Linguistic Theories

Grice's Maxims

Grice suggested that conversation is based on a shared principle of cooperation, something like: "Make your conversational contribution what is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged."

This principle was fleshed out in a series of maxims.

1. The maxim of quantity, where one tries to be as informative as one possibly can, and gives as much information as is needed, and no more.

2. The maxim of quality, where one tries to be truthful, and does not give information that is false or that is not supported by evidence.

3. The maxim of relation, where one tries to be relevant, and says things that are pertinent to the discussion.

4. The maxim of manner, when one tries to be as clear, as brief, and as orderly as one can in what one says, and where one avoids obscurity and ambiguity.

Michel Foucault

Michel Foucault (1926–1984) was a French historian and philosopher, associated with the structuralist and post-structuralist movements. He has had strong influence not only (or even primarily) in philosophy but also in a wide range of humanistic and social scientific disciplines

Bourdieu

The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu approaches power within the context of a comprehensive ‘theory of society’ which – like that of Foucault – his subject was mainly Algerian and French society, Bourdieu’s approach is useful in analysing power in development and social change processes. While Foucault sees power as ‘ubiquitous’ and beyond agency or structure, Bourdieu sees power as culturally and symbolically created, and constantly re-legitimised through an interplay of agency and structure. The main way this happens is through what he calls ‘habitus’ or socialised norms or tendencies that guide behaviour and thinking.

Commentary of ‘Table Talk’

Commentary of ‘Table Talk’

The text ‘Table Talk’ is a very sophisticated piece of writing, intended to be a critic restaurant review for a much more elder, intelligent and cultural audience who enjoy searching for fine cuisine. In the beginning the writer uses alliteration to express how the city is something wild and unsettling with life through the words ‘flirty, flighty, fluttering’ to bring this lively atmosphere and scarlet woman attitude to the city Soho. The reviewer also does a similar technique like again, expect with the rule of three instead, ‘competitive, joshing, boyish’ this allows the writer to describe in a more captivating way by giving further detail that is quick and snappy. The author also uses personification to create further liveliness of the city, by referring to it as ‘she’ and giving it human emotions to convey this energetic city. The writer then uses semantic fields related to childhood rather negatively throughout the review to exaggerate the size of his courses. The fact that they use the lexis ‘lego’ and ‘doll’s house tea’ relates to the petite size of their meals for effect and gives their opinion on the immature and stumbling idea of the restaurant itself. They use this semantic field more to create some disgusting imagery, the use of ‘snot smear’ really shows this as it makes this horrible view on the food and shows the reviewers disgust which is mimicked to the audience through their lexis choice. Also despite the being mainly formal through its large vocabulary and complex sentence structures, there are hints of the writer becoming more causal as there is phonology within the review through the word ‘fiver’ as it is more of a slang word which could relate to their view of the restaurant which is clearly unimpressed. This is more elaborated through the taboo lexis ‘piss’, this is very vulgar and not a word you would commonly find in a restaurant review, and creates an unpleasant thought for the audience as it is not a word to associate with food but successfully continues expressing the repulsion the writer feels towards this establishment.

Plans for 'I Did Ask Nicley'

This text consited of images and writting to create the feel of the story, something that is dark and unnerving, originally the text was much longer as i wanted to create more of a foreshaowing affect with the 'I did ask nicely' which I did manage to the actual event of the hitchhacker, to what happens after. I found that I struggled with the word count anyway as I enjoy writting more flowery and with lots of description, also I had many ideas which I wanted to include but couldn't so I feel it is little squeesed together. If i had more words it could of been better. Also I wanted to include more graphology to enhance the piece more, however I found that the images I did manage to create was very time consuming.

I did ask nicely

1

Rain and the orange streetlights

The car driving through the night

A mysterious man standing by the road with his thumb held up

The characters sympathise with the man and pulled over to give him a lift

The description of the hitchhiker

The women driving keeps looking in the mirror to make sure her daughter is alright

A truck crashes into the car causing it to flip and crash

The women and daughter get out, they are reasonably alright

However the man’s legs are amputated from the crash and he drags himself for the wreckage

He begs the women to help him as he couldn’t move properly

The women is absolutely stunned by the situation and is paralysed

The man ends up passing away in front of her

2

Time has skipped and the women has sent the daughter out to buy some things for that night

She walks down a very quiet road and begins to hear weird scratching noises behind her

She looked behind her confused but saw nothing, even though there were long marks across the concrete

She increases her speed wearily

However the sound also increases, gaining up on her

She starts running and was tearing up in fear

Suddenly she feels a hand grab her ankle and dig long nails into her skin

And she lets out a blood-curdling scream

'The Horror' - No adjective challenge

The rain flooded earth in choruses, the footsteps of a figure trudged across puddles simultaneously to the claps of thunder. Lightning flashed again and again revealing his appearance with each stroke of light. For a long time, the person stooped, staring up to the monument that was a hotel as he ignored the chill in the air.  This was a natural chill which comforted, not that unnatural chill that prowled from inside the windows of the establishment. The look of the site raised every hair on his body and made the skin prickle in dismay and coldness. The sky cried out thunder through the heavens shaking everything abruptly. His hands rose, catching it’s teardrops for a while.  Failing to ease him and distract him from the cold that slithered down into his core making him feel numb, he went against his discomfort of the hotel and strode towards it, sleeping somewhere cold didn’t appeal to him. Suddenly, despite his first thoughts, the double doors blew open by the push of his palms and a breeze whirled in, bringing with it the smell of decaying things that had once clung to the furniture.  The stranger slipped into the darkened hotel, his hair stuck up in every direction from the wind tossing it about.  The man doddered his way into the lobby and collapsed in a chair near the fireplace where no sign of kindle rested. Realising his rashness, he struggled out of the chair and aimed himself somewhat erratically for the front desk. The sounds of thunder and lightning faded away as he descended further into the building. The main hall was rather old-fashioned in appearance and disused air filled his lungs. The hotel had an empty feeling to it, the air stale with undefined kitchen odours that lurked nearby. There was dust in the corners, and a spider web drooped from the ceiling. Stains lingered on the curtains and other fabrics. He carefully inspected the desk, the walls and the floor, but I heard no voices, nor footsteps.  Other than a discolouration of papers and wood, there was no sign anywhere suggesting people had been there for some time.  It was the lack of human presence that caught his attention.  Curious, he materialised from his investigation behind the desk and he went out into the open part of the room to peer over the railing by the staircase to the hallways above.  Regardless of whether the aromas or scenery plunged a sense of fear or disgust in his stomach he creped on up the staircases of the hotel towards its lodgings that reeked of abandonment.

'I come from...' - Poem Exercise

I come from a room
where patterned wallpaper is sickly sweet to the eye.
A chrous of worlds, and painted castles,
with little, lifeless statues, that think for themselves
and have thier own mysteries and adventures
which sat on an island on a carpet sea.
I come from a world of texts,
where I glide across folds of paper
and trail down each line of bumpy ink.
Where large, purple headphones are worn,
allowing booming music to contrast,
and to help escape a harsh reality
with the hope that dream and wonder
will take its course.
And although facts and figures must be dominant,
colourful paintbooks still linger nearby.

I Did Ask Nicely - Horror Flash Fiction

English Project - Transcript

A: And then on he’ll be able to fly- he’d be able to fly the bat plane

B: Oh yeah

A: Who buys an eighteen centimetre long ruler

B: (3) Me

A: Hmm (1) we’d have to do a spine transplant and we’d put the new spine in there (2) he’ll live (.) So how are you doing

C: Yeah (.) I’m doing okay (Laughs) you alright

A: Yeah I I’m good

C: I’m just chilling here I have nothing to do

A: Oh neither do we

C: I got sent out of English early

A: Ah (1) what did you do

C: Oh no (Laughs)

A: But what did you do

C: Nothing

B: You went half an hour early

C: Yeah everyone did

B: Why

C: Oh I don’t know

A: Did you have a cover

C: Yeah                                                                

A: Ah okay that explains itself                      

C: What are you guys doing

A: Nothing (.) she’d doing geography

B: I can’t be asked to

A: Oh she was doing geography but she can’t be asked to

C: Okay (3) fair enough (.) What you listening to

A: I don’t know (.) I’m just shuffling

C: To what

A: Everything

C: Everything

A: Everything

D: Are you making that thing head bang

A: Oh my god it’s Harvey (.) Look it looks like Harvey

C: How is it Harvey

A: Because he does that

B: That’s been down Dean’s pants

A: You could of told us before we fucking touched it

Graphology - Valentine's Day Card

English Language A-level Linguistic Methods Revisoion Guide