1800's text analysis

The text I have analysed is from the 1800's and is an advertisement from a tea and coffee merchants in London.
The company creates a large audience for its business indicating how it would suit most people to buy their beverages from their company: "Families, Schools, and Large Establishments generally" the use of capitalisation indicates the pre-standardisation of the time.
The company endorse themselves through the repetitive large graphology of their brand name.
"Phillips and Company" have their logo twice in the advertisement, in large bold font.
They specifically emphasise the foreign influence of 'FRENCH and SPANISH FRUITS' which stands out and is specific to the foreign influence which would make the company seem exotic and upcoming.
 

Transcript Analysis

Transcript analysis:

The text is a conversation between an 18 month old baby and her mother. The conversation seems to be had whilst Katherine (the baby) is getting dressed.

Katherine begins the conversation by saying: “I stuck” instead of saying “I am stuck”. This process which Katherine uses is deletion. It often occurs in child language acquisition and is part of phonological development.  She perhaps says ‘I’ instead of ‘I am’ as it is a shorter way of saying it as syllables are missed out. By missing out the primary verb of ‘am’ her sentence doesn’t make complete sense, and therefore her mother corrects her subtly by saying: “You’re stuck”. By correcting her language throughout the conversation her mother is also helping Katherine’s language acquisition. This is an example of re-castings from Katherine’s mother which is a feature of CDS as well as her constant asking of questions such as: “What colour are your slippers?” which is another feature. Katherine’s virtuous error indicates she is in the two word stage or perhaps the early telegraphic stage which is part of David Crystal’s theory. She is in these stages and not the late telegraphic stage as she has left out the primary verb and used deletion.

Katherine’s mother has a hidden agenda to help her learn language and more specifically colours. She does this by talking about her clothes whilst she is putting them on by asking her daughter what colour the different items of clothing are. The mother also expands Katherine’s utterances after Katherine answers the question of what colour her socks are with the one word answer of ‘Pink’ by saying: “Yes, they are pink”. This use of utterance expanding is yet again a feature of CDS. By interacting with her daughter by helping her develop language the transcript supports Vygotsky’s theory of social interaction which suggests children need to interact with others to develop their language. There is also a link to BF Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning where throughout the transcript her mother gives positive reinforcement to Katherine when she uses language correctly, for example: “Yes, your slippers are red and blue. They are red and blue slippers” by repeating the information which her daughter has already said correctly; Katherine is more likely to repeat the language correctly again, as opposed to if her mother had said she was wrong. The use of repetition is also a feature of CDS.

Michael Halliday’s taxonomy is evident in the transcript. For example, regulatory speech is used by Katherine. This sort of speech is used according to Halliday to persuade, command or request things to other people to do things that the child wants the other person to do. This is revealed when Katherine says: “I stuck” which would indicate that she wants her mother to help her get out of the situation as she is unable to do it herself. Her mother does so, but at the same time corrects her language. This is an example of BF Skinner’s operant conditioning theory, as Katherine receives praise when she says a word properly and is corrected by her mother when she says a word incorrectly.

Theorists

-Vygotsky- social interaction theory
-the zone of proximal development
-stages where children learn at their best
-children need interaction to learn language



Chomsky
- Language acquisition
-Suggests language is innate
-fixed principles


BF Skinner
-Operant conditioning
-Behaviour is conditioned by repetition
-saying whether something is correct or incorrect
-Example of testing on birds where they themselves learned language through operant conditioning

Piaget-
-Theory of cognitive development
-Child plays a vital role in growing intelligence
-stages of learning
-progressive reorganisation of mental processes

Documentary analysis

-Animals cannot speak like humans due to their different anatomy
-the brain and language are connected
-The left part of the brain is for language, the front part for speaking, the back part is for understanding
-language relies on many different processes
-language is innate
-normal song was created by the finches despite never hearing it
-there is a gene which allows us to create words and sequences.

Analysis of the word- ‘nightmare’ with a focus on the etymological, semantic and orthographic characteristics.

1.     When does the OED citation first record the appearance of the word in printed text?

The word originally was used to describe a female spirit who produced a feeling of suffocation when a human/animal was sleeping.

2.     What type of text (or context) did it first appear in?

C. Horstmann in 1887

3Where does the word come from?

USA

4. Has the word always been gender specific?

It was originally specified to be a female spirit but eventually had neither gender specifically tied to it.

5. Has the word changed over time?

The word has a negative connotation as it is linked to fear. Was associated with suffocation in sleep, but now associated with a bad dream. It can also be used to describe a situation of negativity. Nightmares were also described as an oppressive fear.

6. Has the spelling of the word changed?

Has been ‘nyghtesmare’ and ‘nightesmare’

7. Does the word exist in more than one word class?

Noun and verb

8. Does the dictionary definition match your understanding of the word?

a bad dream producing these or similar sensations; an oppressive, frightening, or unpleasant dream.

gender exam question

The text portrays the stereotype of males being in power over women through their dominance. Professor Chadwick is described as 'famous' by the narrator which creates an important status. The stereotype is met when he is described to be in control over the woman. This is implied when he 'demanded' the answer to a question from the theatre sister.
 The female is portrayed as stereotypically nervous around men when Penny 'blushed' when Professor Chadwick is said to be laughing at her which creates a dominance over her. She also says: "Where do you want me?" which has sexual connotations and reveals she is empowered by him in the situation, revealing that due to his status and position he is dominant over her. She is also said to be 'absorbed in his work' which again reveals how she is empowered by him and he has her in his control.
The use of a question: "Where do you want me?" implies how he has empowered her, as he doesn't ask any questions to her. It is almost as if she has to ask permission of him, implying power again.

exam practice

Question 1: Grouping question
B and C
A and G
Texts A and G are both promoting things. Text A promotes a healthy eating product, it is a text produced by the department of children, schools and families. Text G promotes a gallery of contempary art. The graphology of text G is similar to that of text A as they are both illustrated which makes it more appealing to children, especially text A which evidently has the audience of children due to its simple lexis and graphology. The use of superlatives such as 'great' and 'top tips' would persuade the audience to make the product themselves. This lexis is easy to understand from the audience's perspective. The text promotes healthy eating by saying how 'milk and yogurt are good sources of calcium'. By creating the fun aspect of making the lollies whilst healthy eating the department of children, schools and families are succeeding in creating a healthy nation if the text appeals to the audience.
Text G links to text A as they are both adverts of promotion. Text G promotes a contempary art gallery. The use of illustrated pictures is an example of the graphology in the text.

Text B and C are both transcripts from conversations. Both are similar as the conversations are between someone older and someone younger. Text B is between a mother and her child, whereas text C is between two sisters, one 17 and one 13. What both texts have in common is that the person of a higher age has the power. This links to Foucault's theory that knowledge is power, and power is a source of discipline. It also links to Bourdieu's theory that your place in society mirrors your power. In these instances, there is a social hierarchy as the older person is seen as the more knowledgable, and therefore they have more power in speech. This is made evident in text B where the mother says to her child: "you better go and look quickly now" which connotes that she is in power by the use of imperatives and commanding her child to do what she says juxtaposes Brown and Levinson's politness theory as she does not use any politeness markers.
 Text C is the conversation between two sisters; one of 17 and one of 13 years old. The 17 year old connotes her power by dismissal of most of her younger sister's comments, and takes her time by taking sometimes as long as 3 seconds to pause without getting interrupted by her younger sister.