The Language of Abuse - Seven Forms of Antisocial Behaviour

Although the text is informative, it's really engaging and interesting. It's formality means it is straight to the point and a good source of information, but remains objective. The article is about a woman named Dr Claire Hardaker who is known for writing a piece to the Guardian about twitter troll scandals.

On her website Hardaker says ‘I primarily research aggression, deception, and manipulation in computer-mediated communication (CMC), including phenomena such as flaming, trolling, cyberbullying, and online grooming. I tend to take a forensic linguistics approach, based on a corpus linguistic methodology, but due to the multidisciplinary nature of my research, I also inevitably branch out into areas such as psychology, law, and computer science.’

In this article, she offers a brief introduction to some of the kinds of language behaviour that cause problems on Twitter and signals what it is about this new kind of communication that makes it particularly prone to inappropriate linguistic behaviour.

This article is worth reading because it is very informative. It contains interesting statistics and information on the differences between cyberbullying and trolling, and tells us how to identify if somebody is breaking the law by abusing us online.

Pre 1920s Fiction

Below is an extract from a fiction novel called ‘Little Women’ written by Louisa May Alcott in 1832 - 1888

Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents, grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

It's so dreadful to be poor! sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all, added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

We've got Father and Mother, and each other, said Beth contentedly from her corner.

The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened at the cheerful words, but darkened again as Jo said sadly, We haven't got Father, and shall not have him for a long time. She didn't say perhaps never, but each silently added it, thinking of Father far away, where the fighting was.

Nobody spoke for a minute; then Meg said in an altered tone, You know the reason Mother proposed not having any presents this Christmas was because it is going to be a hard winter for everyone; and she thinks we ought not to spend money for pleasure, when our men are suffering so in the army. We can't do much, but we can make our little sacrifices, and ought to do it gladly. But I am afraid I don't And Meg shook her head, as she thought regretfully of all the pretty things she wanted.

I would say that the most interesting thing about this text is the way that women (the two main characters Meg, Amy, Beth and Jo) seem to be portrayed. They are portrayed to be speaking in a very typical way that girls of their era would have been expected to speak. The whole text is very stereotypical. Their speech is spoken in Standard English, and their language forces them to sound very prim, proper and polite. ‘It’s so dreadful to be poor!’. Dreadful sounds very dramatic, and further makes stereotypes the girls almost into the clichéd ‘women in distress’. The way they are described as speaking the sort of things they say are also interesting and significant – ‘Sighed Meg’, ‘Grumbled Jo’, ‘Said Beth contentedly’. These are all stereotypically the sorts of ways in which women might speak – generally either very softly or whilst moaning. Back in this era, women would have been portrayed in the way that they would have been expected to act, which looking back now is extremely prejudice and sexist.  

Gross - Background

The word gross has more than one meaning, some of which are still used commonly today, and some of which aren't -

1 - Unattractively fat or bloated.

"I feel fat, gross—even my legs feel flabby"

2 - Very rude or coarse; vulgar.

A gross, slap-and-tickle version of ‘The Taming of the Shrew’"

3 - Produce or earn (an amount of money) as gross profit or income.

 

When looking at Google Ngram, I found that 'Gross' was used at its peak in 1958 used frequently at 0.003% compared with 0.0025% in 1800. Gross is now used 0.0020130974% from 2000 onwards. The word has decreased massively as it has grown old-fashioned. I believe from personal experience that the word 'gross' is still commonly used when describing income, but is less commonly used to describe something as rude or vulgar. The word is considered old-fashioned, and newer words are now more commonly used to express this meaning, such as 'vile'. The word gross to describe somebody who is fat, I would say, is even more uncommon, as personally, I have never heard the word used in that particular context in modern day speaking.

 

 

Lineation of 'I want a cat'

Like many of the sentences in childrens books, this story starts with a simple, one-line opening - 'On Monday Jessy went to school.' This sentence is simple because it contains next to no grammar or comprehension, and does not make any attempt to expand further. The next sentence is then split up from the first one, and presented on the line below. The purpose of this is to allow children a break in between the setting and carry-on of the story. It makes things easier for children to read and also to develop their reading in the process

-          The relationship between Evie and her Grandma is obviously one that is very close, therefore both parties are comfortable in their situation. They are in a natural setting, and their conversation is as close to a natural conversation as it can be considering the circumstances of the recording because of the use of the camera in the activity. This means that both Evie and her Grandma will be very relaxed around each other whilst talking. This will have a positive effect on the conversation because it will mean Grandma is representing the way she speaks to Evie normally, showing the reader how she uses CDS to develop the conversation and Evie’s language. The nature of the relaxed and informal context will also have a positive effect on Evie as a participant in the conversation, as it will mean she is not reluctant to make mistakes and the reader can assess her language ability and development accurately.

-          I would then identify Evie’s development stage. She appears to be in the telegraphic stage and I think this because, despite her use of overgeneralisation and her mispronunciation of some simple words, she is able to lead a conversation and put words together to make long sentences.

-          I would then comment on How Evie’s Grandma adapts her language and uses CDS to develop their conversation and encourages Evie to speak.

 

6 points

- Virtuous Errors (Overgeneralisation)
- Relationship
- Pronnounciation
- Grandma's CDS  Questions from Grandma (encouraging conversation)
- Copying from Evie
- Questions from Evie

Media Text New Idea

Newspaper Article –

New idea

How to understand women

Plan

Include theories on language and gender in speech – e.g. that women use more politeness when speaking than men do, as well as less swear words and allofunctional implicature. Allofunctional implicature is when what is being said is not all what is being implied. The real meaning is something quite different to what is being said. I believe this will be an interesting topic for discussion in my newspaper article media text because I can inform the audience of an interesting area of language and gender study, but also entertain them through subtle humour and the essays subject.

Media Text

Newspaper Article –

How has the representation of women in the media changed in the last 50 years?

Many may say it hasn’t changed at all. Many may say it has changed dramatically. Some say for the better, some will say for the worst. But isn’t it now the case that women have equal rights to men and we, as a society, no longer have a dominant gender? This is always up for debate. Isn’t it widely believed that women are portrayed as far stronger and independent individuals. If that was the case, then why was Cindy Lauper skipping about gracefully like a school girl in the 1970s while Rihanna struts about stages as a sex object to men? These unanswered questions make sexism a difficult subject.