrister doesn't seem to have much authority at the start of the transcript, but with repetitive questioning of the conversation gains control. By putting the Defendant under pressure forcing irregular pauses and short and vague responses which often overlaps the question being asked.     1. In the text everyone is addressed by their surnames, the use and purpose of this is to make sure there is complete clarity on the names of who the jury and barrister are addressing. If he uses pronouns when addressing people, there will be confusion for people spectating the conversation, who will have to make an educated judgement on whether a character is or isn't guilty. this is also expected by us, as an audience. If we heard the use of pronouns rather than proper nouns we would think that the register of the conversation was unsuitable for...

I chose to cover ‘gun laws in America’ as my controversial issue; this is mainly because the issue has recently been put into the media’s spotlight. This month 13 people were shot dead in the ‘Oregon college shootings’.  I feel very strongly about the issue myself, so felt that I was able to express my own thoughts and feeling through the persona and idiolect of each character. Although I tried to keep both sides of the issue as equal as possible, so that I could fully make my point.  I felt that the pro-gun laws were particularly very hard to sustain any valid points, because I had such a strong opinion. The purpose of each of these blogs was to show very different viewpoints on gun laws, so that there was a great disagreement between the two bloggers. The register of each blog is very different but again quite deliberate, to exaggerate the persona of Jonathon and Richard. Due to the severity and the fact that the issue has arisen so abruptly and quickly, the expectation...

50 year old Jonathon Smith from Houston, Texas. Wrote a blog following the tragic shootings in Oregon, He says that congressional policies on guns should remain the same. His blog below states why he feels that the laws on armament should remain as they have for centuries. "Every year we hear that some ' maniac'   has been let loose with a weapon of some sort that has ended in lives being lost, when we hear this on the news, in the newspaper or on the radio, it’s very black and white. You’re only told what they want you to hear, which is similar to everything in life. Has anyone ever thought to ask about the shooters back ground? Mental illnesses? What if there was a reason as to why these crimes were being committed? It’s not the laws on guns that need to be amended, it’s the system that allows these people to obtain them that needs to be dealt with. These people are crazy; the US government are naïve every time it happens. Breaking down the ability to obtain a...

Subject is the Refugees crisis Aritcle 1- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34356758 Article 2- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-184828/Refugees-drain-UK-think-young.html Both articles use a lot of statistics to embed their point and create a debate about the crisis. They also show the crisis in the viewpoint of more than one age’s group, e.g. in article 2 there is a bigger focus on teenagers. Whereas in article 1 focuses on the overall view of the conflict, and is not specific.   The articles include rhetorical questions and quotes, that will prove there point and create a more detailed analysis of the subject. The article may deliberately written to make you feel the same way as the writer, the writer may try to change your view with persuasive language.                                  ...

Do u rekon tht languages have changed tht much? LOL Language has changed very drastically and rapidly over the past decade, not only in the UK but in every single continent. One of the main reasons for this could be the overuse of the internet and social media, or could it be that people are just too lazy? Or have the majority of people just got too use to their “slanguage?" With language changing as quickly as ever, it’s not surprising that it’s not only the British population let alone the rest of the word will understand these now slang terms and their meanings. Although there are still elements of "ancient" language that can be tracked back to Shakespearian times, this has not affected the rate and extent to which language has changed over the years. It is mainly acronyms of long lexis’s phrases that cause the mixed emotions to occur, from mainly parents and teachers. The obvious reason for this lack of proper English is without a doubt social media. ...

One of the main relationships that is by far the most obvious, is the number of food related texts that were identified. The majority of the texts that were discovered shared a lexical field of food, being either completely food based or had some reference to it. All of the slogans were short and snappy, for example; 'every little helps' from Tesco's or 'Taste the rainbow' from Skittles. This is deliberately done so that we as an audience or "target market" will remember it, and be much more inclining to purchase the product. The overall purpose of these mix-mode texts are to not only remind you and inform you about the product but to also try and make a connection with you. This doesn't mean that they specifically want to make a connection with one person, but a group of people, a "target audience". If you don’t feel like you have a connection with the advert when you are watching it, then you probably aren't the group of people who t...

Firstly I noticed that the majority of the words listed were adjectives(describing words), For example "groovy", "amazing", "lush" etc. Also that the majority of the adjectives were liked. However the majority of words over all were surprisingly negative, this could be due to a number of influential factors. For example the mood of the participants could greatly effect what they choose and why. For example they may have chosen a negative word as their like word because of a person experience etc. The number words that people described and associated with being negative, majorly outweighed the positives. Words that "shift in meaning tended to be dislike, such as "literally" or "like". For example the definition of "like" is having the same characteristics or qualities as; similar to. Though the meaning is very similar to how it is used now, its is over used and miss used. The same goes for "sweat", normally it w...