I have decided to continue with the idea of studying Deborah Tannen's Difference Theory for my language investigation coursework. This is because I found the research, transcribing and annotating interesting and insightful when I first attempted the language investigation. My next step is to choose which data I want to use and how I plan to select it. I need to also have a set question and hypothesis for my investigation. I predict that males will have adopted more of the female traits and vice versa. So both gender will use the traits more or less equally and won't be exclusive to one gender.
In terms of my data, I'm hoping to use cast interviews from the same television series so the language doesn't fluctuate. Although the speech may not be 100% spontaneous due to structured speech from interviewers, I think the interviewees will use natural speech. The formality will be very low, chatty and friendly so this will hopefully make the data I transcribe natural and spontaneous, adding to the reliability of my investigation.
Monday, 21 September 2015
Sunday, 20 September 2015
Child Language Acquisition - notes
Pre-verbal State
Vegetative (0-4 months) - sounds of discomfort or reflexive actions
Cooing (4-7 months) - comfort sounds and vocal play using open mouthed-vowel sounds
Babbling (6-12 months) - repeated patterns of consonants and vowel sounds
Proto-words (9-12 months) - word-like vocalisations, not matching actual words but used consistently for the same meaning
Lexical and Grammatical Stages of Development
Holophrastic/one-word (1-1.5 years) - the child utters their first word; they then build a vocabulary of holophrases. they are called holophrases because they convey all the meaning of a phrase/sentence through intonation, body language, etc. The types of words are short and related to the here and now - the child's everyday life.
Two word (1.5-2 years) - the child begins to use two words at a time and grammar begins to emerge because the child can choose word order. They are more flexible with a range of grammatical functions: an action affects an object, an actor performs an action, an object is given a location, etc. There are still a few that defy definition and often understanding, however are creative phrases. Most children use correct word order using prepositions (e.g. on), possessions (e.g. my) and pronouns (e.g. she).
Telegraphic (2-3 years) - the child uses three or more words combined. Sentences may have gaps in them but they can combine 3-4 words in a variety of grammatical constructions. However statements, questions and commands may not always make sense.
Post-telegraphic (3 years+) - the child uses more grammatically complex combinations.
Types of Sound
Plosives - created when the airflow is blocked for a brief time (also called stop consonants) e.g. voiced - d, b, g & unvoiced - p, t, k
Fricatives - created when the airflow is only partially blocked and air moves through the mouth in a steady stream e.g. voiced - v, z, th & unvoiced - f, s, h, sh
Affricates - created by plosives and fricatives together e.g. voiced - dg & unvoiced - ch
Approximants - similar sounds to vowels e.g. voiced - w, r, j
Nassals - produced by air moving through the nose e.g. voiced - m, n
Laterals - created by placing the tongue on the ridge of the teeth and then air moving down the side of the mouth e.g. voiced - l
Pamela Grunwell is a theorist who said children at the following ages should be able to pronounce the following phonemes...
2 years - p, d, b, m, d, n, w, t
2.5 years - k, g, h
3 years - f, s, j, l
3.5 years - ch, dg, v, z, sh, r
Key CLA Processes
Addition - the repetition of particular sounds and structures e.g. doggie (adding an extra vowel sound to create a CVCV structure)
Reduplication - repeating the whole syllable e.g. choochoo
Deletion - deleting the last sound and/or swapping other sounds around e.g. ca instead of cat, pi instead of pig (often occurs on the last consonant)
Consonant cluster reduction - reducing the amount of consonants in a word so it is easier to pronounce e.g. banket instead of blanket
Substitution - when one sound is swapped for an easier sound e.g. debra or zebra (fricative sound replaced by a stop sound)
Assimilation - repeating the same consonant sound so it is easier to pronounce e.g. goggie instead of doggie, babbit instead of rabbit (illustrates how some sounds change because of other sounds around them)
David Crystal has suggested that the repetition and and simplified pronunciation in these words helps children to recognise and learn them bit by bit. Children also replace new difficult words with phonologically similar ones as a kind of stand-in whilst they're learning the correct one.
A child's pronunciation of the seeing word can often very a great deal from day-to-day or even hour-to-hour. For example, one child produced over 10 different forms of the word pen in just half an hour.
By age 3 - they have usually grasped twice as many consonants and nearly all the vowels, they use words of three syllables and use emphasis of keywords
By age 4 - they still may not be able to grasp consonant clusters, they may have begun to use them but won't be able to pronounce the 300+ different ways consonants can be combined in the English language
By age 5 - most things are no longer a problem apart from in long, complicated and unfamiliar words/phrases
Rate of Lexical Development
1 year - 50 words
2 years - 200 words
3 years - 2000 words
Katherine Nelson (1973) identified four categories for first words:
Naming (things or people), actions/events, describing/modifying things, personal/social words
60% of child's first words were nouns, verbs were the second largest group and were used with actions or location words like 'up' and 'down'. Modifiers/describing words came third. Personal/social words made up the smallest group of the sample (8%).
Whole object assumption - when children first name is something using one down they refer to the whole object and not little parts
When children used two words, a noun and a verb or a modifier and a noun are most commonly used.
Spelke notes for categories that concrete nouns fit into:
Cohesion, continuity, solidity, contact - children are are like objects that are clearly defined in shape
Overextension - it is common for children to overextend a word's meaning. Children link objects with similar qualities and may, for example, apply the word 'dog' to all for naked household pets.
Underextension - less frequently, children underextend a word by giving it a narrower definition then it really has, for example, a child might use 'duck' for a fluffy cartoon dark and not for the brown ones in the local pond.
Eve Clark's study of first words found that children base overextension on:
The physical qualities of objects & features such as taste, sound, movement, shape, size and texture
Professor Aitchison argues that language has a 'biologically organised schedule' and quotes Eric Lenneberg's theory that language is "maturationally controlled, emerging before it is critically needed."
Types of Overextension
Categorical Overextension (60%) - the name for one member of a category is extended to all members of the category, e.g. apple used for all round fruits
Analogical Overextension (15%) - a word for one object is extended to one in a different category, usually on the basis that it has some physical or functional connection, e.g. ball used for a round fruit
Mismatch statements (25%) - one word sentences that appear quite abstract; child makes a statement about one object in relation to another, e.g. saying 'duck' when looking at an empty pond
B.F. Skinner wrote a book called Verbal Behaviour (1957) in which he described his theory of language acquisition. He experimented on rats and pigeons and discovered he could train them to do tricks with the reward of food. He formed his 'Operant Conditioning Theory', also known as Behaviourism. He applied the theory that children learn language through imitation and reinforcement and claimed no complicated internal mechanisms were needed when learning languages. A child would just have to imitate others around them and then be rewarded and encouraged by it.
However, there are many ways to argue against Skinner. For example, some children have 'seen and not heard' cultures and develop language fine without contact with adults (at the same rate). Children also learn words/use utterances that have never been said to them by adults. People who can't speak but can hear can still understand language spoken by others, without imitations.
Professor Jean Aitchison identified three stages in children's linguistic development:
Labelling - linking words to the objects which they refer, understanding that things can be labelled
Packaging - exploring the labels and to what they can apply, over/underextension occurs in order to eventually understand the range of a words meaning
Network-building - making connections between words; understanding similarities and opposites in meanings
Network Building
Hypernym - e.g. clothes
Hyponym - e.g. socks, shoes, coat, vest, etc.
Synonym - words that have the same meaning
Eve Clark found that common adjectives ('nice' and 'big') are among children's first 50 words, but spatial adjectives ('wide' and 'thick') are acquired later.
Piaget was a 20th century Swiss psychologist whose views about children's cognitive development have been very influential. He emphasised that children are active learners who use their environment and social interactions to shape their language. Piaget linked linguistic development with an understanding of concepts surrounding the word's meanings, suggesting that children cannot be taught before they are ready.
His four developmental stages are:
Sensorimotor (up to 2): Experiences physical world through the senses and begins classifying the things in it - when lexical choices appear, they tend to be concrete rather than abstract. Object permanence develops - the concept that objects exist when out of sight.
Pre-operational (2-7): Language and motor skills develop and become more competent. Language is ego-centric - either focused on the child or used by the child when no one else is around.
Concrete Operational (7-11): Children begin thinking logically about concrete events.
Formal Operational (11+): Abstract reasoning skills develop.
Vegetative (0-4 months) - sounds of discomfort or reflexive actions
Cooing (4-7 months) - comfort sounds and vocal play using open mouthed-vowel sounds
Babbling (6-12 months) - repeated patterns of consonants and vowel sounds
Proto-words (9-12 months) - word-like vocalisations, not matching actual words but used consistently for the same meaning
Lexical and Grammatical Stages of Development
Holophrastic/one-word (1-1.5 years) - the child utters their first word; they then build a vocabulary of holophrases. they are called holophrases because they convey all the meaning of a phrase/sentence through intonation, body language, etc. The types of words are short and related to the here and now - the child's everyday life.
Two word (1.5-2 years) - the child begins to use two words at a time and grammar begins to emerge because the child can choose word order. They are more flexible with a range of grammatical functions: an action affects an object, an actor performs an action, an object is given a location, etc. There are still a few that defy definition and often understanding, however are creative phrases. Most children use correct word order using prepositions (e.g. on), possessions (e.g. my) and pronouns (e.g. she).
Telegraphic (2-3 years) - the child uses three or more words combined. Sentences may have gaps in them but they can combine 3-4 words in a variety of grammatical constructions. However statements, questions and commands may not always make sense.
Post-telegraphic (3 years+) - the child uses more grammatically complex combinations.
Types of Sound
Plosives - created when the airflow is blocked for a brief time (also called stop consonants) e.g. voiced - d, b, g & unvoiced - p, t, k
Fricatives - created when the airflow is only partially blocked and air moves through the mouth in a steady stream e.g. voiced - v, z, th & unvoiced - f, s, h, sh
Affricates - created by plosives and fricatives together e.g. voiced - dg & unvoiced - ch
Approximants - similar sounds to vowels e.g. voiced - w, r, j
Nassals - produced by air moving through the nose e.g. voiced - m, n
Laterals - created by placing the tongue on the ridge of the teeth and then air moving down the side of the mouth e.g. voiced - l
Pamela Grunwell is a theorist who said children at the following ages should be able to pronounce the following phonemes...
2 years - p, d, b, m, d, n, w, t
2.5 years - k, g, h
3 years - f, s, j, l
3.5 years - ch, dg, v, z, sh, r
Key CLA Processes
Addition - the repetition of particular sounds and structures e.g. doggie (adding an extra vowel sound to create a CVCV structure)
Reduplication - repeating the whole syllable e.g. choochoo
Deletion - deleting the last sound and/or swapping other sounds around e.g. ca instead of cat, pi instead of pig (often occurs on the last consonant)
Consonant cluster reduction - reducing the amount of consonants in a word so it is easier to pronounce e.g. banket instead of blanket
Substitution - when one sound is swapped for an easier sound e.g. debra or zebra (fricative sound replaced by a stop sound)
Assimilation - repeating the same consonant sound so it is easier to pronounce e.g. goggie instead of doggie, babbit instead of rabbit (illustrates how some sounds change because of other sounds around them)
David Crystal has suggested that the repetition and and simplified pronunciation in these words helps children to recognise and learn them bit by bit. Children also replace new difficult words with phonologically similar ones as a kind of stand-in whilst they're learning the correct one.
A child's pronunciation of the seeing word can often very a great deal from day-to-day or even hour-to-hour. For example, one child produced over 10 different forms of the word pen in just half an hour.
By age 3 - they have usually grasped twice as many consonants and nearly all the vowels, they use words of three syllables and use emphasis of keywords
By age 4 - they still may not be able to grasp consonant clusters, they may have begun to use them but won't be able to pronounce the 300+ different ways consonants can be combined in the English language
By age 5 - most things are no longer a problem apart from in long, complicated and unfamiliar words/phrases
Rate of Lexical Development
1 year - 50 words
2 years - 200 words
3 years - 2000 words
Katherine Nelson (1973) identified four categories for first words:
Naming (things or people), actions/events, describing/modifying things, personal/social words
60% of child's first words were nouns, verbs were the second largest group and were used with actions or location words like 'up' and 'down'. Modifiers/describing words came third. Personal/social words made up the smallest group of the sample (8%).
Whole object assumption - when children first name is something using one down they refer to the whole object and not little parts
When children used two words, a noun and a verb or a modifier and a noun are most commonly used.
Spelke notes for categories that concrete nouns fit into:
Cohesion, continuity, solidity, contact - children are are like objects that are clearly defined in shape
Overextension - it is common for children to overextend a word's meaning. Children link objects with similar qualities and may, for example, apply the word 'dog' to all for naked household pets.
Underextension - less frequently, children underextend a word by giving it a narrower definition then it really has, for example, a child might use 'duck' for a fluffy cartoon dark and not for the brown ones in the local pond.
Eve Clark's study of first words found that children base overextension on:
The physical qualities of objects & features such as taste, sound, movement, shape, size and texture
Professor Aitchison argues that language has a 'biologically organised schedule' and quotes Eric Lenneberg's theory that language is "maturationally controlled, emerging before it is critically needed."
Types of Overextension
Categorical Overextension (60%) - the name for one member of a category is extended to all members of the category, e.g. apple used for all round fruits
Analogical Overextension (15%) - a word for one object is extended to one in a different category, usually on the basis that it has some physical or functional connection, e.g. ball used for a round fruit
Mismatch statements (25%) - one word sentences that appear quite abstract; child makes a statement about one object in relation to another, e.g. saying 'duck' when looking at an empty pond
B.F. Skinner wrote a book called Verbal Behaviour (1957) in which he described his theory of language acquisition. He experimented on rats and pigeons and discovered he could train them to do tricks with the reward of food. He formed his 'Operant Conditioning Theory', also known as Behaviourism. He applied the theory that children learn language through imitation and reinforcement and claimed no complicated internal mechanisms were needed when learning languages. A child would just have to imitate others around them and then be rewarded and encouraged by it.
However, there are many ways to argue against Skinner. For example, some children have 'seen and not heard' cultures and develop language fine without contact with adults (at the same rate). Children also learn words/use utterances that have never been said to them by adults. People who can't speak but can hear can still understand language spoken by others, without imitations.
Professor Jean Aitchison identified three stages in children's linguistic development:
Labelling - linking words to the objects which they refer, understanding that things can be labelled
Packaging - exploring the labels and to what they can apply, over/underextension occurs in order to eventually understand the range of a words meaning
Network-building - making connections between words; understanding similarities and opposites in meanings
Network Building
Hypernym - e.g. clothes
Hyponym - e.g. socks, shoes, coat, vest, etc.
Synonym - words that have the same meaning
Eve Clark found that common adjectives ('nice' and 'big') are among children's first 50 words, but spatial adjectives ('wide' and 'thick') are acquired later.
Piaget was a 20th century Swiss psychologist whose views about children's cognitive development have been very influential. He emphasised that children are active learners who use their environment and social interactions to shape their language. Piaget linked linguistic development with an understanding of concepts surrounding the word's meanings, suggesting that children cannot be taught before they are ready.
His four developmental stages are:
Sensorimotor (up to 2): Experiences physical world through the senses and begins classifying the things in it - when lexical choices appear, they tend to be concrete rather than abstract. Object permanence develops - the concept that objects exist when out of sight.
Pre-operational (2-7): Language and motor skills develop and become more competent. Language is ego-centric - either focused on the child or used by the child when no one else is around.
Concrete Operational (7-11): Children begin thinking logically about concrete events.
Formal Operational (11+): Abstract reasoning skills develop.
Sunday, 13 September 2015
First Attempt at Language Investigation Essay
During my first attempt at exploring language, I chose to study gender, in particular, focussing closely on Tannen's Difference theory. I find this topic one of the most interesting out of the whole English Language course and using YouTube for my source selection gives me a great, diverse range. I may choose a similar style of investigation for my coursework. Below is my first attempt at a written language investigation:
I have chosen to study gender, particularly focusing on Deborah
Tannen’s Difference theory which makes assumptions about the differences
between male and female speech. Due to the large number of differences Tannen
notices, for example, men give advice while women show understanding, I knew I
would be able to identify lots of examples in my data. My hypothesis aims to
prove if the theory is actually
applicable to male and female conversations.
My data will consist of YouTube videos I have transcribed. The
benefits of this are that the videos I have used contain natural speech because
I have used cast interviews from the TV show ‘Game of Thrones’. I have found it
beneficial to use cast interviews as opposed to one cast member speaking to an
interviewer because it shows a wider range of genders and their speech. Having
more than two individuals in the data gave much more data for me to explore and
I could even compare two people of the same gender and their speech. This
allowed me to notice more of Deborah Tannen’s findings in the speech as a
opposed to a limited amount that would appear in interviews with just two
people.
The selection process is simple, I typed ‘Game of Thrones
interviews’ into the search bar and selected every other video to transcribe,
so the first, third and fifth videos to make the sample fair and systematic. As
the videos vary in length, I decided to transcribe the first two minutes of
each video as a method of selection. Two minutes gave me a generous amount of
speech to transcribe, but not too much that it was time consuming, or not too
little that would be difficult to analyse.
The first video I transcribed was male dominated and contained
little female speech, as was the second video which contained no female speech.
However, the third video contained a large amount of female speech due to the
three women being shown, against only one man. Although this was unavoidable
due to my fair method of selecting data, I could have improved this factor by
transcribing more videos to obtain a larger amount of data.
In all three clips, men conform to Tannen’s theory about men giving
information, for example, “I’m gonna ask the first question, then there’s gonna
be an informal Q&A” in the second text which spoken by the male
interviewer. This feature also applies to females which contradicts the theory,
for instance, “it’s been shown at exactly at the same time on both sides of the
Atlantic” which is said by the female interviewer. However the cause of this
could be a result of the style of video because it is imperative for the
presenters to provide their audiences with a large amount of information. So it
can be considered unavoidable for both genders to give information.
The female contradiction of information in this theory is feelings,
which again, seems to be dominated by males as opposed to females. The actor,
Jack Gleeson, expresses feelings in the first interview, for example, “I was
very intimidated.” In the same interview, Pedro
Pascal also expresses his feelings such as, “I felt like I knew more about the
show than anyone else on the show.”
However, this could be due to the fact that these clips were mostly male
dominated so the females had little time to express their feelings.
The males showing a
large amount of understanding (opposing the Difference Theory), could also be a
result of the male dominated clips. Understanding worked alongside feelings in
the interviews as the male interviewed often tried to understand what certain
actors were feeling. For example, “one thing that’s lovely about your
performance… is that you’re both villains in the peace but neither of you
approach that all and I think it really shows the characterisation,” said in
the first interview. “Poor chap,” in the third interview from the male
presenter also shows understanding of experiences. In the second interview, the
interviewer shows understanding towards the audience and their situation, “I
know you’ve already been waiting a very long time in the rain.”
The second male-only
interview shows some elements of an attempt to gain status which conforms to
the theory. The presenter often says, “I’d like to thank you” or “could I
please welcome,” and puts emphasis on himself as opposed to using “we” which
would be more appropriate as he is part of a large organisation hosting the
interview. In a more apparent attempt to gain status, actor John Bradley makes
a joke regarding Kit Harrington’s previous comment about his favourite TV
shows. “They’re not strictly speaking TV shows are they?” which Bradley does to
embarrass Harrington while at the same time gaining status by mocking him and
making the audience laugh to win them over.
Repetition frequently
occurs which could symbolise a lack of independence because certain speakers
just copy what the others are saying. For instance, all three women in the
third interview repeat “yeah” one after another at one point during the clip.
Another example is in the second interview, creator Dan Weiss says “Kit” and is
then repeated by David Benioff while they both attempt to be funny by making
Kit Harrington answer an awkward question. This, in fact, can show status of
trying to be humorous as mentioned in the previous paragraph, but at the same
time contradicts the theory as the male creators are not showing
independence.
Although my method of selecting data by transcribing the first two
minutes is ideal when trying to avoid ‘cherry-picking’, it also meant that a
large amount of data I transcribed was only introductions and the conversation
had little chance to progress. As the videos are interviews, the presenters
often introduce the characters and inform the audience about the programme
which gives little opportunity to show natural speech. It can also be suggested
that some of what the interviewers say is scripted, especially when they are
presenting the audience with facts about Game of Thrones which can make the
data unreliable. However, it is extremely unlikely that the actors and
directors who are also speaking in the clips use a script so their speech is
spontaneous so is reliable.
To avoid these issues in further investigations, I would skip
directly into the middle of each script and transcribe for two minutes from
there so that the conversation had become more developed and the register had
lowered so the speech was more natural making the data I recorded more reliable
to use in my investigation.
Using videos from YouTube avoids practical issues such as recording
live natural speech, which may make the conversation sound unnatural if they
are told their voices are being recorded.
If I were to record natural speech without informing the participants
this would face ethical issues, however with using YouTube videos as data I
avoid having to obtain permission to record speech.
However, using YouTube does have issues of its own such as the fact
that I do not own the videos or the data I record. I also have to transcribe
the speech in the videos and due to the amount of overlaps; it is hard to
understand what some speakers are saying. This may make the data unreliable if
I have written the wrong word or missed out a word. On the other hand, I am
able to replay the video as many times as I need to understand what the speaker
is saying.
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