What makes a word "real"?

TED Talk - What makes a word 'real'?

• A word can be real even if it doesn't appear in a dictionary - who writes dictionaries?
• "Look it up in the dictionary" - suggests all dictionaries are the same. We seemingly treat dictionaries as unauthored, as though they're right and people don't look at them critically.
• Do slang words fill a gap in the English language? 
• There's an overlap between the words on the 'banned' words from Lake Superior State University and recent words of the year/candidates for word of the year - dependent on attitudes.
• Complaints about new words are a long running tradition.
• Some dictionaries include usage notes to clarify words which are in some way troublesome - e.g. 'peruse' means to read carefully/thoroughly, but it also means to glance over/skim - based on usage and surveys (e.g. The Usage Panel)
• Dictionary features such as usage notes can give you an idea of the opinions of usage, but shouldn't tell you how to use it. You may dislike a particular usage of a word, as may editors of dictionaries, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be used in that way or that you have the right to stop others/suggest others shouldn't use it - e.g. 'literally'
• A word gets into the dictionary because we use it and we keep using it - this allows society to decide what words mean
• If a community are using a word and understand what it means, that word is real.

Opinon Articles - Style Models

Is Texting Killing the English Language? - TIME
This article expresses an opinion about the use of "text speak" and the influence it has on the language abilities of teenagers, predominantly in America. I like this article because it is relatively short, informative and flows well. It creates a sense of informality.

Text-speak: language evolution or just laziness? - The Telegraph
This article is also about the use of "text-speak". It provides an opinion in a somewhat subtle way, as it expresses the opinions in the simple present tense, making it appear factual. I live this article because it builds a communicative relationship with the reader (via rhetorical questions, for example.

Think you's good at grammar? Try my seven golden rules - The Guardian
This article is an opinion piece about grammar. I like it because it is humorous and entertaining. It also provides some factual information which is important.

Modern tribes: the Facebook late adopter - The Guardian Modern Tribes
This article is loosely related to English language. It is an opinion article about the older generation using Facebook and social media as a whole. It is written from the persepective of the subject of the article, which makes it more interesting to read as it is unusual. It provides a slight humorous effect which is also a positive aspect of this article.

Stephen Fry, which child sexual abuse victim do you think changed their mind about trigger warnings when you told them to 'grow up'? - Independent Voices
This article is not related to English language but it is an opinion article, which could be used a style model. It provides powerful opinions, written in the simple present tense, and I believe that it is effective because it presents the opinion as factual information. The use of a rhetorical question at the end of the article talks directly to reader which is a powerful tool.

Gender and Language

Robin Lakoff (1975) - Deficit Theory:

1. Hedges: Phrases like 'sort of', 'kind of' 'it seems like'
2. Empty adjectives: 'divine', 'adorable', 'gorgeous'
3. Super-polite forms: 'Would you mind...', 'Is it OK if...'
4. Apologise more: 'I'm sorry, but I think that,,,'
5. Speak less frequently
6. Avoid coarse language or expletives
7. Tag questions: 'You don't mind eating this, do you?'
8. Hyper-correct grammar and pronunciation: Use of prestige grammar and clear articulation.
9. Indirect requests: 'I'm so thirsty.' - really asking for a drink
10. Speak in italics: Use tone to emphasis certain words, e.g. 'so', 'very', 'quite'

Lakoff admits: 'It is my impression, though I do not have precise statistical evidence'.

Jenny Cheshire (1982) 
Looked at the use of grammatical variations in the speech of young children specifically the frequency of the following:

• non-standard -s (she calls me...)
• non-standard has (you has to...)
• non-standard was (you was...)
• multiple negation
• non-standard never
• non-standard what (are you the boys what hit...)
• non-standard do (she do...)
• non-standard come (I come here yesterday...)
• use of ain't

Cheshire found that, overall, the boys used non-standard form more frequently than the girls did. Her conclusion was that "variation is controlled by both social and linguistic factors. In boys' speech, variation is governed by norms that are central to the vernacular culture, and are transmitted through the peer group. Variation in the girls' speech appears to be a more personal process, and less rigidly controlled by vernacular norms".

Pamela Fishman (1983) - Dominance Theory:

Fishman also looked at tag questions and agreed with Lakoff that they were used far more frequently by females. She, however, drew very different conclusions. While Lakoff stated that the use of them by women was representative of their uncertainty and tentativeness, Fishman concluded that they were, in fact, a way of women gaining conversational power. According to Fishman, question tags are used to initiate and maintain conversation - an action she terms 'conversational shitwork'. She also suggests that men are reluctant to do this 'shitwork' because of what they perceive to be their dominant role.


Jennifer Coates (1993) - Dominance Theory:
"Sees women as an oppressed group, and interprets differences in women's and men's speech in terms of men's dominance and women's subordination".


Deborah Tannen (1990) - Difference Theory:

The difference approach sees women as belonging to 'different subcultures' who are socialised differently from childhood onwards and may, therefore, have different problems with communication as adults.

"The desire to affirm that women are equal has made some scholars reluctant to show that they are different. There are gender differences in ways of speaking, and we need to identify and understand them."

1. Status vs Support - Men show power and dominance in conversations; women are more likely to use language that will support and agree with others.
2. Independence vs Intimacy - Men show they do not need to rely on others; women use language to connect and maintain closeness with others.
3. Advice vs Understanding - Men offer solutions to problems; women will show empathy and understanding in a given situation.
4. Information vs Feelings - Men are far more likely to be factual; women will use language that stems from a more emotional viewpoint and is less factual.
5. Orders vs Proposals - Men are more likely to be direct and use imperatives to command others; women will tend to avoid commanding tones and be more suggestive in their language choices.
6. Conflict vs Compromise - Men are more likely to use language to argue a point; women will use it to avoid a conflict and are more likely to negotiate with others to try and find a solution or reach a compromise.

Tannen's views also identify gender differences in terms of competitiveness (males) and co-operativeness (females).


Deborah Cameron in Verbal Hygiene (1995):
Cameron argues that theorists like Lakoff see gender in terms of power and powerlessness. For this reason: throughout Western culture the masculine/male has been the unmarked social norm, the feminine/female the marked form.
Unmarked forms: "manager", "usher", "waiter", "Paul"
Marked forms: "manageress", "usherette", "waitress", "Pauline"
Political correctness is now eliminating the marked forms.

Janet Hyde (2005) - Gender Similarities Hypothesis:

Hyde's research is of a more contemporary nature and suggests that, in actual fact, there are substantially more similarities in terms of gender and language than there are differences. She also suggests that any differences which are present are dependent of a number of other contextual factors such as: age, class, ethnicity, education, occupation, sexuality, politics and/or personality.

New exclamation mark rules – proof that The Man wants to penalise enthusiasm!

Article


This article published in The Guardian, called "New exclamation mark rules - proof that The Man wants to penalise enthusiasm!", is a humorous article which provides a small amount of information about the new rules that the government wants to introduce regarding punctuation marks. They suggest that key stage 1 and 2 children should only be credited for the use of an exclamation mark if used at the end of a grammatical structure beginning either "What" or "How". The article is intended to entertain.

Michael Rosen - Top 20 Words In English

Top 20 Words In English

Summary: Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright guide us through the top 20 words in English. Not the best or most popular (that would include tentacular, ping-pong and sesquipedalian (look it up - it's a cracker). Plus a lot of swearing. No this is the 20 most commonly used. It's actually quite a boring list - full of 'And', 'I', 'of' etc - but look a little closer and it tells you all about the structure of language. The little words you really can't do without that glue all the other ones together.

Key Points:

The top 20 words - 1-5:

• The
• Be
• To
• Of
• And

No nouns and very few verbs; grammatical words.
Easily forgettable because they become entrenched in your brain so you process them faster and don't really notice them.

The top 20 words - 6-10

• A
• In
• That
• Have
• I

Top 10 words are all Anglo-Saxon words which would've been found 1000 years ago.
2/3 of our language is not old English (Anglo-Saxon), it's from when England was ruled by the Anglo-Normans (French speaking). Although most of our language is not old-English, the most common words that we use on a daily basis, are.
These words carry the language as they are all essential from grammatical viewpoints.


In-built sexism of language? 'He' appears 16th on the list and 'his' is number 23, but 'she' doesn't feature until number 30.

Grammatical words: glue that sticks language together; connectives, pronouns and other little words such as 'the' and 'of'. Words come out in prefabricated chunks and then are stuck together using grammatical words.
Content words: words which can be easily defined.

The top 20 words - 10-20:

It

For

Not

On

With

He

As

You

Do

At

Top 20 words are dominated by grammatical words.
Top 20 words are almost identical to what they were 1000-1500 years ago. They have a slightly different order and there are a few differences, but they're essentially the same -  striking similarities.

Can we see the influence of other languages creeping in?
61st on the list: people. First Romance word on the list that came in with the Anglo-Normans.
You have to get quite far down the list before other languages creep in, despite 2/3 of our language not being Anglo-Saxon English.

This kind of list comes from a branch of linguistics called Corpus Linguistics. It looks at the frequency and distribution of words in large bodies of text or speech. You can apply it to anything - political debates, lonely hearts columns or pop songs.

The internet is a hybrid between spoken and written language - chatty language but written, for example on blogs.

The media has created associations between words, which has contributed to the creation of social attitudes.
Linguistics has changed massively with the development of technology.

Facebook - reaction button influencing language?

Article

This article discusses how the latest Facebook update - which introduced the "reactions" button to replace the old "like" feature. The update uses emoji-like icons to allow users to react to posts in one of six ways - like, love, haha, wow, sad or angry - meaning users of the social networking site can express empathy in a simple way. It also means there is a universal language on the website, making it easier to communicate with other users. The new update is likely to have been influenced by the increase in usage of emojis in recent times, which shows the power language trends can have over other environments - such as the virtual world of Facebook.

Michael Rosen - Word of Mouth: Slang

Michael Rosen - Word of Mouth: Slang

What is slang, where does it come from, and which subjects attract the most slang words? Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright thrash it out with lexicographer of slang and swearing Jonathon Green.

• Everyone uses slang to an extent, even if they're unaware of it
• Alternative to 'proper' language, slang is a 'counter language'
• Used to be associated with 'bad' people
• "great" used to be slang in the 60s but is no longer considered to be slang
• Michael Rosen's parents avoided saying "great" by saying "super" instead
• White middle-class men generated the English language
• Now the language we use is influenced by many different groups of people - different classes, genders, ethnicities etc., contributed to by everyone
• Ever-changing
• Clever, innovative way of using language
• no relation to the intelligence of an individual