English and French

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22607506

Are we influencing the French language?

Stephen Pinker and language

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-son3EJTrU

^ Language as a window into human nature.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir7arILiqxg

^ CLA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKbp4hEHV-s

^ Language pragmatics

Euphemisms

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22545351


Looking at euphemisms and how they come about. BBC magazine has collected the best of what readers have sent in. Its worth looking at the original article as well, most stem from the Private Eye ( "tired and emotional")....

Attitudes to spelling and grammar

Today, across England, children in Year Six will be sitting down to take part in the new grammar test. How prepared they might be will vary.  Some teachers may have been proactive in drilling correct grammar into their students for years. Others may have just started putting on the pressure this year in response to the new tests.

Looking back upon my own education I recall when "grammar" was brought up in class that would mean punctuation. I honestly did not realize that grammar meant the actual content and structure of sentence until secondary school. Was this my own failing or the teachers? The teachers from my primary school were mainly fantastic teachers, particularly those from my final two years. However whilst we were taught spelling explicitly, for about every three spelling focused activities there would be one on grammar.Grammar is not (as I type this) a subject that teachers have to compulsorily focus on through school, at GCSE one does not need to analyze the use of grammar or (realistically) have a deep knowledge of it. But come A Level understanding is a must.

Therefore I welcome the new tests. Not with a petty vengeance as "I had it harder" or saying it in the safe knowledge that I will never have to sit the test,  but because I want the children who will sit it today to have  better chance at knowing grammar. Learning grammar, from the difference between "Who" and "Whom" to what a gerund is, from a younger age will save it from having to be taught at a later stage and make language texts more assessable. When it is taught younger it becomes second nature, those at the top may criticize at thirteen year old for not knowing the difference between "less" or "fewer" but we cannot blame them when they have not been taught the difference. We need to know more than simply "a verb is a doing word" by Year Nine. We need to know the rules, not just to have the rule book thrown at us.

BBC magazine again

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22403731

One of the single most useful articles I have read on the subject! Enjoy!

More articles

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/13/david-crystal-champion-english-language


Article on David Crystal, covers his professional history and some of his opinions.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2005/jul/24/theobserver.observerbusiness6

Do we lose out by not having to learn another lanuage?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/13/americanisms-closer-to-home-imagine?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

Are we over eager to label words as "Americanisms"?


 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/23/war-on-terror-bush-language

Bush administration and its lexis.




Apologies for being Guardian heavy.

Test your grammar skills

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22512744


BBC magazine has come up with a quiz similar to that of the one that Y6 students will be sitting today. See how you fare!

From Nixton to Findus...

Once again BBC magazine has come up trumps.

How scandals became '-gates'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22464422

Why Facebook is like fight club

Recently I have begun to notice a similarity between the rules of fight club and of Facebook. Mainly do not talk about Facebook outside of Facebook. Try talking to someone, even a close friend about their posts. For some reason it does not work. That is mainly (aside from obvious awkwardness) because there is a difference in the discourse that you use on the internet and how you actually speak. We tend not to speak in the small declarative s  or the small used to comment on a post. "Meme" has probably been typed more times than it has ever been said out loud (there is an on going debate on how to pronounce it).

If Facebook was like real life, conversations would be halted and frankly weird. Imagine a friend walking into a room saying "The awkward moment when you mistake gravy granules for coffee. Lol." then someone shouting "LOLZ!" and other single word replies, that mainly focus on questioning the intelligence of the OP. It would seem strange as it doesn't follow natural speech patterns.

However the lines are not always clear. Everyone knows at least one friend who will say out loud LOL, maybe accompanied with a small smirk or perhaps in a deadpan voice. These people are in the minority however. The internet, for its purpose being to share information, is a strangely personal thing. Its not really a group activity, akin to reading it is done in spare time. Even in social media and networking one can still control interaction with others. You can choose whether or not to post, comment on a status or answer the "Heyy" that pops up. Its much harder in reality where if you ignore the elongated y, it is deemed rude. 

So when the language of the internet starts to leak into real life what do we do? Nothing really, the internet has become an extension of our lives. I am not going to say if that's a good or bad thing but the reality is that the language we use on Facebook is different to real life therefore is not a threat. Although terminology and internet jargon may lead to certain words becoming part of the general lexicon no damage has come of it.

Foetuses learning language

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22457797


From BBC news

Accent project

Whilst on the Internet today I came across this. Whilst the main text is interesting, I would stay away from the comments.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/regional-dialect-meme

"Like"

This lexical choice can be the bane of many a person. Article from November 2011 by Rachel Carlyle, notes.

The use of "like" as a filler comes from the West Coast of the USA and has picked up to be a linguistic "tsunami".
 David Crystal, there are two ways in which "like" is used. Empathetic, as in "I couldn't believe it was, like, one o'clock" and the 'grating' quotative like (" I was like, no way, sir, you cant give me more homework!") so it is used as an alternative for speech marks.

Editor from the OED Jesse Sheildlower believes that it has spread because of it saves times from saying "he/she said", it is also more dramatic and displays emotion. The users only use it in certain sentences, reflecting an understanding of its usage. Its not rude, there is worse language for children to be using.

Children's author Antony McGowan puts it down to being similar to the popularity of mimicking the Australian rising intonation in the 1990s. "It could be stamped out if you care enough but it's not that bad" "Like may be irritating but it is not indicative of a world view".

The article ends on the note that apparently in the US "all" is becoming a popular substitute for "like"....

Language and tec

Notes from Samuel Cuttings article. Emagazine issue 52April 2011

Different websites use subtly different language, because of expectations and their purpose.

Language of the internet is changing, whereas the first "generation" terms may be 'link' and 'browser', new verbs are being created or re contextualized such as 'trending' or 'tweeting'. This makes language of the internet hard to define in correct terms. "Each text is a specific part of the discourse of the internet.".

Facebook as an example for analysis. Interaction with the text, single noun phrases such as "search" and imperatives such as "get connected". Encourage activity from the user. Fairclough's synthetic personalization, Facebook mimics politeness strategies, colloquial register and language. Facebook has multiple audiences and multiple authors, as the original poster doesn't know who will reply and how. The replies often reflect the power and relationships between the posters and the changing way that we use interactive written discourse.

Language change & issues

1) Perjoration is a process by which words are acquire negative meaning
2) "Ethnic cleansing" "collateral damage" and "nuclear deterrent" are examples of euphemisms
3) Dialect leveling is a decrease in dialect differences
4) Prescriptivism is the study of language with the intention of controlling it-by dictating the rules of usage
5) 1755 is significant for the development of the English Language because it is when Samuel Johnson published his dictionary
6) Jargon is technical language or field specific lexis
7) Amelioration is a process by which words gain a positive status or become more socially acceptable       
8) The word process cupboard is not an example of borrowing
9) Etymological fallacy is the mistaken belief that a words earliest historical meaning is its only true meaning
10) Time was once pronounced as team, see like say and now like noo. These are examples of phonological differences brought about by the Great Vowel Shift
11) Fax, flu and memo are examples of abbreviations or shortening
12) The use in the USA, of phrases such as "I guess" for "I think" and "gotten" are examples of Americans retaining an earlier form of English that has largely died out in Britian
13) Bidialectalism is a term used by Crystal and others to describe the ability to describe two dialects of the same language
14) Government, peasant, crime and justice are words loaned from Latin
15) The prescriptive "Short Introduction to English Grammar" was written by Bishop Robert Lowth
16) The printing press was introduced to England by William Caxton in 1476
17) Accommodation theory was developed by Howard Giles to suggest that we adjust out accent and speech to the person that we are adressing
18) Children, oxen and men are irregular plurals that are a hangover from a time when English had a greater number of latinate words
19) When Johnathan Green describes "the counter language, the language of the rebel, the outlaw, the despised, the marginal, the young" he is talking about slang
20) The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis" put forward the theory that

Language, Comedy and Politics

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/24/eddie-izzard-language-of-standup

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/24/europa-english-official-language-eu

Europe may mean a lot of different things to different people, some politics, others food. But one of the first things that comes to mind is the rich languages that they use. In this post I will briefly cover the links above.

Eddie Izzard shares with the journalist how he has tried to overcome language barriers when preforming his standup in  "What humans should do is come together. Speaking other languages is a way of reaching people and saying I respect you to want to speak your language." because of this he has made the effort to translate his show so that it does not just make sense to the audience but so that is actually funny- idioms don't always translate. And if they do the cultural understanding is not always there.

European parliament is a hub of different languages, from English to German, Swiss to Flemish. But there is one office that does something a little different.

"In Marani's office, employees have been experimenting with "Europanto", which he describes as "der jazz des linguas": a freestyle mash-up language made up of the common body of European languages, without grammar rules and an unlimited vocabulary."  Some of you may have heard of Europanto before however it is not widely known; as I type this the computer has added that fine, red wiggly line of disapproval. The idea was to try and create a more communal sense about Europe, that there would be a shared language based upon the principal of word borrowing. That was in 1996. Make of that what you will. However the language does have a slightly interesting history and can be viewed in full on its Wikipedia page (do not try googling it, not only are most of the pages non translatable but are also long out of date).

The article goes on to tell us of how it has been suggested by the German Chancellor that it may be a sensible decision to have everything in English. This seems a sensible idea at first, its one of the most widely understood language and would save time and potentially money by only having only one language.

But there is one simple reason why they probably wont change to just English. Money. Currently if any discussion or debate continues past eleven at night the translators fees increase. Therefore decisions are reached quicker. If everything was in English this would be lost. There is also the fact that somewhere along the line it would need to be translated anyway. Despite each country understanding English to some extent, the idea is that all countries are coming together on equal grounds, each country does have a chance at the presidency (currently it is Ireland) on rotation. Its a difficult debate, I'm going to leave this one to the politicians.

OED chief steps down

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22378819

With the chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary stepping down the BBC look back at some interesting word origins.Lets just hope no one puts   Etaoin shrdlu as a comment on here!