AS: AQA English Language B
English Language B revision cards
- Created by: Chloe
- Created on: 08-04-12 14:47
Groupings: What to look for initially
- Planned or Unplanned?
- Formal or Informal?
- Lexis and Content?
- Ideolect, Sociolect, Dialect
- Graphology
- GAP (Genre, Audience, Purpose)
- Pragmatics
- Grammar
Speech and Writing
- Does the text belong to the Spoken or Written mode?
Writing is:................................................Speech:
- Objective (Intended) .......................Interpersonal (relations between people)
- A monologue (single speaker).........A dialogue (between 2+ people)
- Durable...........................................Ephemeral (lasting a short time)
- Planned..........................................Spontaneous
- Highly Structured............................Loosely Structured
- Grammatically Complex..................Grammatically Simple
- Concerned with past and future.....Concerned with the Present
- Formal............................................Informal
- Decontextualised............................Contextualised
- Speech-Writing Continuum
Speech------TextE------------------------------------------TextD----------TextC--Writing
Key Terms
Mode: the medium of communication e.g. speech or writing
Sub-mode: a subdivision of mode e.g. poetry, drama & conversation
Prototype: a 'best fit' example of a particular catagory e.g. text C is a prototypical piece of writing.
Genre: the catagory or type of a text e.g. comedy, tragedy and horror. Sonnet, short story, play, email, text message.
Actual Reader: Any reader who engages in the text.
Implied Reader: the kind of reader a text producer has in mind when writing.
Context: temporal and spatial situations in which a text is produced or recieved.
Context of Reception: situations in which a text might be read and how this might affect interpretation.
GAP and Individuals & Groups
GAP:
- Genre (what)
- Audience (who)
- Purpose (why) - multi-purpose (more than one), dual purpose (two), primary (main reason for text) and secondary purpose (more subtle reason).
Individuals and Groups
- Idiolect - an individuals style of speaking or 'linguistic fingerprint'.
- Sociolect - a defined use of language as a result of membership of a social group.
- Discourse Community - a group with shared values and approaches to reading. The language is used in distinctive ways.
Formality & Register and Dialect
Formality and Register
- Register - a variety of language appropriate to a particular purpose and context. Informal/formal register connected to context and purpose. - a link to authority & power?
- Dependent on the field, the tenor, and the medium.
- Field - the general purpose of an act of communication
- Tenor - the relationship between the producer and reciever
- Medium - e.g. written or spoken. Same as mode.
Dialect
- Dialect - the language variety of a geographical region or social background, revealed by a variation in lexical & grammatical terms.
- Accent - the way words are pronounced according to geographical region.
- Standard English - Dialect of English that carries a degree of prestige. Formal and universal. Stereotyping people who don't use SE.
Specialist Registers and Colloquial Language & Sla
Specialist Registers
- A set of lexical terms and grammatical constructions particular to an institution or occupational group. Could exclude those who are not members of the same discourse community.
Colloquial Language and Slang
- Colloquialism - an established set of informal terms used in everyday language.
- Slang - colloquial language this is inventive and particular to individuals or groups.
- Jargon - Specialist terminology that may exclude others.
Language Methods: Lexis/Semantics, Nouns & Verbs
Lexis/Semantics
- What types of words does it use?
- What are the relationships between them?
- Lexis - the method that deals with the vocabulary system of a language.
- Semantics - the method that deals with meaning and how that is generated within texts.
- Textual Cohesion - the term used to describe how a text is logically structured to create a coherent sense of meaning.
- Abstract nouns - States, feelings and concepts that have no physical existance e.g. pain, happiness.
- Adjective - Add detail to nouns.
- Verb - Shows actions, evens or states of being, feeling or thinking.
- Adverb - Adds detail to verbs or other adverbs
Lexical Cohesion and words that create cohesion
Lexical cohesion
- Lexical choices can help create cohesion within a text. They could provide structure within the body of the text or across small stretches such as phrases and sentences.
Words that create cohesion:
- Addition - and, also, too, in addition, furthermore
- Consequence - so, therefore, thus, as a result, consequently
- Comparative - similarly, likewise, just as, as well, also, but, however, whereas, on the other hand, and yet, on the contrary
- Temporal - Later, next, now, soon, afterwards
- Enumeration - firstly, then, finally
- Summative - In conclusion, on the whole, with all things considered
Cohesion through 4 types of referencing. Euphemism
Cohesion can be made also through referencing:
- Anaphoric Referencing - referencing back to an already stated lexical item
- Cataphoric Referencing - referencing forward to an as yet undisclosed lexical item.
- Substitution - the replacing of one set of lexical items for another
- Ellipsis - the mission out of a word or words in a sentence.
- Euphemism - a socially acceptable word or phrase used to avoid talking about something distasteful. e.g. "spend a penny" or "powder my nose" - going to the loo.
- Dysphemism - a harsh 'to-the-point' term sometimes used for a dark humorous effect.
Grammar
- Antonyms - true opposites e.g man & woman, alive & dead, narrow & wide.
- Conceptual Metaphor - the way in which abstract terms are mapped on to physical entities through an underlying conceptual structure.
Grammar
- Morphology - formation of words from smaller units called morphemes.
- Syntax - how lexical items are sequenced into larger units of language.
- Main verb - The verb that details the main process in a verb phrase.
- Auxiliary verb - a verb that supports or helps another; shows tense or modality.
- Clause Patterns - patterns produced by writers using certain types of cause for impact and effect
- Simple Sentence - a sentence consisting of a single main clause.
- Compound Sentence - 2 or more main clases connected by coorinating conjunctions. e.g. and, but and or
- Complex Sentences - a main clause with 1 or more subordinate clauses
- Compound-Complex Sentences - 2 main clauses & at least 1 subordinate
Verbs and Sentence types.
- Intransitive Verb - A verb process such as 'yawn' or 'slept' that has no object.
- Transitive Verb - Monotransitive (verb that only requires one object), ditransitive (requires 2 objects to form a double-object construction)
- Declarative -Telling feature - subject + verb.
- Interrogative - Asking feature - Verb + Subject
- Imperative - Inviting, demanding - Verb + Compliment (gives information about a subject)
Phonetics and Phonology - Onomatopoeia, Alliterati
- Lexical Onomatopoeia - Actual lexical items that rely on a similarity between sound and meaning. e.g. crash & bang.
- Non-lexical Onomatopoeia - non-words that work in the same way as lexical onomatopoeia. e.g. vroom & grrr
- Alliteration - A sequence of words beginning with the same sound.
- Assonance - Repetition of a vowel sounds for effect
- Consonance - Repetition of consonant sounds for effect
- Phonological Manipulation - the ways in which text producers play with sounds and their effects. Could be used for humour e.g. What did the grape say when the elephant stepped on it? - Nothing, it just gave out a little wine.
- Homophones - word that sounds like the same as another word or words. e.g. whine and wine. Could be used in humour.
Pragmatics - Cooperative Principle & Deixis
- The implications of the text
- Cooperative Principle - work of Paul Grice - suggests that all communication is essentially a cooperative act. Maxims:
1. Quantity: use an appropriate amount of detail
2. Quality: speak the truth and do not knowingly mislead.
3. Relevance: keep what is being discussed relevant to the topic.
4. Manner: avoid vagueness and ambiguity.
- Deixis - lexical items that point towards a person, place or time in immediate context. personal deixis (I, me, you), spatial deixis (here, there, left, right), temporal deixis (now, then, today, tomorrow).
Graphology
- Typography: font type, size, colour, emboldening, italicising,underlining and any other modifications to font types.
- Cultural Model: An organisational structure based on shared and agreed criteria by groups of people within a society.
- Shape of the text - reader uses knowledge to help identify the purpose and meaning of a text.
- Images - Iconic or symbolic. Add a meaning?
- Iconic Signs - Direct picture of the thing it represents. Provides a basic reference for the reader. Tend to be simple and straightforward.
- Symbolic Signs - Draw on association or connotation. Usually defined by cultural convention, based on existing cultural models. Provide meaning because society has placed certain values or qualities on them.
- Photographs and artwork - Provide associative meaning and work in the same way as logos to produce meanings for a reader.
- Space - amount of detailing. Cluttered?
- Empty Spaces - as meaningful as filled ones. An attention-seeking device.
Discourse (written texts)
- Discourse Structure - the way in which texts are put together
1. List/instructions: Recipes, instructions, guides. Use Imperatives.
2. Problem-solution: Product advertisements. Identifies a problem.
3. Analysis: Academic articles, newspaper editorials. Explores, evaluates.
4. Narrative: Novels, witness, accounts. Series of events. Could be chronological or non-chronological.
- How does the text present information in order to create an identity for particular individuals or institutions, and the ideologies that are within.
Discourse (Spoken) - Narrative Categories
- Narrative Categories: 6 key categories developed by Labov which appear in a narrative - generally in a set order.
1. Abstract (A) - Indication that a narrative is about to start & speaker wants listeners attention.
2. Orientation (O) - the 'who', 'where', 'what' and 'why' of the narrative. Sets the scene and provides & provides further contextual information for the listener.
3. Complicating Action (CA) - main body providing a range of narrative detail.
4. Resolution (R) - the final event, the 'rounding off'.
5. Evaluation (E) - additions to the basic story, highlights attitudes or command the listener's attention at important moments. May occur at any point.
6. Coda (C) - A sign that the narrative is complete.
AOCAREC.
Discourse - Evaluations and Definitions
- External Evaluations - an evaluative comment outside the narrative sequence.
- Internal Evaluations - an evaluative comment occurring at the same time as events in the narrative sequence.
- Intensifying Evaluations - adding detail or vividness.
- Explicative Evaluations - explaining reasons for narrative events.
- Conversational Analysis - the analysis of the structure and features of conversation. Can look at multi-speaker discourse.
- Adjacency pair - two utterances by different speakers which have a natural and logical link, and complete an idea together; a simple structure of two turns.
- Exchange Structure - a series of turns between speakers.
- Turn-taking - the sharing of speaking roles, usually cooperatively.
- Initiation-response-feedback (IRF) - triadic structure in speech that allows the first speaker to feed back on the response of a second speaker.
Definitions
- Transition relevance point - a point at which it is natural for another speaker to take turn.
- Topic Management - the control of the conversation in terms of speaking and topic.
- Powerful participants - those who hold some degree of status in a conversation and could control direction & potential of speakers to contribute.
Discourse Features
- Back-channelling - non-verbal utterences to show attention or agreement. e.g. Mmm, yeah, ok.
- Discourse Marker - Signal a shift in conversation & topic areas. Can also announce a counter-argument. e.g. Ok, right then, so, but
- Fillers - Non-verbal sounds that act as pauses in speech. May signal speaker uncertainty. Either natural or to give a speaker thinking time. e.g. Er, um.
- Hedging - Used to avoid directness or to minimise a potentially face-threatening act. Commonly undertaken using a range of epistemic modal forms. e.g. kind of, sort of, maybe, perhaps, possibly, will, could, might.
- False Starts/repairs - Speaker begins & stops. Returns to correct a stated phrase or sentence e.g.
- Skip Connectors - Return to a previous topic of conversation - type of discourse marker. e.g. anyway, coming back to what you were saying.
- Fixed Expressions - Conventional or routine expression. e.g. as a matter of fact, basically, at the end of the day.
- Vague Expressions - Similar to hedging, deliberately non-committal. e.g. anything, something, thing.
Discourse Features Continued.
- Ellipsis - omission of words (missing out) for economical purposes. E.g. "Tonight, 8pm" (I'll meet you....at....).
- Tag Questions - Auxiliary verb. a negating particle and a pronoun. Speaker support, uncertainty or request for clarification. e.g. Didn't you? Wasn't it? Haven't I?
- Deixis - Pointing words in a perceptual, temporal or spatial dimension. e.g. I, you, me, they. Now, yesterday, today. Here, there, this, that, these, those.
- Non-fluency features - Non-verbal occurrences. e.g. pauses, hesitations & repetitions that occur in spontaneous speech.
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