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. 

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.