Lesson 1

1. Lesson 1 • Introduce LangChang as taught module for next; two pieces of c/w – investigation & media text. • Slide 2: overview of c/w pieces, with some examples. • Slide 3: Simple examples of “transformation” from investigation to media text (emphasize that effectiveness of “transformation” is written into marking criteria); show students some examples of c/w folders. • Slide 4: overview of work, now to Sept. Short H/W task at bottom of slide. • Slide 5: introduction to LangChang and period of study (Late Modern – C1700-present day). • Slides 6-10: Drivers of lang change – in order to understand how lang changes, we need to know about some of the “drivers” of change. Talk through these slides fairly quickly; students can listen or take notes – inform them there will be a quick-fire text afterwards. • Short break – they can do an unrelated activity, or just have a chat; but they should have 2-3 mins of not doing LangChang work. • Rest of the slides repeat 6-10, but answers are, initially, hidden.

2. Language Investigation Media Text A journalistic piece, to inform. Must have a link with your investigation, but should be a mere repetition/retelling. Investigation is academic – technical and highly formal in style. Media text is for a non-specialist readership. • Detailed study of an aspect of language use and/or change. • How is gender represented in, e.g., makeup adverts (at one moment in time, or across time)? • How has the language of politics changed over time/how does it differ between the political parties? • Language strategies used by teachers/a teacher when teaching one/different year groups. • How have attitudes to taboo language changed over time? • How has the language of [genre of writing/TV show/children’s literature] changed over time?

3. For Example Investigation into teacher language Tips on lang./behaviour strategies for new teachers Investigation into taboo language in [TV show] “What’s so bad about swearing?” – informative Guardian article, on nature/history of obscenity

4. This half term • Introduction to LangChang • Attitudes towards language change and use • “Mini” investigations and media texts, based on attitudes towards language change/use; to be handed in after summer. H/W: Look up the terms “linguistic prescriptivism” and “linguistic descriptivism.” Write out brief definitions of each term. For tomorrow/next lesson.

5. Language Change • Studies language change from 1700 (eighteenth century) to present... • The “Late Modern” period, when there is a concerted effort at standardization (e.g., proliferation of dictionaries& grammars, helped by emergence of printing presses) • However, this is the not the first/last attempt to stabilize/set norms of the English language

6. Standardization: the fixing of norms/standards to English (grammar, spelling, lexis etc.) and its variations • Synchronic change: change occurring at a fixed “point” or “moment” in time (this moment, though, is theoretical or imaginary – we might be taking “the eighteenth century” as our “moment”) • Diachronic change: Change occurring across historical time

7. “Drivers” of Change: Science & Technology • New words (often Greek/Latin in derivation) borrowed or coined as needed • Scientific innovation during the Renaissance (roughly C14-mid C17) and the Enlightenment(roughly mid C17 – C18) required expansion of the lexicon; no language for the new discoveries • New inventions require new words (e.g., a machine that washes the dishes is called... um... a dishwasher [neologism; compound]) • Technical/specialist words often “borrowed” from Latin – the lingua franca (before English), and the language of scholarship (power/authority invested in Latin).

8. “Drivers” of Change: Travel • Travel – because of war/colonialism, trade, and emergence of tourism/leisure industries – brings different languages and cultures into contact with one another • More borrowings/loan words(e.g., “curry”; in C18 “currey,” when it was a neologism, & therefore did not have a “standard” spelling)

9. “Drivers” of Change: Social, Political, Ideological • Changes in public attitudes (e.g., towards gender/race) make certain lexical choices more/less acceptable • Political correctness exerts a pressure: • some words undergo pejoration, & fall out of use; • Coinages/neologismsreplace older, now archaicterms; • changing attitudes can affect which registers will be adopted in certain contexts

10. “Drivers” of Change: Media • Might affect attitudes (& therefore register – journalism more/less formal today that 100 years ago?) • Introduce coinages, initialisms, acronyms • Slang/colloquialismsbecome part of “standard” lexicon (e.g., “Gotcha”) • Hyperbole [“hy-per-b(u)lly”] and abbreviation (initialisms, acronyms, clippings) typical of “journalese”

11. Short break

12. “Drivers” of Change: Science & Technology • New words (often Greek/Latin in derivation) borrowed or coined as needed • Scientific innovation during the Renaissance (roughly C14-mid C17) and the Enlightenment(roughly mid C17 – C18) required expansion of the lexicon; no language for the new discoveries • New inventions require new words (e.g., a machine that washes the dishes is called... um... a dishwasher [neologism; compound])

13. “Drivers” of Change: Travel • Travel – because of trade and tourism/leisure industry – brings different languages and cultures into contact with one another • More borrowings/loan words(e.g., “curry”; in C18 “currey,” when it was a neologism without standard spelling)

14. “Drivers” of Change: Social, Political, Ideological • Changes in public attitudes (e.g., towards gender/race) make certain lexical choices more/less acceptable • Political correctness exerts a pressure: • some words undergo pejoration, & fall out of use; • Coinages/neologismsreplace older, now archaicterms; • changing attitudes can affect which registers will be adopted in certain contexts

15. “Drivers” of Change: Media • Might affect attitudes (& therefore register – journalism more/less formal today that 100 years ago?) • Introduce coinages, initialisms, acronyms • Slang/colloquialismsbecome part of “standard” lexicon (e.g., “Gotcha”) • Hyperbole [“hy-per-b(u)lly”] and abbreviation (initialisms, acronyms, clippings) typical of “journalese”

16. Terms Encountered Today • Standardization • Synchronic change • Diachronic change • Borrowings/loan words • Coinages/neologisms • Renaissance(roughly C14-mid C17) • Enlightenment(roughly mid C17 – C18) • Lexicon • Lingua franca • Political correctness • Pejoration • Amelioration • Archaism • Register • Initialism • Acronyms • Slang/colloquialisms • Hyperbole • Abbreviation/clipping/ truncation

17. Lesson 2 • Review prescriptivism and descriptivism; use definitions on slide 17 to add to/refine definitions as necessary. • Slide 18: talk through format of exam, re. LangChang section, and brief summary of how to approach an attitudes question if it comes up. • Read handoutsindependently, to begin with; answer questions through annotation – some modelling/whole class examples if necessary. • Slide 20: H/W task (research; resources have been posted to website)

18. Attitudes towards language use and language change Prescriptivists… view language as having long-established “rules”; concerned with standards of “proper” English and “correct” grammar; very often assume English now to be in a state of decline. Sometimes called “language mavens” and/or “grammaticasters” (as an insult). Both names suggest someone with strong views on “proper English,” who is not “qualified” to make such judgements. Descriptivists… attempt to record, document, and describe language as it is actually used, rather than concerning themselves with notions of “correct”/“proper” English.

19. In the A2 exam, you will choose to answer one of two questions. • Sometimes, one of the questions will ask you to read a text and discuss attitudes towards language change. • To answer the attitudes question, you need to identify the type of attitude being expressed, and then discuss the techniques being used to convey the writer’s message.

20. Read the articles by John Humphrys and David Crystal • How would you describe their attitudes towards language use and language change? • Which driver(s) of language change are they most concerned with? • What techniques do Humphrys & Crystal use to convey their messages? • Ext: Do you think one could ever be entirely non-prescriptivist? Why?

21. Homework Use the “mini_coursework_projects_-_links” PPt at olibelas.weebly.com (English Language AS AS/A2 transition) to find the Jean Aitchison article (last link on slide). Read the article; make notes on the three types of prescriptivism she outlines. Do you agree with these views?

22. Lesson 3 • Ask questions on slide 23; field responses from students (first question should be easy-ish; second may be more challenging) • Talk through slides 23-25 as necessary; emphasize that these are prescriptivist stances that Aitchison herself criticizes. • Slide 26: Problem with Aitchison? Is it possible, based on personal experience, to think of instances when our linguistic behaviours are not matters of choice but are “infections”/habits? (E.g., use of “y’know,” “like,” “a’right” phatically/as fillers etc.) • Slides 27-29: Talk through techniques (with focus on register) that Humphrys uses to make his points; this leads to upwards/downwards convergence/divergence on 29. Humphrys uses upwards divergence to set himself apart from the “crowd,” and also uses downwards convergence ironically, to mock the habits he so dislikes.

23. Varieties of Prescriptivism • What are the metaphors that Aitchison uses to characterize three widespread types of prescriptivism? • Can you summarize these prescriptivisms?

24. The Damp Spoon View ‘The “damp spoon” image comes from a newspaper writer, who has a “queasy distaste” for the “vulgarity” of some current usages, “precisely the kind of distaste I feel at seeing a damp spoon dipped in the sugar bowl or butter spread with the breadknife”. She implies that sloppiness and laziness cause much of language change.’ However, Aitchison goes on, ‘[t]he only truly lazy speech is drunken speech, where alcohol affects co-ordination, and English is not getting like drunken speech.’

25. The Crumbling Castle View ‘This treats the English language as a beautiful old building with gargoyles and pinnacles which need to be preserved intact, as implied in statements by the writer John Simon: Language, he argues, should be treated like “parks, national forests, monuments, and public utilities . . . available for properly respectful use but not for defacement or destruction”. ‘This view itself crumbles when examined carefully. It implies that the castle of English was gradually and lovingly assembled until it reached a point of maximum splendour at some unspecified time in the past. Yet no year can be found when language achieved some peak of perfection, like a vintage wine. Nor have those who claim that English is declining ever suggested what this date might have been.’ The ‘beautiful building’ view is part of this ‘crumbling castle’ stance. The beautiful building view ‘presupposes that rigid systems, once assembled, are better than changing ones.’

26. The Infectious Disease View ‘In an article entitled “Polluting Our Language,” the writer expressed a widespread view that we somehow “catch” changes from those around us, and that we ought to fight such diseases: “The wholesale spread of corruption may surely be ascribed to mere infection, to the careless, unthinking assimilation of the floating germs which envelop us.” Change is indeed brought about through social contact, so the catching notion is not entirely wrong. But the “disease” metaphor falls down. People pick up changes because they want to. They want to fit in with social groups, and they adapt their hairstyle, clothes, and language, to those of people they admire.’

27. Do you agree with what Aitchison says, particularly of the “infectious disease” view?

28. How would you describe Humphrys’s language/style/register here? Relatively high level of formality. Lexical choice of “fine”: - used in slightly archaic/narrower & stronger sense of “excellent”/“wonderful,” rather than “just OK.” Literary/frozen register: - idiom: “I yield to no man…” (or “no one”) - Use of zeugma to construct metaphor: “as close to my heart as… to my desk” (close = near geographically/spatially and fond of/intimate with) A good dictionary is a fine thing - I yield to no man in my love for one. If I stretch out my right arm as I type, I can pluck from my shelves the two volumes of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. They are as close to my heart as they are to my desk because they are so much more than a useful tool. Zeugma: When a word(s) refers to two things in two different ways (e.g., literally and metaphorically). As close to my heart as to my desk. (“close” = fond + near) She went home in a taxi and a bad mood. (“in” = inside + state of mind/attitude) Who speaks like this?

29. In the quotations below, Humphrys is being ironic. How? • I h8 txt msgs • The spell-check (sorry: spellcheck) on my computer is happy with both. But that's not why I feel betrayed by my precious OED. • Have you ever heard anything quite so daft? No time to make one tiny key-stroke (sorry: key stroke). • To the editor of the OED I will simply say: For many years you've been GR8. Don't spoil it now. Tks.

30. Convergence: When the differences between speech patterns/habits are minimized/lessened/reduced (when people’s speech becomes more alike) • Divergence: When the differences between speech patterns/habits are increased/maximized • Upwards: In the “direction” of “standard” English and received pronunciation • Downwards:Towards regional dialect/“non-standard” English • Therefore, we can speak of upwards/downwards convergence, and upwards/downwards divergence. How do these terms apply to the Humphrys extracts?

31. And finally… Which of Aitchison’s metaphors best applies to Humphrys? Look at the first definition we wrote of “prescriptivism”: what terms other than “prescriptivist” might Aitchison use to describe Humphrys?

32. Lesson 4 • Informalization/conversationalization • Prediction – are we more/less prescriptive now than 200/300 years ago? Explain your predictions; predictions might include strategies/techniques used in pre-/de-scriptivist accounts • Write up prediction • Swift and Johnson • Summary exercise and annotation • Were predictions correct, based on evidence? Write this up as short statement • H/W: read, summarize, annotate two more short texts, using links PPt from website

33. How has language changed over the last two- or three-hundred years? Make a prediction: • Do you think “Society” has become more or less linguistically prescriptive since 1700? • Give possible reasons for your prediction.

34. Do the following points affect your predictions? • Although there were numerous attempts to standardize English before the eighteenth century (1700s), it is from the eighteenth century on (or the Late Modern period) that English begins to stabilize and become the language we recognize today. • Reasons for this include: • Before standardization, greater orthographic variation, based partly on regional accent/pronunciation; mechanization & mass production (thanks to printing presses) mean there are gradually fewer orthographic variations. • Proliferation of grammars and dictionaries (e.g., Lowth’sA Short Introduction to English Grammar [1762]; Dr. Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language [1755]) • Syntax: C18 – often longer constructions than we might expect/be comfortable with today; often multi-clausal, with clauses demarcated by frequent commas and/or semicolons. Over the next 200 years or so, syntax tends towards the more direct, shorter, and “simpler” construction. E.g., use of “do” to construct questions and negatives becomes more widespread and more common (e.g., “do you want…?” “No, I do not/don’t want…”) • Use of commas & semicolons becomes more rigid. • People often suggest that English today is more conversational & more informal. We can talk about the informalizationand conversationalizationof English.

35. Return to your prediction; make any adjustments necessary, and write up this form: Write up in this form: I predict/hypothesise that evidence will suggest that we have become … since 1700. I think that contributing factors to these changes will include…

36. Read the Swift and Johnson extracts • What broad points does each writer offer? Summarize in one sentence per extract. “In text A, Swift adopts a … stance, arguing that… In text B, Johnson adopts a … stance, arguing that…” • How would you describe the attitude of each writer? • Based on this evidence, and the Crystal and Humphrys extracts, is your prediction correct? • Are the four extracts sufficient evidence for firm conclusions? • Write up your findings: Based on my evidence, my prediction appears to be… We can see that [summarize attitude each of the four writers – prescriptive/descriptive; “crumbling castle” etc.]. From this, we can tentatively suggest that attitudes towards the English language have • remained as prescriptive/descriptive as… • become more/less … over time However, before firm conclusions could be reached, we would need to…

37. H/W • Read & summarize two more short texts, using links PPt from website

38. Lesson 5 • Choosing “mini” investigation topic • How to set out introductory sections • Write intro., hypothesis, methodology in class • Begin annotation of texts in preparation for Lesson 6 • Note: predictions might be along lines of more/less prescriptive, or certain rhetorical strategies used by pre-/de-scriptivists

39. Choosing an investigation topic/title Based on the evidence we’ve considered in class, and that you’ve considered for homework, there are three obvious approaches you might take: • How have attitudes towards language use and language change developed over time? • What techniques and methods do linguists and commentators use when discussing language use and/or change? • Have linguists become more or less prescriptive about language use and change over time?

40. The type of study • If you decide to use the selection of texts we have considered, which span the C18 until (more or less) the present day, then you will be conducting a diachronic analysis. Diachronic studies investigate changes over time. • If you decide to do task 2, and to restrict your analyses to texts from one period, then you will be conducting a synchronic analysis. Synchronic studies investigate changes at a fixed point in time. If you decide to do a synchronic version of task 2, you will need to find two additional texts from the relevant time period (all the “mini” investigations should cover 6 texts).

41. Start annotating texts for methods/techniques • Terminology: • Prescriptive • Descriptive • Aitchison’s metaphors • “Grammaticaster”/language maven • Synchronic/diachronic • Rhetorical techniques • Choose a question/title, and write it in your book as a title. • Write your introduction, hypothesis, and methodology. • Introduction: Outline the focus of your project (“I will consider/investigate…”); you will probably restate the title, but say a little more on what you will be doing (“I will analyze a selection of texts, by…; I will consider…”) • Hypothesis:Make your prediction (as last lesson, but re-write according to the task you have chosen; remember, it does not matter whether or not the hypothesis turns out to be correct. • Methodology: Synchronic/diachronic analysis of techniques/methods etc. used by writers

42. Lesson 6 • Slides 42-44: Introduction, warning, guidance on analyses • Slides 45-46: How to tabulate/record analyses; start to annotate and tabulate (begin written analysis if additional time)Plan and begin analyses in class • Slide 47: Final task and H/W

43. Preparing the analyses • The analyses will form the biggest part of the investigation. • How will organize the analyses? • Text by text • According to techniques/feature/methods • According to prescriptivism/descriptivism, then methods/techniques • According to period, then pre-/de-scriptivism and/or methods/techniques? • Depending on how many texts you are analyzing, and how much you have to say, you will analyze approx. 2-4 features in detail.

44. Warning: • Text by text is probably the least effective; it will probably seem the least well conceptualized to the examiners. • However, there are cases in which text by text might work (e.g., an analysis of special interest magazines might be organized according to those interests). • Often (but, again, not always), organizing analyses by method will suggest a broad understanding of the data as a whole.

45. Research • You will be expected to show evidence of further reading/research in your written analyses. • For example, a knowledge of Aitchison’s metaphors might be relevant to a study of the sort we’re doing. Theories/concepts of language and power might also be relevant.

46. Recording, Arranging, & Presenting Data • Before you can begin to “write up” your analyses, you will need to record and arrange your data. • You will need to decide which methods/features/techniques you will consider in your analyses. • To do this, all texts need to be annotated in detail; consider how techniques/features/methods help the writers achieve their purpose.

47. Recording, Arranging, & Presenting Data • Look for patterns in the data. • For example: • is a certain method technique only used in C18; • or, are certain techniques only used by pre-/de-scriptivists; • or, does the frequency of a particular feature vary over time? • Think about how you will decide which features to comment on – e.g., will you comment on semantic fields only if a) they feature figuratively; b) 3 or more instances occur?

48. Annotate all texts • Select techniques/feature/frameworks for analyses • Start to tabulate Finish 1 & 2 for H/W

49. Lesson 7 • Tabulate data – use slide 46 as model; further examples on board; use exemplar work.

50. Lesson 8 • Show examples of analyses in exemplar work again • Show examples of conclusions • Time to draft analyses in class? • Set write up as summer task – to be handed in end wk 2/beginning wk 3 of autumn 2013 term.