CONVERGENCE - DIVERGENCE IN LANGUAGE: ANALYSIS OF A LETTER

The first comparison between the two letters, one written using divergence and the other one written using convergence is the length: the convergent letter is longer than the divergence one. I did it on purpose, because if I imagine to need to create a distance between myself and my interlocutor, I would probably write only the main informations, avoiding details, to make it shorter. That's because I don't want to have a conversation with the other person, even though I have to give him some informations.

In the convergent letter, I'm trying to cooperate with the parents of a child who is not doing good at school. As a consequence, I chose to explain what's happening to the child at school, presenting that as my concern. "I'm afraid to inform you that Harry is risking to not pass the year because of his grades (...) I'm worried because he seems struggling a lot with studying at home and complete the homework (...) but we need to help him to achieve good results in order to pass the year".

As I'm trying to help, not just to inform, I chose to write the parents about what Harry is doing good, to ensure his parents that, even though their son has difficoulties at school, he is still a nice guy: "Harry is a really nice lad and he seems to have great social skills that helps him to make really good friendships".

The letter goes on suggesting what to do: "As a school, we suggest you a DAST, a test for dislexia that can help us to know how to help him. We also recommend you to test him for the attention deficit disorder and the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder". I chose to explain the acronyms, in order to let the parents to be fully aware of the situation, and to use too many of them. This is important if we use convergence, because it will lead the interlocutors to participate actively to the conversation.

As conclusion, I tried again to be as cooperative as possible: "If you need to ask me some question, or if you prefer to ask them to anyone else of the teacher team, please don't hesitate to contact us by email".

The divergent letter has a completely different purpose: just to inform briefly that Harry is not doing good at school and what to do. For this reason I've chosen to start in this way: "I must inform you that your son, Harry, is not reaching the sufficient grades to pass the year". I wrote that using two direct addresses because I wanted to create a distance: he is your son and what he does is your problem.

"The teacher staff has noticed that Harry is very often not concentrated in class and he doesn't complete his homework as required. It's obvious that he won't pass his future assestments". I've chosen to not try to seem worried about the situation, because it's not my purpose, I just wanted to inform.

I didn't neither give a concrete solution to the parents, because they won't have enough information to decide. "In the light of these considerations, we strongly recommend you to subject Harry to the following tests: DAST, ADD, ADHAD".

As a conclusion, I wrote: "If you need to ask us any clarification, contact us by email during school time". In this way I stated that I can give them explanations, but I've also implicitly discouraged them to do it, making them understand that I'm not going to considerate their doubts after office hours.

THE DEFICIT MODEL | ROBIN LAKOFF

In 1975 Robin Lakoff published 'Language on women's place', a study of the female language.
Her work is based on data recorded in a white - middle class context: she recorded some conversations between students of a university and the she analyzed them.

Lakoff's work has some issues: women's speeches might have changed because of the time passing for instance. 
Moreover, Robin has considered just a small sample of the American population, it might be not representative of all the women in the US and in the world.
Because of that her theory can be challenged.

The Deficit Model conclusions are:

• Women use hedging (sort of, kind of, it seems like...)

• Women use (super)polite forms (would you mind, if you don't mind...)

• Women use tag questions (isn't it?...)

• Women speak in italics (giving emphasis on adverbs like 'very')

• Women use empty adjectives (divine, adorable, lovely...)

• Women use hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation

• Women use direct quotations (she was like: "...")

• Women have a special lexicon (more wide vocabulary)

• Women use question intonation in declarative sentences, expressing uncertainty

• Women use 'wh' imperatives (why don't you open the door?...)

• Women speak less frequently

• Women overuse qualifiers (I think that...)

• Women apologize more (I'm sorry, but I think that...)

• Women use modal constructions (can, would, should...)

• Women avoid coarse language

• Women use indirect commands

• Women use more intensifier (I'm so glad...)

• Women have a lack of a sense of humor

Some observations:
Lakoff says that women use super-polite forms. It could be right in 1975, but now it happens less frequently.
Nowadays women tend to choose some language features that are more likely to by used by men. It is possibly due to the females' genuine need to be equal in power and in consideration as males.

Because of that women use more frequently a more direct language, that can include swears, shouting etc. This goes against another Principles of the deficit Model.

 

Let's consider an example: the actress Jennifer Lawrence posted an observation on Facebook (13 October). In her text, she swears, she uses empty adjectives as a parody of what a woman should act like, showing a great use of sarcasm and sense of humor.
It's evident from there that the Lakoff's model is weak today.

LANGUAGE AND GENDER: ANALYSIS OF JENNIFER LAWRENCE'S POST ON FACEBOOK

Why Do I Make Less Than My Male Co-Stars?

Complete post: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferLawrence/post/10153012783811793:0

On the 13th October, Jennifer Lawrence posted on her Facebook page a text with the purpose of inform the aspiring female stars that the show-business is men-dominated.

She poured out her emotions, criticizing the currently jet set and the Sony company.

Her post is full of linguistic features typically used by women, but she actually uses even male ones.

The actress uses words like 'adorable', or 'likable', that immediately make us think that who is speaking is a female.

'I'm over trying to find the "adorable" way to state my opinion and still be likable'.

In this sentence, it's evident the use of sarcasm: the word adorable, written with the inverted commas, make the audience think that she is criticizing the way that her collaborators are considering her opinion (and the other female-stars ones).

Jennifer states her point of view using linguistic features with the purpose of make her seem really direct and honest and confident with the audience. These are mainly used by males.

'I'm even the asshole who didn't do anything about the ice-bucket challenge', 'I should have written a check, but I fucking forgot, okay?', 'I want to be honest and open and, fingers crossed, not piss anyone off'', 'A few weeks ago at work, I spoke my mind and gave my opinion in a clear and no-bullshit way', 'When the Sony hack happened and I found out how much less I was being paid than the lucky people with dicks', 'Fuck that!'.

All these phrases make the reader focus on what Jennifer is saying, because she express herself using dysphemisms, blunt and socially unacceptable words or sentences. As a consequence, the audience is more likely to remember the concepts expressed very directly and with swears.

Generally speaking, men tend to use a language enriched with dysphemisms, because they are usually more direct, avoiding details, and get the point immediately.

On the other hand,one of the stereotypes linked to the female gender is that women are generally rambling, because they take care a lot about details and secondary information.

LANGUAGE AND POWER

There is no actual 'Language and power' question on paper 2.
However, this terminology/theory is useful for analysing a text considering gender, occupation and social class. It is also potentially useful for paper 1.

 

What is power?
We agree that it is authority over someone, depending on context. Power is also a dynamic factor.
It can derive from education, beliefs, politics, social class, faith, popularity, aesthetic and personality.
Power can also be written. We can find some form of control even online.

Why is an individual allowed power in that context?
The physical environment is really important and useful here.
A teacher, for instance, have the power over his students due to the school setting. Outside the school his role doesn't include any form of control over the student.

Basic terms:

• Power in discourse - the ways in which power is manifested through language.
• Power behind discourse - the contextual reasons for the power happening (mainly in discourse). E.g. a teacher has the power on the class because he has more knowledge, the physical environment as said, he is an authority, he is older, he has control due to his profession, his linguistic register, the tone of his voice, he usually asks questions, he uses the subject specific lexis, he uses re-casting.
• Instrumental power - power used to mantain and enforce authority (media, police-army, teachers, queen, parents).
• Influential power - power used to persuade or influence others (media, politicians, church-religion in general, teachers, queen, brands and companies, parents, doctors).

According to Wareing (1999), there are three different types of power:

• Political power - power held by politicians, law and police.
• Social grup power - power held by people as result of social variables such as social class, age, ethnicity.
• Personal power - power held by people as a result of their profession (e.g. teachers).

Language strategies used to assert power:

• Oppressive discourse strategy (shouting, swearing...)
• Repressive discourse strategy, a subtle way of asserting power (questions, specific lexis...)

INTO THE VIDEOLOGS!

What is a vlog? How young people entertain the audience just speaking about themselves?

Let's GRAMPS!

G - VideoLogs

R - Mixed! (it depends on the youtuber: everyone of them has a different population target, so the language varies as a consequence)

A - Mainly young people, but anyone interested in the topic can actually see it 

M - Multi modal

P - Entertain/inform/persuade

S - A really large range of topics (beauty, social, gameplay, everyday life, prank...)

Each vlogger follows the main contextual features:

• The Youtubers face the camera directly, on their own, addressing the viewer, for make him feel part of what is said.
• It's important to target a particular audience for the channel (children, young adults, shopping addicted, nerds...)
• Usually who speaks records himself in a "personal space", as his bedroom, or any room of his house in general, his school... It makes the video more personal and relaxed.
• The youtuber chooses a topic, or more topics to focus on. If they choose one, it means they are passionate about it or, at least they should have an amount of knowledge about it. You cannot speak about sport if you ignore which national team won the last world cup, as you cannot speak about fashion if you believe that Prada is a city...!

If you know the genre of the vlogs, you probably have already heard about:

- Banners: a kind of advertisement which consist in a stripe image.

- Link: web connection to an another page/channel/video...

- Sponsors: companies which are interested in a partnership with you.

- Adverts: spaces where the companies can show what they want to sell.

About the language:

Vloggers use mainly the 'internet speech' into their videos, because it appeals to a younger audience, who use social media and can understand and relate to what they're saying.

Youtubers may also use a particular sociolect which applies to their chosen subject (beauty vloggers use make-up terms which are specific to them and their audience).

How does Zoella engage her audience?

• Direct mode of address: Zoella addresses her audience by looking them directly in the eyes. Because Zoella is vlogging her life, she makes the audience to feel part of it as she is communicating with her friends.
• Body language: Zoella seems really relaxed while she talks about her life, as she is in her natural environment. That's why the audience feel comfortable too. Zoella uses a huge variety of hand gestures and facial expressions that help her to communicate.
• Hand-held camera: It's a generic convention of the youtubers. It actually help who is speaking to seem confident with the audience. It would ruin the realism of the video if someone else was filming her, because it would feel 'set up' and the relationship with who is watching would become weak.
• Language: Zoella doesn't swear in her videos because she is aware of her audience, which has an age that starts really young, so she behaves politely, knowing that young children shouldn't be hearing rude language.

enjoyed?

ANALYSIS OF THE SPEECH OF THE EX UK PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN ABOUT EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS

How do the language features reflect the contextual factors of your given text?

G - SPEECH

R - FORMAL

A - PUBLIC

M – ORAL/WRITTEN

P – TRANSACTIONAL/PERSUADE

S – EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS

From the language features present in the text I can deduce that it is a speech.

The first thing I can notice is the register: it is formal and full of rhetorical devices that give to the text a powerful spirit.

In the first paragraph I can see an asyndetic listing: “And the Britain I want to strive is a Britain with no cap on ambition, no ceiling on hope, no limit to where your potential will take you, how far you can rise a Britain where the talents of each us (…)”. Again, in the first paragraph is it is written: “Today what matters is who has the skills, the ideas, the insights, the creativity”. The asyndetic listing sometimes is useful for the strong and direct effect it has, much more emphatic than if a final conjunction were used.

In the first paragraph there is also a triplet: “I believe each young person has talent and potential, each has some gift to develop, each something to give to the good of community”. Triplets are used to highten a piece of writing. The use of triplets adds energy and enthusiasm to a speech and that’s the purpose of the politician who is speaking.

Similar to triplets are anaphora. We can see one in the fifth paragraph: “We can no longer tolerate failure, that it will no longer be acceptable for any child to fall behind, no longer acceptable for any school to fail its pupils, no longer acceptable for young people to drop out education without good qualifications without us acting”. Including anaphora in speeches is useful, because key words or ideas are emphasized, often with great emotional pull, repetition makes the line memorable, the politician’s words have rhythm and cadence.

In the fifth paragraph Gordon Brown uses inclusive pronouns. He says: “We have moved from an education system (…)”, “But we now have to do much more (…)”, “It’s time to say not just that we will aim high (…)”, “We can no longer tolerate failure”. It gives an effect of unity as it addresses everyone as a whole community or team.

Speaking about sentence functions, the speech is full of declarative sentences, as the politician has to explain his point of view. “That is what I want for every children in the country”, “Britain is full of talented people”, “This idea of excellence in education is not just a noble ideal”, “Today what matters is who has the skills, the ideas, the insights, the creativity”.

Gordon Brown also uses imperative sentences. In this case, who is speaking wants to communicate to the interlocutors what he is going to do for improving the situation of the educational system in the UK and, for doing that, he spurs the public. “Our ambition must be nothing less than to be a world class in education and to move to the top of the global education league”, “Son no more toleration of second best in Britain, no more toleration of second best for Britain”.

ANALYSIS OF A WEBSITE: "THE GUARDIAN"

G – WEB PAGE

R – FORMAL

A – PUBLIC

M – MULTIMEDIAL

P – TRANSACTIONAL: INFORM AND ENTERTAIN

S – VARIOUS TOPICS

Affordances:

The website is really interactive: the user can obtain data or commands and the page gives immediate results or updated information.

The Guardian gives you the possibility of becoming a member for free, or, if you are already a member, you can sign up for commenting the news and interact with the website.

You can choose the news you prefer by clicking on the article you are interested in. Doing this will allow you to read the full text. You can also search for a particular article by typing the title or the name of the journalist on the search bar.

On the top of the page, there is a bar with multiple buttons. Those are the categories of the news. The reader can choose the topic he prefers by clicking the correspondent button. There is a quite large range of topics: UK, world, politics, sport, football, opinions, culture, business, lifestyle, fashion, environment, tech, travel. These are in order of relevance o the bar. There are other buttons on the top of the page, as “jobs”, “dating” and “more”.

The “Headlines” gives information about the date, the temperature and the weather of the city from where the website is opened.

Discouise features:

The website is revised very frequently, in order to guarantee an efficient service, and new articles are uploaded.

How do the language features and the layout suit the audience?

The audience of the website of The Guardian are newspaper readers. They want to be informed of what’s happening around them, using an instrument that must be safe, correct, well-written, inviting and aesthetically pleasing.

For catching the visitor’s attention the editors of The Guardian have established a hierarchy between the news, giving priority to the more important news and to the ones that are presumed to be more interesting for the readers. That gives to the reader the possibility to choose the topics and the news he prefers.

The register is nearly the same in all the articles: formal. The usage of a high register is good when a journalist has to report an event without supporting any parts.

All the articles are grammatically revised and correct. The syntax is edited with care. That because an article has to be comprehensible, otherwise it will loose reliability.

The titles are really crucial: it is because of them that the reader decides if read the article and stay on the webpage or leave. The guardian uses sentences rich in meaning, but short in words, that sum up the whole article.

Aesthetically speaking, the webpage has to be attractive. The Guardian’s website has a lot of blue hues. Blue is the colour of wisdom, of the truth, of the closeness, of the faith and of the honesty. Blue is gathered with the male gender, so it’s more liked by men. Maybe most of the audience is composed by males.

The images chosen for the articles are selected with care, because they have to be appropriate and with a strong impact on the readers.

ANALYSIS OF AN INTERNET FORUM’S CONVERSATION

G – INTERNET FORUM

R – MIXED: INFORMAL/COLLOQUIAL

A – PUBLIC

M – WRITTEN, WITH SPOKEN FEATURES

P – INTERACTIONAL

S – OPINIONS ABOUT A FESTIVAL

The first thing we see is the view of the screen. It’s evident that is a forum on the internet, because every interlocutor is identified with “user” and a correspondent number. Again, on the top of every message there is written the post subject: “Well what did you think?”.

In the chat there are some linguistic features that make the text messages more immediate and emphatic. Truly that features make me think that it is a conversation on internet.

We see immediately an elongation at the beginning: “Well? Opinions pleeeease…”. This feature gives more emphasis at the request, but it isn’t very useful for rhetorical purposes.

The user 2 answers with an homophonic representation. “2 many people in dance tent – 2 many chavs and underage idiots at beer tents”.  We can see an homophonic representation where a sound/number is used to represent a string of letters. These are very useful because the permit to write faster, so step in immediately.

In the same message, the user 2 utilises a non – standard punctuation: “(…) and too much rain!!!”. This is a great way to express emphasis and give power to what is said.

User 3 replies with a list of good and bad points. He uses emojis like five hearts, in order to express that he has spent a great time with the girl with the pink hat at the beer tent. He also uses a funny smiley for suggesting that the couple in the next tent who kissed loudly all night haven’t just kissed.

User 1 returns into the conversation with an objection about a band who played during the festival that seems to be disapproved by the other users: “Really have no idea why people hate the Vaccines so much. FWIW I thought they were one of the highlights of the weekend”. She uses an initialism, FWIW, that means “for what is worth”. The usage of initialisms or acronyms is really common in internet forums and chats. It allows to express the meaning of a quite long sentence with few words, with a consequent saving of time.

The user number 4 replies her with a kind of slang, for explaining his point of view. He says: “Ova-hyped fake indie. But your entitled to an opinion”. Fist thing we see is the word “ova”, that means “over”. Later I can see the non-standard usage of a possessive pronoun, your. The correct sentence should be: “(…) But you are entitled to an opinion”. He uses this feature for saving time again.

From the linguistic features and the ways the users express their opinions, we can deduce a few hypothesis about their personality.

User 1 probably is a girl. I can deduce this from the usage of the elongation in the first message. This is not typical of boys. She seems to be a curious person and she is not afraid of stating her opinion.

User 2 is a frank person as well. I can see this from the way he express his opinion in his unique message. He seems to like having fun in a moderate way. There aren’t sufficient indications about the gender.

User 3 is probably a male: in the list of good points of the festival he says: “the girl with the pink hat at the woodland beer tent”, adding hearts. He seems to be a funny person: he is ironic and he doesn’t spare comments to anyone. Probably he is also a methodical person: he gives a clear list of what was good and what was not.

We don’t know the gender of user 4. Apparently he seems to be an expert in music. He has well-defined opinions, but he is respectful and he cares about other people’s opinions.