Analysis of Text A

Analysis of exam question Text A

Language acquisition videos

This video talks about second language acquisition through the behaviourist theory. As well as talking about Skinner's views on language acquisition (especially through learning a second language), the video also discusses Chomsky's opposing opinions about the way we acquire language.

This video shows an experiment set up by a cognitive scientist in his own home to find out information about how his own child acquires language from birth to 3 years old. This experiment took place so he and his team could generally find out how children learn to speak, by gathering a great amount of evidence.

In this video typical language development stages are shown from the age of 6 months to 5 years. At each age, the video discusses what types of words the child can say including their range of vocabulary. It states approximately how many words a child knows at each age.  It also discusses a child's ability to structure sentences as they start to combine words together. There are also some video examples to present these stages; ranging from a baby at only 15 months old to a 4 year old. I have learnt what children of different ages typically understand and how they learn language overall - generally, from their parents by interacting with them and repeating words and combinations of words that they hear.

English Language Development

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 These are examples of my language development in Year 5, when I was around the age of 10. There are examples of my handwriting sheets, my literacy book and my homework diary.

 From my handwriting sheets, you can see my writing was very neat as we were taught to use joint-up handwriting as this age so we could write with a pen. Main focuses were on the shape of the handwriting, as well as the size, the equal space, if it was parallel and written on the line. Around this age, I have just started to write with a pen so I probably tried to make my writing as neat as possible at this stage.

 In the example of my literacy work, I have written a paragraph on mountain forest animals. I can link this work to Kroll’s stages as around age 10, children are said to become confident in grammatical structures which is seen in my work as I use commas, capital letters and even brackets. However, there are a few mistakes where I have used capital letters after commas instead of after full stops – this is something the teacher has commented on saying ‘Remember it is full stops and capital letters who are in love not commas’. I feel by the teacher saying it in this way, I and other students would have been able to remember the rule better.

 My last example is of my homework diary where my reading has been recorded. As my mum was the person who read with me/ listened to me read, she was the one who signed this book. I feel as though I can link this work to Chall’s reading stages as at the age I was at, I was supposed to be reading in order to gain new information. I feel this is partly true as the books I was reading at this time were quite lengthy therefore were based partly on gaining information as well as reading books for entertainment.

My English Language Development

My Own Language Development Story

 As a child my first words were 'mummy' and 'daddy' and I also used to use shorter nicknames for my younger brother. There were no concious decisions behind my own language development however my parents did read to me when I was younger and my favourite books were Disney ones I had as a child, including 'The Little Mermaid' and 'Snow White'. My earliest memories of reading was when my parents used to read to me before bed or when I had to read to them, nearly every day, using books supplied from primary school. I believe that Chall's reading stages have some relevance towards my own language development as I started reading short stories around 7 however this was to improve my own ability to read, not to gain any new information.

Vygotsky's Theory

According to Vygotsky, until children learn to use mental tools, their learning is largely controlled by the environment; they attend only to the things that are brightest or loudest, and they can remember something only if has been repeated many times. AFTER children master mental tools, they become in charge of their own learning, by attending and remembering in an intentional and purposeful way. In the same way that using certain mental tools can transform children’s cognitive behaviours, using other mental tools can transform their physical, social, and emotional behaviours. From being “slaves to the environment,” children become “masters of their own behaviour.” As children are taught and practice an increasing number of mental tools, they transform not only their external behaviours, but also their minds, leading to the emergence of higher mental functions.

Some major themes in the social development theory:
1. Social interaction plays a fundamental role in cognitive development. He felt social learning precedes (comes before) development. He said every function in the child's cultural development appears twice. First on a social level (between people) and then on an individual level for the child.
2. The more knowledgeable other (MKO) - means the person with a better understanding or higher ability than the learner/child. It could be teachers, adults or even peers and computes.
3. The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). This is the distance between a student's ability to perform a task under adult guidance/ or with a peer compared to doing it independently. Learning occurs in this zone.

Media Text Do's & Dont's

Media text from amymyersmedia

Chall's Reading Stages

-         Stage 0: Prereading – birth age 6

o        children master many prerequisites for reading at this stage:

o       Identifies a few letters of the alphabet, prints name, read a few words, has knowledge about books

-         Stage 1: Initial reading – age 6-7

o       Children acquire phonological recoding skill – ability to translate letters into sounds and to blend the sounds together to form words - /m/-/a/-/t/ = mat

o       Finish learning letters and sounds, begin reading simple texts

-         Stage 2: Confirmation Fluency  - age 7-8

o       Begin to read fluently, focus is on identifying individual words more quickly, become automatic in reading familiar texts

o       Reading is not focused on gaining new information or learning from reading, but is used to gain control of reading – read fluently and quickly decode words

-         Stage 3: Reading to Learning New Information– age 8-14

o       Reads to learn - children become capable of obtaining new information from print -  use reading as a tool to acquire new knowledge

o       Growing importance of word meaning, prior knowledge, and strategic knowledge

o       Children have a singular viewpoint when reading

o       Example: child goes to the zoo and sees a Siberian Tiger

-         Stage 4: Multiple Viewpoints – age 14-18

o       Reads material from multiple viewpoints

o       Improve their ability to think critically about what they read with a deeper understanding of the information

o       Example: understanding subjects such as history or politics

-         Stage 5: Construction and Reconstruction – age 18+

o       Forms knowledge from reading on a higher level of abstraction

o       Able to construct their own viewpoint of what they have read and critically analyze the viewpoints of others

o       Example: able to read information on the development of object permanence and construct their own views on this subject

English Presentation Video

Kroll's Stages

Preparatory stage

ages 0-6
the child masters the physical skills needed for writing and have an understanding of the basic principles

 

Consolidation stage

ages 6-8
writing reflects spoken language and contains colloquialisms. Sentences are short, declarative, grammatically incomplete, or simple conjunctions (eg. and, so, then) used to link longer sentences

 

Differentiation stage

ages 8-mid teens
There's an awareness of the differences between writing and speech. Children have confidence in grammatical structures and sentences become more complex, with sophisticated connectives used

 

Integration stage

mid teens onwards
A 'personal voice' is developed and a writing style is adopted confidently.

Piaget

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) was a biologist who originally studied molluscs (publishing twenty scientific papers on them by the time he was 21) but moved into the study of the development of children's understanding, through observing them and talking and listening to them while they worked on exercises he set.

His view of how children's minds work and develop has been enormously influential, particularly in educational theory. His particular insight was the role of maturation (simply growing up) in children's increasing capacity to understand their world: they cannot undertake certain tasks until they are psychologically mature enough to do so. His research has spawned a great deal more, much of which has undermined the detail of his own, but like many other original investigators, his importance comes from his overall vision.

He proposed that children's thinking does not develop entirely smoothly: instead, there are certain points at which it "takes off" and moves into completely new areas and capabilities. He saw these transitions as taking place at about 18 months, 7 years and 11 or 12 years. This has been taken to mean that before these ages children are not capable (no matter how bright) of understanding things in certain ways, and has been used as the basis for scheduling the school curriculum. Whether or not should be the case is a different matter.

Presentation

Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky -

Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics (Emeritus)
Linguistic Theory, Syntax, Semantics, Philosophy of Language.

He wrote many linguistic articles including:

• "Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew." Master's thesis, University of Pennsylvania,1951.

• "Systems of Syntactic Analysis." September 1953

• Review of Modern Hebrew (January - March 1954)

• “Logical Syntax and Semantics: Their Linguistic Relevance.”

Noam Chomsky was born on December 7, 1928 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His undergraduate and graduate years were spent at the University of Pennsylvania where he received his PhD in linguistics in 1955. During the years 1951 to 1955, Chomsky was a Junior Fellow of the Harvard University Society of Fellows. While a Junior Fellow he completed his doctoral dissertation entitled, "Transformational Analysis." The major theoretical viewpoints of the dissertation appeared in the monograph Syntactic Structure, which was published in 1957. This formed part of a more extensive work, The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory, circulated in mimeograph in 1955 and published in 1975.

Chomsky argued that children will never acquire the tools needed for processing an infinite number of sentences if the language acquisition mechanism was dependent on language input alone. Consequently, he proposed the theory of Universal Grammar: an idea of innate, biological grammatical categories, such as a noun category and a verb category that facilitate the entire language development in children and overall language processing in adults.

Universal Grammar is considered to contain all the grammatical information needed to combine these categories, e.g. noun and verb, into phrases. The child’s task is just to learn the words of her language (Ambridge & Lieven). For example, according to the Universal Grammar account, children instinctively know how to combine a noun (e.g. a boy) and a verb (to eat) into a meaningful, correct phrase (A boy eats).
This Chomskian (1965) approach to language acquisition has inspired hundreds of scholars to investigate the nature of these assumed grammatical categories and the research is still ongoing.

 

(January-March 1955).

BF Skinner

 Skinner came up with one of the earliest scientific explanations of language acquisition.
 A major proponent of the idea that language depends largely on environment was the behaviorist BF Skinner. He believed that language is acquired through principles of conditioning, including association, imitation, and reinforcement.
 According to this view, children learn words by associating sounds with objects, actions, and events. They also learn words and syntax by imitating others. Adults enable children to learn words and syntax by reinforcing correct speech. For example, correct utterances are positively reinforced when the child realizes the communicative value of words like when a child says 'milk' they will be rewarded when the mother gives it to the child. This enhances the child's language development.

 BF Skinner was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor and social philosopher. He invented the operant conditioning chamber describing how human behaviour is a result of previous consequences.

Some of his quotes: 
-A failure is not always a mistake, it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.
-I did not direct my life. I didn't design it. I never made decisions. Things always came up and made them for me. That's what life is.
-Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything.
-Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.
-Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.

Evaluation

I believe my investigation was effective as I was able to carry out my methodology and gain some important results. However one of the limitations is that it was at times difficult to gather relevant information from the internet therefore causing me to use the Disney script instead of a written story. My investigation may help people to understand how the English language is evolving and how quickly this change is coming about. As the stories I analysed are aimed at children, it implies they are learning from a young age the changes involved in the language, causing them to perhaps speak and write differently from previous generations. My investigation can help others understand this change and that it is in some way inevitable.  

Conclusion

 My investigation has illustrated that there have been significant changes in the English language over time, especially in stories aimed at younger readers. I had initially predicted that I would find examples of change within the frameworks lexis, semantics and grammar which I was able to analysis in my investigation. I assumed that neologisms found in the Disney version would have been created through scientific process, borrowing or compounding. As well as finding examples of these methods, I also found others I hadn’t considered before including alteration, contraction and even creating new words after a person. This suggests lexical change is far more complex and therefore often hard to avoid. The amount of neologisms I had recorded was also quite surprising – only after two centuries, many words had either been created or disappeared which is a huge change in this length of time.  In terms of semantics, I assumed I would find examples of words that had become more negative or positive. Instead, I found broader meanings for the same words.  This may be because of the rise in slang. It would appear that people now use normal words as slang terms to effectively describe and mean something else. Grammar has also changed within the two versions of the story, coming to the conclusion that the English language is much more basic and informal today because of the fewer uses of subordinate clauses and the rise of contractions. In my investigation, this is perhaps because the written texts I were focusing on were aimed at a younger audience therefore they would have to be basic and easy to understand in some way. 

Data Analysis

 Within my language investigation, I have compared written data over a period of time as I have looked at both the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale of Rapunzel and the script used for the animated Disney film ‘Tangled’ based on the same character. By comparing these two sets of data, I have focused on three main frameworks: lexis, semantics and grammar.

Lexis

 It is clear that lexis was one of the most important frameworks within my investigation as not only was I able to identify the neologisms from the Disney script, I was also able to identify what words had become obsolete or less used in the story written by the Grimm Brothers. From my introduction and methodology, I assumed that neologisms would have been formed using a variety of ways. This proved to be significantly correct from the data I collected as the words I recorded from the Disney script were created by methods including compounding and scientific progress. Some of the examples of compounding I discovered were ‘line-up’, ‘fleabag’ and ‘overprotective’. Scientific progress through the means and advances in medicine and technologies have also caused some new words to be created which made an appearance in the ‘Tangled’ version such as ‘hay fever’ and ‘interior design’. All of these words did not exist before the early 1800s when the Grimm’s version of Rapunzel was published. Another method, regarding how new words are created, is borrowing. Yet, some of the words I discovered may have not been exactly borrowed by other countries but instead were influenced by them. For example, the noun ‘blah’ may have perhaps been influenced by the French term ‘blasé’ meaning bored and indifferent. The use of this word was perhaps used in the Disney film as it can be easily understand by children. Conversion is another method to explain the lexical change; however I previously didn’t mention this in my introduction and methodology. The word ‘wax’ which primarily started off as a noun became the verb ‘to wax’ in Disney’s tangled, clearly displaying the use of conversion. Further examples of neologisms I have discovered can be seen in Table 1 below. From this part of my investigation, I can see that examples of slang have already started to appear in the newer version of the fairy tale which will later be discussed in more detail in the semantics section.

Alteration	Compounding	Scientific Process	Contraction	Conversion	After a Person	Other
Mommy	Line-up	Hay Fever	C’mon	Wax	Sideburns	Blah
Gotcha	Overprotective	Interior Design				Cupcake
Yay

 As well as finding relevant examples of lexis in Disney’s script for ‘Tangled’, the type of lexis used in the Grimm’s ‘Rapunzel’ was also important to analysis. Archaisms like ‘thus’, ‘tresses’ and ‘ells’ which were used in this version yet are no longer used in modern English, therefore would be inappropriate to use in a Disney fairy tale in this present day. The adverb ‘thus’ which originated from Old English back in the year 900 has various meanings including ‘in this way’ and ‘consequently’ but has now gone out of fashion. ‘Tresses’ was a noun to describe ‘plaits’ or ‘braids’ yet these alternatives are nowadays more commonly used by children. As a result ‘plaits’ was used for ‘Tangled’ instead. ‘Ell’ was a former measurement of length but is no longer used in the English language. Trudgill says changes such as these are an inevitable process and as society and people change, so does the language. Moreover some terms may still be used, just not as much. At the beginning of the Grimm’s version the noun ‘God’ is used. As the type of generation they lived in was perhaps more religious than it is nowadays, it would explain why ‘God’ is only mentioned in the original story.

Semantics

 I also focused on this particular framework as I wanted to know if the meanings of the words had changed over time. First of all I looked at the Grimm’s version to see if any of the words had been used differently. The noun ‘enchantress’ was used to describe a woman who practises magic. Clearly this word is still used for this meaning today, however the meaning may have broadened as it can now also mean an irresistible or charming woman. Although this meaning hasn’t expanded enormously and completely differed, it is still an example of how English is developing.  I then looked at the Disney script to see if these words in the present have new meanings than before. I discovered that words that were nowadays used as slang obviously had more meanings. The nouns ‘pet’ and ‘flower’ are used by Mother Gothel when she talks to Rapunzel to express fondness or affection. As these terms are so widely used today, even younger audiences which are who this film is aimed at will be able to understand that the character doesn’t mean the literal meaning. However, these changes are not considered positive by some theorists. Guy Deutscher, a prescriptivist, believes language changed is bad as it is leading children in today’s generation to not being able to speak or write correctly. By watching movies such as those created by Disney could therefore be worrying for children because of the slang they include as they are not sticking to the standard form of the language.

Not only have I analysed the meaning of the words, I have also looked at figurative language. It is clear that figurative language was more apparent in the original story compared to the Disney version.  In the Grimm’s version of Rapunzel figurative expressions including the metaphors ‘touched his heart’ and ‘his heart had been so stirred’ were used. This type of figurative language is still used today, especially in literacy and poetry. However it may be less common to find in a modern children’s fairy tale. The only example of figurative language found in the Disney script was the idiom ‘leave the nest’.  This could also explain how the English language is becoming less complex.

Grammar

 Grammar has been one of the main changes in the English language over time, whether it be syntax, word order or spelling.  While reading the Grimm’s story of Rapunzel, it is clear to see how word order has changed significantly over the past two centuries. Some interrogatives didn’t include auxiliary verbs and were formed with a verb at the start. This can be seen in the examples ‘said she with angry look’ and ‘answered he’ which put the subject after. On the other hand, it is more common to put the subject first in Present Day English. Since 1700, sentences have also become shorter – another example of the language becoming simpler. Although Grimm’s Rapunzel was written and published in 1812, there is still evidence within the story to show more complicated sentences. For instance this sentence ‘It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world’ includes subordinate clauses which are less commonly used today.

 Another grammatical issue is contractions. By the early 18^th century contractions became common in written and spoken in English and it would seem some are still on the rise. Others however, have become completely out of fashion. These include ‘twas’, ‘o’er’ and ‘e’en’. There is an example of the contraction ‘can’t’ used in the Grimm’s version yet there were significantly more recorded in the Disney script such as ‘you’ve’, ‘don’t’, ‘aren’t, ‘you’re’ and ‘we’re’.  In some ways this is becoming alarmingly similar to the type of views expressed within the language decay theory. This theory suggest that more and more people are becoming careless about their speech and are therefore becoming lazy, resulting in a much more ‘simple’ language. Writers including Jonathan Swift have also said that contractions like these are corrupting the language so people in the future are less likely to understand. These are all negative views towards the way this language is changing.

The Story

 Regarding the storyline, there have also been obvious changes between the two versions of ‘Rapunzel’. Some of the plots which occurred in the Grimm’s version may have now been inappropriate for younger audiences. For example, the father agrees to exchange his own daughter for rampion which is different to ‘Tangled’ where Rapunzel actually gets stolen. This was perhaps altered as in today’s society it may be hard to understand why any parent would give up their child and would prove to be morally inacceptable to show to young children. Rapunzel becoming pregnant and the prince (who was known as ‘Flynn’ in ‘Tangled’) being blinded by thorns was also eliminated. Again, as these situations may have been inappropriate. However both have a happy ending therefore this may be considered the most important aspect over both time periods.

Introduction New

 For my language investigation, I am going to explore how language has changed and adapted over time in fairy tales. This is clear by my hypothesis: ‘how has language changed and adapted over time between the original Grimm’s version of Rapunzel compared to the Disney version ‘Tangled’?’

 I will focus on the original written stories by the Grimm’s brothers as well as the story used for the animated Disney movie. I will look at the differences between the two storylines and also focus on specific frameworks as part of my textual analysis such as lexis, semantics and grammar. By looking at frameworks such as lexis I will be able to discover if any new words have been created within the Disney version and what type of methods were used to form these words such as borrowing, through scientific process or compounding. I have chosen this particular fairy tale as there are clear differences between the two versions, for example the Grimm’s version of Rapunzel is a lot darker and less suitable for children compared to the Disney version which is more appropriate. As there will also be a significant difference between the types of language used when writing these stories, I believe there will be a lot to discuss in my investigation.

 As my investigation is focusing on language change over time, I will be able to use the opinions and views of certain theorists such as James Millroy, Peter Trudgill and Jean Aitcheson.  I will also be looking to try and prove or support these existing theories as to why the English language has and still is changing. Some of their views describe how the change is inventible yet others discuss how the language may be developing for the better as part of a progress or in fact decaying. As I am interested in Disney Films and the way our language is constantly developing, I thought this type of investigation was appropriate for both my interests and the relevance it has towards the English language today.

 My investigation will be part of empirical research as the data I gather will be from direct observation. My investigation will also be objective as the results I collect will not be from my own opinion. Furthermore, my study will be diachronic as I will be specifically looking at language across a period of time to understand how and why it has changed.

Progress Diary

 As I have now changed my language investigation, I have made changes towards both my methodology and my introduction. Instead of looking at language and gender, I am now looking at language change over time. This is clear by my new hypothesis: 'How has language changed and adapted from the Brothers Grimm version of the fairytale Snow White compared to the Disney version?'. I have decided to focus on this type of investigation as I feel my investigation before was perhaps too broad plus the differences between these two stories will be significant and interesting to investigate. 

 Regarding the change in my investigation, I have now looked up Grimm's fairy tales to give me a wider understanding of what type of stories they write and to see the differences between the Disney story and the original. I have chosen to go with Snow White as there are evident differences between the two version's of the story, especially towards the end yet I may have to change this story if it is not appropriate to use within my study. Within my methodology, which I have also completed this week, I have included what design I will take on as well as any ethical issues and concerns regarding my data. 

Methodology

 For my language investigation, I will collect data from a set of case studies (two stories – one will be a Grimm fairy tale while the other will be a recent Disney story). As my investigation also involves gathering data from a set of different time periods, the design of my study may also be longitudinal. I will use the Brothers Grimm’s version of Rapunzel as well as Disney’s version to compare the differences and to see how language has changed and adapted over time. As language change can be proven from the set of data I collect, I will be taken on a positivist approach for my investigation.

 I am aware of experimenter-expectancy effects as I may look for and expect certain aspects and changes in my data from my own assumptions which can affect my results. My assumption is that in my results and framework analysis I will find examples of lexical change through the processes of compounding, blending and perhaps borrowing. I also assume there will be evidence showing semantic and grammatical change throughout these two pieces of text. In terms of grammar, meaning the structure of language, I will look for significant changes in word order and syntax between the two stories. Regarding semantics which involves the meaning of words, I will look for how the meanings of particular words may have become more positive or negative over time.

 As I will be collecting data in the public domain, I will make references to the material I select. I will also make sure the material I use for my study will not be leading or biased in any way. Furthermore the type of method I use to carry out my investigation will be part of a framework analysis. I will aim to focus on the use of the frameworks: lexis, semantic and grammar when analysing the differences between the two texts in order to portray the changes of language over time. In terms of gathering the data, I will find the appropriate material I need for this study on the internet.

Language of the 2000s

Progress Diary

 This week, I have been focusing more on the specifics of my investigation. As my first hypothesis/ question was quite broad, I have decided to focus on more specific characters from Disney Films. I have now decided to look at the main male and female characters such as the hero and the heroine. As well as narrowing down the types of characters I will investigate, I have also started to consider what films I will use. Initially, I thought about what films were appropriate to use – for example, what films included a main male and female character who take part in many interactions within the movies. Taking this into consideration, I have decided to look at the films ‘Hercules’, ‘Frozen’ and ‘Pocahontas’ as they all have prime and important male and female characters. I may decide to look at more films later on however I will focus on these 3 to begin with.

 I have also written a draft version of my introduction. This included many important aspects of my investigation such as the background and context, if my research provides a means of classification or exemplification and key researchers and linguistics within the field of language I will be investigating. As I am focusing on language and gender I included linguistics relevant to this field of language. Writing my introduction also helped me think about the next steps I will be taking in my investigation…

 As I will be analysing different discourse structures within spoken transcripts, I will go over the common features of spoken features as well as researching more relevant researchers. I will also start to look for transcripts from the films I have mentioned and focus on parts of the transcripts that will be appropriate to use later on in my investigation. 

Introduction

 For my language investigation I am going to explore the differences between male and female language in Disney Films. This is clear by my hypothesis: ‘what are the differences between the language used by the main Disney male and female character (for example the hero and the heroine)?’

 I will mainly focus on transcripts from animated Disney films during the past 20 years therefore I will analysis the discourse within these spoken transcripts. I will gather data from the main male and female character from each film during similar scenarios. For example, an important scenario to consider will be when both characters have to work together in order to overcome/defeat the villain. Some of the films and characters I will discuss in my investigation will be Hercules and Meg from ‘Hercules’, Anna and Kristoff from ‘Frozen’ and Pocahontas and John from ‘Pocahontas’. I have chosen these particular characters as I think they represent the typical male and female characters Disney Films normally include plus these are all films from various time periods over the past 20 years.

 Whilst studying English Language at AS I became interested in the way both genders differ in the way they talk. As I am also interested in Disney Films, I thought this type of language investigation was appropriate for both my interests and the relevance it has towards the English language today. Some of the theorists I will include in my investigation will be the ones I learnt about during AS. These include Robin Lakoff, Deborah Tannen and Zimmerman and West. Within my investigation, I will be looking to prove and support existing theories such as the dominance model. This suggests that men interrupt more during male-female conversations.  I will also be looking more closely into the type of issues and contrasts Tannen brought up towards male and female language such as status vs. support and information vs. feelings. Therefore the main purpose of my investigation is exemplification as I plan to give additional examples of language used by both genders to see whether these theories work in a different context such as a Disney film.

 My investigation will be part of empirical research as the data I gather will be from direct observation.  My investigation will also be objective as the results I collect will not be from my own opinion. Furthermore, it will be synchronic as I will focus on the context and the variation of language between both genders.

Proposal

Proposal

 As I am interested in Disney Films, I wanted to base my language investigation around how particular characters use language and the differences in language between characters. More specifically, I would like to investigate the language used by male and female characters (the hero and the heroine). I plan to collect and look at transcripts from a range of animated Disney films which I will find on the internet. From the transcripts, I will primarily focuse on the main male and female character's language. I will focus on language frame works including discourse such as spoken discourse structure, phonology and the characteristics of spoken delivery, lexis and semantics (e.g. if the male and female characters use different lexical fields). The question I will explore will be 'What differences are there in the use of language between male and female Disney characters?'. As my investigation is focusing on language and gender, I could bring in theorists such as Tannen and Lakoff.

 If this investigation is not feasible, I have also considered another idea involving Disney such as the use of language in Disney films and how it has changed over time as well as investigation the language of a person who speaks English as a second language and language of people from different parts of the country.

Vocabulary

AS Coursework

English Coursework Piece 1

English Coursework Piece 2