Everyone should watch this advert, not only does it link to language and discussions we've had in class because it's similar to the advert we looked at about words we associate with women and not men but it really does open your eyes to something I hadn't really noticed before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs
Saturday, 28 June 2014
Monday, 23 June 2014
Oxford English Dictionary Terms
Oxford English Dictionary Terms
What do you learn about the reasons that new words come into the English language and how?
From the article I have learned that some of the new terms that we now have in the OED are as a result of borrowing, an example of this is the word cushy which means easy was borrowed from Urdu and was first used by Rudyard Kipling.
Another example is that the word cootie (meaning body louse) originated in the trenches of 1917 but research has shown that coot means “louse” and cooty means “infested with lice” which was used earlier in the war. All these terms ultimately relate to a bird called a coot that is known to be infested with lice and there is a phrase called “lousy as a coot” which dates back to the 19th Century.
Germany was largely the source of loanwords referring to weapons and vehicles such as minenwerfer.
What I found interesting in the text was that although soldiers borrowed words from Germany they mispronounced common French expressions which were informal that they picked up in the frontline.
Which words did you look up and what did they mean? How did they enter the language?
War to end all wars - A war regarded as making other wars unnecessary. It entered our language during the first world war because it was believed that this war would be the one to end all war. It was a slogan that the Allies had and had to stick to it.
Camouflage - Used to disguise or conceal an object. Many soldiers and aeroplanes etc. all used camouflage to keep them from being defeated by the enemy.
Shellshock - Is a psychosomatic disorder identified in the Soldiers of the First World War. The term coined because it is believed the disorder was caused by exposure to shell-fire and the disorder was characterised by severe anxiety attacks and nervous ticks.
Triple Entente - An informal alliance of three powers: Great Britain, France and Russia. They formed the Allied powers of the First World War.
Big Bertha - Soldiers name for a German gun used in the war of 1914 named after Madame Krupp von Bohlen.
Flanders Mud - The muddy conditions which characterise the trenches and battlefields of the First World War and it now symbolises the suffering of the soldiers. It is called Flanders mud because it is a place in Flanders. The war poem “In Flanders Fields” is set in the Flanders mud where the poppies grew which are now a flower that symbolises the Great War.
War Effort - The actions and behaviour of a nation at work. The military and civilians viewed as collectively helping out in the war especially the women how made weapons for the war whilst the men fought.
White Feather - A symbol of cowardice. During the war, white feathers were posted through the mailboxes of those men who did not enlist to help out in the war and the whole neighbourhood knew if you were not enlisted and it was done to embarrass them for not wanting to fight the good fight and die for your country.
Conscription - Compulsory for civilians to take part in the military. This had to be introduced because too many soldiers were dying and not enough people were volunteering to join so it had to be made compulsory.
Aussie - First coined for Australian Soldiers in the First World War.
Propaganda film - A film created to promote the cause of the war and to persuade more men to join the war. This was used before conscription.
Home Front - Civilians at home who took part in the war were considered as fighting on the home front by allowing their husbands and sons to go and fight the war and for creating weapons and keeping morale high.
What do you notice about how the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) editors have organised the list (look at the sub-headings, amount/range of included words etc.)?
The different sub-headings that the OED editors have used are: Names for the war, Military Strategy and Terminology, Life in the Trenches (this list is repeated twice and I’m not sure whether or not this is just a typing error or not but I think it might be an error), Domestic and Civilian Life, The War of Remembrance, The International War, Aerial Warfare, Soldiers speaking French, Military Slang and Political History.The different headings might have been used in this way to help identify which types of people at the time would have used those different terms such as the soldiers would know more of the terminology related to the lexis of warfare rather than just war like those who fight on the home front and there are also headings for different groups of words which would relate to everyone like Names for the war and other groups are likely to represent words that appeared much later like The War of Remembrance.
What could you use this corpus (collection of words/texts) to investigate?
Using these terms that were first popularised during the first world war, it would be interesting to do an investigation using a questionnaire and asking people which terms they recognise, if they can define them and, if ever, how often do they used different terms in everyday conversation. I have come across many of these terms when I studied GCSE History so it would be interesting to see how other people have come across any terms in the list. Another possible investigation could be to look at texts that people at the time would have produced and look at the frequency in which certain words turned up such as in diary entries from civilians at the time.
What could you link this to or what did it inspire you to go off and read?
The terminology would be interesting to look at in terms of represented speech created in TV Shows or Film Scripts because they may use these terms to help portray to their audience this particular moment in history and by using the terminology coined at the time it may make the programme more realistic. It would also be good to look at if there are any times in which certain words are used in represented speech to explore why through context and to see how they are using the words and for what purpose.
Sunday, 22 June 2014
Phonetically Transcribed Quote
So I have decided to practice my phonetic transcription skills by transcribing one of my favourite quotes into phonetic symbols, comment what you think the quote is below this post.
bi ðə tʃendʒ ju wɑnt tu si ɪn ðə wərld - məhɑtmə gɑndi
Editing Transcripts
Using new transcription conventions I have learnt I have used them to transcribe the two texts that I looked at previously more effectively.
Transcription Conventions
(.) - micro pause
(2) - the number indicates how long a pause
[_] - unsure of what was said
(_) - paralinguistic features
↓ - falling intonation
↑ - rising intonation
_: - speaker
/ - overlap
[...] - omitted material
so:::: - length of sound produced
Rachel: Sandy (2) that’s exactly what it is
Transcription Conventions
(.) - micro pause
(2) - the number indicates how long a pause
[_] - unsure of what was said
(_) - paralinguistic features
↓ - falling intonation
↑ - rising intonation
_: - speaker
/ - overlap
[...] - omitted material
so:::: - length of sound produced
Transcript 1 - Why women should not be allowed to vote video
1:35 seconds
J: it’s your friend J the preacher here (adjustment of glasses) (.) uh:: why women should not be allowed to vote↓ (2) number one (.) just because it would get ‘em angry (.) these feminists need to be outraged by men (.) uh: these women are out of control (.) they’re out of their place there there are some Godly holy women i’m not talking about them (2) i’m talking about the rest of the 99 per cent of the other that um:: (2) rebellious uh:::: just uh:: (.) loud mouth outspoken (2) uh they think they’re in control they think they’re equal with a man (2) God’s place uh is for a woman uh::: to be on submission (hand gestures towards the left and laughs) but to end point number one is (.) is uh it’s it’s worth telling women they shouldn’t vote just to see them go (gasps dramatically to imitate that of a woman’s reaction and holds for 4 seconds) and and you know if they do that long enough uh::: (2) i told a female a couple of times (2) they were staring their mouth was open (gasps dramatically again but for a second) (.) and if you do that (.) another 45 seconds (.) you’ll break the world’s record for a woman being quiet (chuckles) (.) call the new york times (.) hallelujah↓ (2) uh so it’s worth it just to see the look on their face and then number two they need to be told no (3) most women aren’t told no so it’s a good thing↓ (.) secondly though the bible’s place for a woman is to be in submission i know there was queens and all that but that’s (.) that’s the exception folks in fact in the new testament church (.) says a woman has to be silent in the assembly i know that puts a jab into you a feminists (.) so it’s worth saying it twice (.) so women are to be silent in the assembly [first readings 1434] they don’t have to give a testament or even have to ask a question the bible says [...]
Transcript 2 - Friends: The one with the Male Nanny
2:33 seconds
Sandy: i really do understand how hard it’s gotta be to leave your child at home with another person (2) i mean (.) it’s like leaving behind a piece of your heart↓
Ross: Are you gay↑
Rachel: Ross↑ (3) i’m sorry that’s our Ross (.) he’s just mr shoots straight from the hip (mimics the sound effect of guns firing whilst pretending to hold two guns)
Sandy: it’s okay i get that a lot doing what i do (.) but i am straight (.) uh: I’m engaged actually (.) her names Deliah/
Rachel:/ oh that’s pretty
Ross: so you’re you’re just like a: (2) guy who’s a nanny
Sandy: i realise how (.) it’s a bit unorthodox for some people (.) but (2) i really believe that the most satisfying thing you can do with your life (.) is take care of a child↓
Ross: oh okay:::
Sandy: like at my last job (2) i met Daniel (.) when he was three weeks old (.) and i got to watch him grow into this awesome person (3) when i left i said (.) i’ll see you soon (.) and he said to me (2) scdandy↓ (3) that was his name for me/
Rachel:/ oh okay
Sandy: i’ll see you everyday (.) right (.) in (.) he (starts crying)
Ross: yeah:: (.) kids say all kinds of crap
(Emma starts crying)
Rachel: oh God (.) she must she must need her diaper changed
Sandy: oh i can i can take care of it (.) if you want
Rachel: oh oh that would be great
Sandy: uh:: (.) just so you know (.) these dinosaur toys (.) aren't really age appropriate
Ross: they’re mine↓
Sandy: oh:: (3) also not (.) age appropriate
Rachel: i love him i love him i (.) love:: him
Ross: oh come (.) Rach (2) he’s a guy
Rachel: so↑ (2) he’s smart (.) he’s qualified (.) give me one good reason why we shouldn’t try him out↑
Ross: because (2) it’s (.) weird↑
Rachel: why↑ (Ross babbles) wow::: (2) i never looked at it that way↑
Ross: what what what kind of job is that for a man (.) a nanny↑ (2) i mean it’s like if a woman wanted to be a/
Rachel: /yes↑
Ross: king↑
Monday, 16 June 2014
Transcribing
Transcription conventions that I used
(.) - micropause
(2) - longer pauses, 2 seconds or more
[] - unsure of what was said
() - paralinguistic features
Transcript 1 - Why women should not be allowed to vote video
1:35 seconds
J: it’s your friend J the preacher here (.) uhh why women should not be allowed to vote (2) number one (.) just because it would get ‘em angry (.) these feminists need to be outraged by men (.) uh these women are out of control (.) they’re out of their place there there are some Godly holy women i’m not talking about them (2) i’m talking about the rest of the 99% of the other that um (2) rebellious uhhh just uh (.) loud mouth outspoken (2) uh they think they’re in control they think they’re equal with a man (2) God’s place uh is for a woman uhh to be on submission but to end point number one is (.) is uh it’s it’s worth telling women they shouldn’t vote just to see them go (gasps dramatically to imitate that of a woman’s reaction) and and you know if they do that long enough (2) i told a female a couple of times (2) they were staring their mouth was open (.) and if you do that (.) another 45 seconds (.) you’ll break the world’s record for a woman being quiet (.) call the new york times (.) hallelujah (2) so it’s worth it just to see the look on their face and then number two they need to be told no (3) most women aren’t told no so it’s a good thing (.) secondly though the bible’s place for a woman is to be in submission i know there was queens and all that but that’s (.) that’s the exception folks in fact in the new testament church (.) says a woman has to be silent in the assembly i know that puts a jab into you feminists (.) so it’s worth saying it twice (.) so women are to be silent in the assembly [first readings 1434] they don’t have to give a testament or even have to ask a question the bible says (.)
Transcript 2 - Friends: The one with the Male Nanny
2:33 seconds
Sandy: i really do understand how hard it’s gotta be to leave your child at home with another person (2)i mean (.) it’s like leaving behind a piece of your heart
Rachel: Sandy (2) that’s exactly what it is
Ross: Are you gay^
Rachel: Ross^ (3) i’m sorry that’s our Ross (.) he’s just mr shoots straight from the hips (presents to be firing two guys with sound effects)
Sandy: it’s okay i get that a lot doing what i do (.) but i am straight (.) uh I’m engaged actually (.) her names Deliah/
Rachel:/ oh that’s pretty
Ross: so you’re you’re just like a (2) guy who’s a nanny
Sandy: i realise how (.) it’s a bit unorthodox for some people (.) but (2) i really believe that the most satisfying thing you can do with your life (.) is take care of a child
Ross: okay
Sandy: like at my last job (2) i met Daniel (.) when he was three weeks old (.) and i got to watch him grow into this awesome person (3) when i left i said (.) i’ll see you soon (.) and he said to me (2) scdandy (3) that was his name for me/
Rachel:/ oh okay
Sandy: i’ll see you everyday (.) right (.) in (.) he (starts crying)
Ross: yeah (.) kids say all kinds of crap
(Emma starts crying)
Rachel: oh God (.) she must she must need her diaper changed
Sandy: oh i can i can take care of it (.) if you want
Rachel: oh oh that would be great
Sandy: uh (.) just so you know (.) these dinosaur toys (.) aren't really age appropriate
Ross: they’re mine
Sandy: oh (3) also not (.) age appropriate
Rachel: i love him i love him i (.) love him
Ross: oh come (.) Rach (2) he’s a guy
Rachel: so^ (2) he’s smart (.) he’s qualified (.) give me one good reason why we shouldn’t try him out
Ross: because (2) it’s (.) weird
Rachel: why^ (Ross can’t think of anything to say) wow (2) i never looked at it that way
Ross: what what what kind of job is that for a man (.) a nanny (2) i mean it’s like if a woman wanted to be a/
Rachel: /yes^
Ross: king^
Analysis
The possible primary purpose of the vlog is to allow for the vlogger to express his views and opinions on the internet and viewers, both his regular viewers and subscribers but also those who come in contact with the text some other way, for example searching for information about women’s voting rights. A possible secondary purpose could be to entertain his audience, rather than to just inform them of his opinions and possibly persuading his regular viewers to agree with them, because by entertaining and engaging people he will get more views on his videos and possibly more likes. The extract from a scene of F.R.I.E.N.D.S has links in purpose with the vlog because this particular text has the primary purpose to entertain both regular and new fans of the show and also by effectively entertaining the audience they will then watch more episodes of the show.
Interestingly, in the vlog, “James” uses many terms from the semantic field of religion possibly to highlight that one major reason as to why he believes women should not be allowed to vote is because he believes that it says in the bible that a “place for a woman is in submission” and that he is not talking about the “Godly holy women” that may watch his vlogs. His opinion that a woman’s place is “in submission” is an opinion considered by some to be very outdated and sexist especially in the eyes of the “feminists” and it seems that “James” is directing this vlog at them because he knows his comments will “jab into [them]”. Also, he uses tautology when describing a particular group of women as "Godly holy" possibly because he is only excluding women who he believes are truly religious and are likely to believe that women are subordinate to men just like he does. In the vlog James makes a repair, when he is excluding some women from the group of "feminists [that] need to be outraged by men" he says "i’m talking about the rest of the 99% of the other" rather than the "Godly holy women". By saying that he is talking about "99%" of the rest of the women rather than just "the rest of the women" suggests that he knows that not every woman who is not very religious is not "loud mouth[ed]". By calling the women "loud mouth[ed]" and "outspoken" in this context has many negative connotations and associations to women rather than men which James has used to convey his argument to his viewers that by giving women the vote these negative qualities associated with women will become more evident. These qualities are unlikely to be associated with a man but instead they would be described as having a powerful voice and being forthright and honest which are good qualities especially good ones to have when it comes to politics and voting.
The first text contains elements of both power and gender theory because of the text producer's chosen topic to talk about in his blog. Also it is evident in the way puts down women by telling them that they need to submit to men and basically saying that men have all the power and possibly telling them that they have too much power and status in modern society with their ability to vote and by telling his audience that women should not be allowed to vote in a way affects the equality between men and women.
The second text contains mostly elements of just gender to convey to their audience of viewers the issue of "unorthodox" careers that in the past would have been gender specific. In this episode it shows how someone of the opposite sex of a career that was, in the past, gender specific can do the role just as well as a female and in this episode of the sitcom they use the role of a "nanny" and they hire a man to do it. The script producers highlight that the role in the past was seen as for females only by calling the character "Sandy" which has assumptions of being a female name rather than unisex. One interesting aspect of the text is when Ross questions Sandy's sexual orientation just because of the profession that he is in which is shown when Sandy says "i get that alot doing what i do". Another interesting aspect of the text is that one of Tannen's difference pairings can be seen in the text. When Ross and Rachel argue over whether or not to hire Sandy Ross says he doesn't want to because it's "weird" but Rachel thinks he is perfect for the job because he is "smart" and "qualified". The difference pairing that is evident in the text is Information vs Feelings but it is atypical to what we would expect in natural speech since this is scripted. We would expect Ross to use facts to back up his reasons and we would expect Rachel to go with instinct and gut feeling but this is not the case. This was likely to be done because by making Ross uncomfortable in this situation it creates a comedic effect for the show. Also, the fact that Rachel gets to hire Sandy does show some elements of power in the text and that Rachel has the power to hire who she wants rather than listening to Ross and understanding that his views on the situation.
Thursday, 12 June 2014
Group Task - Our Chosen Hero Text
Which text did we choose? How and why did we choose it?
Our group chose to discuss the text which actually contained two contrasting hero adverts. The first advert was one that was persuading men to donate their blood platelets. Although the other the text was also persuading a different kind of audience using a different form of advertisement, this particular advert used the conventions of a movie poster.
What struck our group about the text? What were the interesting and significant features?
One of the most interesting and significant aspects of the first text was the audience. When we looked at the title we assumed that the primary audience was as general as being just male because of the heading of the advert "Strong men needed to help those who are weakened..." and we thought most men would then be persuaded to read the advert because they would believe that the advert has assumed that they are strong which has complimented their ego and caused them to read on. However, from further reading we found out that the text had a very specific audience of strong men who lived near Southmead Hospital with a blood type from groups A,B and O. This information was placed further on in the advert so that all men would read it thinking they were the strong men that they were looking for to donate blood platelets and then the criteria would filter out those who were not necessary. Another interesting point that was raised in conversation was why men were being targeted to donate blood platelets rather than both men and women. We still don't really know why this may have been but it may have been because men have a higher platelet count which is one of the requirements for donors.
At first glance, we all thought that the primary audience was men because in the advert, which used conventions of a film poster form, portrayed the man as being the hero who would go after the woman and would "get her back" because he has this railcard. However, as we looked closer at the text we realised that women would also be a audience, possibly a secondary one, because women may see the poster and think they are this "precious" perfect woman that men should go after and could only achieve this by buying the railcard. Another interesting aspect of the text is that by looking closer at the text we realised that the audience was men and women between the ages of 16-25, the text producer did this by using the age rating symbol that would be seen on a film poster, which informs the audience that only people over a certain age can watch the film, and changed the age to 16-25 so show the audience that the railcard is only available for that specific age group. Upon further reading of the text, we noticed that one reason why the text was produced because the railcard was changing to being known as the railcard for 16-25 year olds rather for young people which is what they called the group before, by changing the name it made the groupings clearer for people when they wished to purchase the railcard. So the text actually has quite a few purposes; the main purpose of the text being to persuade the specific audience to buy the railcard, to inform the public who the railcard is for and to make people who have bought the railcard before and new customers aware that the name of the card has changed to avoid confusion and make it clearer to people which card they should be buying.
What did I find that linked to the theories?
Both texts have aspects of both power and gender theory. Aspects of power in the first text are instrumental and influential, instrumental because the advert is from the NHS which may make men more willing to donate because they do have a form of power over people. The advert mostly has influential power because it influences "strong" men to donate by calling them "strong", this could be classified as synthetic personalisation because the text producer makes the male reader believe that the they believe he is the "strong" donor that they are looking for. The gender theory is applicable here with the description of the "strong man" because it is a stereotypical image of a man to be "strong" and since men are the only donors they are looking for there is a suggestion that these "strong men" will be helping the "weak" which may possibly be women, portraying a damsel in distress image.
The second text also has aspects of power theory because the male has the power in the advert because he has the railcard and he is trying to "get" the girl. The text has much more gender theory in it because it does link to Deborah Tannen's difference pairings with the pairing of intimacy vs independence. Surprisingly enough the man is looking for the relationship since he wants her back and it seems like she wants her independence. This is something that would have been anticipated because we would expect for it to be the other way around. However, the reason why the text producer may have done this is to create a poster which looks like it is advertising a common film from a romantic genre where the man wants the woman back fulfilling the purpose of making the advert look more like a film poster to attract a bigger audience of 16-25 in which women will be most interesting in because women stereotypical watch more romance or romantic comedy films.
Our group chose to discuss the text which actually contained two contrasting hero adverts. The first advert was one that was persuading men to donate their blood platelets. Although the other the text was also persuading a different kind of audience using a different form of advertisement, this particular advert used the conventions of a movie poster.
What struck our group about the text? What were the interesting and significant features?
One of the most interesting and significant aspects of the first text was the audience. When we looked at the title we assumed that the primary audience was as general as being just male because of the heading of the advert "Strong men needed to help those who are weakened..." and we thought most men would then be persuaded to read the advert because they would believe that the advert has assumed that they are strong which has complimented their ego and caused them to read on. However, from further reading we found out that the text had a very specific audience of strong men who lived near Southmead Hospital with a blood type from groups A,B and O. This information was placed further on in the advert so that all men would read it thinking they were the strong men that they were looking for to donate blood platelets and then the criteria would filter out those who were not necessary. Another interesting point that was raised in conversation was why men were being targeted to donate blood platelets rather than both men and women. We still don't really know why this may have been but it may have been because men have a higher platelet count which is one of the requirements for donors.
At first glance, we all thought that the primary audience was men because in the advert, which used conventions of a film poster form, portrayed the man as being the hero who would go after the woman and would "get her back" because he has this railcard. However, as we looked closer at the text we realised that women would also be a audience, possibly a secondary one, because women may see the poster and think they are this "precious" perfect woman that men should go after and could only achieve this by buying the railcard. Another interesting aspect of the text is that by looking closer at the text we realised that the audience was men and women between the ages of 16-25, the text producer did this by using the age rating symbol that would be seen on a film poster, which informs the audience that only people over a certain age can watch the film, and changed the age to 16-25 so show the audience that the railcard is only available for that specific age group. Upon further reading of the text, we noticed that one reason why the text was produced because the railcard was changing to being known as the railcard for 16-25 year olds rather for young people which is what they called the group before, by changing the name it made the groupings clearer for people when they wished to purchase the railcard. So the text actually has quite a few purposes; the main purpose of the text being to persuade the specific audience to buy the railcard, to inform the public who the railcard is for and to make people who have bought the railcard before and new customers aware that the name of the card has changed to avoid confusion and make it clearer to people which card they should be buying.
What did I find that linked to the theories?
Both texts have aspects of both power and gender theory. Aspects of power in the first text are instrumental and influential, instrumental because the advert is from the NHS which may make men more willing to donate because they do have a form of power over people. The advert mostly has influential power because it influences "strong" men to donate by calling them "strong", this could be classified as synthetic personalisation because the text producer makes the male reader believe that the they believe he is the "strong" donor that they are looking for. The gender theory is applicable here with the description of the "strong man" because it is a stereotypical image of a man to be "strong" and since men are the only donors they are looking for there is a suggestion that these "strong men" will be helping the "weak" which may possibly be women, portraying a damsel in distress image.
The second text also has aspects of power theory because the male has the power in the advert because he has the railcard and he is trying to "get" the girl. The text has much more gender theory in it because it does link to Deborah Tannen's difference pairings with the pairing of intimacy vs independence. Surprisingly enough the man is looking for the relationship since he wants her back and it seems like she wants her independence. This is something that would have been anticipated because we would expect for it to be the other way around. However, the reason why the text producer may have done this is to create a poster which looks like it is advertising a common film from a romantic genre where the man wants the woman back fulfilling the purpose of making the advert look more like a film poster to attract a bigger audience of 16-25 in which women will be most interesting in because women stereotypical watch more romance or romantic comedy films.
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