Language and culture - Essay Example

? LANGUAGE AND CULTURE By: Option In the conversation between the two female the influence of context on conversation can be seen. It is often suggested that people will adjust their choice of words in language depending on the circumstance and context. The relationship between the two speakers is also one of the determinants of the choice of words in the conversation. When people are in formal situations, they are more likely to use formal language and ensure that they have a strict application of the rules of grammar. When they find themselves in an informal situation, the rules of grammar are more likely to be relaxed. The same case applies to the relationship between the two speakers. If the relationship is a formal one for example a student talking to his professor, then there will be a strict application of the rules and structure of grammar. In cases where the relationship between the two speakers is informal such as in the two students, the conversation is not likely to follow the strict application of the rules and structure of grammar. In the conversation, it can be seen that the two students do not concentrate on explicitly expressing their thoughts. This attributes to the fact that their conversation is mostly informal and as such, they do not feel the need to avoid ambiguity. The two students have a lot of shared knowledge and therefore there is a lot of reference to the information that is shared or known to the two of them. The context in this case refers to the information that is not expressly communicated in the statements that are made but which is important and relevant to the understanding and interpretation of the discourse or the utterances that are made. An example of this from the conversation is ‘what will we share with them?’ The ‘them’ in this case is not specified. This is because the two speakers are aware of who is referred to as ‘them’. The use of pronouns is also seen in the discourse. As is a feature of informal speech, the discourse uses a lot of personal pronouns for example ‘them, she, they’ and so on. This is as a result of the shared body of knowledge that exists between the two speakers. They are therefore able to make references to the shared knowledge by making use of the pronouns. The use of ‘who’ as seen in the conversation is also a feature of informal speech as opposed to ‘whom’ which would be used in a formal context. Grammatical ellipsis has also been used in many instances in the discourse. This is where material that has already been presented in the discourse is omitted. Another observation that can be made in the discourse is the use of contraction. This is usually a common feature in an informal speech. In ellipsis, the omission of words is deliberate when the words that are omitted are expected to be understood from the context. Contraction refers to the practice of shortening words by omitting some of the internal letters in the word. This practice is different from the use of acronyms where initials of the letters are used. It is also different from abbreviation. In the discourse, contractions have been used on several occasions such as in ‘E’m’ instead of them, and ‘gonna’. Lexical density refers to the ratio of content words to the grammatical words that are used in any form of discourse be it spoken or written. In analyzing the conversation between the two students, one can find that the content ratio is low. This means that there are fewer content words than those that would be found in a formal discourse. The conversation is therefore easy to follow and understand. The level of politeness in a given discourse is often dependent on the relationship that exists between the participants of the discourse. In formal situations, it is likely that there will be a higher level of politeness than in the informal situations. In the discourse, there is no adherence to politeness in discourse because of the familiarity that exists between the two speakers. As such, they do not follow the rules of grammar that apply to politeness. Questions also form a great part of the discourse between the two students. Most of the conversation takes place in the question and answer format. The questions are however formatted in such a way that there is a level of information that is known to both the speaker and the listener. The questions therefore contain many pronouns referring to the shared knowledge. Conversations often contain adjacency pairs. Adjacency pairs refer to the smallest units in a conversation in which the exchange of information takes place in turns between the speakers. The information that is contained in the turns that are taken by the different speakers is related to each other. In this discourse, there are several ways in which adjacency pairs can be identified. One such instance of the occurrence of the adjacency pairs in the discourse in the question and answer forms that are exchanged between the two speakers. An example of the question and answer is: F809 what will we share with them? [Laugh] F810 [laugh] some words of wisdom. [laugh] [laugh] [inhale] I don't think I've got any words of wisdom for today. F809 Shall we talk about where we're from? Question and answer adjacency pairs can also be seen in: F809 What are you writing about? F810 [laugh] [sniff] Hm, the significance of the pentangle in "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"( http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/corpus/search/document.php?documentid=803). Dysfluency can also be observed in the discourse where there are words that keep on being repeated in the conversation. This has the effect of breaking the smooth flow of the conversation. Laughing in the discourse has also been used as a form of dysfluency. Non standard language is any form of language that deviates from the standard language. The deviation from the standard form of language is realised at the level of grammar. This is because in the non standard language, the strict application of the rules of grammar does not apply. In informal language, there is often a familiar and casual use of language. In the discourse, the two speakers repeatedly use slang to express themselves. The slang words that are used in the discourse are understood by both the speaker and the listener and are common within their particular group which is young students. The use of slang in this discourse can be explained to be based on the common understanding that is shared by the two speakers. Representation of speech/thought is realised in the way that the speaker uses words. It is said that there is often a lapse of time that occurs between the time that the speaker forms an idea in his head and when he actually expresses this idea. In the discourse, the two speakers show ease in expressing their thoughts because of the informal nature of their interactions. The lapse of time between when the idea is formed in the speaker’s mind and when the thought is expressed in words is filled by the use of filler words such as ‘ehm’ and ‘erm’. This are filler words that give the speaker time to chose the words that she wants to use in the discourse. From the discourse, one can therefore conclude that context is an important consideration in the analysis of any discourse. The formality or informality of the discourse is also an important consideration in the application of the rules of grammar and sentence structure. Informal conversations have also been found to be more dependent on the context than would be the case in formal conversations. Option Two To effectively pass information to the intended audience, it is critical to use a language captivates that audience. To achieve this, it is critical that one understands the culture of the group as proposed by Carter et al. (2001, p. 87) who observed that language and culture are strongly related. Carter et al. (2001, p. 87) asserts that language is a verbal representation of culture. With advent of technology, websites are widely used to inform people on diverse issues. Crystal (2001, p. 6) argues that the language used on the websites determines how the site is able to draw and keep readers attention. In addition, language plays a critical role in informing persuading and instructing the audience. This section will analyse the use of language and visuals in Talk to Frank website. Talk to Frank is a government sponsored website to inform people on the drug abuse. It carries various sections where visitors can acquire valuable information on illegal drugs. The website employs persuasive language to draw people to access it. The heading; ‘The Highs, The Lows and Everything in Between’ used on the website captures the attention of the visitor when they open the site. The language used is in conformance with the recommendations of Aristotle who as observed by Crystal (2001, p. 63) noted that language used should be ordinary but the speaker should give it a touch of importance. By use of language, the heading brings out a sense of importance in what is carried in the website since it implies that it discusses everything to do with drugs. The heading has been elevated to bring out the sensitivity of the topic. In coming up with the heading, the culture of drug users have been considered since they always refer to a feeling of high when the abuse drugs and therefore it effectively captures their attention. The websites avoids use of strange words to ensure that the readers understand the content. On the website, the words used have diverse etymology. ‘Drugs from A to Z’ which appears as a section in the website is a historical work on drugs as noted by Lowinson, Ruiz, Millman (2005). Since the works in the book gave diverse and in-depth information on illegal drugs, the websites has employed the same title to give confidence to the viewers on the authenticity of its information. The word slang used here is found in lexicon in discussions of things considered as taboo as explained by Carter et al. (2001, p. 87). It has been used in the website to inform people on the illegal nature of drug abuse. It is also a form of using language to capture attention since the viewer would be persuaded to go to the A-Z section to get the slang words used in illegal drug. The etymology of the word drug as observed by Lowinson, Ruiz, Millman (2005) is Anglo-French who used to refer to dry substances with medicinal value as droge. The word is widely used in Europe and therefore its intended audience is well aware of its meaning. To achieve its mission of informing the audience, the language used is in the form of questions. Section heads on the website are brought out in the form of questions such as ‘Are you under the influence?’ Carter et al. (2001, p. 60) asserts that questions capture the attention of the audience in addition to informing them on the information they can get. When questions are used, they trigger the mind of the person to become keen on the information that follows. The websites also ensures that it informs the audience by breaking the issues discussed into various sections which help to ensure each topic is adequately addressed. Moreover, informed by the fact that different people require different information as argued by Crystal (2001, p. 63), the website uses a language that is generally acceptable across all the social groups. The language used on the website employs presuppositions. This is brought out in different words used for heading. The website presupposes that many people may be either under influence or may be worried of their friends’ drug use behaviour. It also presupposes a situation where a person maybe under pressure to get into drugs. This is a way to capture a person since one would feel that the information comes from a person who has gone through the same. There is use of connotations in some phrases in the website such as the phrase ‘drugs on the brain’. A connation as defined by Carter et al. (2001, p. 37) is a phrase or word that to describe something positive or negative. He further explains that connotations carry emotional or subjective association. They help in persuasion of the audience to understand the impact of their behaviour. The connotation also acts as a way of informing people that indeed drugs have an impact on a person’s brain. There is use of puns on the website. Carter et al. (2001, p. 73) explains that pun refers to a way of playing with words to create fun and suggest multiple meanings. The websites carries a heading ‘the highs, the lows and everything in between’ as a way to ridicule the feelings that drug users get. The pun can be interpreted to bring out diverse meanings where one may interpret that the high feeling is experienced after taking of drugs, lows is experienced by those who do not take while everything else in between may refer to time when a drug user has not taken a drug. The low may also be interpreted to mean when a drug user has not used it while everything else could refer to when they have taken the drug in limited amounts. This therefore captures the people’s attention as they want really understand the intended meaning. The language on the website has employed phonology as a way of informing and capturing the attention of the audience. The word order has been changed to produce a particular sound and meaning. The word syntax of the phrase ‘drugs on the brain’ is a way to draw a person’s attention on the impact of drugs to their brain. The website uses polite language in instructing people to share their story. They have a section under the heading ‘share your story’ where people with different experiences on drug can share their stories. This was intended to instruct people to share experiences on drug use but has been done politely so that no one feels coerced to participate. The grammar used on the website does not take into consideration the imperatives of grammar. This is evident from the stories carried by the website. This can be explained by the fact that the social group that uploads stories to the website is diverse. These stories recount stories of drug use by different people and since the provision is flexible to allow sharing of information grammar is compromised. The pronoun mostly used in the stories is I which gives more persuasion to the information being passed. To enhance communication, visuals have been used to augment the language used on the website in passing information. There are pictures of a woman being helped by two men which could be that she passed out following drug abuse. The visuals which form the background on the website are dark to show that illegal drugs are consumed and sold in hidden places. In conclusion language may be used in different ways to capture, inform and instruct the audience. Language interacts with culture closely and language used depends on the target audience. Visuals may be used to enhance communication and especially in websites. References Carter, R. et al 2001, Working with texts, 2nd Edition. London: Routledge Crystal, D 2001, The Language of the internet Cambridge: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press http://www.scottishcorpus.ac.uk/corpus/search/document.php?documentid=803 Lowinson, J., Ruiz, P.; Millman, B and Langrod, J (eds) 2005, Substance Abuse: A Comprehensive Textbook, 4th Ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Read More