A level Eng Comb. PARIS texts revision

Context: 2 Midlands Uni Students who don't know eachother well, both from UK but have visited Paris

Genre: Transcript of an informal conversation, spontaneous and interactive. High frequency lexis, spoken features. 

Purpose and Audience: Closed audience, speaker to speaker, their purpose is to inform eachother about Paris, express their feelings about paris and form a closer relationship in the process. For example, the use of relatable lexis e.g. cliches and idioms helps the flow of convo and gives context on their age bracket. 

Mode: spoken, interactive - utterances, micropauses, non-fluency features, backchanneling, hedging, overlapping, fillers which emphasis informality, topic control (mainly sophia setting agenda and mike's extended contributions)

Mike represents parisian waiters as rude and prejudiced towards English speakers. He also describes paris as a potentially dangerous location with his description of scammers. 

Sophia has more knowledge of Paris so lets Mike speak whilst still setting the topic, she is shocked at Mike's experience of crime as she has not experienced this.

Both of them describe their experience as underwhelming due to bad weather and overcrowded tourist attractions. They also portray stereotypical representations of street musicians and tourist cliches

Connections to other texts:

Contrasts with promotional/persuasive texts e.g. breathless & foreign correspondence.

It is less formal compared to planned mode texts such as French Milk.

It is an interactive SPOKEN mode compared to Gransnet (written interactive) 

Context: 2 Midlands Uni Students who don't know eachother well, both from UK but have visited Paris, Isabelle, lived in Paris. 

Genre: Transcript of an informal conversation, spontaneous and interactive. High frequency lexis, spoken features. 

Purpose and Audience: Closed audience, speaker to speaker, their purpose is to inform eachother about Paris, express their feelings about paris and form a closer relationship in the process. For example, the use of relatable lexis

Mode: spoken, interactive - utterances, micropauses, non-fluency features, backchanneling, hedging, overlapping, fillers which emphasis informality, topic control (mainly sophia setting agenda and mike's extended contributions)

Isabelle has more fluency in the language. 

Mike: Picky eater, opinionated despite lacking the experience to justify his opinions. He chooses generic local food and enjoys bread. Overall, he is not adventurous with french food but has tried some - he dislikes their expense and small quantity. 

Sophia: More knowledge than Mike  - she is curious about french food but sticks to simplistic foods e.g. snails and baguettes. She has basic knowledge from her own experiences. She enjoys the variety Paris offers. She mainly directs her qs to Mike and backchannels mainly to Isabelle due to lack of experience in comparison

Isabelle: French, has 20yrs of experience. Her fav meal was escargots - snails.

She is more confident, takes longer turns, and creates lots of topic markers. She is also more fluent in language and prosodics as she corrects Mike and Sophia on names and pronunciations and informs them on the processes of food due to her extensive knowledge and also tries to justify French cuisine as 'Fine cuisine.' to them. 

Context: variety of speakers, online forum of older women with grandchildren, conversing about experiences of paris. 

Genre: website forum - asynchronous : possibilty of response but not immediate feedback, threads - continuous convo, forum moderators and administrators - moderators keep peace, administrators are voice of the company/forum. seed messages - starts topic, original message 

Purpose & Audience: to inform and converse, to share memoirs and advise, audience is eachother and worldwide audience - anyone can read the forum - grandparents, tourists etc. - Imperatives, superlatives, embedded stories (inform and entertain) 

other factors: Challenging stereotypes about older people, anonymous and asynchronous (not face-to-face) 

Mode: Multi-modal. Spontaneous written interaction with spoken language features - topic markers, false start, self-repair, embedded anecdotal stories, turntaking.

Written: prosodic stress, capitalisation, italics, typos and abbreviations, emojis (genre) punctuation

Context: tripadvisor is open to everyone, can be open to abuse, opinions and ratings on experiences. It can be subjective and biased due to non-professional contributers. 

Genre: user generated interactive online travel forum - Informal tone, posts, seed message, tabs, weblinks, topics, subject, adjacency pairs, turn taking, asynchronous - feedback not guaranteed,abbreviations & speed acronyms, prosodics. 

Purpose and Audience: Mainly to inform and advise about experiences. The PRIMARY audience is the writer of the seed message, a person from holland. Other tourists and people with little experience of Paris can also read. Viewers have little knowledge of Paris and the writer has no rapport with the audience (anonymous) Writer explains basic French language and uses high frequency language. He uses distal plural pronouns to separate the Audience from The French. 

Mode: Mixed mode, spontaneous and informal so includes some spoken features. Not crafted, diectic centre is Paris, the writer is there at the moment of writing their post. There is no standard punctuation and less cohesion, random thoughts and little detail, lots of topic shifting. There are spelling mistakes that show element of speed and vocal dignals / discourse pragmatics such as 'wow' that create tone of voice and presents experience. 

- Cultural centre : assumes tourists are interested in learning about the history of Paris

Advises on crime and reassures that it is an easily solved issue and not as much of a panic as it seems. 

He gives quiet options rather than just suggesting well known tourist locations, which suggests audience has some basic knowledge of Paris.

He describes the Parisian stereotypes and how to handle the people of Paris. 

Context: Encore Une Fois - Lived in Paris with her family for 4 years (for husband's job) before returning to Washington DC. Anne recounts another family trip to Paris during the Thanksgiving holidays. 18 Months Later…’  Anne recounts her family’s first trip back to Paris after they had returned to the USA. ‘Ten Things My Kids Say They Will Miss About Paris’ Recounts what her children will miss about Paris when they return to the USA having lived there for 4 years. 

Genre: Online blog - written documentation of trip to paris, - reverse chronological order, first person homodiegetic narrative, high freq lexis, multi-media. 

Purpose: To inform, entertain and even advertise. (listing, specific facts and statistics, proper nouns, recommendations, figurative language, commercial)

Audience: People who want to move to Paris/have been - expects some general knowledge as she is immersed in the language with her titles and context dependent references. 

Mode: Written, homodiegetic, creates a voice - e.g. onomatopoeic noun such as whoosh, informal frontive connectives 'and', informal language, listing to show her mood e.g. excitement to be  back - syndetic 'and' 'the', uses senses such as sound and smell to show crafted writing, uses hyponyms for detail (specifics over umbrella terms)

Title - self depreciating humour to make herself seem relatable to her readers, plays on stereotype of tourists being inferior to / looked down on by French people.

Use of Onomatopoeia (whoosh) keeps reader engaged, focuses on senses - sounds - looks to entertain (purpose) 

L'A's Du Fallafel" "Le Severo" "Musee Picasso" - context dependent references that show all the places shes been - purpose (informing readers about all there is to do in Paris) audience - expects them to have some basic knowledge of language and popular attractions in Paris. 

"galettes" "boulangerie" "bonjour madame" French Lexis makes her seem immersed in the language, knowledgeable. Links to context: she lived there for four years and is bound to have basic or indepth French language but possibly downplays this for reader understanding 

Uses a lot of colloquialism - informal text (mode/genre) 

Fig lang "It was pure magic" describes her experience of Paris as enchanting, special. 

Use of listing shows Paris as busy (stereotype) in a more subtle way, so much going on she struggles to describe all of it.

Listing also creates a stream of consciousness, connoting a chatty informal tone. 

The adjective 'unnatural' when describing someone's hair suggests she sees Parisians as bold with their fashion choices / differentiating from America's. "exuberant" - zumba group, possibly sees them as health conscious. 

There is a lexical field of food, suggesting Paris' culinary excellence, many places to go for the sole purpose of dining. "splurging on a special dinner for two" "busy Creperie Josselin" involves senses in this "yeasty" 

"plenty new to savor" - adverb presents Paris as constantly evolving, each time they visit there's something new to discover. Links to food - verb "savor" 

Blended mode: informal, colloquial language. "Big Bucks" Personal references to connect to reader "teeth brushed, faces washed" Spontaneous writing, spelling errors and lexical repitition / syndetic listing. 

Positive outlook on Paris, in detail description of where she went, e.g. 17th, 10th (arrondissements) Spontaneous writing also shown through the jumbled tone of voice, shows again how busy her experiences there were, presents paris as laborious, lots of things to do and see. Conjunction "and" - listing, shows the less professionally crafted written mode, she is just trying to cram all her experience into the post, and remember it all before she forgets. 

Personification and Simile to show this, "Paris showed us her best face" - appreciation of good weather "we went through carnets of metro tickets like Kleenex" - general knowledge of paris and the metro on audience behalf, shows how much they did and how they travelled around Paris extensively. 

Rhetorical question - "when can we go back?" shows her attachment to Paris, big part of their life having lived there for 4 years. They all enjoy it. 

- Personal use of advertising paris to the readers. Simply listing, no reasons justified. Ends with a rhetorical question "rough life, huh?" - humour in the form of irony. (entertainment)

Register: Informal and humorous language is used, which could be seen as representing the blog genre. "And it's a little bit like pulling teeth."  - the blog is not meant to be taken too seriously, and is just a personal entry from the writer.

Literariness: The language used in this extract is not very formal. This reflects the genre of the extract which is that of a blog. It is clear that the writer has put effort into their writing, to make it more entertaining for others to read. 

Hedging and Modality - possibly not the definite opinions of the narrator and her children, played up for entertainment purposes (or down) 

Context: personal narrative from a mother (Anna) to her daughter (Zara) about her experiences in Paris. Historical: talks about when she lived in paris in 1968

Genre: Transcript,  Audience: Zara, Mode: Spoken, Purpose: Inform

Anna lived there a long time ago so her memory may not be accurate. There is an informal, enthusiastic tone and a positive / honest attitude. 

Genre: monologue (one extended turn) vaguely planned, various topic, topic shifts showing spontaneity. Anecdotal, non fluency features e.g. fillers, repair, hedges, continuers and combined clauses.

Purpose - to inform on opinions, architechture and experiences. - High frequency lexis / adjectives, repetition. Proper nouns / precise nouns, comparative adjectives, - builds a storyword, synthetic personalisation (inclusive lang) 

Audience: recorder of transcript (Zara) assumes basic knowledge about france (context dependent references) comparisons to London assume they are familiar with that place. 

Mode: Written, idiolect - abbreviations. pauses ton structure her points, everyday metaphors for relatability. 

- presents it as far better than London, describes how architechturally attractive the city is "big wide avenues" "little cobbled street" "lots of character" "lovely interior courtyards" "lovely art deco" repetition shows emphasis 

contrasts to London's "overflowing high streets" "rows and rows of terraced houses" she sees london as dirty, overcrowded. 

Modality - represents spoken discourse, point, detail and evaluation of her ideas. Each paragraph is a new topic in which she compares the superiority of Paris to London. 

Structure: 1. background info / context 2. cultural aspect of the two capital cities. 3. buildings and layouts. 4. geography of Paris. 5. comparing metro to the underground. 

• Genre: transcript.
• pauses
• false starts
• hesitation 'erm' 'err'
• contextual info / depentent references 
• informal language

Audience: people who haven't been to paris, little personal experience of it. Uses basic knowledge which would be obvious to these people. Mode: Spoken                                                          Purpose: to inform - she describes it as overrated, 'million people gathered round some big painting and it can never live up to what it's meant to be' exaggeration, hyperbole, dismisses the famous paintings 'some' adverb

Context: transcript recorded in 2013, Zara discussing her memories of Paris as a small child.

• She thinks paris is overatted
• 'feels like you're in London but you're not' also compares it to London like Anna does
• Notes on Paris' big reputation about being fashionable. Tend to be chic and classic, (link to just another american, where the narrator describes their fashion sense as bold 'unnatural') 
• Significance of sport is much less in Paris, in London it generates large crowds.
• Stories do not relate directly to Zara herself, but rather to the events she has witnessed in Paris.
• Zara looks up to her mother, and is perhaps intimidated by her mother’s vast experience of Paris compared to her own; ‘I (1) am younger than my mum so I haven’t (.) spent as many years in Paris as she has (.) erm but I do find (.) that I keep going back there.’ This makes her seem less confident of how valid her experiences are, as this makes her mother’s experience seem more valid because her abundance.
• Paris is presented as quite a boring and mundane place in comparison with the exciting and inspiring way that it has been presented throughout other texts, and how it is typically thought of. ‘it just feels like you’re in London but you’re not.’ Paris can feel like any other ordinary city, as it isn’t as exciting or trendy as it has been portrayed stereotypically.
• Zara challenges our expectations of what Paris is like. 

• The structure is almost like a checklist or responses to someone asking her questions - responding to a prompt (‘erm (1) and (1) err (.) art’)
• As this is a transcript, there are no full stops or commas in sentences, just pauses 
• Makes writing fluid, more like natural speech (mixed mode) 
• Some sentences are unfinished - Shows hesitation/lack of confidence speaking, this is a characteristic of natural speech

Genre: Video Advert - music soundtrack, synthetic personalisation (senses) voiceover, stage directions, script - creates a storyworld. 

Context: Produced by Eurostar 

Audience - Diverse audience, anyone who wants to visit Paris. Mainly adults, people who have a level of independence, can make snap decisions to physically go wherever they want. Possibly people who have never been there or people with romantic interest "new" "city of love" - fresh start. 

Purpose - Persuade - sound effects, synthetic personalisation, rhetoric, lang of persuasion. Information to sell a product, repetition to convince. 

Mode: multimedia transcript of advert, spoken features. Scripted monologue. No non-fluency features, only pauses - planned for structural purposes, Montage of Paris creates the idea of movement and business, Slogan "stories are waiting" suggests a life changing experience. "stories" depicts fictional, fairytale - plural. accessibility, lots of ways to go in life / things to do in Paris. Present tense "are" - convinces them to go, sense of urgency. "waiting" time running out. 

• Unpredictable, exhilarating: chaos of the advert, swooshing sound effects, movement - so much to do and see in Paris, captivate the audience.
• confusing, exciting "maybe" repetition - possibilities are endless

 The repetition of 'maybe' is useful to present Paris as a place with endless possibility. The narrator refers to a number of sights, sounds and events that their audience could experience, but because the possibilities are open, there is no guarantee. Second person pronoun 'you' emphasises the degree of choice the viewer has in creating their own Parisian 'story', and that their story depends entirely on these choices. The narrator is not only directing the audience through events and places, but also suggests that the audience each have a choice in what they do in Paris.

Tropes: fashion, street performers, movement (unusual selling points), locations; art galleries, cafes, food; horse meat, cheeses, nightlife, new faces, quirky things e.g. building not level, gender specific meeting with woman; pregnancy and marriage - storyworld, sense of humour; purchasing stuffed penguin

Language: The narrator doesn't explicitly say what they refer to, instead they use deictic expressions such as 'him,' 'her,' 'there,' and 'here.'

Simple language is used to demonstrate the simplicity of Paris itself. This contributes to the ad's universal appeal, as it centres on out childlike sense of adventure. Sound effects link the narration to the visual and justify what is said. It also helps to put the audience in Paris, providing them with a sensory experience. The direct address of the second person pronoun, 'you,' draws the audience into the story. Repetition of the word 'maybe' and use of the conditional tense 'perhaps,' 'you will,' 'you could,' suggests the excitement of opportunities in Paris. Visual contrasts combined with spatial deictic expressions, 'this,' 'that,' 'up,' 'down,' 'here,' 'there,' and personal pronouns such as 'him,' 'her,' 'them,' provide audience with full context to understand presentation of Paris. Final declarative sentence, 'Stories are waiting,' makes a point, which sounds like a fact that the audience must respond to.