PURCOM

• Prescriptivists


  People who set down rules for correct language use, educated members of society who have the power to sanction speakers for not following language rules, equate correctness to strict observance of the rules of grammar
• Descriptivists


  Describe the language without being hypercritical or expressing judgement, do not tell you how you should speak, they describe your basic linguistic knowledge
• Message


  Information conveyed in the communication process, pertains to any recorded message that is physically independent of its sender or receiver, an "assemblage" of signs constructed (and interpreted) with reference to the convictions associated with a genre and in a particular medium of communication
• Medium


  Broad categories as speech and writing or print and broadcasting, or relate to specific technical forms within the mass media or the media of interpersonal communication
• Aspects to consider when composing oral or written text


  • Text type
  • Purpose
  • Intended audience
• Aspects of text structure and language


  • Organization of information
  • Verbal and/or non-verbal expression
• Aspects of text presentation


  • Layout
  • Format
  • Length
  • Oral delivery
  • Conventions (e.g. spelling, referencing)
• Example of ill-translated text to English


  • Car and owner for sale
  • Can be reconstructed as 'Car and owner-type jeepney for sale'
• Semiotics


  Involves the study of signs in everyday speech, as well as anything which stands for something else, signs take the form of images, sounds, gestures and objects
• Signifiers


  Sounds and images
• Signification


  Relationship between the signifier and the signified
• Semiosis


  The process by which a culture produces signs and/or assigns meaning to signs, a social activity involving subjective factors
• Signifier and signified examples


  • Stick man figure signifying Man
  • Smoke signifying Fire
• Mass media

  Type of communication that uses technology to simultaneously reach a wide audience
• Multimodal text

  Combines two or more of the five semiotic systems: linguistic/textual, visual, audio, gestural, and spatial
• Two main varieties of English

  • American English
  • British English
• Differences between American and British English

  • Vocabulary
  • Pronunciation
  • Spelling
  • Grammar
• The rhotic speech of the first British settlers in America eventually became non-rhotic in the south of England, which then became the standard
• Pronunciation differences between American and British English

  • Differences in stress
  • Pronunciation of words ending in -ile
  • Pronunciation of the letter 'a'
  • Stronger 'r' sound in American English
  • Pronunciation of words ending in -ization
  • Pronunciation of 't' in the middle of words
• Examples of pronunciation differences

  • vase: veIs (AmE) vs vɑ:z (BrE)
  • tomato: təməItoʊ (AmE) vs təmɑ:təʊ (BrE)
  • garage: garȃge (AmE) vs gȃrage (BrE)
  • ballet: ballȇt (AmE) vs bȃllet (BrE)
•  Structure

  -  how the information is organized.
• Language

  -  information is expressed verbally and/or non-verbally
•  Presentation

  • covers the layout, format, length, oral delivery and any other conventions such as spelling and referencing
• SIGNIFIEDS

  (concepts)
•  A MULTIMODAL TEXT

  • combines two or more of the five semiotic systems---lingistic or textual system, visual system, audio system, gestural system and spatial system
• 2 Englishes

  • American and British English
• British

  • first introduced to Americans between 16th and 17th centuries when they reached lands by sea
• differences

  1.  vocabulary

   - It can be observed that these words pertains to some of the everyday objects however, different words were used depending on the form of English used.
• 2.  pronunciation

  first settlers of British used the rhotic speech where the 'r' sounds of words are pronounced.

  higher class in UK, softening their pronunciation of the ‘r’ sounds.

  • Since the elite back then were considered the standard for being fashionable, other people began to copy their speech, until it eventually became the common way of speaking in the south of England
• -  differences when it comes to the pronunciation of AmE and BrE; 1).differences in stress

  2) difference in pronunciation of words ending in -ile

  3) difference in the pronunciation of the letter ‘a’

  4) the sound of ‘r’ is stronger in AmE

  5) difference in the pronunciation of the words ending in -ization

  6) the letter ‘t’ in the middle of a word can be pronounced like a fast ‘d’ in AmE

   
• The following table exemplifies the difference in pronunciation between AmE and

  BrE.

  Word

  vase

  tomato

  garage

  ballet

  AmE

  veIs

  təməItoʊ

  garȃge

  ballȇt

  BrE

  vɑ:z

  təmɑ:təʊ

  gȃrage

  bȃllet
• Prescriptivists

  People who set down rules for correct language use, educated members of society who have the power to sanction speakers for not following language rules, equate correctness to strict observance of the rules of grammar
• Descriptivists

  Describe the language without being hypercritical or expressing judgement, do not tell you how you should speak, they describe your basic linguistic knowledge
• Message

  Information conveyed in the communication process, pertains to any recorded message that is physically independent of its sender or receiver, an "assemblage" of signs constructed (and interpreted) with reference to the convictions associated with a genre and in a particular medium of communication
• 3. spelling

  Uk

  london-based scholars.

  US

   - lexicographer (Noah Webster)

  • made some changes on how words were spelled for the American version to exhibit cultural independence from its mother country

   
• Medium

  Broad categories as speech and writing or print and broadcasting, or relate to specific technical forms within the mass media or the media of interpersonal communication
• Aspects to consider when composing oral or written text

  • Text type
  • Purpose
  • Intended audience
• Aspects of text structure and language

  • Organization of information
  • Verbal and/or non-verbal expression
• 4. Grammar differences

  US

  collective nouns are considered singular (e.g. The staff is given an important task).

  gotten (past participle of get), don’t need to (place) on (former)

  UK

  collective nouns can either be singular or plural

  -  plural is most often used (e.g. The staff are given an important task.

  more likely to use formal speech such as ‘shall’ as compared to ‘will’ which Americans favor.

  • got, needn’t, at (preposition of time and place), in
• Aspects of text presentation

  • Layout
  • Format
  • Length
  • Oral delivery
  • Conventions (e.g. spelling, referencing)