Prescriptivism
Prescriptivism is a set of rules that govern one variety, or manner, of speaking against another. It implies a view that some forms of language are incorrect, improper, lack communicative effect and are of a low aesthetic value. It deals with the syntax and word structures of a language and is intended as an aid to the learning of that particular language. Prescriptive grammar refers to the structure of a language as people believe it should be used. The opposition to these views is descriptivism.
According to the likes of David Crystal, prescriptive grammar is a manual that focuses on constructions where usage is divided and it lays down rules that govern the socially correct use of language.
So who supports the theory of prescriptivism?
- Lynne Truss
- Geoffrey Nunberg
- Shadya Cole
- John Honey
Descriptivism
It is the belief that description is more significant or important to teach, study, and practice than prescription. It's a non judgemental approach to language and focuses on how it is actually spoken or written and allows the native language of people to flourish. The Urban Dictionary is a prime example of the use of descriptivism as it is open to input from anyone and can explore the different interpretations people have for certain words and/or phrases.
So who supports the theory of descriptivism?
- Alexandra D'arcy
- Naom Chomsky
- David Crystal
- Jean Aitchison
David Crystal
Crystal's perspective on language is clear, he is a descriptivist and went as far as creating his own theory on this aspect of language. Tide metaphor, the name of his theory, suggests that language is like a tide. It constantly changes, ebbing and flowing bringing with it a new selection of words and taking out others in a natural and progressive way. He claims that the changes are not for the worse or for the better but that it simply "just changes".
Monday, 14 October 2013
Monday, 7 October 2013
Rastamouse controversy
Referring back to my previous post about Rastamouse (Click here to read) and the controversy this TV series created I was asked a few questions in order to analyse the text.
How is the language issue represented?
There were many articles to be found online about the linguistic features on Rastamouse and all had a running theme: complaints from parents that the patois used in this children's TV show would teach those who watch it bad linguistic habits. With around 95 reported complaints on the patois used by the animated characters it is clear that not everyone agrees with the Boardman who states; "The show has a strong message: through love, understanding and respect, Rastamouse will make a bad thing good... The whole package – music, colour, rhythm and rhyme of speech – engages kids and enables that message to be heard by a wider audience"
So why is there such a negative reaction to this show? Not only was there a staggering amount of complaints about the patois there was also a few that thought Rastamouse was patronising toward black culture and reinforced negative stereotypes, some went as far to say that there was suggestions of the use of drugs, marijuana to be exact, with gestures reinforcing this when the word 'cheese' was used.
How does the author represent himself and others?
The author is Michael Hogan, a reporter and writer for the guardian which is a well known and popular newspaper. He presents himself as chatty with an easy to get along with personality and that is clear through the way he uses easy to understand sentences that discuss both sides of the story and have a low register which relates to the audience. He helps to involve the audience by using rhetorical questions, such as 'So is Rastamouse patronising towards black culture or reinforcing negative stereotypes?' and counters each question and point with evidence from an interview which gives a clear indication that he's done research into the topic and knows what he is discussing.
He represents Greg Boardman, the producer of the show, with a clear and precise manner using snippets from an interview to back up points he makes through out the text, it presents a positive demeanour and influences the audience to agree with the points being stated which leads on to the readers response.
How do they shape the readers response? (audience positioning)
The article tilts towards supporting Rastamouse and convinces the audience that the show has positive outcomes and teaches moral lessons. The audience are asked questions to include them in the article and are given straight forward answers putting them in a position where they can believe what the author is saying, the author could be said to have the audience twisted around his little finger as he gives convincing arguments in a tone that is friendly and in a language that all can understand and he groups the audience together by creating a synthetic personality when speaking about Rastamouse being 'Our furry hero'.
How is the language issue represented?
There were many articles to be found online about the linguistic features on Rastamouse and all had a running theme: complaints from parents that the patois used in this children's TV show would teach those who watch it bad linguistic habits. With around 95 reported complaints on the patois used by the animated characters it is clear that not everyone agrees with the Boardman who states; "The show has a strong message: through love, understanding and respect, Rastamouse will make a bad thing good... The whole package – music, colour, rhythm and rhyme of speech – engages kids and enables that message to be heard by a wider audience"
So why is there such a negative reaction to this show? Not only was there a staggering amount of complaints about the patois there was also a few that thought Rastamouse was patronising toward black culture and reinforced negative stereotypes, some went as far to say that there was suggestions of the use of drugs, marijuana to be exact, with gestures reinforcing this when the word 'cheese' was used.
How does the author represent himself and others?
The author is Michael Hogan, a reporter and writer for the guardian which is a well known and popular newspaper. He presents himself as chatty with an easy to get along with personality and that is clear through the way he uses easy to understand sentences that discuss both sides of the story and have a low register which relates to the audience. He helps to involve the audience by using rhetorical questions, such as 'So is Rastamouse patronising towards black culture or reinforcing negative stereotypes?' and counters each question and point with evidence from an interview which gives a clear indication that he's done research into the topic and knows what he is discussing.
He represents Greg Boardman, the producer of the show, with a clear and precise manner using snippets from an interview to back up points he makes through out the text, it presents a positive demeanour and influences the audience to agree with the points being stated which leads on to the readers response.
How do they shape the readers response? (audience positioning)
The article tilts towards supporting Rastamouse and convinces the audience that the show has positive outcomes and teaches moral lessons. The audience are asked questions to include them in the article and are given straight forward answers putting them in a position where they can believe what the author is saying, the author could be said to have the audience twisted around his little finger as he gives convincing arguments in a tone that is friendly and in a language that all can understand and he groups the audience together by creating a synthetic personality when speaking about Rastamouse being 'Our furry hero'.
Rastamouse: righteous rodent or rank stereotype?
Not since the Teletubbies said "eh-oh" has a children's TV show been this talked about. Rastamouse might have skateboarded onto CBeebies a mere fortnight ago, but the crime-fighting, reggae-playing rodent has already gathered a righteous cult following. And, of course, a backlash.
Producer Greg Boardman came across the Rastamouse books by Genevieve Webster and Michael De Souza in 2005, when his son was given a copy of Rastamouse & Da Bag-a Bling and they were both "blown away by the story, language and energy."
Our furry hero's voice is provided by Radio 1 DJ Reggie Yates. Some very well-known people auditioned, Boardman says. "They came in desperate to pitch us their best Rastamouse voice, then Reggie came in and stole the day. He's now getting a lot of requests for Rastamouse impressions."The pleasingly retro feel of Rastamouse's stop-frame filming comes courtesy of director Derek Mogford, an animator who learned his trade on Postman Pat. Paddington Bear, The Womblesand The Clangers are also mentioned as influences. "Michael and Genevieve still needed convincing, so Derek went off and built the puppet himself," says Boardman. "He even got the hat knitted and sewed a little T-shirt. We all got together for a meeting and Derek had the Rastamouse puppet under a white napkin, unveiled it and everyone fell in love with it instantly."
That may be something of an understatement. Last week saw Rastamouse trending on Twitter, with the starry likes of Lily Allen, Emma Freud, Dizzee Rascal, Lauren Laverne and Rob Da Bank professing their devotion. Rastamouse is now the most-watched CBeebies show on iPlayer. Facebook fans number 9,000 and rising. Students are crawling out of bed to watch it. YouTube DJs have remixed Rastamouse with Tinie Tempah and dubstep tunes. Rastamouse's band, Da Easy Crew,even have a single out – the brassy skank of Ice Popp, released by EMI and penned by Mr Scruff collaborator Andy Kingslow.
"All this attention is a wonderful pat on the back but social networking sites and the media are obviously skewed towards adults," Boardman says. "In many ways, we've got to ignore it and carry on making what is at heart a pre-school kids' show. We absolutely don't put in jokes just for the parents. Humour is never intended to go over the kids' heads."
Yet the approval hasn't been unanimous. The BBC has received complaints from six viewers that it stereotypes black people. Another 95 have complained about the patois spoken by the animated characters. These issues have been debated in black newspaper The Voice and, perhaps predictably, on Mumsnet.
So is Rastamouse patronising towards black culture or reinforcing negative stereotypes? Boardman insists not. "We're a strongly multicultural production company making a programme about characters co-created by a Rastafarian," he says. "We think they're great models who use logic and problem-solving for the good of a positive, creative community."
And what about parental concerns that the patois could teach bad linguistic habits? "The show has a strong message: through love, understanding and respect, Rastamouse will make a bad thing good," says Boardman. "The whole package – music, colour, rhythm and rhyme of speech – engages kids and enables that message to be heard by a wider audience … I heard yesterday about a boy who was being bullied by a classmate and told his teacher, 'I'm giving him time to make a bad ting good.'" That's Rastamouse's message: redemption not retribution.
Rastamouse has also been seized upon by conspiracy theorists claiming that "cheese", oft-featured in a show about mice, is code for marijuana – and that the characters even make smoking gestures when they mention it.
"We're aware people have been reading things into it," laughs Boardman, "but that's the first I've heard about smoking gestures. I promise you, we never intentionally put in innuendo or anything that isn't age-appropriate. We're a family brand, we're on CBeebies and we're very careful. We can't make it as cult viewing, even though it may later end up as cult viewing. So while we love that the fact that they're watching, the students and messageboarders are barking up the wrong tree."
Not since the Teletubbies said "eh-oh" has a children's TV show been this talked about. Rastamouse might have skateboarded onto CBeebies a mere fortnight ago, but the crime-fighting, reggae-playing rodent has already gathered a righteous cult following. And, of course, a backlash.
Producer Greg Boardman came across the Rastamouse books by Genevieve Webster and Michael De Souza in 2005, when his son was given a copy of Rastamouse & Da Bag-a Bling and they were both "blown away by the story, language and energy."
Our furry hero's voice is provided by Radio 1 DJ Reggie Yates. Some very well-known people auditioned, Boardman says. "They came in desperate to pitch us their best Rastamouse voice, then Reggie came in and stole the day. He's now getting a lot of requests for Rastamouse impressions."The pleasingly retro feel of Rastamouse's stop-frame filming comes courtesy of director Derek Mogford, an animator who learned his trade on Postman Pat. Paddington Bear, The Womblesand The Clangers are also mentioned as influences. "Michael and Genevieve still needed convincing, so Derek went off and built the puppet himself," says Boardman. "He even got the hat knitted and sewed a little T-shirt. We all got together for a meeting and Derek had the Rastamouse puppet under a white napkin, unveiled it and everyone fell in love with it instantly."
That may be something of an understatement. Last week saw Rastamouse trending on Twitter, with the starry likes of Lily Allen, Emma Freud, Dizzee Rascal, Lauren Laverne and Rob Da Bank professing their devotion. Rastamouse is now the most-watched CBeebies show on iPlayer. Facebook fans number 9,000 and rising. Students are crawling out of bed to watch it. YouTube DJs have remixed Rastamouse with Tinie Tempah and dubstep tunes. Rastamouse's band, Da Easy Crew,even have a single out – the brassy skank of Ice Popp, released by EMI and penned by Mr Scruff collaborator Andy Kingslow.
"All this attention is a wonderful pat on the back but social networking sites and the media are obviously skewed towards adults," Boardman says. "In many ways, we've got to ignore it and carry on making what is at heart a pre-school kids' show. We absolutely don't put in jokes just for the parents. Humour is never intended to go over the kids' heads."
Yet the approval hasn't been unanimous. The BBC has received complaints from six viewers that it stereotypes black people. Another 95 have complained about the patois spoken by the animated characters. These issues have been debated in black newspaper The Voice and, perhaps predictably, on Mumsnet.
So is Rastamouse patronising towards black culture or reinforcing negative stereotypes? Boardman insists not. "We're a strongly multicultural production company making a programme about characters co-created by a Rastafarian," he says. "We think they're great models who use logic and problem-solving for the good of a positive, creative community."
And what about parental concerns that the patois could teach bad linguistic habits? "The show has a strong message: through love, understanding and respect, Rastamouse will make a bad thing good," says Boardman. "The whole package – music, colour, rhythm and rhyme of speech – engages kids and enables that message to be heard by a wider audience … I heard yesterday about a boy who was being bullied by a classmate and told his teacher, 'I'm giving him time to make a bad ting good.'" That's Rastamouse's message: redemption not retribution.
Rastamouse has also been seized upon by conspiracy theorists claiming that "cheese", oft-featured in a show about mice, is code for marijuana – and that the characters even make smoking gestures when they mention it.
"We're aware people have been reading things into it," laughs Boardman, "but that's the first I've heard about smoking gestures. I promise you, we never intentionally put in innuendo or anything that isn't age-appropriate. We're a family brand, we're on CBeebies and we're very careful. We can't make it as cult viewing, even though it may later end up as cult viewing. So while we love that the fact that they're watching, the students and messageboarders are barking up the wrong tree."
Wednesday, 2 October 2013
BBC Voices
Aims
The
aim of the poll commissioned by the BBC in 2004 was to discover how people felt
about their accents and language across the British Isles. 5000 people took
part in the poll.
Methodology
The
poll was conducted by Greenfield online with the help of Cardiff University who
helped to advise on the design of the questions. It was conducted between the 17th
of November to the 26th, with the final sample achieving a total of
5010 respondents over the age of 15. The final sample had a male to female
ratio of 49:51 with 25 – 64 year olds being over-presented compared to the 15 –
24 year olds and the 65+ being considerably under-represented. Social class
data was not needed within this poll but there was a maximum amount of quotas
for each of the 63 identified local areas that were used in order to ensure a
large geographical spread. 97% of the sample said that English was their first
language and 26% of the whole sample said that they spoke at least one language
as well as English with the most frequently mentioned languages being; French
(17%), German (11%), Spanish (7%), Italian (4%) and Welsh (2%).
Findings/Analysis
Participants
of this poll were asked to rank celebrities in order of how pleasant their
voices sounded. Sean Connery swept the board and was ranked highest with his
dulcet Edinburgh accent; this was a consistent result throughout the UK. Pierce
Brosnan was also high up the list though more popularly ranked were newsreaders
Moira Stewart and Trinidad-born Trevor McDonald with his authoritative and
prestigious voice ranking him second overall. Respondents indicated that they
preferred an accent that was relatively local to them with the Scots loving
Ewan McGregor’s voice and the English finding Hugh Grant’s voice attractive.
Northern Irish participants were the only group that found Ian Paisley’s voice
acceptable with the rest of the UK voting him ‘least pleasant’.
It was
discovered that 59% of the total poll occasionally wished that they had a
different accent and it was found that this number rose in Northern Ireland
with two thirds wishing their accent was different. The most preferable accent
was that of a standard English accent, though 7% said they would rather they
had a Southern Irish accent, 12% of which came from Northern Ireland. Some said
that the reasoning behind this was that people would be able to understand them
better if their accent was changed though most agreed that they were proud of
their accent. People identified that an accent identical to which they had was
their favorites with voters considering their accent to be prestigious and
helpful when searching for a job. More than 4 out of 5 people admitted to
changing their accents on occasion particularly when meeting people for the
first time.
From
the poll 78% of the participants enjoyed hearing a variety of accents and there
was a general link between pleasantness and prestige. An Edinburgh accent was
valued highly on both accounts whilst Asian, Liverpool and Birmingham accents
were all deemed unpleasant and lacked social status. There were 2 major
exceptions though to this: a London accent was seen as helpful in business but
not pleasant to listen to whilst the respondents enjoyed the sound of the
Newcastle accent but did not think it would be helpful when job-hunting. A standard
English accent was seen as most beneficial when applying for jobs and was put
on top by English and Welsh respondents.
Conclusion
To
conclude, residents in the UK clearly identified that they thought they heard a
much wider selection of accents in everyday life with 78% enjoying the variety
of accents though it was agreed that despite a certain amount of them wishing
they could change their accent they indicated that they still preferred an
accent that was fairly local to them.
Evaluation
There are some obvious flaws within this poll,
despite the gender ratio being fairly even there is an enormous difference
between the ages and the amount of representation each age bracket has as
stated earlier. This could affect the results shown as the youngest and oldest
generations were not fairly presented.
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