AS English Language - #2: Language in social contexts

AS English Language

#2: Language in Social Contexts

Language and Gender

There seem to be a difference between how men and women use language, but no-one seems to be sure exactly what they are or why they occur.  Studies have shown that women tend to use accents from a higher social class than men:

Peter Trudgill (1983) studied men and women’s social accents and found that women’s pronunciation was closer to Received Pronunciation (RP), the accent that is usually seen as the most prestigious. Using Standard English and RP gives a person overt prestige – the prestige of being associated with a respectable, well-off section of society. 

Cheshire (1982) studied the speech of adolescent girls and boys and found that boys tended to use more non-standard grammatical forms than girls. Using non-standard English gives a person covert prestige. They seem a bit rebellious and independent. Men are more likely to seek covert prestige than women. This may be to be respected by friends, colleagues, or others.

Lakoff (1975) identified features she felt were characteristic of women's speech: hedges and fillers, apologestic requests, tag questions and indirect requests. She also pointed out that women tend to speak less than men, use fewer expletives and more intensifiers. She argues that these features reflected women’s inferior social status. She said that women’s language is weak compared to men’s language, and this prevents women from being taken seriously. This explanation is called the deficit model.

O’Barr and Atkins (1980) suggested an alternative explanation to the deficit model. They analysed American courtroom trials, and found that male and female witnesses who were of low social status and/or inexperienced with the courtroom practices, both showed many of the liguistic features that Lakoff labelled female. This suggests that the kind of language Lakoff describes as female is not only found in women, but might be more to do with individuals feeling powerless.

Cameron (2007) argues that there are few differences between men and women’s language, and situation affects how people speak much more than gender.

Language can be explained in terms of dominance and difference. Zimmerman and West (1975) recorded interruptions in conversations between men and women, and found that 96% of the interruptions were by men. This suggested that men are more dominant in male-female conversation, and Zimmerman and West therefore argued that this reflects dominance in society. On the other hand, Tannen (1990) described male and female conversational style in terms of difference. Men are concerned with status and independence, whilst women are interested in forming bods. Men give direct orders and don’t mind conflict, whilst women usually give polite, indirect orders and try to avoid conflict. Also, men are interested in gaining factual information and finding solutions to problems, whilst women aim to show understading by compromising, and offering support rather than solutions.

There are problems with these explanations. Other researchers have cast doubts on some of the explanations of differences in male and female language. Beattie (1982) suggested that interruptions could be supportive and show that the person is listening. Cameron (2007) argues that a lot of research is biased because there has been more focus on the differences between male and female language, rather than the similarities.


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AS English Language - #1: Varieties of English

AS English Language

#1: Varieties of English

Register and Mode

Register is the type of language used in different situations. Deciding which register is appropriate to use depends on several factors: the relationship between the speaker and the audience, the purpose, the field (subject being talked about), and the form. Whether the register is appropriate depends on the context it’s used in. Usin informal language in a formal situation is inappropriate because it could seem disrespectful or rude. Using formal language in an informal situation could sound unfriendly and stuffy.

Registers vary in terms of lexis, grammar and phonology. A conversation between to specialists would contain technical vocabulary that they would both understand. Register can affect syntax - the word order. Some registers even have grammatical constructions that are specific to them, like the legalese. The informal register involves things like dropping the /h/ and missing a /g/. Generally speaking, the more formal a situation is the more likely people are to modify their accent so it’s closer to RP.

Accent and Dialect

A dialect is a variation in language, with it’s own features of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. It is different to accent because it refers to the specific words you use, not just how you say them. The term dialect is usually used to describe language that is particular to a specific geographical region. There are also some variations in terms of social background (sociolect and idiolect).

An accent can be a feature of a dialect, but it just refers to how you say words, not the words themselves. Accents can be affected by regional or social background.

People have different attitudes towards dialects and accents as they highlight social class differences. This was illustrated by Shaw’s comment: “No Englishman can open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him”. Standard English is a social dialect and is usually associated with educated, middle and upper class people. It is the language of formal speech and writing, and what you are taught in school.

Workman (2008) studied people’s perceptions of different accents. The participants listened to recordings of different accents while they looked at photos of people. It was found that participants rated the intelligence of the people in the photos differently, depending on which accent they thought they had. Results: Yorkshire = most intelligent. Birmingham =least intelligent. This shows how strong the stereotypes of different accents can be.

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English presentation - How children acquire language

Guess who got a B on her english presentation today?! Kjempefornøyd. Målet var å få en C.. Læreren sa at den var veldig bra og detaljert, derfor ble det en B :)) De andre som presenterte fikk C og D, så min gruppe gjorde det best.
Hvis dere vil se hvordan presentasjonen så ut, take a look:

Language acquisition on Prezi

Da vi satt på biblioteket og gjorde siste finpuss, var det noen som la merke til at vi brukte noe annet enn Power Point. "Is that your presentation?" Jepp. "I have to have a look at that, because it looks bloody good...". Haha :)

América Central, Nicaragua y Noruega

Entre México en el norte y Colombia en el sur se encuentran los siete países centroamericanos: Guatemala, Belice, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica y Panamá. Estos países son diferentes, pero también parecidos. Hay muchas montañas en América Central. También hay selvas tropicales, volcanes activos, ríos y lagos grandes y costas a los dos lados; El Pacífico y el Mar Caribe. La región exporta muchos productos agrícolas, como por ejemplo plátanos, café y azúcar. Pero también hay industria, sobre todo en Guatemala y Costa Rica. La lengua oficial de seis de los países es el español. Sólo en Belice es otra, el inglés.

Orddelingsfeil - eller ord delings feil?

Det hender jeg blir oppgitt av å lese orddelingsfeil. Ord som er delt - men som ikke skal deles. Ord (eller setninger) får en helt annen betydning når et ord er delt feil. Se på disse eksemplene:

Er det mulig? Morsomt er det jo, men at et voksent menneske (jeg antar det er voksne som har skrevet disse) er i stand til å skrive slik, og ikke reagere på det!

Hva er din mening om disse?

Er du obs på orddeling når du skriver?

- Julie Egeland

Velkommen på 20 forskjellige språk

Norsk: Velkommen
Engelsk: Welcome
Dansk: Velkommen
Finsk: Tervetuloa
Fransk: Bienvenue
Gresk: καλώς όρισες
Hebraisk: ברוך הבא
Inonesisk: Selamat datang
Italiensk: Benvenuto
Kinesisk: 歡迎
Kroatisk: Dobrodošli
Polsk: Witamy
Rumensk: Bun venit
Slovensk: Dobrodošli
Spansk: Bien venido
Svensk: Välkomen
Tjekkisk: Vítejte
Tysk: Willkommen
Ukrainsk: Ласкаво просимо
Vietnamesisk: Chào mừng

It´s MY life

”Shut up!” I exploded.
”Shut up yourself!” Mum exploded.
”Cut it out!” Dad exploded.

In my family we argued about almost every little thing. There was no way that one day would pass without an argument. My mum and me were the worst. I could quarrel with her for hours. She never understood me. Right now, we were arguing about who was going to pick up my little sister at nursery school.
“I did it last time!” I yelled.
“You did not! Yesterday you spent all day hanging out with Melanie!” my mum shouted in my face.
I became quiet, before I continued;
“Anyway – I don’t want to! I am not the parent in this house!”
My father always tried to stay out of our fights, but sometimes he had to intervene.
“I’ll pick her up today,” he said, and pointed at me, “but tomorrow you´ll have to do it!”
“Fine,” I muttered, and went to my room. Inside I was boiling with anger. My mother was a thorn in my side. I had bought a t-shirt last week just to annoy her.



Melanie and I were on the shopping centre, and I saw this completely chic t-shirt. There was a text on it saying: If you think I’m a bitch, wait until you meet my mother. When I got home, my mum went nuts.
“You can’t wear that!” she said to me, “People will think I am insane if I let you wear it!”
“It´s mine. I bought it!”
“Yes, but with my money!”
We talked louder and louder. And I unfortunately agreed not to use the t-shirt.


But right now, I raked it up, and wore it like a protest.
Then I laid down on my bed, and burst into tears.
I heard someone knocking on the door.
“Come in,” I said, and in came my dad.
“Hey pal,” he said, “How are you doing?”
I was on the verge of tears, but tried to hold them back.
"Why does it always have to centre around me?" I asked sadly.
"You know your mother, right?"
"Yes, she's a..."
"Don't say it..." he stopped me, "Bitch?"
"Yes, exactly!" I said, and suspected some support.
"Well - don't say that! That is impertinent!" my dad explained to me.
"In that case..." I started, "I was hoping you were coming to support me, but no. Leave this room now, please!"
My dad was confused and insulted, and nearly ran out.
"I'm going to talk to your mother about you two," he said, "You have to make up."
"I don't want to," I shouted after him.

He didn’t hear, because he was on his way to pick up my sister, Madeleine. When she got home, the fight started again…
“Stephanie?” she said, “Stephanie?”
“Stop nagging!” I shouted, and I saw that Madeleine had the lump in her throat.
My mum was starring with an icy look.
“OK, fine, what is it?” I said to my little sister.
I knew she was going to poke fun at me.
“Why are you always so mad at mum?”
I hated that question. She always said that when she wanted to tease me. Now I wanted to hit her, but of course I was not going to. Yet I pretended that I was going to. She was frightened and burst into tears.
“Mum, Stephanie tried to hit me!” she sobbed, and looked at mum with an innocent gaze.
“Stephanie!” now she was furious.
“I did not!” I tried, but my mother just pointed at the stairs, “I’m afraid I have to ground you!”
“You’re kidding, right?” I said.
“No, go to your room immediately.”
“What?! This is just stuff and nonsense! I didn’t even try to hit her,” Of course I did, but my mum never believed me, so it didn’t matter if I lied once.
It was always that way. Madeleine always got it her way.


So there I was - grounded.
When my mum came up, and told me to make dinner – I got mad as a wet hen.
"I am not going to make dinner!" I tried to stay calm.
"You are just going to take some pizza out of the freezer, and put it in the stove," she said, and surprised me by not being angry.
She looked at me with a fallow deer-look. Then she caught sight of something. Guess what? My t-shirt. It´s so typical! When my mother and I was about to become friends, I had to wear that stupid t-shirt, and ruin everything.
"Why are you wearing that?" she said, and now her voice was metallic.
I did not answer.
"Why?"
"Because we had a fight earlier, and I was mad at you..." I said.
"I told you to return it to the store!" she said, "Why didn´t you do that?"
I told her it was because I wanted to keep it - It made me feel better because I was mad at her.

She said it was OK, but asked me to put it away.


The following day we started again. Now the quarrel was about the bathroom. I ran into it before Madeleine. And she was standing on the outside, hammering on the door.
“Let me in!” she said.
I was inside, smiling. Finally I was the first to occupy the bathroom. I used the curling iron, put on makeup, and fixed my nails, just to spend extra time. When I came out, both of my parents started to yell at me about two different things. They didn’t notice that Madeleine went into the bathroom herself, before she let out a scream.
We all hurried into her, and saw her lying on the floor, with her hand almost burned up. We were all very confused in the beginning, but my dad came to sense, and called the ambulance. It felt like hours, until it came with to competent nurses. My mum, dad and I felt really bad for what had happened. We had been so busy arguing that we all had forgot little Madeleine.
Especially me – it was my fault, because I left the curling iron without pulling out the plug.
Luckily everything was all right with Madeleine after a couple of weeks with plaster cast.
We have now all learnt something in my family. We don’t argue so much anymore – we try to solve the problems by talking, and not yelling. And we probably take more care of each other.

Dette var min stil :)
Skolestil i engelsk på torsdag (25.09)