How do children acquire and pronounce language?

From a young age, children get by in life by communicating through screams to show all emotion, and crying too when portraying almost every emotion. Without words and language, we wouldn’t be where we are today as every culture relies on them, as they’re the most important thing a human will ever learn. In the documentary, a 15 month old child was bilingual learning both Greek and English. We found that it’s much easier for children to understand and learn 2 languages at once as it uses a different part of the brain to which adults do. When speaking the words, a human uses on average 30 muscles at once in order to produce the words which is why it’s so hard for children to learn how to talk. From a young age, the larynx (vocal trap in the throat) is extremely high up when they’re this young as it allows the child to breathe whilst suckling and only begins to drop when they get around the age of 1. This is when the pitch becomes higher and the chords are higher too. A disadvantage however of the larynx dropping (3cm lower) is that it means that the child is more vulnerable to choking.

When they get to the age of about 2, the pace in which the child learns new words becomes much quicker and the child in the documentary of age 2 and a half began to learn as much as 10 new words a day. At this age, she knows how to construct words into a sentence so that they begin to make sense, however they make virtuous errors in which they use their initiative  to add ‘s’ on the end of a pre-existing word to make it plural even if the newly formed word doesn’t make sense, this relates to the wug test also. At this age, children mostly get the grammar correct all the time, as ‘children have an instinctive map for language’. It’s also this age in which children begin to develop self- awareness in which they recognise themselves in a reflection in the mirror and they realise they are their own person, hence why they say about the terrible 2’s in which children have their worst tantrums as they realise they are their own person and they don’t understand the concept of sharing and want everything for themselves.

Analysis of Broken Homes 'damaging brains of infant children'

The article written by Marie Woolf addresses the general idea that children that are brought up in homes that are seen as 'broken' for example, separated parents, absent parents etc tend to have more damaged brains leading to them then being incapable of being able to develop their brain and mental capabilities. The main point that is raised is that children from dysfunctional families are joining school at the age of 3-4 having the mental capability of a 1 year old. The tory leader (Duncan Smith) puts this down to strain the breakdown of the family puts on the child and the great distress it causes them. To some extent, I do agree with this argument that has been raised as the breakdown of a family can leave the family In great devastation and lead the child to under develop because without the two parents there for maximum support it is often common that the child does suffer. However, I think its a sweeping statement to make to put a stamp on the reason for children's mental ages decreasing being down to 'dysfunctional' families. As time is going on, technology is becoming huge parts of every child's life and children are no longer using their muscles as they used to, as they don't go outside, they instead sit on a device all day, not engaging their brains in any other form of activities. Children are becoming much more dependent on technology and much more lazy.
Its also important to note that family type is very different to family dysfunction. The way in which children are nurtured varies all across the world and this could have an impact on the way they then bring up their child and how their child develops mentally. Different cultures allow their children much more freedom than others which means from a young age they are used to having to fend for themselves naturally giving them better cognitive development. With the onset of the nanny state, this country is attempting to address the problem by introducing the 2 year provision and nursery vouchers for 3 year olds. Where this could be a great help for working families to afford good childcare, it appears to be aimed at families on benefits. It is not tackling the poor parenting from predominantly young families who have had very little or no education themselves. This is what Norman Glass tried to achieve with the introduction of sure start in 1997. With this in mind, this is what makes me believe that 'broken homes' isn't the most important factor and that as a whole, the most important factor to children's developing both physically and mentally is the technological side of things and how we are no longer thinking for ourselves anymore.

Parliamentary Language
The language used in parliament must be words and phrases that abide by the rules of parliament. Words used in parliament, in both the House of Lords and House Of Commons typically use lexis that go against or differ from every day language that is used by average people.
Examples pf parliamentary language are:


Adjournment debate - This is usually a half-hour debate introduced by a backbencher MP  at the end of business for the day. The subjects that are discussed are often local or personal issues. There is also a series of short adjournment debates on Wednesday mornings.

Allocation of time motion (guillotine) - This is a term defined for the time for one or more stages of a bill is restricted, and the question is put on outstanding business, even though members may still wish to speak on that business (see Programme order).


Closure -  Although there are still members speaking or wishing to speak, the debate should be ended and the House proceed immediately to a decision. The Speaker has discretion as to whether to accept the closure and, if opposed, it requires at least 100 members voting in favour; otherwise, the original debate is resumed. If the closure is agreed to, the question is then put immediately on the matter previously under debate.

Points of order - when members raise the house's rule of order to the speaker's attention. 

Royal assent -  the monarch's (King or Queens) assent to make the bill an act of parliament.

Programme orders - a motion restricting time for one or more stages of a bill

Prorogation- The end of the parliamentary season.

Ballot (for Private Members' Bills) - drawn on the second Thursday that the House sits in each session. The 20 successful members put their bills down for discussion on particular days which is Fridays.

The System

There are two houses within parliament that work together in order to pass new laws and keep the legislative process in order and running. Firstly, there's the House Of Commons who are elected to be party of this and they focus mainly on financial bills etc and passing them. There is also then the House Of Lords who are unelected bodies and are in this house through hereditary of Lords in their
families and they assist the House Of Commons when bills are being passed.


Un-parliamentary Language

This language is used by people within parliament but the language goes against the rules and is looked down upon and deemed as rude of un polite. Examples included; Bullshit, liar, Nazi, rat etc. This is refrained from  being used so that people understand that it isn't the correct way to speak especially in an environment like they are in.

http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/fashion-blog/2016/feb/25/how-to-dress-like-a-man-the-semantics-of-the-brokeback-jacket

This text is a text that's meant to entertain as it a bout a man explaining all about his first jacket he bought and how to 'dress like a man'. It's aimed at men as its related to the title of dressing like a man. The text explains about the semantics of the broke back jacket. The jacket has been personified as though it's an 'alpha' again relating to the typical term of an alpha male, the dominant,  superior figure.

self evaluation

My self evaluation

From my most recent paper I did in test conditions, I found that my AO1 was slightly lower than what I got for my AO2 mark. In order for this mark to be raised in the foreseeable future, then I need to ensure my use of language levels is more developed and that I'm using more of them. Not only that, but I need to ensure that I'm using the correct terminology to go along with these also. To ensure my AO2 grade goes up, I need to make sure I'm not describing and that I'm evaluating more throughout so that I'm answering the question to the best of my ability throughout the question. A final thing I need to work on is developing each point and having further research of my own, alongside remembering all the theories and theorists.

Standard English

To what extent do you agree that the status of SE has changed since the turn of the century?

To some extent I agree that the status of standard English has changed vastly since the turn of the century. The different regions have made the accent and dialect change and differentiate, due to the new slang that’s been used and developed. The way in which technology has developed has also influenced the change greatly.

One way in which technology has influenced language is by the use of text messaging. Texting is a service that’s made to be quick, easy and is a useful way of communicating. However, some people think that because its quick, they can shorten words even further to make it even quicker. Abbreviations are used more and words are made up so it is like a way of communicating with friends that only they understand. It is also due to laziness and sense of urgency that people feel they need to shorten words in order to get a point across quicker, for example if someone was to say ‘I’ll be back later’ they may just use ‘brb’ short for ‘be right back’. This is getting more common as technology becomes more advanced and complicated. However, although this is implied, its being used less by teenagers and more by middle-aged adults as they may be seen as ignorant to learning, not used to the complications of some technology or simply because they weren’t exposed to it when they were younger and they feel as though now they should be trying to connect with the teenage age range by using language they believe they still use. Abbreviations have become much more well-known and are still being used in everyday language, pushing more standard, ‘proper’ language out. People tend to get lazy and their use of dialect isn’t as good which leads to the decrease of the status of language. Within text messaging, there is the use of auto correct meaning it will automatically rectify any spelling mistakes, although this is convenient, it also means that people no longer pay attention to if a word is written wrong and how to spell it knowing that it will corrected automatically anyway. This means that people’s vocabulary won’t be expanding due to little knowledge especially knowing they can’t spell simple words.

However, although I stated above that its used more by adults, something that challenges this concept is the increase in the social media platforms.Research project Twitter, Instagram and snapchat are predominantly the most used social media sites for teenagers-young adults. Specifically, in twitter and snapchat, there are character limitations, when sending a picture with chat on snapchat, there is a limit of only a few words, so of course abbreviations are used to get the point across that way. As snapchat is used worldwide and in everyday use, its then also going to create habits to use these abbreviations elsewhere when communicating. On twitter also, there is only a 140-character limit, if people want to write long tweets, this isn’t made possible, therefore the words are shortened and ‘u’ is now used instead of ‘you’. Also, within these platforms, different users may build up a large base of followers, therefore meaning the dialect will change as standard form will develop to non-standard variants. People are starting to become more dependent on technology as their only form of communication. Therefore, the meaning of words change, and are twisted to fit different meanings, leading to a decline in standard English.

David Crystal Third mode:When social classes are discussed, it becomes clear that upper/middles classes are taught within schools the same forms of English meaning that subconsciously, the standard form that’s taught is of a higher status kind of Standard English. It can be argued that influences such as the Afro-Caribbean dialect is influencing and changing standard English too much and is having too much of a change towards it. It’s been argued that this then has effects on young people particularly, due to its new meanings of vocabulary, slang words and pronunciation of words, this has a negative effect on young people and, in a lot of areas it is encouraged to speak in a non-standard variable, particularly of a working-class area as attitudes towards education. In William Labov’s theory of language and social class, it is suggested an individual’s dialect is dependent on their class, and that upper class will have more of an acknowledged pronunciation and a dialect containing standard forms; meaning then that lower middle and lower class are more likely to carry non-standard English due to their culture, attitudes, surroundings and class. Peter Trudgill also found and came to the conclusion that people believed that only royalty used standard English meaning people don’t even take notice to the way in which their dialect is and the variations within. As over the years there are more people in poverty, more people that aren’t seen as middle class or upper class, this implies that they won’t have a high status of standard English, leading to a decline/fall of Standard English.

However, something that changes my opinion that it’s the century that has changed due to the change in the century is the vast difference between different regions and where in the country you are. In this sense I mean that if you’re from the northern parts of the country, there may not be many different variations of standard form due to the dialect and accent. However, in London and main cities similar, there are many different ethnicities that may prevent the use of Standard English. Migration has become much more popular and there are a lot of migrants meaning they have learnt and developed the standard English into their own slang that is understood easier. This will therefore lead to the decline of the use of Standard English. However as stated above, in the Northern part of the country, the status of Standard English has been maintained and hasn’t changed too much as they haven’t really joined in with the use of slang or the use of using different words for different meanings.

Due to there being a huge increase on rappers particularly of the black, afro Caribbean race, /ethnic group, there has been a huge increase in slang words and vocabulary that is used only in the nature of music more specifically rap. If words are used in music, its likely that people of all age ranges may listen to this music meaning that they pick up on this vocabulary and slang and begin to sue it in everyday language. In the turn on the century, music has dramatically changed meaning that rap is much more common. Due to this issue, its lead to the words used in speech not being as varied in standard forms leading in a huge decline of standard English. Not only this, but the use of social media and media in general leads to new words being created and put into the English dictionary when the words aren’t standard forms. Some examples of these words would be ‘yolo’ meaning you only live once, used in rap song by Drake. Another example is ‘selfie’ meaning to take a picture of yourself with a device with a camera. This has led to the status of standard English lowering.

In conclusion due to all the reasoning discussed above, in my opinion I think that Standard English has changed since the turn of the century. The development of technology, music and different migrants entering new places bring new vocabulary and slang with them is the main reasoning behind this. In my opinion, I think that Standard English has taken a fall for the worst.

Analysis of Questionnaire

                                                                   Analysis

What are the attitudes towards the afro Caribbean influence on Standard English Analysis?

I asked 20 people many questions about the influences of standard English and how they think it’s changed over the years and what’s has made it change so much.

1) Was there any links between the students/people that answered the questionnaire?

There was a link between all of the people in which that answered my questionnaire as they were all sixth form students at Shenfield high school, and were all linked into the same area, of Shenfield. As they are all sixth form students they’re all the same age range from 16-18. 100%^ of the students were in education, specifically sixth form, meaning they’re more educated and clued up which means their answers would be more educated.

2) What was the overall opinion?

Out of all 20 students asked, 85% of those asked stated that they thought that Standard English had changed over the years, and all of their reasoning’s for this was due to immigrants coming over and teaching the Standard English how to use slang and all the different regional accents have changed the way in which speech is spoken.

All people also recognised that when given an example of two sentences, one using Standard English and one using slang, that the one using Standard English was better.

When asked what their understandings of ethnicity was, all people answered that they believed that ethnicity was to do with their background and where they originate from. There wasn’t any other answers from this questions and there wasn’t any differentiation. 

3) What does this tell us about the status of Standard English?

When asked what they’re opinions of standard English was, and what they believed it consisted of, every single person asked either said that they thought it was ‘”words from the dictionary” or “Queens speech” or “proper English” however, no-one went on to explain was ‘proper English’ was. Peter Trudgill was a sociolinguist that said that Standard English was only spoken by a minority of people as it’s seen as more of a ‘prestige’ way of speaking and that’s how it’s seen in the modern day. This corresponds with the answers that I received in my questionnaire as they believed that the term ‘standard English’ was the way in which the Queen spoke meaning that it’s not used in every day speech.

4) What attitudes are there towards BEV and other variations of English?

When asked if they believed that Standard English has changed, they believed that other variations of English, specifically foreign accents and foreign language have had an influence on the way in which we speak. As people came over from other countries they didn’t know the Standard English so from picking it up by everyone else, they learn slang and only pick up some of the Standard English. This affects the way in which everyone speaks as it just rubs off onto everybody else.