29/4/19 - Accent and Dialect Revision

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/04/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-code-switches-black-english/586723/
Codeswitching article summary: 
In the article written by John Mcwhorter, representative of some of the most multiethnic neighbourhoods in the US, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is being known by critics to be using 'verbal blackface' who are clearly linguistically misreading her as suggested by the writer who claims she is not, it is just code switching between Latina (North America origin) and Black English; and this is somehow not acceptable due to her race so her speech must be some sort of 'act', despite the fact she is Latina and grew up around it so it was bound to be in her repertoire to some extent. This happened because she supposedly 'spoke in an accent she never uses' when she sprinkled some Black English into her speech when stating 'I'm proud to be a bartender. Ain't nothing wrong with that.' by stretching 'wrong' out a bit, intoning in a way sometimes described as a 'drawl' which is used in Black English. Apparently she did this to connect to her black audience but if language was designed for connection there should be nothing wrong with that, especially as the dialect is not non-native to her and it was only codeswitching, not speaking like that continuously.

This example of a codeswitching dialect is similar to Gary Ives 2014 study as the theorist also draws links between two language individuals use as their second languages to code switch between; English and most commonly, Punjabi. Ives supports John Mcwhorter's ideas here that location or environment can be a big factor in code switching; he interestingly found that students offered a distinction in their language based on postcode, referring to some language choices as 'street' or 'BD8' and how 'BD22 language would be different and posh'. It can also depend on who you're speaking to as in the article it suggested AOC used black English more commonly with black audiences, and the 8 Bradford boys from School A in Ives study stated 'we might speak English with Mum and Dad but with our friends we add in Punjabi'; they code switch to fit into different areas of society or to create a well defined social identity.

Another accent article to possibly mention for wider reading:
 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_d_fXYBMZxR9K-ht7i6VEvWdKbQuq7aE/view

Further Summaries:

• Milroy's 'Belfast' study:

https://aggslanguage.wordpress.com/4-4-%E2%80%93-the-basic-variation-theorists-%E2%80%93-labov-trudgill-cheshire-millroy-bernstein/

- Members of a speech community are connected to each other in social networks that may be relatively 'closed' or 'open'.
- Closed network: Where a person whose personal contacts all know each other belong to. High density
- Open network: Where an individual whose contacts tend not to know each other belong to. Low density
- The links between people may be of different kinds - relatives, friends but where individuals are linked in several ways eg. job, family then network ties are multiplex.
- Relatively dense networks function as norm enforcement mechanisms and in language, meaning a closely knit group will have the capacity to enforce linguistic norms.

Aim:
- She investigated the correlation between the integration of individuals in the community and the way those individuals speak.

Procedure:
- To do this she gave each individual a Network Strength Score based on the person’s knowledge of other people in the community, the workplace and at leisure activities to give a score of 1 to 5.  5 is the highest Network Strength Score.

- Then she measured each person’s use of several linguistic variables, eg. (th) as in mother and (a) as in hat, both had standard and non-standard forms. She found a high Network Strength Score was correlated with the use of vernacular or non-standard forms.

- In most cases this meant men whose speech revealed high usage of vernacular or non-standard forms were found to belong to tight-knit social networks.

Findings:
- Conversely, vernacular or non-standard forms are less evident in women’s speech as the women belong to less dense social networks.

- However, for some variables, the pattern of men using non-standard and women using standard forms was reversed.

 Eg. In the Hammer and the Clonard more women than expected tended to use the non-standard form of (a) as in hat. Milroy’s explanation for this finding is based on the social pressures operating in the communities. The Hammer and the Clonard both had unemployment rates of around 35% which clearly affected social relationships.

- Men from these areas were forced to look for work outside the community, and shared more in domestic tasks. The women in these areas went out to work and especially the young Clonard women all worked together - meaning they belonged to a dense and multiplex network; they lived and worked together.

-Young Clonard women belong to the tight knit network that clearly exerts pressure on its members, who are linguistically homogeneous.

-Over and above gender and class differences,  Milroy discovered it was how closely or loosely knit a social group a person belonged to that determined their use of the local dialect forms. The covert prestige of such forms works in a more complicated way that previously thought.

-The idea of closed and open networks can be usefully applied to any case of language variation – e.g. the spread of MLE. Whereas in the past working class London children might've belonged to very closed networks due to changes to society - high levels of immigration, exposure to the media and greater sense of identity as teenagers as opposed to class.

• Giles 'Capital Punishment' study: http://scottenglang.blogspot.com/2017/12/howard-giles-capital-punishment.html

- Howard Giles presented 5 groups of students with an identical set of arguments about capital punishment.

-1 group received a written presentation, 4 received an oral presentation.

- One was presented by an RP speaker, one a Somerset speaker, one a South Wales speaker and a Birmingham speaker.
-First the students were asked how impressed they were with the competence of the presentations.
- RP and written presentations = deemed most impressive

- Birmingham presentation = least
- Then Giles asserted the persuasiveness of the speakers by asking the students opinions of Capital Punishment before and after the presentations.
Findings:
-Regional accents scored highest
-Those hearing regional speakers were more likely to change their mind than those hearing RP speakers or reading the printed presentation.

Conclusion:
-RP is deemed more professional and competent than regional accents although they are more persuasive than RP accents.

• Labov's 'Department Store' study (1966):

Background-
- Tested the patterns of language usage and their link to prestige and social class
- Looked at 3 different dept stores of varying degrees of prestige:
1) Saks 5th Avenue (highest)
2) Macy's (middle)
3) Klein's (lowest)
'The social stratification of the post vocalist 'r'-
-The final r sound at the end of words eg. guard, beer, fourth
-Labov tested the word 'forth' in his study and asked a question designed to elicit the answer 'fourth floor' or similar.
-He then pretended not to hear the response and asked sales assistant to repeat it. Eg. Q1) "Where can I find the lamps?" Answer: "fourth floor" Q2) "Excuse me?" answer: repeated and more careful utterance of fourth floor.
- Each employee thus could pronounce post-vocalic /r/ 4 times (twice each in fourth and floor).
Results-
-'r' in NYC was stratified by class. The pronunciation of /r/ depended on the social class membership of the employees.
- Those with higher socioeconomic status pronounced /r/ more frequently than those lower.
-62% Saks, 51% Macys, 20% Kleins.

• Bernstein and Labov:

William Labov:
Context-
- Born in 1927
- Known as one of the founders of sociolinguistics
- Professor of linguistics at Pennsylvania Uni
- Interested in how social class effected language usage

1) ****** Martha's Vineyard Study (1961)- ******
Background to study:
- Martha's Vineyard: Island off the East Coast of the USA 
- Popular summer tourist location for the 'summer people' who visit each holiday season and the local population - the 'islanders' who live there all year round who mostly live on the Eastern part of the island.
- 'Down-island': Populated island and 'Up-island': Less populated - location for fishermen.
- Fishermen: seen as desirable social group for the rest of the islanders - typified all the hard working, oldfashioned values and spoke with a very old non standard pronunciation - their vowel sounds were very different from standard pronunciation especially their diphthongs.
- Diphthongs: A sound made by combining 2 vowels, specifically when it starts as 1 vowel and goes to another eg. the oi sound in oil. Also comes from the Greek word 'dipthongos' meaning 'having 2 sounds'.
Findings:
- Labov found the young islanders were making a deliberate shift to using the old style pronunciation.
- Used language as a tool to reinforce their island identity and distance themselves from the 'summer people' who they didn't think were welcome.
- The islanders exploited this nonstandard dialect and even well educated islanders did this.

Basil Bernstein - Restricted and Elaborated code (1960s):
- Working class = restricted
- Middle / upper class = elaborated
- Access to these codes very much influenced a person's links to wealth, education, employment - general social mobility
Restricted code:
- Limited vocab
- Basic use of syntax (the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language
- High levels of redundancy (predictability)
- Used by people who share interests and experiences - heavily context dependent, high use of tag questions
- Reinforces group identity - pronunciations such as 'we'
- If a learner has access to only restricted code this will impair their learning ability
Elaborated code:
- Wider range of vocab especially adjectives
- More complex syntax
- Entropic (harder to predict)
- Less concerned with group relationship
- Expression of uniqueness and individuality - greater use of first person pronoun
- Important in education - most text books are written in this way and most teachers use it
Significance:
- Ability to switch between codes allows a greater freedom of language use and enables people to 'fit' into a wider range of situations.
- Access to the elaborated code means greater chance of success.
- Ability to shift to restricted to code is important too - understanding in all aspects ?
Criticism: Labov argues working class speech is not inferior to middle class speech, it's just as complex in many ways.

• BBC 'Voices' project:

https://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/BBC-Voices
- The project provided a snapshot of the linguistic landscape of the UK at the start of the 21st century by encouraging members of the public to contribute their words and reflect on the language they use and encounter in their daily lives.

- An online data gathering exercise carried out by BBC Nations and Regions was complemented by an audio strand: the BBC Voices Recordings.

- Between May 2004 and July 2005 group conversations were recorded in 303 locations involving 1,293 people across the UK, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.
- The vast majority of conversations were conducted in English, but the collection also includes 31 interviews in Scots, 9 in Welsh, 5 in Scots Gaelic, 3 in Irish, 3 in Ulster Scots, and 1 each in Manx and Guernsey French. The selection available here represents the entire set of conversations conducted in English and Scots.

- To ensure data was comparable across radio stations and between speaker groups, each conversation had a loose structure. This methodology was devised by researchers at the University of Leeds under the direction of Professor Clive Upton.

-  In advance of a recording session, each participant was sent a ‘spidergram’ containing a set of 40 prompt words (e.g. ’tired’, ‘to play truant’ and ‘narrow walkway between/alongside buildings’). BBC audio gatherers used this spidergram to...
- initiate discussions about alternative words and to explore participants’ attitudes to language, the reactions of others to the way they speak, their reactions to other accents, the language of their parents and/or children, the role of education in language use, the influence of the media/popular culture and attitudes to swearing and ‘bad language’.

- Detailed descriptions created by researchers in the Voices of the UK project of the linguistic content of selected recordings have been created and published which presnt linguistic features in 4 categories:

Elicited lexis: a list of responses to 40 prompt words
Spontaneous lexis: glossary of spontaneously occurring words and phrases that contrast with mainstream usage and potentially reflect regional and/or social variation (e.g. ‘slape’ [= 'slippery'] or 'court' [= 'to date/go out with'])
Phonology: an auditory assessment presented in IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) of (i) vowel sounds arranged according to Wells’ lexical sets; (ii) consonantal features (e.g. H-dropping: 'happy' [api] for /hapi/); and (iii) selected continuous speech processes (e.g. secondary contraction: 'haven’t' as [ant])
Grammar: an inventory of forms that contrast with Standard British English presented using neutral terminology (e.g. 'generalisation of simple past': that man’s never spoke to me from that day to this)

•  British Library 'Sounds' project:

https://www.bl.uk/projects/save-our-sounds
- A programme to preserve the nations sound heritage.

The nation’s sound collections are under threat, both from physical degradation and as the means of playing them disappear from production.

- Global archival consensus is that we have approximately 15 years in which to save our sound collections by digitising them before they become unplayable and are effectively lost.

The British Library is home to the nation’s Sound Archive, an extraordinary collection of over 6.5 million recordings of speech, music, wildlife and the environment (1880s to the present day). 

- We need to ensure that the existing archive is properly preserved, and that there are adequate systems in place for the acquisition of future sound production in the UK.

The Save our Sounds programme has been created to answer this imperative need. It has three major aims:

• to preserve as much as possible of the nation's rare and unique sound recordings – not just those in our collections but also key items from partner collections across the UK; in July 2017, the Library started a five-year Heritage Lottery Fund-funded project Unlocking Our Sound Heritage, helping to save the nation’s sounds and open them up online for everyone to hear
• to establish a national radio archive that will collect, protect and share a substantial part of the UK’s vibrant radio output, working with the radio industry and other partners
• to invest in new technology to enable us to receive music in digital formats, working with music labels and industry partners to ensure their long-term preservation.

Search for articles from UK newspapers on the topic of accent and dialect
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6927109/British-regional-accents-still-thriving.html

Police Text Analysis

How does text A use language to create meanings and representations?

In text A, the writer uses language to create meanings and representations through the superlative 'proudest' used towards the end of the informal interview. This is reinforced to focus on the positive aspects of the career and represents the police profession as rewarding because of the work they do. The superlative also contributes to the overall purpose of text A as it attempts to represent the police force as accessible and appealing for their target audience; teenagers who are looking for a career path.

Additionally, the whole text contributes to attempting to influence this particular age group into policing through the graphology that is clearly portrayed. The writer intends to inform their audience about the police but simultaneously uses it's secondary purpose to persuade with the police being such a high status industry to go into. Therefore, bright colours such as vibrant green for sub boxes have been used to make the text captivating for the intended audience, and the urban, graffiti font has also been used to appeal to young people as it looks exciting and engaging.

Moreover, the discourse structure of the interview style being simplistic makes it easier to read combined with the related images and again age appropriate as it does not include an excessive amount of colloquial terms that young people would find hard to interpret. Despite this, a colloquial term that the age group will inevitably be familiar with is the noun 'cop' indulged in the hyperlinks 'being a cop' and the interrogative 'could you be a cop?' The term 'you' evokes a direct address as it opens a dialogue and the use of hyperlinks overall give access to the entire website to explore the profession in depth; it is appropriate for the adolescents and the simplistic lexis helps to support this.

How does text B use language to create meanings and representations?  
   
In text B, the regional police departments are using the social platform of Twitter as a way of connecting with the West Midland / Solihull residents more locally. Firstly, the text begins with a humorous slogan in the first tweet '#EatSleepBarkRepeat' which is used as a pun for the song 'Eat Sleep Rave Repeat'. This presents the police as being down to earth and attempting to be cool and 'current' to grab their intended audience's attention, thus being the residents who are twitter uses so mostly middle age adults who are interested in keeping up with occurrences in the West Midland and Solihull area. The police have also attached an image of one of their police dogs to this tweet which allows a more personal insight into the police profession.

In addition, the verb jailed has been used in capital letters to highlight the significance of the tweet and grab the readers attention that the two 'career criminals', used through the technique of alliteration, have been jailed with them having over 100 previous convictions. It also adds to a serious tone that the police may be trying to portray, despite text B being informal, as the police industry is one of the most, if not the most high status job in the UK and anything reported is not to be taken lightly. The rhyming statement used with an ellipsis to close  'It's not wise to advertise..' has also been used in a tweet to emphasise a warning but not in a way that would scare the twitter users into doing so, the police department are just using their purpose to inform residents about thieves and how they could prevent robbery happening to them.

However, in some tweets, like the first with the catchy hashtag previously mentioned and in another published on February 13th, the police go against the serious tone interpreted as they state 'Here's a bit of a challenge tweeps'. The lexical terms 'challenge' and 'tweeps' makes the tweet more fun and connecting to the Twitter users, and the fact they finish it with the use of an emoticon ':-)' adds to this intention.

Text A and B comparison:
Similarly in both texts A and B, the writer has used a variety of techniques to in a sense, promote the police industry to be something appealing to everyone through the positive tone each text portrays. For example, in Text A, the writer has designed the interview to look modern through the fun, graffiti font in the heading and bold colours to make the site overall look more visually pleasing to the eye. This is likewise to Text B which has used Twitter, one of the most commonly used social media platforms, to provide local users with frequent news and updates but in an entertaining way, through the use of hashtags and naming their audience using the plural noun 'tweeps' for instance, which guides them away from the more serious tone which is being in police profession as it is such an important, high status job.

Opinion Article on Teenspeak

The colossal world of Teenspeak: is it like advantageous or insignificant?

In society, there are several different attitudes to the way teenagers decide to communicate. Some say that their language helps to shape your identity as you develop therefore it should be celebrated, such as linguist Vera Regan who concluded that language reflected and performed individuals' profiles as its a way for someone to express their identity. Whereas others hold the view that the informal, non-standard variants of English they often use and the slang they express should be questioned for the unprofessionalism it creates, therefore is judged for being restrictive and inferior. This being said, the biggest critics seem to be the teachers of the teenspeak on teenagers today; parents and teachers. So is it fair to make such an immediate verdict and label us as 'uneducated' when in reality, nothing can be changed? I think not. It is clear to me that the teenage language is much more wise than some may think and the fact that it get's disenchanted is unnecessary. Let me explain why...

For centuries, slang has been seen in a negative light as it has been justified by many as 'lazy language' used by teenagers and in general it is just too hard to understand. Why should this matter though? As recent research suggests, Eckert (2003) for example reinforces the idea that "slang is used to 'establish a connection to youth culture and to set themselves off from the older generation.. to signal coolness, toughness or attitude." and to an extent I agree. If speaking differently to how others have in different generations make teenagers feel better about themselves then I don't see why their language should be championed. This leads me on to support another current linguist, Vivian de Klerk (2005) who draws to the conclusion that teenagers feel the need to diverge to establish themselves as different from 'their parents, other adults and other young people' meanwhile distinguish themselves as a distinctive social group. She argues that young people have the freedom to 'challenge linguistic norms' so this is the strategy they should take to do so.

Additionally, slang should not be blamed for fabricating diversity in society or giving modern language a bad reputation because words we commonly use now have been used for as long as language has existed and some are yet to realise this. For example, children use the word 'like' but this same preposition has been used for years on end, by people of all ages, just in a different way. So isn't it a bit hypocritical that teenagers should have their speech criticised despite the fact it's stemmed from previous generations? Let's think about this. Yes. We all know you all love to stereotype all us teens into one unsocialble group and boast about how we're all the same, that our textspeak is becoming a part of our everyday, face to face communication if that's even an occurance anymore etc, etc, blah, blah, blah. But surprisingly, linguistic change is far more common in teenagers than anyone else, especially in the coining of new lexical terms for example. Shock? Well, instead of being so quick to judge and tarring us all under the same brush, it needs to be taken into consideration that, as Penelope Eckert establishes, we can't state that all people in an age group will share the same linguistic characteristics because as I previously expressed, no teenager is the same! Instead, we need to consider that 'age is a person's place at any given time in relation to the social order: a stage, a condition, a place in history'. It's agreeable, textspeak has had a huge influence on teenspeak in the past few years, positively and negatively, and as John McWhorter mentioned in his 2013 TED talk; 'Texting is killing language' that texting is now called 'fingered speech', meaning we're starting to text the way we talk. Nevertheless, I think that with the knowledge teenagers have today, it's easy not to get our text talk and formal language mixed up, especially with important job interviews I can assure you sentences wouldn't end with 'innit' or 'wtf'. And with there being a 'GCSE results rise in 2018 despite exams shake up', we seem to be doing just fine.

In closing, I think that attempting to mute teenager's voices and not allowing them to use language how they please is simply a silly idea. Language is constantly evolving and new words are continuously entering the scene, so before you blame teenagers for the cause of this, maybe think about focusing on more widespread issues than this mediocre one.

Teenspeak and Attitudes to Teenspeak Article Questions

Teenspeak

1. If we are to assume that we do speak differently at various times in our life, how could you argue that age is the most significant factor?
We could argue that age is the most significant factor due to the fact we speak differently at various times in our lives because we sometimes converge our language to fit a specific social group. For example, the way we speak as a teenager in the company of our group of friends would be different to how we speak to our grandparents as language is more restricted around those where we think carefully about what we say, as we most likely wouldn't swear.

2. What is your opinion on the view that 'life events' are more influential and more significant on our language than age?
Occupational lexis could come from life events such as particular jobs that could influence your language, as in different working environments they require different communication skills not only to customers but also to colleagues.

3. What 'life events' may influence your language? (Consider the age groups 13-17, 18-25, 30's, 50's, elderly/retired) Becoming a teenager may influence your language as you begin to associate yourself with a larger group of different people and pick up things said by others. But as you turn an adult, you start working so you take things said more into consideration but you also have the right to speak more freely, for example use taboo language as much as you please. In your 30's you may have children so your language is bound to mature, as you want your child to grow up properly adapting the right language skills and when you're elderly/retired you're at the stage when you have learnt all you need to know about different ways of speaking so it should stay the same for years forward.

Attitudes to Teenspeak

A 2010 newspaper article entitled 'The teens who can barely talk' presents a far less positive view of teenspeak.

1. What does the article suggest contributes to the drop from knowing 40,000 words to using 800?
The article states that children are being warned they may become unemployable or it will be harder to find jobs if action doesn't take place on their communication skills. They are said to be spending too much time communicating through electronic media and text messaging which is short and brief, restricting them from understanding the difference between their textspeak and formal language needed to succeed in life.

2. Do you agree with this argument?
I do agree to some extent that social media is limiting communication as it is a fact that teenagers spend far too much time on their phones and much less time speaking in real life, and even sometimes text speak like the word 'lol' can be brought into everyday communication. However a lot can be learnt through social media and it can help to broaden individual's vocabulary so this argument isn't completely true in my opinion.

3. Do you agree that teenagers having their own language is their way of saying 'we are different'. Is it inventive, ever changing and brilliant? I think that teenagers language is different to someone in their 50's for example but I don't think it is something intentional that teenagers to use to expose their uniqueness and brilliance. It is one of the most significant periods in your life where you and your language develops so it is bound to be constantly changing depending on who you choose to associate yourself with.

4. What is your opinion on the comment that 'some disadvantaged children don't know that there is a different way of speaking in a job interview'?
I think that this statement is true for some because those disadvantaged may not get the same opportunities as some to get a job interview therefore won't know that you have to converge your language from the norm to make it more appropriate to the mature setting an interview takes place in. But if you're disadvantaged but have still been brought up properly to be polite and formal then this should not be an issue for all.

Language & Gender Xmas Essay

Evaluate the notion that male language is superior and more authoritative when compared to female language.

Overtime, there has been a heavy and heated argument over male and female language and whose is more superior in this case. It has been indepthly studied by several linguists, some arguing on one hand that male language has and always will be more superior due to the twisted gender norms existent in our modern, patriarchal society today, but others still hold rigid views at the opposite end of the spectrum conveying that there is evidence that female language is not as incapacitated as many may think. Nevertheless, in this essay I will prove to you that in a body, despite immense progress in women's language throughout time, that male language is in fact more superior and more authoritative when compared to female language.

A debate to support this statement that male language is more superior and authoritative to female language is to firstly contrast their differences in language through a biological aspect. An article from newspaper 'The Guardian' called 'Male and Female brains: the REAL differences' helps to outline this as the confirmation proving the differences which came from the study has been roundly criticised by neuroscientists. However, they discovered some genuine differences that simply can't be denied. The article uses the lexical term 'confirms' in inverted commas to reinforce the idea that it's easy to 'confirm' even the most surreal of notions with brain imaging techniques, as well as putting emphasis on not only the term but the topic as a whole. However, more towards the point - The Guardian states there have been scientific factors discovered such as genetics, location, size, connections, pain sensation and specialisation which all link to the brain and how different parts of male and female's brains contrast. They suggest that male brains are bigger which could evoke they have more knowledge, as their brains are 'hardwired to be paid more, occupy more powerful roles and positions etc' whereas the female brain is 'hardwired to get more harassment and oppression, develop worrying obsessions with physical appearance'. The adjective 'hardwired' automatically makes the reader assume that men's authority is a natural trait, and society has only had a little influence in shaping their identity. It also makes out men to be seen as more superior to women not only mentally but physically too while trying to communicate.

A theorist who supports the view that women are the weaker sex in terms of language, automatically putting men in a position of authority and superiorness is Robin Lakoff. Lakoff, who created the Deficit Approach (1975) asserted that in a nutshell, women's language is more polite and because they are better well mannered, the features they use demonstrate their weakness. He also conveys the attitude that women are 'socialised to believe that asserting themselves strongly isn't nice or ladylike or even feminine' which could evoke why the amount of time women get to speak is sparse, due to women being held back over speaking up by men. Although a critism of Lakoff's approach is that it is outdated as it is over 40 years old, so the accuracy of his findings could be questioned as they may no longer be relevant. Despite this, the fact that women's femininity is being questioned here shows the extent of how inferior they are compared to the opposite sex which makes the age of Lakoff's findings inapplicable in this case.

Another reason that helps to prove that men's language is more superior is to look at how those labelled as an authority figure view gendered language. Let's take Professor Richard Lynn for example, who is known as one of Britain's 'top dons'. In an article he made for the daily mail, he highlighted in the title 'Sorry, men ARE more brainy than women'. Firstly, the adjective 'Sorry' at the beginning of this syntax demonstrates an unapologetic tone as clearly the writer does not want to apologise for admitting the truth. This is the followed by the conjunction 'ARE' in capital letters which reinforces the idea that this is a straight fact that deserves no argument. The adjective 'brainy' also used in this syntax suggests that again, men's authority and knowledge is being referred back to the power of science. The article then discusses the psychologists perspectives on the lexical term 'ingtellegence' - as it is described to be made up of a range of cognitive abilities including reasoning, problem solving, spatial ability, general knowledge and memory. In all of these, men outperform women which helps to explain why in terms of evolutionary psychology, men have emerged as the more intellegent sex. They have possessed far sharper minds of those of women and their superior foreign language skills also help to explain this. For that reason, this knowledge could imply why men hold such a high status as they use their intellgence over women in their everyday language to be more provocative.

However, not everyone would agree with this viewpoint as some hold the belief that simply not all women's language is inferior and in some cases can even be seen as superior to men's. This is coincidential as a male individual who argues this who again, is known as an authority figure, is the previous president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, who has had high experience in language in various regions and nationalities from all the speeches he's made and political debates he has encountered. In an online opinion article taken from The Guardian, author Julie Bindel, a lifelong feminist, freelance journalist and political activist, proposes that due to the forcefulness of patriarchy, women are evidently more competent than men. She believes that after years of living in an unequal society, women have developed certain skills as a result of this tyranny, and she even enforces that as Barack Obama argues, women make better bosses and leaders because "men seem to be having some problems these days". As well as this, linguist Deborah Cameron shares this different perspective with her modern (2008) Dynamic Approach. Cameron challenges the ideas by Lakoff that language between men and women is different as she expresses "the idea that men and women...use language in very different ways and for very different reasons is one of the great myths of our time."  The lexical term 'myth' metaphorically used here is implying that she doesn't believe in the idea of supposed miscommunication. Almost as if it's a fairytale. Her work is also representative of recent language and gender studies that have moved away from categorising male and female speech styles as polarised, as well as analysing gender identities, how speakers perform and construct them and how language is influenced by stereotypes. Similarily, theorist and psychologist Janet Hyde, also contributed to the Dynamic Approach in 2005 but with her gender similarities hypothesis. She practically refuses that men are indeed more superior as she states there are more similarities than differences in male and female language and that gender does not really make much of an impact. She says where there are differences, they may be due to other variables such as age, class, ethnicity etc.

To conclude, it is obvious that men's language is more superior and authoritative than women's. Despite gendered language reflecting the enduring issues society faces on a day to day basis, and therefore helping to imply sexist ideas, there still remains an abundance of evidence to support this statement and further research has too. It is highly likely that this notion will stay relevant for years to come regardless of gradual change or progress in language.

Accent and Dialect Exam Question

To what extent do you agree that accent and dialect is a performance of our identity?

I completely agree that accent and dialect is a performance of our identity and has been progressively over time. This is because in modern society, different types of groups speak with different ethnolects. This is most evident in grime artists outside London who have hugely increased in popularity as the culture has become much more widespread.

Furthermore, I also believe that the growth of MLE transforming into MUBE (Multicultural Urban British English) has produced further evidence to suggest that our accent is a performance of our identity, which is often a conscious decision. I maintain this because adding to the impact grime music has on modern society, many artists from various ethnicities and different backgrounds have become more well known as they seem to have the bigger influence on listeners. Initially, grime artists from other regions adopted MLE as a way of emulating the successful London movement, however gradually regional variation began to slip through which eventually made some grime artists outside London decide to rap in their own dialects, with some not choosing to mask this part of their identity. Therefore they are using their ethnolinguistic repertoire of music to identify themselves in a powerful way.

However, the performance of our identity being controlled by accent and dialect can not always be portrayed in a positive way. Instead, it sometimes has the ability to expose individuals true identities. This is proven by the controversial hip-hop persona Iggy Azalea. In a post published on 'Linguabishes', linguists reveal the false identity that Azalea shows through being a part of the music industry. She is not only conveyed to perpetuate several stereotypes but shows her complete ignorance and obliviousness through the non-regional lexical terms she uses in the content she produces and by not sticking to her true language background which several other white rappers have demonstrated they are capable off.

So, in conclusion, despite accent and dialect illustrating the pros and the cons of them being a performance of our identity, I still completely agree that is what it really is in any circumstance, as it can also be interpreted as a type of socialisation that helps us develop into a community and shapes us as an individual in society.

Iggy Azalea LinguaBishes Article Summary

In this article, it is discussed through in depth linguistic analysis by linguists such as Maeve Eberhardt and Kara Freeman about how music artist Iggy Azalea, also known as a hip-hop persona, is a reference for linguistic appropriation as she uses her white privilege to identify herself but in an ignorant way that doesn't meet cultural standards or expectations. It suggests that in this era, 2018, there are plenty of artists in the industry successfully monetising hip hop and black culture who are white, which is significant as white people now comprise the majority of listeners. There are also many white rappers such as Eminem who is approved of as they stay true to their language backgrounds by only using the linguistic features he grew up with and not trying to portray another image or cross over into linguistic varieties from groups they don't belong to. This is comparison to people such as 'linguistic blackface' Azalea who is described to not only promote several stereotypes including her hyper-sexuality and support subvert standards as for example she stated in one of her interviews 'everybody loves a pretty white girl' which implies her lack of knowledge towards the importance of race in the US. Therefore the article as a whole criticises the fact Azalea uses her music as a way so obliviously to make herself known and more popular by using non-regional lexical items so freely and using AAE (African American English) features in her performances, ignoring their grammatical rules which is an issue as it can be seen as supporting a racist status.

https://linguabishes.com/2018/01/01/first-things-first-im-the-realest/