Cumbrian Dialect Article

A school in Berkshire has set a so called “target” for a Cumbrian female teacher of theirs to try and sound less Northern. After the schools recent Ofsted report, a complaint was made about the teacher’s accent, and the school bosses set out to make a hasty change, causing a humungous uproar throughout the union. I firmly and completely agree with the upset and disruption caused by this outrageous remark. The school would’ve made an informed decision upon employing the Cumbrian teacher that she is suitable for the job, and so to be criticised and humiliated about her regional accent, of which is to some extent out of her control, is in my eyes unacceptable.

Fortunately for the reputation of the school, the woman, of whom hasn’t been named to save her from being put under an embarrassing spotlight, has taken the comment lightly, brushing them off stating they are “farcical and bizarre”.  However, it is understandable that comments like this are very insulting and if taken further could be underpinned as racist; it’s no wonder the school withheld its name.

The Cumbrian dialect is local Northern English, spoken in Cumbria and surrounding dialect. Whilst clearly being an English accent approximately between Lancashire and the North-East, it shares much vocabulary with Scots.

Their general structure and wording is also very different compared to Standard English. For example, ‘about’ becomes ‘aboot’, ‘yes’ becomes ‘aye’, ‘come on’ becomes ‘how-ee’, ‘alright’ becomes ‘harreet’, ‘cant’ becomes ‘canna’ and ‘no’ becomes ‘nae’ (just to name a few!!!).

This is just a few examples of words that have been altered (at the highest level) in the Cumbrian dialect. As we don’t know who the lady in question is, we are none-the-wiser as to how strong her accent and dialect. It is clear that, yes, some of those words have been changed quite drastically, and yes, for young school children that have grown up around a Berkshire accent and dialect, a new sound of voice may require a higher level of focus to be understandable. However, if it was deemed acceptable when they hired the teacher, her accent could’ve only adapted during the time she had been working in the Berkshire area, and the Northern tone to it surely would’ve weakened. So to attack her at such a late point in her career is simply humiliating and shameful.

It has furthermore come to my attention that the opinion and influence has played a considerable, if not main role in this monstrosity. They may have the right to pick on anything they see as a concern, but to single out an individual like that, it makes me question their job! I thought their duty was to help improve schools, however the only result this school has achieved is an aggressive and hateful reputation!

I was relieved to hear that Ofsted were going to have words with the inspector that made the remark, and I am also very aware of the competition to be the best school in the area, and therefore the obedience schools will have upon Ofsted’s demands. I think that this is absolutely no excuse for such racism and abuse, but we can see how important education is becoming to the generation.

Overall I find it hard to believe that not much serious action has taken place. If it were me I would’ve walked straight out of that school and never looked back. I hope this sends a very clear and distinct message to all schools and businesses throughout the country, and such comments will never be made to innocent people again.

Task 2

TASK 2

Accent and Dialect -

When we talk about accent, it is important to remember that this relates only to pronunciation and intonation rather than grammar or vocabulary. Thus, two people speaking the same language, who use the same grammar and word choices will give different cues about their social and regional origins, ethnic group membership or class. While we, as listeners, naturally pick up these cues about people’s ethnic, socioeconomic and geographical background, experimental research has shown that listeners can also make judgements on others’ intelligence, warmth and even height just by listening to recorded accented speech.

Child Language -

A young child’s world is full of obstacles that they need to negotiate, not least in language.  Imagine constantly listening to lots of gobbledegook and having to work out what the speaker is talking about.  There may be some words you recognise, or even lots, depending on your age, but there are many others that you don’t.  A child will use many different clues to help them understand what the speaker is referring to, including watching to see where a speaker is looking or where they are pointing, and checking to see what objects are in the vicinity to work out if any of them are what is being referred to.

It is believed that children call on an additional resource. A group of people investigated what children infer from speech ‘disfluencies’, which are the uh and um sounds speakers use to fill pauses in speech.  

These often occur before unfamiliar or infrequent words, often those that have not been mentioned before in the conversation, as in this example:

CHILD:                     Telephone?

MOTHER:                  No, that wasn’t the telephone, honey. 

                              That was the, uh, timer.

Here the mother fills a pause with uh as she has difficulty trying to remember an infrequently used word that is, in addition, a new topic in this conversation with her child.

Language and Age -

Although sometimes thought of as superfluous or even careless, filler words may give clues about the sort of person who utters them. The researchers investigated not only how filler words were used across genders and age groups, but also whether they correlate with certain personality traits.

They analysed transcriptions of spoken conversations from 263 participants with ages ranging from 17 to 69. The speech was recorded over 2-3 days using electronic devices programmed to automatically take audio recordings at set time intervals, thus capturing spontaneous natural speech.

The rate of use of each of the five filler words (I mean, you know, like, um and uh) was analyzed in the conversations, and because this study investigated these two types of filler words in relation to one another, interesting comparisons could be made. People who were young, female, or both young and female were more likely to use discourse markers. This supports previous studies regarding the use of the discourse marker like. The rate of filled pauses was not associated with gender; it was, however, associated with age, decreasing later in life.

Language and Gender -

Although sometimes thought of as superfluous or even careless, filler words may give clues about the sort of person who utters them. The researchers investigated not only how filler words were used across genders and age groups, but also whether they correlate with certain personality traits.

They analysed transcriptions of spoken conversations from 263 participants with ages ranging from 17 to 69. The speech was recorded over 2-3 days using electronic devices programmed to automatically take audio recordings at set time intervals, thus capturing spontaneous natural speech.

The rate of use of each of the five filler words (I mean, you know, like, um and uh) was analyzed in the conversations, and because this study investigated these two types of filler words in relation to one another, interesting comparisons could be made. People who were young, female, or both young and female were more likely to use discourse markers. This supports previous studies regarding the use of the discourse marker like. The rate of filled pauses was not associated with gender; it was, however, associated with age, decreasing later in life.

Language and Media -

The research identified several features of sensationalism, pertaining solely to language use, not to the topic. Technique number one hinges on the narrative structure. Fairly sensational headlines are built in a peculiar way. The climax – the part of the story with the greatest suspense – goes first, followed by the complication – a technical term for bits of narrative that say what happened. The resolution, or the ‘how it all ended’ bit concludes the list. Beginning with the climax arouses  the reader’s curiosity and makes them want to find out more about this story.

Accent and dialect

ACCENT AND DIALECT

Dialect - A particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group

Accent - A distinctive way of pronouncing a language, especially one associated with a particular country, area, or social class:

1) Barbados - the words sound rounded. The t's are pronounced as d's, and a lot of assimilation occurs, and many vowel sounds are pronounced more roundly. The words being spoken are put together and said in a slightly rhythmic way. Some of the sounds are slurred. There are many pauses, and sounds like broken English, where by words are shortened to become easier and shorter to say. It is the difference between 'ca-ra-be-an' and 'ca-ribian' (the words are faster flowing and less jumpy.

2) Scotland - the words are slightly jumbled up and it is spoken rapidly. I noticed that the word 'look' is pronounced 'luke'. The sound 'th' is said with a slight roll of the tongue. The word small or little is replaced with 'we'. The word 'Scottish' is pronounced 'Scottesh'. The word what is commonly replaced with whit, and the word your is pronounced yer.

3)  Newcastle - Sounds like it is energetic and fun. The words are quite playful and light hearted. The sounds are quite rounded, and the sound 'I' is heard a lot. They have a lot of different words and phrases, some quite traditional, others very colloquial. They say 'aye' instead of yes, which sounds like something a pirate would say, which again is old fashioned/traditional. They use the word 'Lass' referring to a girl, Use the word 'me' instead of 'my', and 'naught' (pronounced to rhyme with draught) means nothing.

Transcript

Lottie: right you know Sugar Hut right yeah they id'ed me like six (.) wait no they like asked me like 6 different questions to get in they made me write my signature down they asked me when I passed my driving test I guessed both times (.) honestly it was a fucking nightmare thank fuck I got it all right (.) they asked me to call Megan's phone /
Rachel: did you already have her saved as her/
Lottie: what no what
Rachel: did you already have her saved as her Jade Pyke
Lottie: what no she had me saved as fran harris
Rachel: oh that's alright then
Lottie: but I think it does quite kinda look like me wait ill show ya (23) like it wasn't like its completely (.) you cant even really see the face
Rachel: was that her when she was/
Lottie: what
Rachel: was that her when she was a kid
Lottie: no that was her like/
Rachel: she looks well fucking young
Lottie: init erm yeah but what the fuck




We can see that Lottie leads the conversation as she is making the statements and Rachel is asking questions. Lottie uses quite a few pauses during her speech, which suggests that she is recalling something and trying to remember what happened. We can see that the style of the conversation is colloquial because of the taboo language that is used throughout. This suggests that the two speakers are friends and fell comfortable with each other. The long '(23)' pause suggests that Lottie was trying to find a picture of her ID or the ID photo to show Rachel.

Conversation analysis

The conversation starts with an interrogative: "Did you see what happened?". From this we can deduct that speaker A is someone of authority, maybe a policeman/woman, with a right to know information about the event. The second speaker (B) then comes in, and immediately starts stuttering and pausing. On one hand, this could convey that he is shaken up because of what has just happened, or maybe had to run away from what happened and is out of breath. This creates sympathy for them, as we can see that they are worried and innocent. On the other hand, this could also convey suspicion, and we can deduct from this that maybe he is hiding something, or he knows something that he isn't saying.

Speaker B goes on to repeatedly use taboo language: "bloody". This could convey panic and frustration, but it could also be a representation of the accident that has just occurred, and we understand the seriousness of the incident. Multiple times, '(.)' has been used to represent pauses. As speaker B goes on, we get connote that he is maybe gulping or just stammering on his words.

Miss Kelly Poem

I'm a tiger
Striped with fur
Don't come near
Or I might Grr
Don't come near
Or I might growl
Don't come near
Or I might
BITE!

The lay out of this poem gives it a quick beat, which a child would find exciting and amusing. There is rhyme in the first half which creates a light hearted tone, which fits in well with the purpose of the poem. It flows well, and it is short and easy to read. The writer as purposefully chosen short, snappy words so that it is easy to read and uncomplicated. The word "Grr" is non-lexical onomatopoeia, and this relates to the fact that young children's language isn't fully developed, so made up words such as grr are more relatable for them.

Euphanisms and connotations.

3) boy, man, gentleman, male, lad.

The word boy connotes a younger person, and we link the word to ideas such as football, sports and computer games. The reason for this is because these are typical boy activities, and usually come up in boy conversation. The word man has similar connotations, however we just think of an older person (mid twenties onwards). We associate a man with working/middle class, just an average person. The word gentleman has older connotations, and we think of the 1800's where that word would've been more frequently used. The word male has a more matter-of-fact tone. It is for someone of any age, and therefore has slight scientific connotations. The word lad again has a younger connotation, and we think of a confident, 'jack-the-lad' type character.

5) mature, old, experienced, senior, elderly.

The words 'mature' and 'experienced' link together well here. They connote respect towards older people (60 onwards). It tip toes around the idea that someone is older without sounding harsh. We think of someone who has lived through alot and knows alot/is wise. The word old is straight to the point, and it is a more opinionated word. At the age of twenty one you can say your old, but it can also be used at the age of eighty, forty, thirty. The word senior has american connotations, and again has a tone of repsect to it. The word elderly is similar in the sense of respect, as it avoids rudeness. We think of someone above the age of 70 here, with grey hair and wrinkles.




The word 'pre-owned' is softened from the more harsher meaning that it is used, and probably not in the best conditions. It is formal and we usually see it on sales websited, e.g. Ebay.
The phrase 'to powder ones nose' again is just a formal way of excusing yourself from a situation, like dinner, to go to the toilet. It is more respectful and polite than saying 'I'm going for a wee'.
The phrase 'to sleep with someone' avoids offending people and being impolite, because it means to have sex, which someone people find an offensive or rough subject. There are also many taboo words associated with sex therefore it can be seen as a rude topic.

Sainsburys Leaflet

This leaflet is a persuasive text trying to get people to send in complaints about a sainsburys being built in Bishops Waltham. It is aimed at the locals, council and BWAG. The register is formal and powerful, persuasive language is used without.

 

There is alot of graphology on the leaflet. Firstly, there is a clock in the corner and it is almost stricking twelve. This suggests that they are running out of time which conveys a sense of urgency and desperation to the reader. The connotations of the clock are that we can imaging the loud shrilling sound of the alarm going off. The annoying and inconvinient sound represents tescos and how it will have a negative effect on Bishops Waltham. 

Furthermore, there is a logo at the bottom of the page saying 'Love Bishops Waltham', with a heart around the word 'bishops'. This represents the care that the community has for the town, and makes the reader feel more involved and protective. Next to this logo is an interrogative sentence: "Is this a chance worth taking?". Being written in bold, capital letters, this is very eye catching, therefore will attract the readers attention and they will find out straight away the benefits of writing a letter of complaint.

 

We can aslo learn alot about the text through the lexis and semantics. Through out, the writer has used many words that relate to fighting; battle, juggernaut, destroy. All of these words have very negative connotations, which reflects the negativity of the sainsburys that is meant to be built. Seeing words like this will inately put a negative image in the readers head, and they will want to stop any type of enemy to protect their community, and therefore wll be persuaded to write a letter of complaint.

 

The discourse structure is diverse in different places of the page. The writing, for example, is neatly laid out in easy-to-read paragraphs and columns, conveying a serious and formal tone. The writers intentions here were to show that they aren't messing around, and they want to be taken seriously, which makes the reader understand how inportant it is for them to do as asked.

On the other hand, the pictures are scattered all over the place, and they convey a chaotic layout, conveying again a negative representation of the sainsburys.

Mr Cliffiord Grammer

GRAMMER

 

 

NOUNS

 

A noun is a word to identify any class of people, place or things. Put simply, a noun is a naminh word.

 

COMMON NOUN - a noun that can be perceded by the word "the" and that represents one or all members of a class. (table, house, woman, town)

PROPER NOUN - names of unique individuals, events or places. (Mr Clifford, London, Islam)

CONCRETE NOUN - a noun that names something you can see, hear, smell, taste or touch.(chair, cake, computer)

ABSTRACT NOUN - a noun that names an idea or a concept.(courage, jealousy, love, hate)

COLLECTIVE NOUN - refers to a group of things or people. (a swarm of bees, a crowd of people, a flight of stairs, a dazzle of zebras)

NOUN PHRASE - made up of a noun and any words that modify that noun - determiners, adjectives, prepositions. (Goat = the goat, the hungry goat, the hungry goat in the field)

 

Noun Phrases

Whenever you modify (change) a noun this becomes a noun phrase. Essentially, you have changed the meaning of the noun in some way. We see this in news papers a great deal.

-Plane crash!

-A horrific plane crash!

-The most horrific plane crash ever!

 must, will, can = deontic modal verbs (certain)

may, might, could = epistemic modal verbs (more choice)

an imperative is a command (clean)

imperative + modal = you must clean your room.

verb phrase = built around the head word, the main verb.

 

Modal auxiliaries can be placed along a continuum to show degrees of strength towards commitment.

Verbs can also tell you when something happens:

Present tense = base form + 's' inflection (sings)

Past tense = base form + 'ed' inflection (jumped, what happens to sing? sang)

Future tense = modal auxiliary (will, shall, might) + base form -will sing.

 

Verbs can be created through active and passive voice:

Active voice = Ahmed kicked the ball (focus is on Ahmed, the subject of the sentence)

Passive voice = The ball was kicked by Ahmed (focus of sentence changed, sounds more formal)

Clauses

A clause will include:   subject, verb object (SVO

MITCHELL (subject)   RAN UP (verb phrase)   THE HILL (object)

Coordinated clauses

This is when two clauses are joined by using a conjunction. However, coordinated clauses must make sense on their own if you removed the clause.

I went to town and met my friends.

- I went to town.

- I met my friends.

Subordinated clause

This means there will be a main clause (a unit that can stand in its own and make complete sense) and by phrases that only make sense when linked to the main clause.

-I couldn't do the word, however many times I tried.

-As tired as I was, I still did the work.

SENTENCE TYPES

There are 4 types of sentences:

- Imperative (demand)

- Declaratives (statement of fact)

- Interrogative (question)

- Exclamatory (if it has an '!' on the end)

 







Miss Kelly Notes 2

The Language Levels

 

 

Pragmatics

 

Latin is known as a lingua franca - a common language which acts as a bridge, enabling communication between speakes who don't share the same first language.

 

Euphemisms = indirect language that avoids mentioning something unpleasant or offensive, thus protecting us from taboo topics (which are off limit or forbidden). 

 

In contrast, dysphemistic language is a direct form of language that doesnt attempt to disguise sensitive or difficult topics.

 

Sociolect = the dialect associated with a particular group or class.

Semantic shift = the change in the meaning of words over time.

 

Idiomatic language

 

An idiom is an expression whose meaning is npot dependant on the meaning of words it contains e.g. they have a chip on their shoulder.

Metaphors are language strategies which bring two unrelated ideas together to suggest a new way of looking at something. Metaphors are common where something is difficult to understand because it is complex or abstract.

 

Monosyllabic words = single syllabled words.

Disyllabic words = duo syllabled words.

Polysyllabic words = multi syllabled words.

 

Discourse and Pragmatics

 

Discourse structure is the way in which texts are organised and sequenced.

A text must be coherent or cohesive. There are many different kinds of written texts, but many of them may follow one or more structure.

 

Structure	Example
Non sequenced lists	Shopping lists
Stepped lists	Recipes
Logical arguments	Persuasive article
Problem/anxiety solution structure	Coach helping a performer improve
Desire-fulfilment	Chocolates advert
Analysis and explanation	School essay
Narrative account	News report

Spoken Discourse Structures

When a speaker talks for an extended period we can say that they are narrating.

The sociolinguist William Labor developed a structure known as narrative categories - six key categories which appear in a narrative - generally in a set order - to analyse spoken discourse.

 

Narrative categories

1) ABSTRACT (A) - the indication that a narrative is about to start and the speaker wants a listener's attention.

2) ORIENTATION (O) - the who what where and why of the narrative. Set the scene by providing contextual information.

3) COMPLICATING ACTION - the main body of providing a range of narrative detail.

4) RESOLUTUON (R) - the final events to give narrative closure.

5) EVALUATION (EV) - additions to the basic story to highlight attitudes/command the listener's attention at important moments.

6) CODA (C) - a sign that the narrative is complete. May include a return to the time frame before the narrative.

Evaluations

 

External - added by the narrator at the time of recounting and not usually part of the seies of events.

 

Internal - occuring at the same time as those detailed in the complicating action - further divided to:

               1)Intensifying Evaluation - contribution via gestures, repititions or dramatic sounds.

               2) Explicative evaluation - providing reasons for narrative events.

 



Miss Kelly notes

THE LANGUAGE LEVELS

Graphology:

Graphology is the features which contribute to the appearance of a text on a page. All the visual aspects of textual design and appearance, both verbal and non-verbal, including colour, typeface, layout, image and logos.

Some texts may rely on graphology features to help generate their intended effect.

Others may rely on more subtle features as a way of contributing to meaning.

Points to consider when analysing graphological structures:

• The organisation of the text - is it arranged in columns, does it have headings, paragraphs, blocks or continuous text?
• Consider also the use of bullet points, numeration, borders, boxes, line spacing and use of white space.
• Does it feature lines, diagrams or other visual elements.
• What type faces, type sizes and styles does it use?
• The nature of the characters - are they hand written or printed, upper case of lower case.
• Mentioning the style of the font (comic sans is bubbly and childish.
• State what effects the characters have and impressions these features create.
• How does the context of the text (what, where, when and why the piece was produced) help explain these distinctive features?

Semiotics:

Sometimes you will see graphological features described as semiotics, a system developed by Ferdinand de Saussure, which studies how 'signs' of different kinds are interpreted, and how they relate to each other. Semiotics examines how symbolic, written and technical signs construct meaning and considers how meaning is made and understood.

At the most basic level, the idea of a sign can be a logo or and image, however is can achieve a larger meaning.

Types of signs:

• ICONIC SIGNS: a direct picture of something it represents
• SYMBOLIC SIGNS: draw on cultural associations (twitter for example)

Phonology:

Phonology = The study of the sound system of a language. What effect do different sounds have on                           language usage?

Phonetics = The deals with the actual sounds of speech, considering how sounds are physically                                articulated and language phenomena such as accents.

Prosodics = The study of how speakers can shape meanings through emphasising certain aspects of                        intonation, speed and volume.

Phoneme = The basic units of sound from which language is constructed.

Orthography = The technical term for spelling.

Consonant groups:

Consonant groups are usually used by a text producer for a particular effect e.g. plosive sounds have a harsh or abrupt feel when they are foregrounded in a text.

Plosives = b, p, t, d, k, g

Fricatives = f, v, s, z, sh

Apricates = ch, dj

Nasals = m, n, ng

Approximates = r, j, w

Saussure and semiotics

Linguists claim there is no relationship between the sounds we make of the written symbols we produce and the thing we describe. This is encapsulated in Saussure's theory, known as semiotics, which argues that language is arbitrary - the relationships between signs and signifier's, or any word or its referent, is only created by social convention. Despite this, we have a whole array of terms we seem to believe echo the noises they describe e.g. bang, crash, thud.

Terms such as these, and deliberate grouping together of sounds to create certain ideas, show the operation of sound symbolism. SOUND SYMBOLISM is the way in which sounds are used to represent ideas, however there is no logical connection between the sound and the idea.

Lexical onomatopoeia = Real words to create a sound (bang)

Non-lexical onomatopoeia = Made up words to create the idea of sound (grrr)

Foregrounding sounds

Some other common phonological patterns can be achieved by structurally foregrounding particular groups of sound. This is often done using the techniques of:

• Alliteration
• Assonance (repeat vowel sounds)
• Consonance (repeat consonant sounds)
• Sibilance 

Elision = When a sound is left out (library = libry)

Assimilation = When sounds that are next to each other kind of merge together (hand bag = hambag)

Liaison = When sound is inserted between words of syllables to help them run together more                                smoothly. This avoids a gap or hiatus between the words. 

Phonology and humour

One of the most novel use of sound is create humour via phonological manipulation - the way in which text producers play with sounds and their effects.

This is dependent on homophones - a word which sounds the same as another word but has different meanings - and phonemic substitutes - the replacing of one phoneme with another.

Lexis and Semantics

Lexis simply means 'words'. It is also the collective term for the word stock or vocabulary system of text. Semantics is the different words, phrases and expressions that shape 'word meanings'.

Semantic fields

Words origins are also sometimes connected with register - a form of specialist language e.g. the language of science. This refers to language use involving semantic fields - a group of terms from the same domain, used by particular groups and in specific contexts.

Informal Lexis = Relaxed, familiar and conversational, colloquial and often non-standard, will                                       contain dialect words and slang. Tends to contain more monosyllabic words and                                 abbreviations.

Formal Lexis = Serious, impersonal, made up of standard English, more complex and contains                                     more polysyllable words, often has Latinate roots.

Antonyms = Words with opposite meanings.

Morphemes = Elements of meaning smaller than a word e.g. micro (small) and scope (focusing on a                           target).
Neologisms = New words.