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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_8PPc6FPL4 

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hmWCH3JXqU

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.

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.

Dominance Theory

Dominance Theory

Definition

Dominance Theory is concerned with the imbalance of power in a conversation between both sexes, and the power in the conversation will belong to the man. It is said that women’s language is powerless which maintains their subordinate position within society whereas male dominance is preserved in their language. The theory suggests that in conversations between men & women, men are more likely to interrupt than women. The first evidence collected that supports this was done by Zimmerman & West. They concluded from 31 extracts of conversation that men were more likely to interrupt than women because women only interrupted twice compared to the 46 interruptions made by men. Dale Spender, one of the main theorists for dominance, used the data from

Zimmerman & West to say that men interrupt to sustain male dominance in conversation.

Techniques used

Other techniques that are associated with the way different genders speak are techniques such as tag questions. It is believed that women are more likely to use tag questions in conversation than men. Lakoff believed that this showed hesitation and that women were insecure during a conversation. Also, Fishman believed that men speak for twice as long as women. Christie also suggested that there are gender differences in the pragmatics of public discourse.

Lakoff provides a list of ten linguistic features that characterizes a woman’s language. These are the use of hedges or fillers in conversations. Lakoff also believed that women used more tag questions, declaratives and interrogatives. She stated that women use more ‘empty’ adjectives such as “cute” and “charming” and that women will use specific colour terms such as “magenta” whilst a man will say it’s “purple”. Women will use more intensifiers such as “so”, “hyper correct” grammar and “super polite” forms such as euphemisms. The other two things that Lakoff found characterize women’s speech was the avoidance of swear words and stressing particular words mostly adjectives when they are speaking.

Texts Where These Techniques Are Evident

Jody: Do you want ice cream?

Andy: Before lunch?

Ian: Not me, no. I’ll have some after.

Jody: I always feel like //

Ian: // You go ahead.

Jody: No?

Ian: (…?…) totally opposite

Jody: Yes, [no]?

Andy: [Is] it self-serve?

Jody: Yes.

Andy: Get me a small dish. Thanks.

Ian: So on Monday I have to go and pick up my airline ticket in the morning

Jody: [Uh huh]

Ian: and then I’ll come over after I pick that up. Will that be okay?

Jody: Yea…What time is it? I mean…what time is the //

Ian: // anytime in the morning. They’re there from eight o’clock. What time are the movers gonna come?

Jody: Ten o’clock

Ian: Okay…well…

Jody: I think //

Ian: // I’ll just pick up my things at about…at about…uh eight thirty or nine. That should be alright.

Jody: Do you have a private class on Monday?

Ian: No…Wednesday and Friday.

Jody: Okay. I like the purple.

Ian: Yea.

Jody: Ice cream. Yea.

Andy: Grape?

Jody: Is it grape?

Andy: What else is purple?

Ian: Baskins and Robbins licorice ice cream is purple…yeah.

Jody: [Mmm]

Ian: It’s yummy, too.

Jody: This is really nice. I brought some Korean teachers…some middle school teachers here and some people were eating this. It looked really good.

Ian: That’s right…yea.

Jody: We didn’t order it at the time but I’m thinking we should’ve.

Ian: Yea…we’re wishing we’d ordered it.

Jody: Who is it you’re calling?

Ian: The phone company to cancel my phone.

Jody: I should really (…?…) Ummm…cancel your phone?

Ian: Yea.

Jody: I have to give //

Ian: // It’s laying on my mind

Techniques Used in the Text:

• Jodie asked more questions in the extract
• Jodie used back channel agreement
• The boys interrupted Jodie more than she interrupted them
• Jodie used clocked imperatives & mitigated imperatives

Real Life Texts

http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/blogs/aunt-and-uncle-agony/5696832/Should-I-stay-or-should-I-go

This particular text is from a website where a couple, an Agony Aunt and Agony Uncle,  where instead of working together to come up with advice from the both of them they each give their own advice as individuals. Not only are there obvious differences in their advice but there are also differences in the language they each use.

In terms of the context, Agony Aunt seems to be giving Tim some genuine advice without being too judgemental which is the complete opposite to Agony Uncle who opens his response in a mocking way, “ You’re ‘kind of’ having an affair?” and this continues throughout his response, “Why on earth as your parents arranging a marriage for you?”

In the Agony Aunt’s Response she used more words from a low frequency lexis such as “quandary” and “intrigue” whereas Agony Uncle used more colloquial phrases like when he referred to Tim as “dude” and the women as “chicks”. Also, Agony Uncle uses the acronym “WTF” and the F stands for an expletive which is more commonly used in male language. Agony Uncle also uses idioms to emphasise his point such as “fly the coop”. He also uses an idiom when telling Tim that he “didn’t have the balls to step up to the plate” could be considered a face threatening act and it is stereotypically a man who would threaten someone’s face.

It is possible that the purpose of this type of advice column could be to give sincere advice to someone through the Agony Aunt but also become more popular with the advice from Agony Uncle as his advice seems to be more entertaining than helpful which is suggested in his advice to Tim to use the “eenie meeny miny mo approach for ease”. On the other hand, this type of advice could just be done purely for advice but in a non-standard way with two sides - the advice you want to hear in a kind way and the naked truth phrased in a very harsh way.

Bibliography

• http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/gender.htm
• http://aggslanguage.wordpress.com/womens%E2%80%99-usage-of-specific-linguistic-functions-in-the-context-of-casual-conversation/
• http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/blogs/aunt-and-uncle-agony/5696832/Should-I-stay-or-should-I-go

Grouping Texts Group Task - Use of Graphological Techniques

Text A - A Legal & General advertisement

Text B - Dorset Chocolate Mousse Cake Recipe

Text C - An Extract from Mr Bump Loses His Memory

Texts A, B and C use graphology features in their varying forms to convey their different purposes of persuasion, advising or entertaining and although they may not necessary to the text, they are in fact crucial.

     Interestingly, the Legal & General Advertisement uses an image of a theatre which links to where the advert appeared which was a theatre programme. The primary audience could possibly be people who frequently go to the theatre, possibly those who are older and who have more money to spend and then invest. Legal & General have chosen this type of audience because they would have the money to spend so the company would gain more revenue and by using the image of the theatre they are showing that Legal & General are interested in their interests and makes the audience feel like this is a good company to invest in because of the belief that they have the same interests.

    Contrastingly, the Recipe uses the an image of the final product to show the audience what the final product should look like if the recipe was followed correctly. 

Grouping Texts Task

Text 1 - Transcript for “Age UK” Advert

Text 2 - A Script Extract from an Episode of “Friends”

Text 3 - Transcript of the “Skittles” Advert

The transcript for the charity Age UK’s advert includes represented speech which is used to convey to the viewers their message of informing families, especially families with elderly members, that Age UK is the charity they can trust. The advert talks about how they can solve some people’s “problems” and help them with things that they would like such as being able to keep their “independence” and how to stay “active or healthy”. The charity highlight these things to show families and the elderly that there is more to helping than just simply taking them from their homes and placing them somewhere else. The advert’s primary audience are the elderly and the secondary audiences are their families and is suggested by the phrase “find the right care for you or a relative” which shows that although the information in this advert is mainly for an older audience - (their families can watch it too because it may be played during a TV programme the adults might be watching) - they may have done this because it allows for more elderly people to be aware of the charity and possibly to gain more funds for the charity because the families may donate. Similarly, by having the secondary audiences being the families of those who are older could be to help make people more aware of the charity by ending the advert with ways in which people could contact them - by “[giving] them a call, go online or pick up a leaflet” - stereotypically, the elderly may not go online to find information it may be the families who do this to gain more insight into what they can do to help. The advert’s actual last piece of speech was the declarative sentence mood “Mmmm, sponge cake”, on the one hand this could be considered spontaneous speech because it does not fit the context or the tone of the rest of the advert however, it may be cleverly scripted represented speech which has been added to the advert to lighten the mood of the advert and it is slightly humourous because it doesn’t fit possibly allowing the audiences to feel at ease and comfortable with seeking help from this particular charity.

   An extract from an episode script of “Friends” also uses represented speech which is not that surprising as it is script for a TV show with the purpose to entertain its audience. Although both texts use represented speech, the script uses it to entertain the viewers primarily through humor and by having situations their audience can relate to such as dating. Even though both texts use represented speech, there are not many other similarities other than that the script is primarily to entertain through the humourous language and that the possible humorous ending declarative of the advert transcript which may not have been the true intentions of the advert. The advert’s transcript was constructed of mainly simple sentences with a use of asyndetic listing to show that what the charity can offer is endless. On the other hand, the script was filled with questions that hopefully would evoke laughter in the audience such as “Wait, does he eat chalk?” and “Did I say that out loud?”, the questions are not only asked to create humour but because they show the audience what the characters are like and that although both these questions are funny it gives insight into the characters especially as this extract is from the Pilot episode. Also, the audience could relate to these situations especially if they have ever said anything out loud that was meant to be said in their head.

              Another advert transcript I have is the “Skittles” advert where the creators did a modern day version of the myth of King Midas where instead of turning things to gold, he turned things into skittles. This advert also uses represented speech but it has more similarities to the “Friends” script because although it is the same form as the “Age UK” advert, this text seems to be persuading the audience to buy skittles through entertainment using melodrama. This particular audience of younger children and possibly teenagers may find this advert humorous because although “Tim” may find his gift a curse because he cannot “hold [his] newborn baby boy in [his] arms”, this particular age group would find turning anything into skittles as being “awesome”. Another similarity between this text and the script is the use of questions such as “Did you feed and dress yourself this morning?”, although “Tim” uses them to evoke sympathy from “Joel” and the girl but instead evokes humour in the audience because they are aware it is not true.  

My Target of Improvement

Target: To make sure I organise my points during the planning stage of the essay and make sure I prioritise the most important, evaluative, interesting and difficult aspects of the text because they will allow me to access the top grades as long as I am tentative in the discussion of these points. 

Task: To set myself a general question on language & power and apply it to a text that will allow me to meet my target and practice the essay. I will spend longer on the plan of this essay and make sure I can pick up on the most interesting, evaluative and ambiguous aspects of the text. Also, I will spend longer at looking at the purpose of the text and having an overview of the text so I can really concerntrate on the text and the question and that I answer it.  

Language & Power Text 5: A Guardian Article on Journalism

Greenslade writes about Journalism and the language in which Journalists used.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2010/may/26/al-jazeera-palestinian-territories