Investigating how language has changed in children's literature; in relation to interaction between children and characters of authority in a boarding school setting.

Contents Contents Page Number Introduction 3 Hypothesis 3 Methodology 3 Initial description of 'The Doctor' 4 Initial description of 'Miss Loy' 4 Initial description of 'Miss Potts' 4 Initial description of 'Albus Dumbledore' 4 Discourse 5 Grammar 5 Semantics 7 Phonology 8 Graphology 9 Speech extract from Tom Brown's School Days 0 Speech extract from School Girl Chums 1 Speech extract from Malory Towers 1 Speech extract from Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone 2 Comparison between extracts involving exchanges between lead characters, and characters of authority 2 Conclusion 5 References 6 List of Tables Table Number Name of Table Page Number Books chosen for comparison 3 2 Acknowledged frameworks 3 List of Figures Figure Number Name of Figure Page Number Comparison of sentence type in initial description of character 5 2 Number of adjectives in the initial description of character 7 3 Word count demonstrating conversation dominance 3 4 Number of adjectives in the speech exchange 4 Introduction Stories of children at boarding schools have always been a popular genre choice amongst both young and young adult readers. They emulate scenarios that children can identify with, more specifically the relationships between the students and their teachers/head teachers. As a result the language used

  • Ranking:
  • Word count: 7106
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Language of speechThis essay will be analysing the conversation, which is an extract from an interview that was conducted on television by Michael Parkinson with the Scottish comedian Billy Connolly.

Assignment: Language of speech This essay will be analysing the conversation, which is an extract from an interview that was conducted on television by Michael Parkinson with the Scottish comedian Billy Connolly. I will be looking at how the context affects the conversation. The relationship between the speakers. Their attitudes to each other and the subject of the conversation and the features of spontaneous speech. The first thing that must be noticed is that this extract in taken from somewhere in the middle of the interview. There is no introduction or exchange of greetings. There is no winding down or finish either. There is a definite regularity to the turn taking. Parkinson then Connolly and so on. There is an imbalance of power, the interviewee can take charge, elaborate and sidetrack. This comes as a surprise as one would assume the interviewer would possess more power over the conversation. The guest being Billy Connolly is the spotlight of attention, he is the person the audience is interested in and not Parkinson the host. A closer look at Connolly's use of language reveals dialect and non standard English for example, 'Aye', 'you're no funny' and 'yer wanna'. Just a few examples of dialect and non Standard English English that Billy Connolly often uses in this interview. This extract from the interview is fairly context independent as the reader will soon

  • Word count: 746
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Commentary on the film 'Save The Last Dance'.

I decided to commentate on the film 'Save The Last Dance'. The film is primarily a romantic drama, lying on the theme of racism. The two protagonists, Sara and Derek, share a love for dance, which leads to romance. However Sara, a small - town white girl finds herself in a predominantly black neighbourhood after her mother dies. The three extracts I have taken from the film demonstrate how Black English, otherwise known as patois shown among friends in informal situations. The extracts illustrate how it can diverge upwards towards more ordinary English when speaking with white people. I also intend to show the essential characteristics of spoken language, and how one can see that this is scripted and not 'spontaneous speech'. The extracts all show informal speech between the characters such as 'yeah', 'doesn't' (extract 1), 'why you sweatin' me' (extract 3) I presume as the film aims for an audience from 12 till mid 20's, formal speech would make the tone dull. So by having one of the film aims to give an idea of the 'real' language used in society, it makes the film more realistic and enjoyable. However, although the language is informal Derek's language seems to alter when with Sara being white, than with his friends who are black. An example of this is when Derek speaks to Snookie he says 'Why you sweatin' me Snookie?' whilst he speaks to Sara in Standard English. Whilst

  • Word count: 971
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Dear Mother I am writing to you from the Camp of the York Hussars. How are you these months?

Letter one Dear Mother I am writing to you from the Camp of the York Hussars. How are you these months? I think you are all right, but only very lonely at home, nobody to cheer to you. Sorry about that I left you for a long time and hope you aren't worried about me, and believe is going well here. Anyway let me to tell you about my life in England. This camp mainly of regiments of the King's German Legion who sleep round the tent - poles. Other regiments have come to encamp on the downs and pastures, because the King is at the neighbouring town. The spot is high and airy, and the view extensive even though the midden - heaps lie all around us. The British uniform is very brilliant, with its immense epaulets, queer cocked - hat, breeches, gaiters, ponderous cartridge - box and buckled shoes. So far from being as goy as its uniform the regiment is pervaded by a dreadful melancholy, a home - sickness which depresses many of us. We can't attend to our drill. Many of the younger soldiers haven't been over here long. They hate England and. English life. It's the same for me, I hate the weather here is too wet. I don't like the food, because there is lots different of us what we have in the Germany. Such as the English sausages, which taste so terrible too bad to eat. I wish I could come back Germany now to have some delicious sausages for my meal. Speaking in English is a problem

  • Word count: 1277
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

The Surreptitious Exploitation of Language.

THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE ESSAY: THE SURREPTITIOUS EXPLOITATION OF LANGUAGE JACK CHANG #114727 WORD COUNT: 1585 MAY 12 2003 MRS. MOGYOROSHI BLOCK E THE SURREPTITIOUS EXPLOITATION OF LANGUAGE By Jack Chang In today's society, we live in a world that seeks to conceal rather than to reveal. However, education has challenged us to evaluate the vast wealth of knowledge that we acquire on a day to day basis and assess how much information is actually being exposed to us and how much is being masked from our perception. Indeed, we are bombarded by daily doses of fallacies that exist even within the information that we are being given; there is no doubt that they are deeply embedded within the social fabric of society in which we seek comfort in. Yet the plethora of deceptive techniques being employed in today's society amounts to an incredible, if not shocking, figure. French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once claimed that "words are more treacherous and powerful than we think." In doing so he warns and hints to us the perils that lay hidden within language since words have the power to dictate our emotions, feelings and behaviors in such a way that leads us astray from the truth. In this manner, reality often becomes engulfed with trickery and deception. Inevitably, we have gradually become victims of the concealed exploitations of language. When language is effectively

  • Word count: 1743
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Analysis of short story

"55 Miles To The Gas Pump" - Text Analysis The short story "55 Miles To The Gas Pump" by Annie Proulx is from a collection of short stories, the central theme of which is rural life in Wyoming. The story is a short third person narrative centred on the suicide of Rancher Croom and the discovery, by Mrs Croom, of the bodies of the women he murdered, meant to entertain an adult audience as such a sinister plot would be unsuitable for children. The story seems like a spoken account of recent happenings, like a horror story being told in a bar. The style of each sentence, and so paragraph, being a long string of phrases and clauses is also similar to a string of thoughts. The register is informal and conversational and the lexis is similarly unpretentious: "...That walleyed cattleman, stray hairs like curling fiddle string ends, that warm-handed, quick-foot dancer..." Such features add to the story's feeling of being a spoken account between familiar individuals. The structure of the two long sentences is complicated and disorienting: for example, in the first sentence a series of noun phrases in apposition post-modify the proper noun "Rancher Croom", acting as pre-modification to the second occurrence of the noun: the first noun phrase "Rancher Croom in handmade boots and filthy hat", of which Rancher Croom is the head word, consists of the name and prepositional phrase "in

  • Word count: 1170
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Persuasive Text

Jake Scrace HP Combined English Coursework Persuasive Speech: Help the Homeless The cold rain flies like daggers upon you, piercing your skin with icy water that drenches you in seconds. There is no escape, and nowhere to run. You hold a thin cardboard sheet over your head to protect you, but it becomes wet and soggy in your shaking hand within a minute. Your only companion is your beloved dog; he is whining next to you with a plastic carrier bag around him to keep him warm. His eyes, full of pain never leave your face and you are overcome with guilt and worry for yours and his future. A gang of youths saunter past, spitting and jeering wildly, hurling insults at you in disgust and glee, and you curl up in fright to try to escape the cruel world you are in. You wonder why you didn't get a grip and control your life while you had the chance, and then you fall into uncomfortable sleep at 3am, with wet and salty tears slipping silently down your rough and dirty face. I stand before you at this moment to plead for your help and aid with an issue that so many people before me have attempted to improve with no major success. I want to help the people on this earth with no home or family to go to; those who have lost their way and are having trouble getting back on the steady tracks of a job, a house and friends. I am sure that you take things like some form of a home,

  • Word count: 1287
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Madness in Hamlet Handout

Characters Hamlet * Gets mad due to the incestuous marriage between his mother Queen Gertrude and King Claudius. * The revealing of King Hamlet's death from the ghost agitates Hamlet as he seeks for revenge. * Nevertheless, he tells Horatio that he is not mad but is acting mad to avenge his father's death. * Madness is obvious around Queen Gertrude, Ophelia, King Claudius, Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. * His madness results in the suspicions of his behaviours of many people around him. * In his meeting with Queen Gertrude, she reasons with him about the play within a play. As Hamlet's reaction goes beyond his control, his mom says " Alas, he's mad" (III.Iv. 121) * His madness causes him to lose trust between his mother and his friends (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as they pretend to be nice to him just so that they can get the reasons of his madness). Ophelia * Is a naïve character which predisposes her to corruption as her brother and father contaminates her mind by saying how Hamlet is just trifling with her affections. * The corruption of her character results in her insanity. * Her madness has caused her to sing love songs when she learns that her father, Polonius has died. * She commits suicide by drowning herself. This is confirmed as Queen Gertrude says "...As one incapable of her own distress/ or like a creature native and endued..."

  • Word count: 753
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

A Foreign Land

A Foreign Land George Cheetham From what I had heard, France seemed to me to be a strange place. The language was confusing, the schooling, very different, the coinage unlike English currency and the holidays short. My French pen friend had sent me photographs of his family and the countryside where he lived. The fashion was different and the French listened to old-fashioned English music. From the photographs, France appeared to have beautiful views and was not built up at all. The stories, however, that scared me most were that of the French food and drink, with frog legs and snails appeared on every menu, and the young drinking wine. This prejudiced me, and so when I discovered I was going to France on an exchange, I was worried and apprehensive. I was reminded of this trip wherever I went In England as, there were columns and monuments of past conflict through the whole of London. I was about to spend a week in France on a school trip, but I knew I would be alone in my exchange's house. The journey to France made me realise that I would be in a foreign land. When I landed at Lyon airport the heat struck me like a wall. It seemed as if I had not studied a word of French when I first heard people speaking, and I had to be careful where I crossed the road, due to the cars driving on the left side of the road. The air smelt like stale cigarette smoke, and the pavement

  • Word count: 1023
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
Access this essay

Is it possible to think without language? How does language extend, direct, or even limit thinking?

Min Hwang November 1, 2003 Mr. Cannon Is it possible to think without language? How does language extend, direct, or even limit thinking? Language is a communicative tool, in the form of a structured set of oral, written, or gesticulated symbols, inherent and exclusive to our species, and in many ways can be considered an epitome of intellectual manifestation. This Way of Knowing has been around for millennia, and has been used for communication and expression from one individual to another. It is of very little dispute of the highly ubiquitous nature of language in relation to thought, but many questions still rage on about the effect language has on our thinking. Language is necessary for most types of advanced thinking; although there are certain cases where language is of no fundamental necessity. As to its influence to the way we think, language may be used to extend, direct, and at times even limit thinking - but only does so when used by people with that purpose. Language is a very powerful tool, but it is precisely that - a tool, and our ability to think is this tool's owner and user. As we think throughout the day, we utilize language as a tool to aid us. At a day and age where knowledge and its communication are based on language, it would be an extremely arduous if not an impossible task to think about knowledge in an advanced manner without language. Many

  • Word count: 1256
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: English
Access this essay