Occupational Analysis - Hospital

To what extent does the represented language of medical occupation reflect real language use in this kind of workplace, or language in the work place more generally?

The language used in the Holby City clip successfully reflects work place jargon in a hospital.

In the clip, the language used follows a researched concept that when participants are engaged in genuine enquiry or information sharing, language tends to become grammatically more complex. In the clip, the surgeons exchange saying ‘’Then we need to make a small incision over the vessel that were going to bypass’’ ‘’Her blood pressures dropping…right why don’t we convert her to an open procedure’’. Here we see the engagement of conversation between two surgeons. As the speakers get more involved in what they’re saying, the language used starts to become more complex. They begin to use hospital jargon which outsiders would not understand. The other surgeons who do not talk comply with what they are saying, and so this also supports the study that the common use of technical vocabulary binds it’s users together, whatever relative formal status.

The lack of power constrains a person’s language, even when the powerful participants in a dialogue are using their language for entirely benevolent purposes. The new surgeon tells the experienced and most power surgeon ‘’Why don’t you let me do my job’’. This supports the theory because we see a drop in the use of technical occupational language. The speaker uses common forms of speech despite how he is trying to do something for the purpose of the patient in order to express opinion that he is capable. The experienced surgeon demands ‘’We need to open her up now’’ and again this supports the fact that language is constrained in benevolent purposes as she gets straight to the point in order to save time and help the patient.

My chosen clip from Holby City challenges the idea that equality in the dialogue between participants tend to produce less predictable content and turn taking, as well as more interruptions. During the scene, the surgeons stick strictly to talking about the procedure they are undertaking and use technical jargon in order to communication. The two surgeons jump straight in at each other at the talk which defeats the idea of turn taking as they are eager to express their point.

Occupational Language

Easkin & Eakins 1976
In seven university faculty meetings, the men spoke for longer. The men's turns ranged from 10.66 to 17.07 seconds, the women's from 3 to 10 seconds.


Edelsky 1981
In a series of meetings of a university department, men took more and longer turns and did more joking, arguing, directing and soliciting of responses during the more structured segments of meetings. However, during the 'free-for-all' parts of the meetings, women and men talked equally, and women jokes, argued, directed and solicited responses more than men.


''This study into the nature of “the floor” inquiry into sex differences that might occur beyond the sentence level in the multi-party interaction of five informal committee meetings...In the analysis, “floor” and “turn” were distinguished on the basis of “participant-sense” rather than technical criteria. Two kinds of floors were subjectively identified: F1, a singly developed floor; and F2, a collaborative venture where several people seemed to be either operating on the same wavelength or engaging in a free-for-all''
As the men took more and longer turns etc, these are responses of F1's.
Women then used F2's, using turn length and frequency differences and language functions were used to a greater extent.


Herbet & Straight 1981
Compliments tend to flow from those of higher rank to those of higher rank to those of lower rank.


Herring 1992
In an email discussion which took place on a linguistics 'distribution list', 5 women and 30 men took part, even though women make up nearly half the members of the Linguistic Society of American and 36% of the subscribers to the list. Men's messages were twice as long, on average, as women's. Women tended to use a personal voice, e.g ''I am intrigued by your comment...''. The tone adopted by the men who dominated the discussion was assertive: ''It is obvious that...''


Holmes various studies from 1998
Women managers seem to be more likely to negotiate consensus than male managers, they are less like to just 'plough through the agenda', taking time to make sure everyone genuinely agrees with whats been decided.


Holmes and Marra 2002 2005
Contrary to popular belief, women use just as much humour as men, and use it for the same functions, to control discourse and subordinates to contest superiors,although they are more likely to encourage supportive and collaborative humour.


Hornyak 1994?
The shift from work talk to personal talk is always initiated by the highest-ranking person in the room.


Tracy and Eisenberg 1990/1991
When role-playing, delivering criticism to a co-worker about errors in a business letter, men showed more concern for the feelings of the person they were criticizing when in the subordinate role, while women showed more concern when in the superior role.


Various Studies 1998-2004
When giving a directive to an equal, workers tend to use more indirect devices, (such as we instead of you, hedged structures and modals).When giving directions to a subordinate workers are often more direct.




List of many language studies: https://quizlet.com/10969360/english-language-theories-flash-cards/

Questionnaire Results Analysis

What are the attitudes towards the Afro-Caribbean influence on Standard English ANALYSIS

                                                                                                                                                                                       All my questionnaire respondents are Shenfield High Sixth Form students who are a mix of male and female. They all fit in the same age bracket 16-18 years old. The main language spoken by all of the students is English and whatever their ethnicity they all consider themselves British in some form.

The answers tell us that the overall opinion between Sixth Form Students in our schools is that that Standard English language is changing.

From the answers given in the two previous questions, I can see that the status of Standard English is high. 90% of people surveyed believe that Standard English is changing but the answers they have provided with as for their reasons why show negative opinions to the change. When asked how far they agree the Queens English is the correct English, no one disagreed but everyone agreed to an extent. This shows that the status of Standard English

From the results of these questions we can see that there are mixed attitudes to Black English Vernacular and other variations. There was mixed opinion to the language used by black people being non-standard, showing that people have different views upon language variation. However when asked if English Language is mixing with other cultures, 85% answered yes. Their reasons as to why they chose this answer came as those such as because of people moving into the country from other countries and our use of dialect from other countries. There were other options such as language sued from social media and that language is simply changing as a whole. This therefore shows that there are mixed attitudes to Black English Vernacular and other variations.

 

Conclusions:

What conclusions can you draw about contemporary attitudes to Standard English and ethnicity? From the results of my questionnaire, I can see that attitudes to Standard English are that the majority of people believe that the Queens English has power to be the correct spoken English Language and almost all of the people that answered my questionnaire believe that Standard English is changing. There was mix opinion on attitudes to ethnicity however 40% said language used by Black people is non-standard. All of the people who took part recognised themselves to fall under a British category and so this result can reflect upon the attitudes of people in the 16-18 years age gap.

Using my secondary data, I can come to the conclusion that attitudes of educated adults is that Standard English is the correct and proper English. They believe that it (along with the Queens English) is the prestige and proper way to speak as it is that language that is published in the media and that we should use in formal situations such as a job interview.  Attitudes to ethnicity are that language is developed from contacts between nonstandard varieties of English and African languages and that it typically diverges most from Standard English when spoken by people with low levels of education. This shows an almost negative attitude towards language difference from people with different ethnic backgrounds however it is not ruled out.

What theories and concepts about language and society can explain these conclusions?                                

In relation to my primary research, Peter Trudgill produced a theory whereby women use more received pronunciations and men more non-standard forms.  This could mean that the females who participated in my questionnaire could represent the more negative attitudes to language change as they like to stick to conformities. The males however could represent the more positive attitudes as stereotypically these are they forms they choose to follow in their own speech.    

Different social classes stereotypically have different attitudes. It is a stereotype that people of the middle class or above look down to those that choose not to use Receive Pronunciation and instead depend on slang and ‘new’ words.

How do these conclusions compare with those of any other related studies you can find in this field?

In support of my previous answer, Deborah Tannen’s theory criticised studies, ignoring the important issue and power in some cases making assertions and generalisations based on minimal research. This means that people are quick to jump to conclusion without looking at the bigger picture or in depth reasoning.  This means that people who consider themselves of a British ethnicity and use Standard English may look down upon those who do not as they see themselves to be prestige and proper.

 

Questionnaire

What are the attitudes towards the afro-Caribbean influence on Standard English?

I am an English Language student who is studying the change of language and attitudes towards this. I will be asking Shenfield Sixth Form students what they believe are the attitudes towards the Afro-Caribbean influence on Standard English. By completing this questionnaire, you agree to participate with my research methods and your answers will be used in conjunction with an analysis on the research topic. The data you give within the questionnaire will be anonymous and confidential. In reference to ethnicity I relate to aspects of a person’s cultural identity and nationality as the technical issue of which nation you formally belong to (country of birth or citizenship). Thank you.

 

Please circle your gender

Male                                 Female                               Prefer not to say

 

Please tick the box which you believe describes your ethnicity

 

What is your main spoken language?

……………………………………………………………...

 

Do you think that Standard English language is changing? Please circle

Yes                              No                                      Don’t know

 

Is British language being mixed with other cultures? Please circle

Yes                              No                                      Don’t know

 

Is language used by black people non-standard? Please circle

Yes                              No                                      Don’t Know

 

 

Please explain the reason for your previous answer

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

Do you consider yourself to use language that originates from other countries? (E.g. words, phrases or slang which have come from outside of the United Kingdom) Please Circle

Yes                              No                                            Don’t Know

 

(If you answered yes to the previous question) Please give an example of this kind of language you use

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

How far do you agree that Standard English (Queens English) is the proper and correct English language? Please Circle

Strongly agree          Agree          Somewhat          Disagree          Strongly disagree

 

What do you consider to be Standard English?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 

 

 

 

 

Accent and Dialect

Midlands

The most famous of these dialects is 'brummie' (Birmingham English). The language is informal and doesn't conform to English standards that (for example) American's would expect. The accent can be heard to be quite deep as they often deeply express their vowels.

Traits of accent:

• The syllable in foot and could is pronounced with the same syllable as strut and fudge.
•  Vaguely reminiscent of Australian accents, with short i in kit sometimes verging toward IPA kit (“keet”) and extremely open “loose” dipthongs.
• Some East Midlands dialects still feature a variant of the word “thou!”

Aspects of dialect
Podging in - pushing in or jumping in a queue
Argy-bargy - expression for an argument
Lummock - large, clumsy, stupid person


South East
The Essex accent is the most commonly known of those in South East. Often said to be described as 'fake' or 'over exaggerative', it is a stereotype that people with the language often drag out their words. This is a common misconception which can be picked up from TOWIE stars however many do not use this. The speech is in fact now classed as Estuary English - a variety of modified regional speech, a mixture of non-regional and local south-eastern English pronunciation and intonation.
'Estuary is an accent derived from London English which has achieved a status slightly similar to “General American”  in the US. Features of the accent can be heard around Southeast England, East Anglia, and perhaps further afield'


Traits of accent:

• The shortening of certain elongated vowel sounds e.g. been > ‘bin’, seen > ‘sin’
• Dropping of Ls. E.g. old > ‘owd’
• Yod coalescence, using a ch-sound rather than a t-sound plus a y-sound in words like Tuesday, tune, attitude. E.g the first part of Tuesday sounds identical to choose and the second part of reduce becomes identical to juice

Aspects of dialect
Sick - a term to describe something as good, 'Last night was sick'
Proper - very, 'He is a proper dodgy man'
Bait - being obvious, 'It's so bait how much you like him'


London
The most popular of London accents is Cockney. Originated from East London, it shares many features from other dialects around that region.


Traits of accent

• London vowel shift: The vowel sounds are shifted around so that Cockney “day” sounds is pronounced close to American “die” and Cockney buy verges near close to American “boy”
• Glottal Stopping: the letter t is pronounced with the back of the throat in between vowels hence better becomes (sounds to outsiders like) “be’uh”
• Th-Fronting: The th in words like think or this are pronounced with a more forward consonant depending on the word. E.g, thing becomes “fing,” this becomes “dis,” and mother becomes “muhvah.”

Aspects of dialect (rhyming slang)
Pete Tong – wrong, 'It’s all gone Pete Tong'
Barney Rubble – trouble 'Are you making Barney Rubble again'
Pig’s ear - beer 'Anyone want a pig's ear'

Transcript

This is a conversation between friends in the common room during a free period. Sam brings the conversation with an interogative sentence asking the group 'you don't know what Brownstock is?'  This leads to the first adjacency pair right at the start of the conversation as Amy replies 'no'. To this reply, Sam continues the inform the group about the festival and gives examples of artists that perfrom there. During this Megan is playing a game on her phone and chooses to jump in between speech. As Sam tells the group where the festival is held, Megan interferes and asks Amy a question. Sam choices to ignore this and continue with what he was saying. Megan then jumps in again saying 'savage' - the use of this word is sociolect, informal language is used to express her agitation over the game she is playing. Amy replies to Megan and this is an adjacency pair. At this point, three people are trying to talk at the same time showing that the girls are seeing past the main conversation for a small moment.

There is a second pause to take in the information then an adjacency pair follows this as Jamie asks Sam a question and he replies. He says 'no' and takes a pause before finishing with 'it's about...' showing that he had to think about his answer. There is then a two second pause and Megan says 'oh for crying out loud' in reaction to her game. This is the use of colloquialism. Sam jumps in as Megan says 'crying' and asks another question. However, Jamie ignores this and interrupts half way through to talk to me about Sam's previous statement to him which is an adjacency pair as I replied to Jamie.

The conversation continues by me and Amy asking Sam questions to which he replies and this again results in adjacency pairs. Megan continues to interrupt as Sam replies to the second question and Amy replies to her - an adjacency pair. The conversation ends by Sam asking if we've heard of the artists on the line up for the festival, '(.) one sec (.) erm have you ever heard of sigma'. The use of the filler 'erm' demonstrates Sam's uncertainty. Amy and I create an adjacency pair by replying and this continues for four more artists until the conversation ends by Sam saying 'surely like garage no (.) okay erm'.

Sam in the most dominant in the conversation as he is asking the questions so is in power as he controls the topic. Everyone else replies to him and so does not threaten his power, however Megan proves to be the person who most commonly breaks the exchange structure rules. Overlaps are common in the conversation which portray eagerness to get involved however Megan is shown to be unengaged, mostly talking to herself. It is clear that Sam talks the most making fourteen utterances  followed by Amy making seven utterances and me and Megan both made six. Jamie talks the less making only two utterances and this demonstrates that he may be uninterested. Sam is confident and in control - he has male domination over us three other main speakers who are female.

Grammar

Grammar controls how Language is constructed

Grammar is the set of structural rules that controls the way language works.

There are three aspects of grammar - word classes, syntax and morphology.

-Word classes define the role that each word can plain in a sentence.

-Syntax is the set of rules that control where each word class can appear in a sentence.

-Morphology describes the construction of individual words.

There are eight main word classes categorised by the function they have in a sentence

Word classes can also be called 'parts of speech'

Word Class	Function	Example
Nouns	‘naming’ words	London, book, romance
Adjectives	Describe nouns (and sometimes pronouns)	Large, sunny, featureless
Verbs	‘doing’ words	Jump, read, return
Pronouns	Take the place of nouns	You, they, him, me, it
Conjunctions	‘connecting’ words	And, or, but, because
Prepositions	Define relationships between words in terms of time, space and direction	Before, underneath, through
Determiners	Give specific kinds of information about a noun (e.g. quantity or possession)	A, the, two, his, few, those
Adverbs	Describe verbs (and sometimes adjectives and other adverbs too)	Steadily, incredibly, sadly

Word classes are controlled by rules

Word classes can take different positions in a sentence, but there are grammatical rules about how they work with each other (syntax). In the following sentence you can see all the word classes working together:

She	saw	the	new	manager	and	his	assistant
pronoun	verb	determiner	adjective	noun	conjunction	determiner	noun

At	the	store	yesterday
preposition	determiner	noun	advert

Grammatical rules affect word formation

Grammar affects word formation (morphology) because extra bits have to be added to words to change things like number or tense. The extra bit are called inflections. Examples:

-S is added to cup to change a singular noun into a plural - cups

-Ed is added to remember to change the present tense verb into the past tense - remembered

Grammar choices can influence the reader or listener

Tense

Past events can be described in the past tense or using present tense forms

-So she went up to the customer and gave him a good telling off. Clear that some time has passed since the event happened.

-So she goes up to the customer and gives him a good telling off. Present tense creates a more immediate and dramatic impact, used a lot in newspaper headlines.

Plurals

Plurals tell you there's more than one of something and plurals can increase the scale of a scene.

-There was a mass of fans outside the hotel. Singular, creates the impression of a specific body of people.

-There we masses of fans outside the hotel. Plural, creates the image of a big crowd of people across a wider area.

Adjectives

Adjectives are a great way to influence your audience

-Great ski resort in Sri Lanka. Relax in fine accommodation. Simple adjectives.

-Greatest resort in Sri Lanka. Relax in the finest accommodation. Superlative adjectives.


Grammar article
The article reads 'Coverage of Kids Company has revived comments about whether the charity should have an apostrophe in its name.'
Personally, I do not believe that 'kids' should have an apostrophe in this case. Not having an apostrophe claims that this is a company of kids. The company doesn't belong to kids therefore it is not in their possession and is using correct grammar.

Linguists

Spoken discourse structure – William Labov

 

Labov is a professor in the linguistics department of the University of Pennsylvania, and pursues research in sociolinguistics, language change, and dialectology. He is regarded as the founder of sociolinguistics.

When a speaker talks for an extended period of time, we can say they are narrating.

A sociolinguist William Labov developed a structure known as narrative categories. These are six categories which appear in a narrative.

The way a language is spoken (and written) differs across individuals as well as across situations encountered by the same individual. Labov argued that such differences are not only normal but also necessary to a language’s functioning. Labov’s research demonstrates that linguistic variation is pervasive and highly structured, revealing regular patterns of co-occurrence between language forms, such as the pronunciation of a particular vowel, and social categories, such as socioeconomic classes.

Labov has explored a wide range of linguistic phenomena within the variationist paradigm. He has examined semantic and grammatical features, though the study of phonological variation has predominated in his work. His research demonstrates that linguistic variation is pervasive (especially of an unwelcome influence or physical effect) spreading widely throughout an area or a group of people and highly structured, revealing regular patterns of co-occurrence between language forms, such as the pronunciation of a particular vowel, and social categories.

 

 

 

Semantics – Paul Grice

 The linguistic Paul Grice who determined that speakers adhere to four conversational maxims.

 

Grice is a British philosopher of language. His work on the nature of meaning has influenced the philosophical study of semantics.

Grice argued for an intention-based theory of meaning, and was the first to illustrate the distinction between what came to be called semantic and pragmatic meaning, that is, between what a speaker’s utterance (or its utterance ‘type’) means in the abstract, and what else a speaker can mean by uttering it in a particular context.

For example, the statement "Could you open the door?" is not a question about the hearer's ability, nor is it a factual statement in the indicative mood. It is actually an imperative like "Will you (please) open the door?".

Paul could ask Sue ‘’Where has the cream gone’’. Sue could then reply ‘’Cats drink cream’’. Though not said this means that the couple have a cat, cats drink cream and therefore the cat has probably drank the cream Paul is asking about.

 

 

Face Theory – Erving Goffman

 Erving Goffman developed a face theory in which an individual has both a positive and negative face needs.                                                                                                                               

 –Positive = feeling valued & appreciated

–Negative = the desire to feel independent & not to be imposed upon

 Goffman was a sociologist and writer considered to be ‘the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth century’. He is best known for his study of symbolic interaction which is supported by his book Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959).

He asked himself ‘why people behave the way they do?’ – instead of using scientific methods he used the act of simple observation to explain society. Goffman’s work allows us to have an understanding of society's ideas, values, and beliefs through the behaviour of the individual. It is through his findings that we can better understand situational behaviour.

Goffman stated that people could be seen as performers in a theatre. Actors in a play portray a certain image to the audience, and so people in society also put forth, in their behaviour, a certain image or impression to other people. For example, in church we may be quiet, respectful.

 

 

 

Semantics - Ferdinand de Saussure

 Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss linguist and semiotician whose ideas laid foundation for many significant developments in linguistics and semiology in the 20th century. Saussure came up with the semantic theory of the study of signals (how signs are interpreted).

Saussure said a sign is a unit used to represent and convey meaning. A sign is arbitrary (based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system) because "the bond between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary". This means the meanings that people attach to signs is subjective, people can apply different meanings to one sign. This link is also a matter of societal convention. Signs gain meanings from the associations we give them as a society.

For example, a red traffic lights doesn’t directly tell us to stop but we know to because of the meanings we associate with it as a society.

A crossing sign doesn’t literally tell us there is a crossing ahead however the image of the man allows us to know this and the red informs us to be alert.