conversational anaylsis

The purpose of this conversation is to gain information  and provide information about the scene that has just happened, this is why transitional language is used. The dynamics of this text is a police officer asking a witness about details of the event which has previously taken place , a car crash. The conservation is held at a formal tone due to the severity of the situation. The witness' agenda was to provide information , they have a less formal register, this symbolises shock. The officers agenda is to find out as much information as they can about the scene, throughout the text the officer remains to a high register and uses a more formal language as he is following a general procedure.

There are many non fluency features within in this text, the constant use of pauses (or hiatus) demonstrates the shock and fright the witness is in and shows us [that they are the weaker person within the scene. When the text begins it is started off with an interrogative sentence , by the officer starting with this question it shows that they are the person with the authority.

With this text taboo and colloquial language is used. The multiple use of 'bloody' is there to emphasise the panic they are is , it also shows us that they are a passer-by in on the street and posses no form of formality and remain at a low register throughout the conversation. This idiom is dependent on the actual word , ie the way they have used bloody shows us the extremeness of the situation.There lexical choices also demonstrate their informality , for example the use of abbreviation/elision  'we'd' shows that they do not speak the Queens English and that they are using mono-syllabic words 'far' , 'long' allows them to keep the informality throughout the conversation, his constant use of informal lexis also contributes to that. the use of socialist language shows that he is from the lower class , most probably working class.

The use of ' and everything' that is used after describing the crash , the us of 'everything; is a common lexical choice and can be seen as a superlative because it is including everything and not leaving one single thing out. By using this lexis it adds a common feel to the speaker and shows them to be weaker and in shock because they are not able to go into full detail and they have to summarise the on goings of the event.

This conversation follows the discourse structure of analysis and explanation due to the situation it is set in. The witness is explaining what he has seen and the police officer is taking the information and using it for further anylasis. 

Letter anaylsis

Analysis on Agreement Homework - Mr Clifford

 

 

The agreement was written to target the primary audience of the students and the secondary audience of the students parents, in order to surve the purpose to inform students of the expectations when they reach the college, its a recipirical agreement between the student and the college to provide resources each party needs to support eachother and to ensure students behaviour. It takes a formal and serious tone with a high register , in a form of a contract. 

 

This letter is in the semantic field of education, this creates of sense of formality. This is because of the grammatical and lexical choice. Firstly , the grammatical features used throughtout this letter help create a formal and unconditional feel. The use of noun phrases , ie 'genuine concern' , the adjective genuine modifiers the noun which shows that the writer is showing real concern for the students education. Another example, ' careful and comprehensive' the adjective ' careful' modifies the noun again because it demonstrates a truth  and thoughtful concern from the other staff members. Another  example of a noun phrase within the text is 'appropriate teaching' the modifier appropriate shows that there if thought and and care taken into the teaching which is provided.

The graphological features which occur are the layout which the letter is orchastrated in, bullet points. This was choosen ,pragmatically,to cater for the audience , the students who the writer will know that have a low attention span and will only read concise and short texts.  Another graphogological feature is the bold text which key points are written in , ie ' holidays should not be taken during term time' , this clearly shows that the issue of attendance is a big issue for the school and it is crutial that the pupils attend in order fulfill their side of the argeement.

The use of 2nd person pronoun in the first paragraph , which is targetting the students , gives the letter a more personalised tone to the letter. This is completed by the common use of ' you and your' which run throughout the first half of the text. However , in the second half of the text it is aimed from the students perspective and is listing what they are agreeing to. This is illustrates by the use of ' I' within the second half , the use of 1st person pronoun shifts the responsibility of the teacher to the student , which crates a conditional contract.

The letter begins by using a declarative sentence which gives a sense of formality and sets a high register for the rest of the text. Within the first sentence the lexical choice of 'discussed' is used , this creates a thought that there has been discussion and thought on the topic of the requirements which are needed to be met. Also , in the second half of the text the lexis of ' respect' is repeated at few times throughout the second half of the agreement, this is because it has its own connonatations of respect and is hard to quantitfy.
 

connotations and

1.  Girl, woman, lady,female and laddette.

The word girl has connoation of an innocent child whom is feeble and young. The reason for these connotations are due to its common use of the word when it comes to school children and the naming of gender for the younger ages. The lexical choice of woman creates the connotation of sophistication and a form of regality. The word 'lady' creates connotations of an older woman who is living a life of wealth and is upper class. The word 'female' gives the connotatitions of a genertic labelling of the gender and can also give connotations of feminists and strongly empowered women. Lastly, the word 'ladette' gives  the impression of quite a boyish , butch women who takes the personality of a bold man.

2.  Mature, old , experienced , senior and eldery.

The word 'mature' creates the connotations of an older persopn who has experienced a lot of things in life and posses good knowledge from lessons that they have learned in life. The lexical choice of ' old' makes you think of an old ,shiverelled up woman , someone that has pasted a certain age in life and is no longer the person , or posses the charsima they use to in their younger days. 'Experienced' gives the connoatations of someone who has been through many events in life and has lived their own life to the full and has gained many life lessons on the way. The word 'senior' creates the thoughts of an older citizen who is well mannered and presented is a formal manner. 'Eldery' gives the connotations of an old person who is ageing gracefully and has still kept the integrity from their youth.

Euphemisms


To let someone go – this term is used as it is a nicer version to say someone in a business gets fires or sacked.

Senior citizen – this is used as it is nicer to call an old person this instead of old. This shows more respect.

children's book anaylsis

‘He kicked the ball, it flew for miles and miles and miles! It came back round like a boomerang...PLONK! Straight on the head. Bill fell down. ‘Ouch!’ he said. He then laid his head. He just wanted to go to bed. But, of course, he had school instead.

When Bill got home his mum asked ‘what happened to your head?’, he said ‘I blame it on Fred , he kicked a ball at my head’, Bill lied. ‘

 

I choose the use of non-lexical onomatopoeia ‘PLONK’ to emphasies the action and power of the hit and also to create a further unstanding for the children who are reading the book as they will be able to associate the noise with the action , ie the plonk as something hits another object. I also used short sentences with a rhythmic pattern in order to keep the childrens attention and for them to focus on the works and rhythm of the story.

Grammar terminology

Clauses and voice

-if you modify a verb its called a verb phrase

                -auxiliary verb-helps out the main verb

                -Primary auxiliary (be,do,have,was,has,atc…)=these often help distinguish tense. Eg he WAS running

                -modal auxiliary (may,could,might,will,can.should,etc…= these often shows possibility or necessity

Clauses

In the same way that words form phrases, phrases form larger structure.

A clause will include;       -the subject (acts as the key focus-generally the actor /agency)

                                                -the verb (this included adverbs and auxiliaries)

                                                -the object(identifies the object being acted on by the verb)

Co-ordinated clauses

-when two clauses are joined together by a conjuction

-the two clauses should make sense individually

ie.           I sat down and started my work

                I sat down

                I started my work

                I went shopping because I was bored

                I went shopping

                I was bored

Subordinate clause- there will be a main clause (a unit when it stands alone and makes sense) and a phrase that is linked to the main clause

Ie. I still went to work , althought I wish I hadn’t.

Activie voice-  the actor/agency are responsible for carrying out the verb is places in the subject position

-ie. Beastly fox injuries baby – the beastly fox is the subject in which the verb ‘ injures’ the baby

Passive voice     -its used when we don’t know the subject

                                -we don’t want the talk about the subject

                                -the subject is not the focus of the story

Passive: John Lennon shot dead

                John Lennon shot dead by twisted fan

Active : Twisted fan shot John Lennon Dead

Passive:500  killed by storm/ 500 killed and many dead

Active: Storm kills 500 people

Passive:Taxes to rise after riots

Active:local council raises taxes after riots

Verbs

Base form of verbs:

Infinitives

To sing , to think

 

Main verbs                                                                                                      auxiliary verbs

Tell you the action which                                                                              gives extra information about the

Is taking place                                                                                              main verb and can affect its meaning

 

                                                                                                Primary auxiliaries                             modal auxiliaries

(do,have and be)                                  (can ,                                                    

                                                                                                                                                             could,will,must,may,

                   shall,should)

Deontic-certianity, ie. Must , can ,will.

Epistemic- freedom ie . may , might.

Imperative-command

Verb phrases

Verb phrase is built around a head work, the main verb.

-modal auxiliaries can be placed along a continuum to show the degrees of strength

Present tense- base form+-s inflections (signs)

Past tense- base form+-ed inflection (jumped) or sing =sung

Future tense- modal auxiliary ; will or shall +base form (will sing)

‘Ing’ can be used in all three depending on the modifier before.

Verbs

A verb is a doing word.

An Adjective is a describing word

An Adverb which modifies or describes another verb

A noun is a naming word of a class of people , place and thing.

ie. Amy arrived. 

My friend Amy arrived early so we went straight to the beach.

Nouns- house , street , gas , pedestrians , light.

Common- somethingwith ‘the’ before it of.

Proper- nouns for individuals,events, places, London , Mr Clifford , v fest

Concrete- things we can see, hear, feel ,taste,smell

Noun phrase- a noun and any word that modifies that noun

                                -determiner , adjectives , propositions etc.

                                -changes the meaning

Ie. A plane crash/a horrible plane crash

                The sun/the brightest sun ever!

Adjectives

Adjectives-word/phrase describing nouns or pronouns

-the weary painter took off his blue ,green and white overalls and ate a day old Chinese meal because he felt ravenous.

3 functions          - describing word (attribute , preicative)

                                -function (evaluation , emotive , descriptive)