Questionnaire 

Vital Information:

This questionnaire has been conducted as a method to collect primary research for an English language A-level course. You are under no force to answer any of the questions in this questionnaire and you are fully within your rights to withdraw your answers at any time. If you decide to provide information, the information will not be used for no other purposes. You will remain anonymous throughout the entire process - everything is securely confidential and will be erased after its appropriate use.

1. What ethnicity are you?

 

White British

 

Black British

 

Black African

 

Asian British

 

Other: …………………………...

2. What is your understanding of the word ethnicity?

 

3. What is your understanding of what Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect is?

4. What is your opinion on Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect?     5. Pick the phrase you believe to be the ‘correct’ way of speaking:   “Wagwarn”   “Everything is cool”   “What are you doing” 6. Do you think Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect is ruining English Language?   Yes   No   Why?     7. Do you think Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect is developing the English Language?   Yes   No   Why?   8. Do you believe different attitudes encourage an influence on accident/dialect?   Yes   No Why?

 

 

 

 

 

Headlines

Theorists: 

Erving Goffman – A sociologist who developed a theory known as ‘in the face theory’, in which an individual has both positive and negative face theory.

·        Positive face theory needs are associated with feeling valued and appreciated.

·        Negative face needs are the desire to feel independent and not to be imposed upon.

Interactions can therefore be face threatening acts (FTA’s) which is why people are naturally mindful of other people’s face needs during conversation.

During any one encounter, the subjects will each have a certain face and will produce utterances that take into consideration each other's face in this particular situation. In different situations, a single individual's face will be constructed differently. For example, when an individual is engaged in small talk with their family, they might expect to be addressed through terms of endearment, and not mind having fun made of them; when running a business meeting, on the other hand, they may expect to be addressed more formally, and to be treated with respect by other subjects. An individual's face can also change during a single interaction, for example when a businessman at a meeting completes his speech and turns to colleagues to discuss the injustices of a referee's decisions in the football match the previous evening.

Herbert Paul Grice - determined that speakers adhere to four conversational maxims:

1. Quantity- to use an appropriate amount of detail
2. Quality – to speak the truth and do not knowingly mislead
3. Relevance – to keep what is being discussed relevant to the topic
4. Manner- to avoid vagueness and ambiguity

This is known as the cooperative principle (How people talk to one another).

Politeness is known as a ‘Super-maxim’, in that people are mindful of others personal or face (see Ervin Goffman) needs in a conversation.

Those who obey the cooperative principle in their language use will make sure that what they say in a conversation furthers the purpose of that conversation. Obviously, the requirements of different types of conversations will be different.

William Labov - focused on the discourse structure within a conversation, he created a structural approach for the fundamental problems of discourse structure, and these are called narrative categories:

1. Abstract (A) - The indication that a narrative is about to start and the speaker wants to get the listeners attention.
2. Orientation (O) - The who, what, where and why of the narrative, set the scene by providing contextual information.
3. The complicating action (CA) - The main body providing a range of narrative detail.
4. Resolution (R) - The final events to give narrative closure.
5. Evaluation (E) – Additions to the basic story to highlight Attitudes/commands 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.

The Evaluation can be divided into:

·        External evaluations – Added by the narrator at the time of recounting and not usually part of the series of events.

·        Internal evaluations – Occurring at the same time as those detailed in the complicating action which can further be divided into an intensifying evaluation and an explicative evaluation.

·        Intensifying evaluations – Contributing via gestures, repetitions or dramatic sounds.

·        Explicative evaluations - Proving reasons for narrative events.

Ferdinand de Saussure - Ferdinand de Saussure is a founder of Semiotics, which he called semiology. His concept of the sign/signifier/signified/referent forms the core of the field. Instead of focusing his theory on the origins of language and its historical aspects, Saussure concentrated on the patterns and functions of language instead. Although the name has been changed to semiotics, Saussure's theory is still commonly used in today's society.

Semiotics is the theory of how signs are interpreted and understood. Examples of this include logos or pictures.

There are two types of signs as follows:

1.  Iconic signs - A direct image of the thing it represents (often simplified) such as the male/female toilet sign.
2. Symbolic signs - Draw on association and are often defined by social convention. An example would be the school logo

Language Levels - Definitions

Grammar - The study of the system and structure of language

Syntax - Sentence Structure

Morphology - Words

Discourse structure - The way in which text is organised and sequenced

Pragmatics - pragmatics is the study of the implied and intended meaning of a text - the context of language.

Word class - a group of words that fulfil the same kind of role and function in speech and writing

Lexical word classes -  Have the most members and are open to new membership (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs)

Grammatical/closed word classes - Provide connections and cohesion between other words (pronouns, determined, preposition, conjunctions)

Noun Phrase - groups of words entered around a noun that acts as the ‘head’ of the phrase

Nouns - names a person, place, thing or idea.

Pronouns - takes the place of a noun (I, me, he, she, herself, you, it, that, they, each, many, who, whose, someone etc)

Concrete nouns - things you can experience through your 5 senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch)

Abstract nouns - refers to intangible things like, feeling, qualities, concepts etc

Verbs - Either auxiliary or main. Main verbs tell you the action, auxiliary verbs give extra information on the main verb.

Auxiliary can be subcategorised between the following:

Primary Auxiliary - Be, do and have

Modal auxiliary - Can, could, may, must, might, will, would, shall and should (have the ability to emphasise something’s importance or add formality)

Adjectives - describing words (describes an attribute of a noun)

Adverbs - words that describe how verbs are carried out (eg: quickly)

Graphology - The features that contribute to the appearance of a text (eg: fonts, colours etc)

Iconic signs - a direct picture of the thing it represents (often simplified eg: male/female toilet sign)

Symbolic sign - Draw on association and are defined by cultural convention (eg: school logo)