langauge and social groups

Language and social groups

 

In social groups there are distinctive signs of different lexes and accents throughout, this will show if it’s a complex network or not and shows how attitudes are different in these social groups when compared. I will compare myself with my social groups compared to others and how I change to without noticing to fit in with them. I also link this to Penelope Eckert work about the “jocks” and “burnouts” also jenny Cheshire work about culture groups in reading.

 

In Penelope Eckert he compares the “jocks” (middle class accents and their lexis choice) compared to the “burnouts” (ungrammatical lexis and a huge accent differences). Eckert also studied their attitudes and watched how they clashed and where they learnt these differences in their language. Eckert discovered that the “jocks” were critical of the “burnout” due to their language and how ungrammatical they were, their accents and lexis came from their parents middle class background and their attitudes matched, they were participated in school activities and was very committed to school life. The “burnouts” where very different in every way, while the “jocks” spoke with a prestigious tone matching their background and social group the “ burnouts” accent was very urban with a Detroit tone. This shows that our accents are not only regional but can be influenced by family, also that a social group can come together because of accents and lexes choice so they fit in will a group, comparing myself to Eckert work ive came to the conclusion that his study is correct in every way. In my life i have a number of social groups (school mates, football team, set 1 of mates out of school, set 2  and family) personally i don’t change my lexes per social groups as i feel  i don’t have to change to fit in but the understanding of my word choice various. My two sets of mates outside of school our lexes choices are very different compared to people in my school, Words such as “gully” which we used to describe something in our “language”  like it was nothing, in school however if i use this word to describe something to someone who doesn’t use the word or heard the word they will not understand the meaning, only someone who know individuals from my social group or myself would understand that word or our social groups know each other well they would know the mean. I’ve got two examples to hit home this point, my two sets of friends outside of school know each other but are only linked by myself as spend a lot of time between them words i use with set one such as “gully” or “gupping” are understood by set two but won’t be used in their conversations only myself would use them in a conversation with set two but less frequently. The second example is  my set one know the “dodd lot” as i call them well as i know all them very well from school and through the ones i know well from that social group, also the members form my social group know certain members of the dodd well, this means our lexes choices are fairly similar as  the dodd lots lexes are influenced by ours  and our influenced by theirs. Lexes meaning can change also , my set one mates again use “piece” this would normally be used in a question such as “ can I have a piece” or a describing word but we use it as a name “ have you got any piece”. Piece could be anything but it gives a name but only people who know are social lexes would understand the change of meaning. Its another name of for cannabis but only certain social groups would use the word in that way.

 

 

 

Eckert study when talking about how The “jocks” and “burnouts” accents differences are because of their family and regional backgrounds this is apparent in every form. Regionally someone form Essex will sound completely different to someone from Liverpool as their accents change where the enthuses is on a word. Social groups change accents also as i sound different so other due to my social; groups, this is because you pick up how they pronouns words and if you hang around with them long enough you will start doing the same. A great example is between my two best mates Mike and Ben who hang around with two different social groups (Ben is set one and Mike set two) and i pick up on little differences in accents. Mike accent is influenced by his father and sound exactly the same, also mike and his father are builders mike is influenced by that group of sociality. Meanwhile Ben is a school and has a very different tone; he is influenced by his friends in his social groups also with his lexes. Even though they’re both from Essex and live in the same town they still sound differently one because of their working environment, family and social group.

 

Jenny Cheshire used a long term study to gain her data from three groups in reading two consisting of boys and one of girls, while in Reading she recorded how often they used each of eleven variables. She discovered girls who did not have positive attitudes to such group activities as carrying weapons, fighting, participation in minor criminal activities, preferred job, dress and hairstyle and use of swearing. With the boys she discovered, when boys against girls were compared, showed clearly that those who conformed to the conventions of the group also used the linguistic standards of the group - and that conforming boys conformed most of all. In short she discovered that how their social groups communicated was key to their groups. This study was again true as I can draw comparisons to myself and my social groups, set 2 of my mate’s outside of school is a great example. Our convocations and “banter” is key as we are all different. Because we have a very jokey attitude, our consisted banter and our inside jokes look very strange to outsider but because we all share the same attitude when together and all our humors are similar how we communicate is key as we wouldn’t be close if we didn’t have that.  In every social group communication changes as the attitudes are different, if I was with the dodd lot I would just have abusive banter with each member and bring up old stories while with set one of my close mates it’s more of a chilled atmosphere and we talk about topics we all share. Attitudes are key in social groups as you choose what you would do on a night out to what you talk about, without attitudes lexes and accents wouldn’t be the same as you normally has a social group with a similar one or you change to fit in. it effects accents as you will put the enthuses on different parts of the word to get your point across, my set oone mates id wouldn’t have to speak so fast because our attitudes are very chilled will at school id have to talk fast as and be more upbeat as everyone else is.

 

In conclusion social groups are key in language as it can help create them, strengthen them and even changes lexes and accents because of things you share and what interests you.

accents summary

Accents and dialect summarys

Dialects can a variety could be associated with a  places or region or, rather more surprisingly, it could also be associated with social group—male or female, young or old, and so on. Differences are normal in dialect for example my friendship group will use different dialect then other as the content we watch and hear will be different. However regionally we speak the same dialect however someone from Newcastle will say different phrases due to location. They are large amounts of variation of dialect throughout Britain

 

•Accents is how people pronounce word, its where they pronunciation of certain letters and how they sound, this mix courses accents to sound differently. For example  One of the most unique Scouse features is the way the accent make  the letter ‘t.’ sound at the beginning of a word or a stressed syllable, 't' is affricated, becoming something of a 'ts' sound: tree becomes ‘tsree,’ Accents also effected by people around you and where you leave if someone speaks in a fashion you will instantly start picking up their way of sounding letter. Can even happen in friends as we all sound typical Essex however my two best mates dialect and different with little accent differences 

 

•These together create variations in how people sound and what they say

conversation piece

Josh: what’s your career mode saying?

Ben: is good mate got big man pogs playing cam

Josh: oi that’s bare gully I’ve got/

 Ben:                                                         /and lewandowski reaping

Josh: I’ve got (.) Morata 91 0verall

Ben: you have got him bare sick/

 Josh:                                                           /I know init I have put bare work into it

 Ben: Josh mate (.) you got a*****?

Josh: yh man (laughs) always got snout aint I (laugh)

Ben: you do mate (.)Always supply’s the piece

Josh: obviously

Ben: oi come up to mine chill tonight init (.) bring ps4

Josh: can tom come hes at mine.

Ben: what you say tom! My g just kept your mouth shut didn’t ya ( laugh/ sarcasm)

Tom: Just munching on a worker bruva (laugh)

Ben: swear mate(.) whats a worker?

Tom: Just a worker mate, does bits (laugh)

Ben: tom what’s a fucking worker!! (Laugh)

Tom: It’s a peanut kitkat, it works mate (laugh)

Ben: should we getting * ****

Josh: yh obviously im getting a *****

Tom: same

Ben: I will get *******plus get snout and munch

Tom: sweet bro ( laugh)

Josh: calm ****** bit( laugh)

Ben: gunna be a gully night and get/

Tom:                                                          / init gunna be sick

Josh: oi ive been recording this (laugh)

End of recording

This conversation takes place on my iPad over FaceTime, this conversation is between three people, me, tom and ben over career mode ending up organising to stay round bens. In this piece there is no dominate voices due to our good relationship as close mates we allow all over this behaviour. The language used is normally as we don’t take offence to swearing due to our relationship. As you can see the way we talk is very normal to us as ben has influenced me to use these word causing tom to use me and ben language, init is a great example of how we speak in this piece as we have shorten “isn’t it” this is elision we use alot of this in our language as it suits our culture but is also easy , gunna is another example of elision  in this conversation. Also words such as “gully” and “piece” Which are used in our convocation is very common as the word gully is a “ new word” , because of our culture we pick up and use words which might seem strange to an adult because their being created/made for our generation and for certain types of people. The word piece in this has a double mean in a way as normally that word would be used in a sentence for example “ can i have a piece of pizza” however due to our friends we use piece in a completely different way as this is now a name of product, this causes the word to be used as a name or used in a question. The word “worker” in this conversation means kitkat however due to how its normally used and understood this word now has a double meaning.  The conversation in this piece flows throughout and the introduction tom makes the conversation more interesting but there is no dominate voice in this piece, we will normally wait for another person to finish speaking only interruptions are used in a joke way or if they still haven’t finished giving information.  Due to me and Ben relationship and understanding of career mode when he uses” big man pogs in cam” i instantly know who hes speaking about as our relationship , culture plus common interest give strange meaning that someone who doesn’t know me Ben or tom in fact will not normally understand.

my homework

Conversation homework

In this conversation Person A and person B are having a conversation about a situation which just occurred, person A wasn’t their while person B was. Person A is very formal in how he speaks to person B; this is why it leads me to believe he is a police officer as his questions are very facts based. While person B is very informal in this piece as person B is telling person A about the situation. Person A is in control and is directing the conversation as he is asking all the questions in a formal and force full way but polite at the same time.  This is a transactional piece as it provides information, the language of person B is low register this could be multi monosyllabic words and colloquial.

 

There is a lot of non-fluency language in person B speech in this; there is a lot of “er” and “um” which shows how in power person A is as she is hesitating with every answer as she hasn’t got the power because of the situation. Because of the use of interrogative sentences by the policeman “could you see if anyone was hurt?” causes these responsive as these question shows enforces power. The use of the conversion fillers throughout  this piece “and” shows that she’s struggling re call the sense because of the force of person A ,The struggle to reply with long sentences also shows how hard it was for Person B to contribute to the conversation quickly. The use of hedging language by person B shows that person A is in control as she challenges herself in the conversation aswell “He must have had it” Person A leads the topic as he asks the questions. Person A contribution but because of the situation in reality in this piece and how the replies are to his question’s shows that person A controls the conversation. There is a lot of tabo language as showing the type of character person B is and could help set a sense “bloody flying he was”; this shows the sort of character he or she is by the use of this language. This language is there to heighten what happened to the person A so person A understands the information.

 

 

In this piece person A is in control while person B helps to solve the problem by filling in person A. There is a lot of Transitional language by person A questions however The amount of fillers used by person B shows the struggle she faced to answer because of the shock of the accident.

Miss kelly

list 7 words: terrorist,guerrilla,freedom fighter



These words really make you think when they used simply because they are all the same however just using one of these words sets a picture in your head. e.g When hearing terrorist it sets an image of a person who wants to hurt you however in their eyes they are freedom fighters, using a different word will set an image of the locals depending on which side you are on of a war or just how you want them to be protrade. In ww2 The french freedom fighters/ guerrillas would of been made out to be in a strugggle to surivie and everyone would care however if a nazi paper wrote about the french in ww2 they would of been refered to as terrorist because their challanging their beliefs. Also each word has different connotations to it, A freedom fighter makes you believe hes a horroic fighter who stands up for what he beileves in. A guerrilla makes you think of a organised force who fight to help their side win, they are looked like a little army fighting in enemy territory. Using guerrilla doesnt make you think you have joined for choice it makes you believe they were forced to join. Terrorst makes you believe that their out to kill.All three words are the same meaning however using them gives a different spin on the person or people described.

List 3 words: boy,man,gentleman,male,lad


These word again mean different but in literal terms mean the same thing but each word gives different descriptions. The word lad gives of a guy whos all about his mates and trys to be funny and can be used as a describing word, when you compare it to male or boy they are the same but beacuse of their attitudes and how people look at them it changes how their veiwed. Gentleman and lad in literal terms are the same however by the way they act and veiwed.Gentleman is believed to treat women nicely and are polite the word lad give a veiw of someone acting silly. These words used change mean when their used as they describe different types of males. depending on how their used, thought of and the class also other aspects such as money and power effect how these words being used.

Euphemism


Friendly fire : This is normally used in a war zone when someone begins to shot at his teammate without knowing its them. This would be used from a soilder and normally never used by anyone else

To powder ones noise: used by an older generation this has a double meaning as it used to cover up the fact they are going to the toilet, however they could infact powder their noise

To sleep with someone: This mean sex but its used to try and make it more romantic and better than sex its a better term used but hints at the fact they did what they did.