1700 recipe analysis

http://www.bl.uk/learning/images/texts/cooks/large876.html


England’s Newest Way in Cookery, by Henry Howard, was first published in 1703. It was so popular that the first edition sold out in less than a year. This was the book that these recipes were in. These are short examples of recipes from the 1700’s. These recipes are quite concise as they don’t go into detail and do not provide any measurements for the reader to follow. At the beginning of each recipe imperatives are used, for example, “Take” “Boil”. Also throughout all of the recipes there is a use of extended S, an example of this would be in the first recipe it says “beat feven eggs” when now days we would say “beat seven eggs”.  In the second recipe there is an example of non-standard spelling as it says ‘rowl’ instead of roll. This could be due to the time the recipe was created, it was created in 1703 and the first dictionary was punished in 1755. The second recipe also states that there is a use of ‘sheep’s caul’, however, I was unaware of what this was until I searched it, this shows a contrast in time as currently we tend to buy everything readymade so we wouldn’t need to use ingredients such as sheep’s caul. Furthermore, in the third recipe the word order seems to be non-standard, it almost seems elliptical as when reading the sentences it sounds like words are missing.  In addition the second to last recipe has a lot of capitalisation, there are words within this recipe such as ‘Fingers’ that shouldn’t have a capital letter within the middle of a sentence but do. However, this may just be because there weren’t many spelling/language rules as there was no current dictionary.

Article analysis

Cognitive theory

Cognitive theory is an approach to psychology that attempts to explain human behaviour by understanding your thought processes.  Jean Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development. His contributions include a theory of child cognitive development, detailed observational studies of mental action or knowledge in children, and a series of simple but inventive tests to reveal different cognitive abilities.

What Piaget wanted to do was not to measure how well children could count, spell or solve problems as a way of grading their I.Q. According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure on which all subsequent learning and knowledge is based.

Comments on article

The article we were asked to look at was about how broken homes may have an effect or damage the brains of infant children. It states that children that come from dysfunctional or broken families start school with the mental capacity of a one year old. People have put this down to the children’s or family’s background. In some respects, I agree. I believe that neglect and lack of attention to children as they grow up limits their motivation when they are forced to do things such as school.

Some may disagree with the statement. They believe that they learn and achieve from their own will and has very little to do with their background or upbringing. The main features of the article that are eye catching is the bold title, the high register language and the graphology.  

The purpose: the main purpose of this text is to inform however, the secondary purpose would be to persuade. This is because the article is telling you about education and how, stereotypically children learn. On the other hand the article is very biased and one sided so it is trying to persuade the readers to side with the writer of the article.

The mode: the mode is the form that the text is written in. The text we are looking at is in the form of an article. Possibly an online article.

The tone: due to the tone of the article it shows a high register because of the language that is used, however, the article also uses biased language.

The audience: the targeted audience for this article is adults, possibly parents with children. It may also be targeting others such as the education welfare etc.

The context: the article is about children from a less supporting background are more likely to have learning disabilities. This is seen this way because it states that broken or damaged homes effects the way the younger children in the household are able to use their brains and knowledge.

Language & Politics : the UK parliament

The British Parliament, is the law-making body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas lands. It alone possesses legislative authority and thereby ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories. Its head is currently Queen Elizabeth II and its seat is the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster, located in Greater London.

The two-house system- Within the UK parliament, there are two main 'houses' which are similar in terms of roles - to introduce new laws, talk about particular issues, and to check the government's work. In this system, there is the House of Commons - this house is in charge of financial problems as well as legislating new laws.

Parliamentary language consists of many terms that are used that may not be understood by people outside of the field. For example:

Adjournment debate: usually a half-hour debate introduced by a backbencher at the end of business for the day. The subjects raised are often local or personal issues.

Committee of the whole House: when the entire House sits as a committee in the Chamber. It is presided over by the chairman of ways and means or one of his deputies, and the mace is placed under the table instead of upon it. The committee stages of bills of constitutional importance, urgent bills, and parts of the finance bill are usually taken in committee of the whole House instead of in standing committee.

Consolidation bill: a bill that seeks to draw together several previous enactments on a subject. In the Commons, the second and third readings are taken without debate.

Delegated legislation: legislation made by ministers under powers granted to them in acts of parliament.

Vote bundle: includes the order paper, giving the agenda for the current day's sitting, lists of parliamentary proceedings, a summary of the proceedings of standing committees that sat the previous day.

Standing order - an order made by the House (Commons or Lords) for the regulation of its proceedings.

Unparliamentary Language:

 Tradition has evolved that there are words or phrases that are deemed inappropriate for use in the legislature whilst it is in session. In a Westminster system, this is called unparliamentary language and there are similar rules in other kinds of legislative system. Exactly what constitutes unparliamentary language is generally left to the choice of the Speaker of the House. Part of the speaker's job is to enforce the assembly's debating rules, one of which is that members may not use "unparliamentary" language. That is, their words must not offend the dignity of the assembly.

Some Examples :

•Bullshit

•git

•traitor

•liar

Political Poster analysis

Political Poster analysis:

I looked at a political poster that was used in WW2 which was made to make people want to join the U.S army. The first thing that catches your eye is the photo in the middle of the poster, it is of a man dressed smartly with a hat on, all in red white and blue to represent the USA. In the photo it is almost as if the man is making eye contact with the reader which makes the reader believe the poster is directed at them specifically. The man is also pointing which is also directive but intimidating to the reader, it may make them feel obliged to do as the poster says out of fear. Additionally another point that could be made of the photo in the middle could be that the person pointing is a male, some may see this as sexist and view that males would be the only sex able to have power and control over others.

The purpose of this poster is clearly to persuade you to join the U.S Army. To persuade would clearly be the primary purpose of this poster but some may argue that the secondary purpose would be to inform only on the basis that it is informing you that people are needed within the army and informing you of the importance.

The first three words at the top of the poster are ‘I WANT YOU’. The word ‘I’ is a personal pronoun which makes it seem that this message is only coming from one person and the poster may be viewed as a conversation almost between the reader and the director. The word ‘want’ shows a sense on influential power as the poster is trying to persuade you to do something. The final word within that clause is ‘you’ which is a second person pronoun, but it is also underlined showing the importance of the word and stressing the significance of how much they need people to join. Only statements are made on this poster which would be threatening negative face as there is no politeness at all on this poster.

The words at the bottom of the poster state ‘for the U.S ARMY ENLIST NOW’. I believe that the ‘for the’ is in smaller font than the rest of the writing on the poster because it is on least importance. If you took out ‘for the’ it would only seem more forceful but it would still make sense. The ‘U.S Army’ links to the context of the poster and what the poster is about. The final line says ‘enlist now’ giving a sense of urgency especially as it is in bold writing making it stand out but also the lexical choice gives off the same impression. The word ‘now’ is an imperative showing vital importance to the readers, however, it is still very strong without any politeness used.

Overall this poster is very straight forward. There isn’t much information as there are no full sentences only clauses used and it is clear what message they wanted to betray, this message was that people are needed/wanted in the U.S army and quickly. The country the poster is about it also made clear due to the colours used on the clothes of the man in the poster and it being stated that it is the U.S army towards the bottom.

Corruption within the police article

CORRUPTION WITHIN THE POLICE

Corruption within the police

A policeman ate whilst driving and urinated in public but wasn’t convicted or charged!!!

Do you think this is wrong? Shouldn’t police officers be treated the same as every other member of the public?

If he was someone outside of the police force it would be a different story.

If this was a member of the public and wasn’t a police officer this case would be taken up in a magistrates court due to the seriousness of the case and the fact that some people don’t even realise that both of these offences are counted as crimes so crown court wouldn’t be seen as necessary.

In a magistrates court there would be the accused/ criminal, the magistrates, the chairman, the clerk, the lawyers, the witnesses, the usher and the court reporter. Magistrates are local people who volunteer their services to be trained and work in that court. They don’t have to have legal qualifications to fulfil this role but are given legal advice by qualified Clerks. Magistrates do not talk within a case they just help make the decision on what should happen to the accused. The Clerk and the Chairman have been trained to do a specific role and sit in the middle of the magistrates taking control of the case, they ensure that the magistrates have all the information they need to do with the case so that everything proceeds correctly. The usher would introduce the trial/case and makes sure things run smoothly, they escort the witnesses to the seats and once the magistrates have arrived they leave the court. The lawyers work on opposing sides of the case, the prosecution tries to prove the defendant’s guilt whilst the defence works on proving their innocence. Finally the court reporter works for the media and does a report on the trial at hand. They can ask anyone involved apart from the magistrates to comment on the case as they aren’t allowed to speak.

 

 

 

 

People don’t seem to realise that if caught by an officer either eating whilst driving or urinating in public you can be given a trial in court and punishments can be given for these offences.

Such punishments could be a certain amount of community service that must be attended, a fine or possibly something such as points on your licence. These punishments can be all dependent on if this person is known for committing past offences or how they react to being told what punishment they have.

People see this as unfair and why shouldn't they! Police are doing things that they would punish us for but they get away with it! Why do we put up with such treatment?

Interactions within an occupation; Magistrate

The occupation that I have chosen to look at is a magistrate. A magistrate is someone who works alongside a chairman in a magistrate’s court. A magistrate is involved with many interactions between other magistrates and the police and possibly other occupations that are needed or linked. When in a trial a magistrate isn’t allowed to speak to the person on trial or to the other magistrates until they are out of the court room and are making a decision on what the punishment may be, only the chairman is allowed to speak within the trial. It is then a team effort to talk and make a decision amongst one another. Magistrates also have to deal with interactions through telephone conversations as they are required, as part of their job, to accept that they can be called or visited by the police at any time in order to sign a warrant. Another interaction that a magistrate may be involved with would be emails, the court house would email out to all the magistrates if extra help is needed on specific days. During breaks/lunch times magistrates choose to mainly talk about their life outside of work, their social and family life. At this point they may use taboo or slang as they are not required to talk about the occupation or use specific jargon. When being involved with interactions with the police, security or when making a court based decision a magistrate is required to use occupational lexis, this is because the interactions that go on between such people are quite serious and have a big effect on many people. Additionally, magistrates may be friends or see other magistrates socially so may interact outside of the courthouse but this isn’t common as magistrates range from many ages. Finally, a magistrate would have instrumental power over the person being accused or on trial because they listen and contribute after when choosing what should be the outcome to their trial.

Self Evaluation

We completed a timed essay in class about the status of English Language. This essay involved different theorists that mentioned about different accents and dialects and some even mentioned about gender. I mentioned about my past primary research to do with my questionnaire that was completed a while a go showing peoples thoughts on the language we use and how language has changed. In order for me to improve for future essays I need to make sure I am going into detail with what I am writing and not just describing. I also need to learn theories better in order to be able to link them in essays.  For the future I need to look at the mark scheme and make sure that I am adding more A01 to my essay because I seem to only focus of A02. In addition I need to add my own opinion on the points that I make throughout my essay as I don't really mention what I believe about certain theories or about peoples attitudes.
However there were positives to my essay. I did mention theorists and tried to link the ones that say similar things, also I used a lot of A02throughout which was good, it was better than past essays but there are still clear improvements to still be made.

Ochs & Taylor 1992

Ochs and Taylors theory states that the first time that families sit down and talk about their day all together. The theory also states that mothers have the most utterances or they do the most introducing. This means that mothers are the ones who usually begin the conversation and direct it at someone. This theory examines how the family is a political institution through conversational interactions. Members of the family tend to review other members and make judgements, making them a problematizer, how some member formulate codes of conduct, make decisions and impose sanctions showing their thoughts and feelings.


Our class had to try and find our own primary research to attempt to support this theory or to see if there is any change in these ideas since 1992. The task was to record a conversation over a family dinner to see who creates judgments and who started the conversation etc. I found problems trying to complete this because during the week my family don't sit down and have dinner together as there are many things that prevent that happening. This goes against the theory because we will see one another later on or at different times in the day when we will discuss what has been recently or currently going on because we don't sit down and have dinner together all of the time. The only time that the whole family really have the ability to sit down together would be at the weekend. However this would usually be at breakfast and we would talk about our week. In addition this goes against the theory because we all sit together at a time before dinner showing that things have changed.
Furthermore the theory also states that Mothers do the introducing in conversations and have the most utterances usually. I found differently. In my family when we do sit down and have dinner it is my sister that would talk the most or me instead of my mum which also goes against Ochs and Taylors theory.

Etymological, semantic and orthographic change

Spinster: 

There is a lot of information, the earliest recorded was the 13th century when its original meaning was related to spinning and the occupation of spinning. A spinster was someone, stereotypically a women, who would spin yarn. In the examples and screenshots it shows evidence of the word changing as the spelling has changed. This could also mean that the pronunciation could have been different. The term spinster has changed from being a term to describe occupation to describing an unmarried women.

Then from the 17th century, it came to denote a legal term for women who were still unmarried beyond the age that was considered unusual and was considered an old maid. The male equivalent of an unmarried man is a bachelor.

A spinster is seen as female, rarely a male, who spins. Someone who practices spinning as a regular occupation. However a spinster is also seen as a spider or another insect that spins. Or a spinster is seen as and currently a women who is unmarried past a certain age.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/spinster

Whore:

Origin- Late Old English hōre, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch hoer and German Hure, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin carus 'dear'.

A whore is stereotypically a women but according to some definitions can also be seen as a male. The word is currently described as someone who sells themselves and is used for prostitution. However there are also many different meaning such as if you commit adultery you are seen as a whore. A male prostitute would also come under the name of a whore. The meanings haven’t really changed over time just people have created a stereotype of a whore being a women, that is the only major change or difference. A whore is either seen as a women who prostitutes herself for hire. OR to play the whore of a women, to commit adultery. Or in some respects a male prostitute: any promiscuous or unprincipled person.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/whore

Witch:

Origin- Old English wicca (masculine), wicce (feminine), wiccian (verb); current senses of the verb are probably a shortening of bewitch.

A man who practises witchcraft or magic; a magician, sorcerer, wizard. See also white witch female magician, sorceress; in later use esp. a woman supposed to have dealings with the devil or evil spirits and to be able by their co-operation to perform supernatural acts. See also white witch n. A young woman or girl of bewitching aspect or manners.

When the word which occurs you automatically think of supernatural events or magic. The word witch is also stereotypically seen as a women and wizard would be seen as a male. The word has always been linked with magic the devil and that sort of subject with bewitching powers these thoughts are what you instantly think when the word witch is said or brought up. Witches are often associated with powers, black cloaks and hats and flying on a broomstick.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/witch

Bachelor:

Origin- Middle English: from Old French bacheler; of uncertain origin.

A bachelor is man who is not and has never been married. This relates to the female equivalent being a spinster. However a bachelor has other meanings. The current most agreed to definition of the word is a man of a legal age who is unmarried. Another definition would be a person who has completed an undergraduate curriculum at a university and holds a bachelor degree. Another definition of the word would be a male animal that does not mate during the breeding season. And a final definition would be a young knight in the service of another knight in feudal times. This shows that the word has several meanings that relate to completely different things.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/bachelor

To what extent has SE changed since the turn of the century?

To what extent do you agree that the status of Standard English has changed since the turn of the century?

To a certain degree I agree that the status of Standard English has changed massively since the turn of the century for many reasons. New developments in technology for example have taken a great impact on this change.  Also, the different counties that have come together have made the accent and dialect change, due to the new slang that’s developed from other cultures and people have come up with has become more commonly used by the majority of people.

An example of a way in which technology has had an effect on the language is through things like social media, messaging, emails and text messages. These kinds of messaging/communicating techniques were designed to be a fast way of communicating to people and due to quick new way of talking to people its reason to abbreviate words and phrases in order to make the process even faster. This can be put down to pure laziness and the determination to get their point across as quickly as possible so shorten or change words in order to speed up the process. This way of communicating and talking is being used more and becoming more of a common thing the more technology is developing. The shortening and changing of words has become so well-known and is currently being used in everyday language and is seen by many as their normal way of speaking or communicating to many people. This has therefore decreased the profile of the English language when people become too lazy to write words correctly and the use of dialect is poor as this is now what people are used to. New and modern technology like smart phones and computers there’s predictive text and auto correct for if you are spelling words incorrectly it changes them for you automatically, this may be seen as helpful it means that people then will begin to no longer realise that they are spelling words with the incorrect spelling and on paper it will become a struggle to write and spell simple words as people are used to always being corrected without knowing. In addition, something that is the main reason to why there is a change in Standard English is social media websites. There are many social media sites that are easily accessible through smart phones and computers. For example, Facebook, Twitter, Snap chat, Instagram and many more that are all used by thousands of teenagers or young adults. These sites are used in most countries around the world millions of times a day and where on sites like Twitter you can only write a particular amount of words its forcing people to write in such a way that they can fit their whole point causing them to constantly abbreviate words, even simple words like ‘later’ is changed to ‘l8tr’. Furthermore, on social media sites you can add friends and follow people that you may know or like such as celebrities and people can follow or add you in the same way. This means that you watch how people are writing and tend to write in a similar for. Also people are resulting to social media and developments in technology as their only way of talking to people instead of going out and meeting them, this then concludes to the decline of Standard English because it becomes that natural way of writing and communicating.

After looking at social classes and the way in which they speak, it becomes clear that the standard form of English that is taught to upper and middle classes is of a higher status. Also it can be argued that influences like other regions dialect is having too much of an influence on SE and is causing too many changes. This is also taking toll on people like young adults because they become used to the use of slang words which is having a bad effect as they are being brought up amongst it all and are being encouraged to speak in this way. Peter Trudgill made the assumption that only upper class people such as royalty used ‘proper’ or ‘Standard’ English. He came to this conclusion from looking at passed years there are more people falling into lower class and more people have become poor, showing that less people were clarified as middle or upper class, implying that many people won’t have a high status of Standard English which is another representation or example of the decline of Standard English. In recent looked at and completed surveys it shows that almost all students who took part believe intensely that ‘the Queens English’ is the correct way to speak or the ‘proper’ way to speak in the English Language. This represents that all of the participants are from a similar back ground or upbringing and have been brought up amongst slang words as they think that the language spoken by the Queen is the best way to speak over any other forms. This shows a social scale in which the Queen is at the top and everyone seems to believe in this hierarchy which highlights a change in the status of Standard English.  

As a result or conclusion, my thoughts would be that Standard English has changed since the turn of the century. The change is represented through new cultures and countries combining, developments in technology or the expansion in knowledge and new words being made such as slang words that then become popular and used by many eventually, because of all of these reasons I feel that there are pros such as how advanced technology is and that we can communicate to people so far away so quickly but overall I feel that there is a major decline in standard English and its caused many issues and stereotypes.