Updated Reliability for Methodology

Reliability- To make my data reliable, I am going to use the most recent series of Towie, to find conversations between Danni and James. I will be testing Robin Lakoff’s theory, the Deficit Model, about whether women’s language is deficient in reference to men’s language. Series 18 is the most recent series. I will start from episode 1 and I will find 5 conversations meaning it may go to other episodes as well (2,3) . I am starting from the most recent series as Danni and James have been on the show for a while meaning their speech may be more natural as they are on TV and they may be used to having cameras around them. However, I also understand that it may be slightly scripted to entertain the audience. I will still use the data if other people are present during the conversation. I am choosing the first 5 conversations they have because I will have more data to analyse, they may have an off conversation which does not represent their usual selves, so I need to have a range.

Child Language - Zach Texts

Zach drawing a banana-

The genre of this text is a conversation. The transcript has a formal register; it is a conversation between Zach and his parents. The mode of the text is spoken; it is a spontaneous and interactional conversation. The purpose of the transcript is to discuss, Zach is speaking about his day and his surroundings such as his ‘little pad’ and drawing a banana.

Within the transcript, his mother uses a lot of interrogatives. This may be because of the contextual factor, his age. Zach is two years old which means he is at his two word utterance stage, going onto the telegraphic stage. His mother uses interrogatives which lead to adjacency pairs. His mother also uses interrogatives to ask Zach to elaborate his speech such as ‘for the banana (.) what can the banana have (.) its three things (.) what are they?’ Zach had stated that a banana, has three things and his mother is asking him to go in to detail with his speech to challenge him to use more language such as adjectives. At Zach’s stage he will usually know more than 200 words. He has proved he knows nouns, such as his local topics like banana, biscuits, his 'little pad'. He also shows he is new to adjectives 'little pad' and 'because its too small'. He hasn't used many adjectives which may be because he had recently been introduced to them and has started recognising factors about nouns such as the size of objects.

Zach’s mother echoes him when he uses overgeneralistion, ‘skins’, in conversation. ‘and here’s the skins’ ‘oh (.) are the are the skins off are they?’ Zach is at a young age, he is at the telegraphic stage so he is familiar with nouns such as ‘skin’ but may not know the difference between it being plural or not. His mother may echoe him to give him confidence whilst learning speech rather than confusing him by modelling what he had said in a non standard form.

Chomsky has a theory about language acquisition, 1960’s. He believes that every child is born with a language acquisition device which enables them to learn and produce language because it is a natural mental ability. He believes that LAD converts the major principles of a language and it’s grammatical structures into the child’s brain. Children then learn different vocabulary and relate the syntactic structures from LAD to form different sentences. He believes that children cannot learn language by imitation alone because adults use irregular language in general conversation. Adult’s speech can be broken up and sometimes ungrammatical. Zach using ‘skins’ backs up Chomsky’s theory as in the environment; he would have heard his mother say ‘skin’ instead of ‘skins’ which shows that not everything is imitated. However, Zach may of heard his mum pluralising words such as ‘cows’ and he may have picked up on it and is applying it to other words.  There is evidence to support Chomsky’s theory such as when children are learning language, it is unusual for them to get there subjects, objects and words in the incorrect order. Also when they use overgeneralization such as ‘I drawed’, instead of ‘i drew’ show that it can’t be just imitation that allows them to learn language. There is evidence against Chomsky’s theory such as language can be learnt from interactions with other people (Bruner).

Build a robot- Zach and his mum-

The genre of this text is a conversation. It has an informal register as it has non standard use of language such as ‘doo doo doo dooo’ which is said by Zach. The audience of this transcript is Zach and Halla as they are having a conversation. The mode of the text is spoken. It is a dialogue which is spontaneous.  The purpose of this text is to discuss the project of building a robot which is the subject of the transcript.

Throughout the transcript, Zach pauses a great amount within his sentences. He is not very fluent. This may be because he is focused on what he is doing physically, building his robot. He is also ill which may affect his speech. ‘We don’t need breakfast (.) it’s gonna take a little time now (2) cos it went wrong before (.) now we (.) then it healed and now (.) it will take a little time (.) for the robot to heal again (2). Because of his age he may need to think more about what he is saying, meaning it takes him longer to get his words out, rather than if he was older and more experienced, he would be more familiar with new words. Zach uses adjectives in his speech such as ‘lots’ of sellotape, ‘long’ bit. Zach may have recently become familiar with adjectives because of his age, meaning his speech is broadening. Zach uses many declaratives, in response to his mum’s interrogatives. He also uses an exclamative ‘Tadah!’ which shows that from 13 months onwards, his speech has developed significantly.

Throughout the first conversation, Zach brings up the topic of the robot, but his mum, Halla, sets the agenda by asking him interrogatives, which leads to adjacency pairs of Zach responding. In the second half, Zach is setting the agenda as he is dominating the conversation. He is saying to his mum that they have to wait rather than get breakfast. ‘Yeah (.) it’s gonna be a long time though (.) but we’re not gonna have breakfast still’. This supports Zimmerman’s and West’s theory, the Dominance model, that men dominates the conversation over women. It also contradicts the theory as Zach does not interrupt his mum, the theory claims that men interrupt more than women. He uses a declarative to tell his mum what they are going to do, rather than asking her.

In the first transcript, i looked at the first 10 utterances that Zach uses. I look at the morphemes within the 10 utterances. There were 80 morphemes within the first 10 of Zach’s utterances. I divided the number of morphemes with the number of utterances (80/10) which got me the mean length of utterance, 8. In the second transcript, build a robot, i looked at the first 10 utterances as well to make sure the data is reliable. There were 112 morphemes in Zach’s first 10 utterances, meaning the mean length of utterance was 11.2. The difference between the two transcripts mean length utterance is 3.2. This proves that since Zach has got a little bit older, his speech has improved and he has a broader range of language.  Zach was ill on the ‘build a robot’ transcript which may have reduced the amount of language he would usually use, so if he was feeling okay, he may have had a greater mean length of utterance.

Methodology

Methodology-

Hypothesis- Danni uses more deficit features than Lockie whilst in conversation

Data resource- TV programme – The Only Way is Essex. People: Danielle Armstrong and James Lock. Known names: Danni and Lockie

Reliability- I am going to look at the series where Danni and Lockie started off as a couple together. I am then going to look at 5 of their conversations. I may look at more of their conversations if they are short. I am going to watch the first episode and find the first 5 conversations they have, which will most likely mean I will be looking at the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th episode as well, depending on how many conversations they have in each episode. I am choosing the first 5 conversations they have because I need it to be a reliable piece of data. I am not going to pick and choose at random, the different conversations otherwise it is not scientific. I am choosing 5 conversations because I will have more data to analyse, they may have an off conversation which does not represent their usual selves so I need to have a range.

Comparability- The one factor in which will be different is the Gender of the two people. There are many comparability factors which mean that gender is the main reason for the different language they are using. The two people that I am studying for my data are both from Essex and still currently live there. This means that they will have similar accents and also dialect as they have been brought up within the same city. They are both of similar ages, Lockie is 29, and Danni is 28. They have similar life styles as they both own their own businesses; Danni owns a clothes shop called ‘Danni Boutique’ and Lockie has his own restaurant called ‘Lockie’s Kitchen’. They both have similar interests such as going clubbing, getting spray tans and going to the gym.

Ethicality- I am using a TV programme for my data. This means I will not need any permission as it is a show that is for public viewing. 

B.F Skinner - Behavioural Theory

B.F Skinner – Behavioural Theory

·         Skinner- American Psychologist.

• ·         Developed Theory of Operant Conditioning : Whether behaviour is determined by its consequences, Reinforcements or punishments are used, which make it more or less likely that behaviour will occur again.
• 
  
• ·         Positive Reinforcement- Praise and Response
• ·         Negative Reinforcement- Punishment/ignored

Skinner viewed babies as ‘empty vessels’ in which language had to be ‘Put into’. He suggested that children learn language through the environment (e.g. people) and consequences of undesired responses.

·         He noticed parents reward children for babbling etc, they don’t punish their baby for no vocalisation.

·         Skinners suggested that babbling would not progress into speech unless the parents give the child a response.

·         Said children imitate speech, if this is rewarded, learning takes place.

• How he discovered the theory:  Placing a rat in the ‘Skinner Box’

1.  He showed positive reinforcement- placing a hungry rat in his skinner box. The box contained a lever on the side and as the rat moved around the box it would accidentally knock the lever.
2.   Food would fall.
3. The rat learnt to go straight to the lever after a few times
4.  The consequence of receiving the food, if they pressed the lever, it is ensured that they would repeat action again and again.
5. He shown Negative Reinforcement by placing a rat in his Skinner Box and then giving it an unpleasant electric current.
6. As the rat moved around the box it would accidentally knock the lever
7. The electric current would then switch off
8. The rats learnt to go straight to the lever after a few times of being put in the box
9. The consequence of escaping the electric current ensured that they would repeat action again and again.

Evidence- Rat pressing level to get a reward is like a child doing something and getting an outcome.

Not too reliable... a rat and a child is a big difference.

Punishment- Opposite of Reinforcement

Problems with punishment-

·         Punished behaviour is not forgotten, its suppressed- behaviour returns when punishment is no longer present

·         Causes aggression, which is a way to cope with problems

·         Can create fear. E.g. fear of school

Accent and Dialect Theories

Accent and Dialect

Dialect is what you say, the vocabulary and the Grammar. People from different social groups such as teenagers, children, adults and pensioners will most likely all have different dialects. The regional area you are from will also determine what dialect you use e.g. ‘Alright my Luver’ from Bristol.

Accent is how you say it, the pronunciation of utterances. People will be recognised from their regional areas by their accent, each regional area usually has a distinctive accent which is familiar by the public. E.g. Bristolian, Scouse, Brummy, Geordie. Different social groups usually have varied accents as well.

William Labov

William Labov was known as one of the creators of sociolinguistics. He was born in 1927 and was the professor of linguistics at Pennsylvania Uni. Labov was interested in how social class affected the use of language.

Martha’s Vineyard

Labov had two theories. Martha’s Vineyard was one of his studies. Martha’s Vineyard was an Island located off the east coast of the USA. It was a popular tourist attraction for in the summer. There are people that live in the Island all year round called ‘the Islanders’, most of which lived on the eastern part of the Island. ‘Down- Island’ is the populated part of the island and ‘up-island’ is the less populated however it is where the fishermen live. There are three social groups within the Island. ‘The Islanders’ who were a mixture of working and middle class, ‘The Summer People’ who were middle and upper middle class and ‘The Fishermen’ who were working class.

The Fishermen were seen as a desirable social group for the rest of the Islanders; they had old fashioned values and were also very hard working. They spoke with non-standard, old fashioned pronunciation. Their vowel sounds were especially different from standard punctuality, especially the diphthongs. A diphthong is a sound made by joining two vowels, specifically when it starts as one vowel sound and goes to another, like the (oy) sound in oil.

Results

Findings- Labov found that the young Islanders were making a deliberate shift to using the old-style pronunciation. He found that they wanted to be like the fisherman because they respect them. They don’t want to be like the summer people so they diverge from them. Even the islanders who were well educated were using the non-standard dialect.

The social stratification of the post-vocalic R

Also known as the Department Store Study, this is one of Labov’s other theories. It is based in Manhattan in New York. He was looking at the link between social class, department stores and language. Labov was testing the patterns of language usage and their link to prestige and social class. He looked at three different department stores of varying degrees of prestige. Saks 5th Avenue was the highest, Macy’s was the middle and Kleins was the lowest. The social stratification of the post-vocalic r looks at the final ‘r’sound at the end of words such as guard, beer and fourth. Labov rested the word ‘fourth’in his study. He asked a question designed to elicit the answer ‘fourth floor’ or similar, he then pretended not to hear the response and asked the sales assistant to repeat the answer.

Results

The results illustrated that (r) in New York City was stratified by class. The pronunciation of (r) depended on the social class membership of the employees.

Those with higher socioeconomic status pronounced (r) more frequently than those with lower socioeconomic.