Mini investigation

For my investigation i have chosen to look at how Asda and Tesco use language in order to persuade the consumer to shop at their supermarket. I chose to look at this because we are constantly being exposed to advertising whether it be from watching television,watching videos on youtube, listening to the radio and on billboards etc. My hypothesis is that each supermarket builds the consumer in different ways to target their own specific audience.



Methodology- I chose the first two adverts from each supermarket  both from 2015, this makes it more reliable and shows that i didn't cherry pick the adverts.



Asda's predominant technique is the use of verbs, from both of asda's adverts there is a total of 37 verbs used. The verbs are used as they will have different meanings to each of the target audience members, the words can be interpreted in many ways in which could persuade a certain person to shop in their supermarket and purchase one of their products. Both of the asda adverts share a similarity as they rhyme " mopping,chopping,topping, popping" a polyzygotic is used here as it has a longer lasting effect on the audience, and to make the advert catchy and flow better. The connotations of the specific words will have an effect on the target audience too "steaming" the adjective has many different connotations as it could refer to ironing, cooking and cleaning which could appeal to both men and women.



Asda also uses synthetic personalisation by using second person pronouns "you", "you're" this is used to make the audience feel as though the advert is targeted specifically towards them and to build a relationship with them, it addresses the audience personally and could persuade them to shop at the supermarket and to buy their products. Asda's uses informal language in order to appeal to their target audience which is more likely to be families "roll back", "low prices", this would appeal to families as the recession has meant major cutbacks on the amount that families are spending, they are aware about the prices of products and would much rather shop in a supermarket where they can get more for their money.



Tesco's techniques are using nouns over both of the adverts i only found 5 nouns, the nouns are used to modify the meaning of the words "trusty","finest","carefully" this creates a different target audience compared to that of Asda. Whilst tesco does cater for 'regular' families which is demonstrated in the adverts it appears to be for the more affluent consumer. There is a slight lexical field of the word expensive "finest","ladyship","trusty","carefully","amazing" when these are placed with the product is creates an image of a finer lifestyle.



Another thing that is interesting from the Tesco advert was on the audio of the advert the voice over copies the tone and pitch of the other actors voices this appeals to the target audience as they feel as though that particular moment the advert is talking to them.

In conclusion my hypothesis has been proven and i believe that the evidence that i have collected supports this.

Alan sugar transcript

I chose to look at the apprentice extract as i was interesting in looking for language and power theories. i transcribed a short extract of the clip:

LS(lord sugar): Could've, would've, should've (1) yeah could've but you didn't (.) yeah (.) right (.) no (.)but you didn't yeah. I think i've heard enough(.) for me to make a very very difficult decision here today.

Claire: Sir Alan may i say one more thing please?

LS: (3) if you insist.


The theory that I chose to link this text to was Norman Fairclough's theory of unequal encounters, and Wareing's types of power.


Before I began to annotate I knew that we would see an unequal encounter because it is a clip from the apprentice whereby Lord Sugar has the most power as he can choose to fire contestants. As Lord Sugar is more dominant he doesn't have to worry about using standard English as he isn't trying to impress anyone. On the other hand the contestants need to use standard English and be polite as they are trying to gain respect and ultimately win the show.


Lord Sugar has both influential and instrumental power, this is because he is the authoritative figure and has the power to fire the contestants if they do not follow his instructions and complete the tasks that he had set. Ultimately the contestants want to please lord sugar to gain power over the other contestants in the hope that they will win the show.

The part of the transcript that interested me the most was the line spoken by claire, firstly she addresses him by the name "Sir Alan" the use of the proper noun "Sir" is used to benefit Lord Sugar's status. She is also using politeness forms in order to protect herself from a face threatening act "may", "please" here she is demonstrating Brown and Levinson's politness strategies. Her politeness has the desired affect as Lord Sugar allows her to speak. Although he makes her wait for what seems like a long pause in order to make her feel more nervous and to make the tension in the boardroom higher to create an atmosphere and a feeling that anyone could be fired, the three second pause that he makes her wait is yet again another example of how he is using his authority over the contestants. 

investigating language on twitter- A2 lesson

For three lessons we have been investigating language on twitter, we looked at various different tweets and annotated them to look for theories and other things that might have told us something interesting; for example:



This tweet showed multimodality and the fact that it is written in capitals means that you don't necessarily have to read the tweet as the capitals attract your attention and show that it is important. The emojis are used  to show his emotion- the 3 party images are used for celebration which we know means that something good/successful has happened.


For my investigation I decided to look at gender theories as I think there is more to talk about and it is relevant and interesting to find in most conversations. My hypothesis was 'Men are more dominant as they are straight to the point whereas women waffle', I was also looking for emotive language between the two genders I was doing this by looking at the length of the tweets.


For my methodology I chose to look at every third tweet to ensure that there were no anomalies and to make it more reliable as I wouldn't be cherry picking the tweets. The two people that I chose to look at were Ed Miliband and Amy Childs.


I made a chart which showed the different features and what I found in both of the genders over a total of 10 tweets for men and 10 tweets for women totalling to 20 tweets altogether.

Feature	Men	Women
Emojis	0	12
Emotive language	13	7
Sentence length	Average: 20.1 Range: 16-27	Average: 9.2 Range: 3-17
Hashtags	1	10

In my analysis I found that my findings do not support my hypothesis. This is primarily because of the choice of people that I chose to look at. Ed Miliband is an mp whereas Amy Childs is from a reality television show. It is interesting though in the fact that Ed uses more emotive language where we would expect Amy to as she is the woman, although this is because at the time when the tweets were posted it was nearing the general election where Ed needed to gain votes from the public whereas Amy does not.


Reflecting on the data sources I have found that they were ill judged as they are from different backgrounds, therefore this meant that I was a constraint and disproved my hypothesis.


In the next investigation I will make sure that I chose my sources from similar/ the same backgrounds, similar ages, same status and same profession to ensure that the data will support my hypothesis

Short extract of a romantic novel

                                                                          Stay




She stood there, in a pastel pink laced dress that came down to her knees, she wore matching stilettos and her long blonde hair fell down her back. As she stood looking at herself in the mirror disapprovingly the nerves began to hit, she felt the flutter of butterflies in her stomach and felt her hands becoming shaky and sweaty. This was it, it was finally time to go on her date with a man that she had met a few months ago whilst on the beautifully exotic island, it had been a few years since Karen had gone on a date and she was feeling a bit rusty, understandably as she didn't want to get stood up again




An hour had gone by since he was supposed to meet her, she felt foolish, unwanted and betrayed. She left the restaurant and instead opted for a relaxing walk along the beach. The beach was calm, a light breeze brushed along her exposed arms and legs, which was a nice change from the normally humid air. She took a deep breath in, the smell of the salty sea filled her nostrils as she tried to keep herself composed. It didn't take long before the tears started streaming down her face as she remembered the excitement she was feeling to finally start looking for romance. She couldn't understand why he had turned her down, did he find someone else? someone better than her?




Suddenly a mysterious figure loomed in the distance, it slowly started approaching her. She carried on walking towards the figure, he looked familiar. She quickened her pace, all of a sudden she noticed hundreds of candles stood in the sand and on a small glass table, she couldn't believe her eyes it was beautiful. Her attention switched to the dark figure, her eyes must be deceiving her, it couldn't possibly be him could it? Before she knew it he slowly took her hand and brought her over to the candlelit table. He slowly and delicately kissed her on the lips, her heart was beating faster than it had ever beaten before, the butterflies danced. She hadn't lost him, he'd stayed.

Language and Gender Theories

Language and Gender is looking at the way language is spoken depending on the gender of the speaker, from these theories we can see how researchers have looked into the idea of gender effecting the way that we speak.




Difference Theory:
Deborah Tannen examined the differences in communication between men and women, she summarised her findings into six categories:


Status v Support:
Men see language as a way of asserting dominance to build their status; Whereas for women language is a way of confirming/supporting ideas and seeking support in some form.


Independence v Intimacy:
Women seek support and intimacy; Men favour independence and prefer to go at it alone.


Advice v Understanding:
Women seek comfort, empathy and sympathy for their problems through language; Whilst men see language as a solution or as problem solving.


Information v Feelings:
Males are concerned with communicating information and facts; Women build relationships and strengthen social links with emotion through language.


Orders v Proposals:
Men use imperatives "Close the door"; Females use hidden directives/ super polite forms "Would you mind closing the door?".


Conflict v Compromise:
Men will argue as a means of  resolving differences and then negotiating their status ; Women try to find a middle ground and will try to avoid or resolve disagreements without the need of direct confrontation.




Dominance Theory:
William O'Barr and Bowman Atkins they found that there isn't much of a difference between how and men and women speak but more of the situation that they are in, whereas the difference theory focuses on how men 'supposedly' dominate the conversation as they have always been the more powerful sex at home and in the workplace, and females have the more domestic duties.
Robin Lakoff is also a theorist who had ideas of how language is used to make women seem as though they are the weaker sex. She analysed how women speak and put together a list of certain characteristics that women use:
- Hedge( using phrases like "sort of", "kind of"...)
- (super) polite forms("if you don't mind", "if its not too much trouble")
- Use tag questions("You're going to dinner, aren't you?")
-Use empty adjectives("lovely", "adorable", "divine")
-Lack of sense of humour(women tend to not understand the punch lines of jokes and tend not to understand them.
-Apologise more("I'm sorry but I think that")
- Use more intensifiers("I'm so glad you could come today!")
-Speak less frequently
-Use indirect commands and requests("My isn't it cold in here?" this would be a hint to close a window or turn up the heating")
-Avoid expletives or coarse language
-Use modal constructions("should we turn up the heat?")
-Overuse qualifiers("I think that")
-Use "wh"- imperatives("why don't you open the door?")
-Use question intonation in declarative statements(women raise their tone of voice in declarative statements to make them questions e.g. "What school did you attend? Eaton college?")
-Have a special lexicon(Women use more word things like colours, men for sports
-Use direct quotation(Men paraphrase more often)
-Use hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation(English prestige grammar and clear enunciation
-Speak in italics(intonational emphasis equal to underlining words "so","very","quite")


Other Female Researchers:
Pilklington, Christine Howe and Ann Weatherall,all of these researchers found extra information that links with the difference theory.
Christine Howe said that:
-Men have strategies for gaining power
-Men are much more likely to respond to what is being said, keen to put their views across
-Women are more active listeners and often back channel
-Women and Men's conversational differences begin at the ages of 3-4


Pilklington found that:
-Women talk to maintain social relationships
-Women focus on feelings, personal anecdotes and relationships
-Women support and build on each other's points
-Women agree with each other frequently
-Men find long pauses acceptable
-Men disagree and challenge each others points
- Men often mock and insult each other to show competitiveness


Ann Weatherall said that:
-Women's talk is co-operative
-Men's talk is competitive
-Women often use hedging
-Women speak for less time and are less likely to interrupt
-Females use more tag questions.


In conclusion I think that gender does effect language and since researching these theories I have started to notice the way speech is changed when speaking to someone of the opposite sex.

Bibliography:
http://cooperstjulies.weebly.com/language-and-gender-engb1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_theory
http://www.universalteacher.org.uk/lang/gender.htm

Legal Transcript Analysis Plan

                                              Legal Transcript Analysis Plan

           Paragraph one:

• Overview of the text
• Bar has instrumental power(status and political power- Wareings theory)
• We assume that bar is the more dominant speaker therefore having the most power- Fairclough’s theory of unequal encounters.
   

Paragraph two:

“So many times Mr Neil” it is underlined for emphasis- gives a sense of mocking, change in tone could hint at an almost a patronising sound, which possibly indicates his authority over Mr Neil- use of bald on record. Flouting the maxim of manner.

• “er” although it seems that Bar is the more powerful figure he does use fillers this could be seen as lowering his status as we don’t necessarily think of people in power using fillers although in this circumstance it could be because he is looking at a sheet which would have notes on the case.
• “or not”//” I don’t think they did no” the overlap could show competitive and that Mr Neil is eager to prove his innocence this could show a change in power as overlapping is done by the more dominant speaker. The tone that the bar used could have suggested to Mr Neil that the question had already been asked “you can’t remember whether they came to see you?” the use of “or not” is fairly irrelevant and the question still had the same intonation.

 

          Overview:

          

As this transcript is set in a court it is clear that there is going to be a distinction between the barrister and Mr Neil. The barrister has instrumental power in the court as he is legally trained and is trying to handle the problem. Mr Neil, who is the witness tried to gain influential power in court by taking away the barristers power. The transcript tells us that the court was Scottish so there was some language change “shopped you to the police” this gave quite an informal tone and not one that we would expect from a court of law.



PEE Paragraphs:



In this text the barrister (bar) is questioning a witness (Mr Neil) about the man on trial (Mr Peterson)as it is a court case we would expect the barrister to be the more dominant speaker "isn't that right?" this showcases Norman Fairclough's theory of unequal encounters as it is his job to interrogate witnesses. The barrister has both instrumental and influential power, this is because the barrister has the power to dictate the conversation and he is in a higher political position than Mr Neil "according to you Mr Neil" demonstrating Wareings theory.


The barrister tries to showcase his authority by making Mr Neil uncomfortable “So many times Mr Neil” the use of the underlining here shows that the barrister spoke with emphasis, the tone change here could also hint at an almost patronising and mocking sound which possibly indicates his authority over Mr Neil this is flouting the maxim of manner and a use of bald on record.  In the transcript we also see an overlap "or not"//"I don't think they did no" the overlap could show competitiveness and that Mr Neil is eager to prove his innocence this could show a change in power as we tend to see overlapping done by the dominant speaker. The tone that the barrister used could have suggested that the question had already been asked "you can't remember whether they came to see you?" the use of "or not" is fairly irrelevant and the question still had the same intonation.

Norman Fairclough's Theory Of Unequal Encounters

Norman Fairclough said that in all conversations there will be a clear dominant speaker and someone who is less powerful, although this could change throughout the conversation.

In this example text of two friends speaking on the phone, we can clearly see how power has been asserted:

Maureen: hi, Juliane
Juliane: Maureen (.) hold on a mo (1) I'm just er finishing this er work off
Maureen: okay [laughs] do you want me to call you back

Although Maureen has called Juliane first and therefore has power to call her the power is taken away when Juliane stops Maureen, "hold on a mo" the use of clipping shows that it is informal and is a conversation between two friends. Fairclough's theory is clearly established here as she is asking Maureen to wait whilst she finishes off her work. Maureen then continues to lose power :"[laughs]" Maureens laughter could show negative face as she is lowering her status and giving Julianne the authority in the conversation as she now has to wait for Julianne to finish her work before the conversation can continue.