Discourses

• Discourse community


  A group of people who share understandings, perspectives, and forms of language use as a result of meeting regularly overtime
• Discourse


  Discourses refer to extended stretches of communication that can include whole texts.

  When considering a discourse, needs to think about genre, mode, and contexts
• Genre


  A particular type of literature or other art form which people consider as a class because it has special characteristics

  EG. horror, romance, thriller, sci-fi
• Mode 


  Mode is a means of communicating (the physical channel of it).

  It is how spoken or written a component is.

  Mode Continuum:

  (spoken) _____________(mixed mode)_____________(written)
• Context

  • G - genre
  • R - representation
  • A - audience
  • M - mode
  • P - purpose
  • T - time
• Graphology 


  The study of handwriting, especially for the purpose of analysing the writer's personality.

  • printed words, text, fonts, size
• Discourses in everyday life

  Often revealed in the metaphors we use to describe, explain, or make sense of our daily lives, and they reveal a structured way of looking at the world
• Professor Jean Aitchison 


  Shows that people who complain about language change will use a discourse based on one of these 3 models:

  • the crumbling castle
  • the infectious disease
  • the damp spoon
• The crumbling castle

  Language was once perfect and correct, and has gradually deteriorated.

  Just like a historic monument, it needs to be preserved and protected to stop more damage being done to it.
• The Infectious Disease

  Bad habits and changes are something that are spread from person to person
• The Damp Spoon

  Language change occurs because people are lazy, like when you put a damp spoon back in the sugar bowl, which makes the sugar go all cloggy and brown
• How does language change:

  • borrowing

  Has 2 different processes:

  • word formation process
  • semantic change process
• Examples of word formation process

  • conversion
  • compounding
  • blending
  • clipping
  • acronyms and initialism
  • affixation
  • back-formation
• Conversion

  A very common process where a word changes its class.

  EG. originally we sent a text (noun), now we text (verb)
• Compounding

  Common process where two or more existing words join to make a new word or phrase

  toothbrush, daydream
• Blending

  Similar to compounding but it often only takes part of existing words, and we can't see all of the words in the new blend.

  • brunch
• Clipping

  Where a word is shortened.

  • phone, gym, celeb
• Acronyms and Initialisms

  • Acronyms are words created from the initial of words in a phrase - NATO, AIDS.
  • Initialisms are 'words' where the letters are spelled out, rather than spoken as a word - BBCspeltrather
• Affixation


  Common method where prefixes/suffixes are added to the word.

  Can change the word class. - eg cloud to cloudy

  Or the meaning - anti establishment.
• Back-formation

  Rarer example of language change.

  The verb 'drive' then gave rise to a 'driver'
• Semantic change processes

  • broadening
  • narrowing
  • amelioration
  • pejoration
• Broadening

  Words can take additional meanings (and sometimes addition word classes).

  • mouse and mouse, woke is an adjective as well as a verb
• Narrowing

  Meaning of something becomes smaller.

  EG. the word 'meat' used to mean all foods, and now only refers to animal flesh.
• Amelioration

  Refers to when a word with a negative meaning gains more positive connotations.

  Often occurs in slang.

  Sometimes words used negatively to refer to a disadvantaged group can be adopted by the group and ameliorated = 'semantic reclamation'
• Perjoration


  The opposite of amelioration, where a word takes on a more negative meaning.

  Often happens with gender pairs.

  EG. master and mistress, governor and governess, bachelor and spinster