Week 8

Lesson 1

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLChQokS9xAQYKXyooVTR1jIyEpdDRE0ir

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLChQokS9xAQb3B143z-MSvSsFzwVHA4uJ

Individual and Group Identities

In this area of study students focus on the role of language in reflecting and constructing individual and group identities. They examine how language users are able to play different roles within speech communities and to construct their identities through subconscious and conscious language variation, according to age, gender, occupation, interests, aspiration and education. While individual identity can be derived from the character traits that make us unique, our social identities are drawn from membership of particular groups. Students investigate how, as individuals, we make language choices that draw on our understanding of social expectations and community attitudes.

Students examine overt and covert norms in speech communities. They consider how knowing and being able to exploit overt norms – which are typically associated with Standard English – allows users to construct a prestigious identity associated with their class, education, occupation, social status and aspirations. They also consider how covert norms – those that are given prestige by local groups and are typically associated with nonStandard English – can be powerful in constructing identities, establishing those who use them as members of the ‘in’ group, while those who are unable to conform are cast as outsiders. The language features associated with jargon and slang also provide a powerful basis for inclusion and exclusion. Students learn how societal attitudes, personal associations and individual prejudices can lead to social disadvantage and discrimination against use of non-Standard English dialects and accents.

Read through the above as class.
Brainstorm groups or identities distinguishable under the categories of age, gender, occupation, interests, aspiration and education.

Expectations of Gender

Copy the list of linguistic points under each of the following headings from the textbook:

Lexical and semantic variation:

the difference in male and female vocabularies is more a result of simply having different interests a lot of the time more-so than being different in gender.
historically (and possibly still today) there were value judgements made about the ephemeral nature of women's language use (constant need to change the language)
Both men and women throughout history are lexically creative
Women have historically been stereotyped to be prone to hyperbole, seen linguistically through the excessive use of intensifiers (adverbs that indicate intensity eg. really, very, hugely etc)

Phonological and grammatical variation:

Early comparisons and judgements on the way females used language most likely were formed as men were more likely to have access to a formal education. Therefore male writing would have aligned with written norms moreso than a female who had not had the same level of education.
Some studies suggest females are more likely to speak in a cultivated accent
Studies in Western societies show that women and men of the same class/age favoured different language forms. Women tended to favour overtly prestigious norms while men tended to favour covert, 'working class' varieties.
Some explanations regarding why women tend to favour the more prestigious varieties suggest that societal expectations of women and their behaviour lead to a more 'prestigious' form of language use in order to appear 'proper'.
Similarly, societal stereotypes of masculinity and roughness could influence the broad, vernacular speech of many males who want to appear the opposite of effeminate and weak.
Teenage females typically use more HRT (but this view could also be a reason why males shy away from it as it is seen as a female speech marker)

Gender differences in conversational management:

Women have been said to be a more talkative sex throughout history but this has been constantly disproven.
Some incorrect and unfair stereotypes include women being 'empty-headed chatterboxes' and men the 'strong, silent types'.
Some research suggests women's talk is more supportive and facilitative, while men's talk is more referential and informative
Women generally use more interrogatives in conversation
Women tend to use more politeness markers like hedges, voiced noises and paralinguistic features like nodding and smiling.

Gender differences in swearing:

Women have traditionally been considered the bastions of etiquette and euphemism.
Studies in the 90s showed males swore about 3 times more than women and tended to use stronger expletives
Studies in the 90s showed males tended to be more likely to avoid swearing when in th presence of females
Studies in the 90s showed females tended to be more reluctant to swear in front of authority figures and family.

Living Lingo 261-267.pdf

Gender: Lexical and semantic variation (p 261-267 textbook)

What is meant by the distinction drawn between ‘sex-preferential interests’ and ‘sex differences?’ What examples are given to support this?
The last paragraph on page 261 talks about value judgments attached to language used by different genders. Why were males (usually the writers) often disparaging about women’s language? Reference prescriptivism and Otto Jespersen in your response.
Explain what Jennifer Coates means by ‘the androcentric rule.”
What are some of the characteristics of womens’ speech identified? Explain what ‘intensifiers’ are in your response.
Now read the article "Talk like a Lady? Fuck That Shit!"

1.What 'attitude' to swearing is Byrne challenging and where does she suggest it comes from?

2. How does she suggest we change the 'double standard' held towards women swearing?

3. Find 4-5 quotes from the article about the role of swearing in expressing identity and belonging.

Talk Like a Lady? Fuck That Shit!There's a swearing double standard—and here's how women can change it.

Man up.docx

Read the article 'Man Up?' and the comments that follow.

What attitudes towards language and gender does it challenge/endorse?
What do the comments suggest about Australian attitudes towards such language?

Gender in advertising

What does the language used to label and describe these products suggest about social expectations and community values towards men and women?

Kmart Tshirts- Gender Expectations and Lang.mov

What does the language used in the prints on these children's t-shirts suggest about social expectations and community attitudes towards boys and girls?

The language used to describe products marketed to women is often quite passive and carries connotations of softness, gentleness and concerns for looks. Adverbs such as "gently" are used in instructions compared to "thoroughly" when diving directions for men's products, which carry connotations of roughness. Nouns such as "bursts" and language of action are used in men's adverts as opposed to those drawing on the semantic field of beauty and sexuality for women (E.g. sexy bouquet). This language seems to reinforce the view that women are passive, more concerned with physical beauty and disconnected from rough or confronting topics. Similarly, the language used for men carries connotations of action and power with nouns such as "adventure" reinforcing the view the men need to be more active and strong.

Why do Mardi Dangerfield and Hester Brown want to avoid the term WAGS? In what ways does it run counter to their identities and values or those of the wider community

WAGS (the acronym for Wives and Girlfriends) acts as a collective noun to label the female partners of football players without acknowledging either their actual status or individual identities. They wish to avoid the term as it is quite objectifying and dehumanising as it doesn't include all genders, not acknowledge their own unique roles or talents, framing their identity purely as their status to the famous person.

What term do they prefer and choose to use? Why? What values and norms does this term appeal to?

They prefer the term 'significant other' as the noun phrase is not only gender neutral but the adjective 'singificant' gives agency and important to the individual

What attitude do you think the author or editor of this article has?

Clearly they don't seem to care or value the individual identity as they use term WAGS in the opening sentence.

Lesson 2

Expectations of Age

Kate Matson.mov

Ruining Teen Slang.mov

older generations are more likely to use conservative language.

Lexicon

'youthspeak' changes all the time. Shortenings like 'defs' and 'probs' were once cutting edge but are probably now outdated (you folks are the youth, you tell me what the new examples are!)

Phonology

HRT in a feature of speech in young women- debatable
Studies showed secondary students in Melbourne monophthongised (made diphthongs into one longer vowel sound) words such as 'fear' and 'hair'
older speakers tend to change the sound of the definite article 'the' before words depending on whether they start with a consonant or not:

the (tha) lemonade / the (thi) iced tea

(try it yourself with these words: sandwich, entree, omelette, poached egg.)

Grammar

younger speakers using 'so' as an intensifier "I so did" or 'I'm so going to fail"
Increase in use of the word 'fun' as an adjective 'funnest' or 'funner'
use of post-sentential (fancy way of saying 'end of sentence') negators such as 'You're a great dancer - not!'

Discourse

Younger speakers employ discourse markers more extensively 'kinda, like, sorta'
Like as a discourse marker can be used in 3 ways:

1) emphasis = 'I'm like so tired' 'that is like so cool'

2) soften the force of an utterance = 'can I like borrow your dress'

3) quotative like = ... and then he was like 'don't do that' but I was like 'well I'm going to'

'Let's get this bread': 13 things your teenager says, translatedTeenagers are amazing linguistic innovators. Here's what some of the most common teen slang actually means.

Decoding Teen Slang*Our teen slang guide now updated for 2021 - more than 15 new slang terms added! With 2020 soon to be behind us (let's hope), more kids and teens are home and slang has never been happier! See our guide that has become the defacto standard for teen slang. Many parents have no idea of the growing...

Tasks:

Make a list of the features associated with 'teenspeak' or language of 'the young'.
Now make a similar list to that of 'older Australians'. You may like to split this into distinct categories.
For each, what attitudes or expecations are you aware of that exist towards these groups?
Collate useful quotes from the above articles about teenspeak or language of the 'youth' by adding to the four below.

'Generation Z, or post-millennials (people born between 1996 and now) have grown up with the internet.'
'The New Zealand linguist Elizabeth Gordon once said that by the time people are writing in to the newspapers to complain about a feature of language that they hear people using, it has already been happening for about 15 years.'
'Languages changes sometimes as fast as fashion or styles of music, and just like fashion, it can be used to mark out a distinct identity.'
'Since adolescence marks a period of our lives in which we strive to assert our own identity, and when we are also are very concerned with the respect of our peers, it is no surprise that teenagers are amazing linguistic innovators.'

Youth-speak/Teen-speak

typically revolves around slang and non-standard forms
shortenings, acronyms, blends and neoglogism (broadening)
seen to be less prestigious, less professional, less educated
associated with values of laziness, casualness, recalcitrance, to 'other them', inarticulateness
limits young people to stereotypes

Davidson on Slang and textese.pdf

Read the PDF to the side.

Who does Davidson say has the greatest effect on the evolution of language? Why might this be?
What places does slang have in teen-speak and communication for younger people?
Create a list of the slang you utilise to express your identity as a young Australian.
Create a list of covert norms you use or are aware of in the discourse of your peers.
Begin collecting examples of language of age and quotes on attitudes towards it. The articles and links below might be a good addition to those you've read above.

Articles

Teens Aren't Ruining LanguagePeople of all ages influence linguistic change, and it's always been that way.

So to, like, speak

Talking teenspeakThe English Language is careering wildly on the rollercoaster commonly known as the 21st century. Whirling down at unparalleled speed, it is mutating into a cocktail of Americanisms, acronyms and...

Opinion Article on Teenspeak The colossal world of Teenspeak: is it like advantageous or insignificant? In society, there are several different attitudes to the way ...

Reminder: Slang vs Jargon

Jargon

a language variety that is particular to a trade, occupation, hobby or group
Jargon is highly specific to its context, meaning it may not be understood by those outside of the field.
the driving force behind jargon is efficiency: complex idea may be communicated more precisely and faster.
Jargon relies on the knowledge and expertise of all participants in a particular field for the meaning to be conveyed, therefore it acts as a marker of in-group solidarity and excludes those who don't belong to a group.
A side effect of jargon's efficiency is obfuscation: the obscuring of intended meaning in communication.

Slang

is very informal speech that is not standard in the specific language or dialect
it is typically transient (doesn't stick around)
tends to be associated with different groups and factors such as age, region or personal interests
typically created through repurposing pre-existing words (creative word formation - morphological patterning)
Slang often relies firmly of the cultural knowledge of the speaker and its use is a good indicator of group belonging.

Jargon links:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/30/will-jargon-be-the-death-of-the-english-language.html
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/04/money-talks-6 Longer article from the New Yorker about the dangers of financial jargon
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/oct/22/a-z-modern-office-jargon great examples of office jargon/euphemism
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/04/business-speak/361135/ Excellent longer article about office jargon
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/2014/02/828/A amusing article on church jargon
http://blogs.hbr.org/2011/12/business-jargon-is-not-a-value/ transcript of interview with Dan Palotta, also available as a podcast
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2010/11/24/on-jargon-and-why-it-matters-in-science-writing/ The importance of jargon in science
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/why-its-time-for-galleries-to-dump-the-jargon-8480622.html jargon in the arts world
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/low_concept/2013/09/school_jargon_for_parents_i_can_t_understand_what_my_child_s_teacher_is.html article on educational jargon
http://www.smh.com.au/national/beware-bosses-bearing-workplace-happiness-jargon-20150519-gh525i article exploring the jargon around 'workplace happiness'
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/xerox-just-tired-tech-jargon-you-are-166596 recent xerox campaign on less technological jargon
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/ a guide to hacker jargon - good for examples
http://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/html/10.11648.j.edu.20150405.22.html Article about The Use of Dialects in Education and Its Impacts on Students’ Learning and Achievements (lots of technical language stuff)
https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/business-jargon-words-we-never-ever-want-to-hear-again/news-story/b0569339c763c1c0318d618d0ee190fb article about 'weasel words'
https://www.dropthejargon.org.au/ 2018 'drop the jargon' campaign website
http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/campaigning.html Plain English campaign website

Slang links:

Lesson 3

1. Listen to the clips played in class and classify each speaker using this form: https://forms.gle/BGMeCFZCVvuchQKWA

2. As a class, brainstorm lists of words or phrases used by the following groups:

Younger Australians vs Older Australians
Low SES vs High SES

3. As a class, read, annotate and analyse the first group of tweets in the document below. Use the table in the Google doc to record your insights.

4. Analyse the second group of tweets by yourself.

Analysis of Tweets .pdf

Analying Tweets- Individual & Group Identity

As a class, brainstorm occupation groups in Australian society.
For each group, list 'shibboleths', or language features that distinguish or mark this group as distinct from others. Also, try to articulate the social expectations or community attitudes held towards this group. We will allocate a group to each student so you can share and record each others' examples.
Complete the following steps and record your findings in the shared document below:

Nominate a specific group to research within Australian society. This could be an interest group, cultural group, etc.
Research your select group and combine a list of language features that define this group linguistically.
Collect examples of this group's languge use (screenshots, youtube videos, news articles, websites, etc.)
Explain the views, values and attitudes this group holds or is associated with
Explain community expectations and attitudes help towards this group.
Do they adhere to overt or covert norms?

Group Language & Identity Research Task

These articles list a range of Australian subcultures that you could research

-10 fascinating Australian subcultures you had no idea existed

-Inside the secret world of Millennial subcultures

Incels: Learn to Decode the Secret Language of the Incel Subculture

Language of the Queer Community- Lavender Language, The Queer Way to Speak & Allusionist 99. Polari - transcript — The Allusionist

Vocal Fry-

Apologising- Why women say 'sorry' too much and what to say instead

Humour- Making Jokes During a Presentation Helps Men But Hurts Women

Binary- Gendered Language-

Non-binary Gendered Language-

Cooking Shows:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yr_etbfZtQ&ab_channel=TheKateringShow

Class:

https://thingsboganslike.wordpress.com/