Skinner's theory.

I think the list of 50 first words does back up Skinner's theory as they are all words that the mother would say frequently to their child. For example 'shoes' 'bowl' and 'book' would all be words that are involved in the child's daily routine, which could lead to them imitating their parents by wanting to ask for a story, food, or to get dressed. This also leads to the child expanding their vocabulary which would impress their parents leading to praise, which increasing the child's confidence in wanting to try and use more words. This being Operant Conditioning  Also, words like 'no' 'yes' 'ta' are all words that are said in day to day conversations, and words especially like 'ta' or 'please' would lead to the child getting positive reinforcement meaning the parents would praise their child when they say the right words in the correct context, or by being polite by verbal or non verbal praise like saying 'well done, that's it' or by giving the child their favourite toy or a sweet. Although to dispute this, the word 'wassat' is not what a parent would say to their child, by it being a mixture of two words it shows the child's development on their own without their parents help or rewards.

Child first words

A child's first words are mainly names of objects or actions. This being words that their parents would of taught them or they would have experienced at home with their family whilst completing their daily routine. For example 'bubbles' being learned during bath time, and 'cup' 'spoon' and 'bowl' for meal times, as well as 'book' for story time before bed. By looking at different children's first words it shows the development of the basic words like 'hi' to 'hiya' which is less formal and copied from their family members. All the words learned can be seen or felt. They are known as content words rather than function words. Content words are like nouns and adjectives and open word classes. Children make up their own words like 'wassat' showing their development in trying to ask questions with only using the needed phonemes.

Saving precious Penny

This written text is a persuasive and informative leaflet for young adults aged 16-25 about railcards.
The graphology in this text shows similarity towards movie posters. Female representation is important in this text, having a stereotypical attractive female looking longingly after an stereotypical attractive male who appears to look like he's in a dilemma. Also, writing at the bottom looks like the small print on film posters with the same font. Including capitalisation and bigger font in the middle of the sentence to emphasis important information. The title includes a pun, having a play on words with the word 'Penny' which could mean both a name and money. As well as 'precious Penny/ being an alliteration. There is a romance theme throughout with love hearts all over the piece as well as on top of the letter 'i'. There is also an rhetorical question 'but can he get her back?' like an narrative hook on a movie poster, to interest the audience into finding out more. The imperative sentences 'Buy..' and the use of personal pronouns 'you' are persuasive devices to persuade the audience to buy the railway card. There is also a symbol to show the age range for the audience that looks the age certificate in movies.

Research. Peter Trudgill

Peter Trudgill.

Norwich speech was studied by Peter Trudgill in the 1970s to find out how and why people's ways of speaking varied.

One of the variables Trudgill studied was the final consonant in words like walking, running.

The gerund 'ing' being replaced with the just the 'n' like walkin and talkin

he then realised it was not unique to just Norwich and that i could also establish social class.

Findings.

1. In all social classes, the more careful the speech, the more likely people were to say walking rather than walkin'.
2. The proportion of walkin' type forms was higher in lower social classes.
3. The nonstandard -in' forms occurred much more often in men's speech than in women's, and this was true for all social classes.
4. When women were questioned about what they thought they were saying, they tended to say they used the standard -ing forms more often than they really did.
5. When men were questioned about what they thought they were saying, they tended to say they used the nonstandard -in' forms more often than they really did.

this showing that females care more about their language, whereas males don't. They would rather say they were informal and spoke with non-standard English. This could mean women try to increase their power and social class through their language whereas men don't as they already have a higher status through their gender and don't need to worry.

Research. Robin Lakoff

Robin Lakoff.

Women’s language was distinguished in a number of ways including:

1.     Hedging- uncertainty and lack of authority e.g. ‘sort of’

2.     Super polite forms – ‘If you don’t mine please may you..’

3.     Hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation- e.g. women avoid ‘ain’t’ or double negatives

4.     Tag questions – show that women want approval from their utterances e.g. ‘I’m coming with you, all right?’

5.     Speaking in italics – women use exaggerated intonation or stress for emphasis, expresses uncertainty e.g. ‘I am very frustrated with you’ 

6.     Empty adjectives approval- Lakoff claims that if a man uses these terms he appears more feminine as it damages his masculine prestige e.g. ‘divine, lovely, adorable, delightful and sweetie’

7.     Use of implication- Lakoff claimed women use this because they do not feel the authority to give orders e.g. ‘it’s cold in here, isn’t it’ instead of ‘shut the window’

8.     Special lexicon- Lakoff states that such words are trivial and evidence of the fact that women have been allowed control over unimportant things e.g. purple of blue women would say ‘lilac’ or ‘violet’

9.     Question intonations in declarative statements- women raise the pitch of their voice at the end of statements expressing uncertainty e.g. ‘Dinner’s in half an hour?’

10.  Sense of humour lacking- Lakoff argued that women don’t joke as much or understand jokes.

11.  Speak less frequently – men speak more often than women, proves women to be less certain of themselves.

12.  Indirect speech- ‘Wow, I’m so thirsty’ instead of asking for a drink.

13.  Avoid coarse language of expletives

14.  Apologies- ‘I’m sorry, but I think that… ’

Robin argued that women’s language is polite and gives the impression that women are weaker and less certain than men, justifying the treatment of women as having low status and men’s treatment towards women. Along with their lack of power.