The 3 Different Degrees of Adjectives:


The three degrees of an adjective are positive, comparative and superlative. When you use them depends on how many things you’re talking about:

• A positive adjective is a normal adjective that’s used to describe, not compare. For example: “This is good soup” and “I am funny.”

• A comparative adjective is an adjective that’s used to compare two things (and is often followed by the word than). For example: “This soup is better than that salad” or “I am funnier than her.”

• A superlative adjective is an adjective that’s used to compare three or more things, or to state that something is the most. For example: “This is the best soup in the whole world” or “I am the funniest out of all the other bloggers.”

7 Types of English Adjectives That Every English Language Student Must Know:

1. A descriptive adjective is probably what you think of when you hear the word “adjective.” Descriptive adjectives are used to describe nouns and pronouns.

e.g. beautiful, silly, tall, annoying, loud and nice


https://www.fluentu.com/blog/english/english-adjectives/

definite/indefinite articles

Articles
There are only three articles in the English language: a, an and the. Articles can be difficult for English learners to use correctly because many languages don’t have them (or don’t use them in the same way).
Although articles are their own part of speech, they’re technically also adjectives! Articles are used to describe which noun you’re referring to. Maybe thinking of them as adjectives will help you learn which one to use:

• A — A singular, general item.
• An — A singular, general item. Use this before words that start with a vowel.
• The — A singular or plural, specific item.

Simply put, when you’re talking about something general, use a and an. When you’re speaking about something specific, use the. “A cat” can be used to refer to any cat in the world. “The cat” is used to refer to the cat that just walked by.

Jean Aitchison: The Language Web: 1996

Jean Aitchison on Language Change

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gmvwx

Language Change

Jean Aitchison

Damp Spoon Syndrome

• This theory suggests that language change is caused by sloppiness and laziness. It is often linked to teenagers.
• However it is difficult to find evidence to state that language change is down to laziness.
• An example of laziness is the glottal stop.

Crumbling Castle 

• Sees that the English language as a beautiful building which needs to be preserved. This view states that a rigid system is better than a flexible system.

Infectious Disease

• This theory suggests that we catch change from the people around us. 
• Social contact is a big force to cause language change.

Printing press - https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/rafangel.wordpress.com/2005/04/23/meet-my-divas/amp/

Standardisation - the process of making something conform to a standard. Its a process of directing and controlling language.

Effects of the printing press:
English recieved influences from other languages such as: spanish, french, latin, and greek, hence new lexis.
The presence of the printing press caused illiteracy to become evident in Britain as not everyone understood this new written form of English.
As standardisation  needed to be conveyed for everyone to understand the language, the english language underwent a standardisation homogenization process that had a sulminant effect on spelling, vocabulary, and grammar. As well as other dialects becoming more accepted.
The influence of the increased education in order to battle the illiteracy levels, led in more new young scholars in literacy. The influence if literacy wanted to create new ways if writing, therefore new words were used bringing with them more meaning etc.

Summary:
The printing press helped spread information more easily, and introduced with it new words and ways of recording the english language. It also pointed out the high illiteratcy levels wleading to better wducation. 

Ted talk - Anne kerzon

Vera Reegan’s Ted Talk link, summary, and sociolect theory.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jAGgKE82034

Vera Regan studies the way we use language. At TEDxDublin, the sociolinguist shares her research into a few global linguistic tics — including the many ways we “like” in English.

It turns out that how people use filler words like “like” reveals interesting details about how they see and interact with the world, Regan says. She and her team at University College Dublin studied the use of “like” by Polish transnationals in Ireland — people who had relocated to Ireland from Poland — noting that the non-standard use of “like” in English has two popular forms: one, the Irish like, which tacks like to the end or the beginning of a sentence (“I was there, like.” “Like, they came, too.”) and two, the global like, which places “like” in the middle of sentences or as a tag for speech (“I was, like, really tired.” “She was like, ‘Yeah.’”) and is commonly used by American, Canadian, Australian and British English speakers.

The team that found that those who learned English in Poland and then moved to Ireland were often using the Irish like, picking up the patterns of native speakers, despite neither being taught in standard English courses and no word-equivalence existing in Polish. Further, many were using the global like, as well. Why? Regan’s team was determined to find out. “We dug down,” she says, “we did qualitative analysis; we listened to their stories; and we discovered that those people who were using [the global like] were more likely to have their eyes fixed on global worlds. They wanted, perhaps, to move to another [place], an English-speaking country outside, while the [Irish like] users were those who strongly identified with Irish people. They were local-focused, and had long-term plans to stay in Ireland.” “In either case, whichever they used,” Regan says, “language was reflecting their aspirations, their stances, their attitudes.”

Child Language Development theorists

Noam Chomsky

·         Chomsky's nativist theory suggests that children are born with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) which gives them the ability to acquire language.

·         This theory could suggest why children make virtuous errors such as overgeneralisation.

·         To further support Chomsky's theory is recent research known as Fox P-2.  It is a gene which plays a major role in how we learn language and shows that we are born with the ability to learn how to talk without interaction with people.

·         Provides an alternative view to Skinner.

Jean Berko-Gleason

·         Berko-Gleason uses her idea the Wug Test to see if children are able to learn a language that doesn`t exist.

·         She presents the children with a creature that looks like a bird called a "Wug", she then showed them a picture of two Wugs and questioned "two..?" The children who said "two Wugs"means that they understand how to make a word plural.

B.F Skinner

·         Skinner`s behaviourist theory states that children are born a "blank slate" and have to learn language through interaction and imitation of caregivers.

·         His idea of Operant conditioning is to modify behaviour through positive and negative reinforcement. This will help the child correct their errors or do the same again if they`ve said it correctly.

Jerome Bruner

·         Bruner’s theory suggests that every child needs a Language Acquisition Support System (LASS). This highlights that children need to be encouraged to use language and help them become an active participant in the conversation.

Deb Roy

·         His Speech Home Project was created to film his son’s language from the day his was born until he was 3 years old. They particularly focused on how he used the sound "ga ga" to ask for "water". He knew that this would get him a drink which emphasises the point that children know more than they can say.

Vygotsky

·         Part of his theory is known as Zone of proximal development which states that you need caregivers support to help them acquire language.

·         Children need scaffolding to help them is social and cultural situations on their own.

Piaget

·         His Cognitive theory says that he believes that children construct an understanding of the world around them. He looked at how children develop intellectually throughout the course of childhood through biological maturation and interaction with the environment. 
https://aggslanguage.wordpress.com/chomsky/

https://quizlet.com/23965396/child-language-acquisition-theorists-flash-cards/

Language and Sociolect theorists

William La Bov

·         1966 New York Study- individual speech patterns are “part of a highly systematic structure of social and stylistic stratification”

·         He did a comparison of 3 department stores them being Saks 5th avenue (high end), Macys (middle of the road) and Klein’s (lower end). He used them to test the pronunciation of the `post-vocalic seeing how people would emphasise it at the end of a word. He used the words fourth and floor.

·         The results: Saks 62% Macys 51% Klein’s 20%

Martha’s Vineyard Study

·         It is an island off the East-coast of the USA with over 40,000 visitors each summer.

·         The local population are known as the "islanders."

·         Mainly a fishing industry where fisherman are seen as the desirable social group who everyone would want to be like.

Vera Regan

·         https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jAGgKE82034

·         Worked under La Bov

·         Studied polish transnationals. Looked at the use of the colloquial "like" and the global "like".

·         She came to the conclusion that transnationals with the intention to stay would use language in the same way as the locals to include themselves. Whereas transnationals with the intention of moving on would still use the global like.

Peter Trudgill

·         1974 Norwich Study – how gender affects dialect in each social class.

·         H and ing dropping

·         Looking at “walking”& “talking” as the standard form instead of "walkin" and "talkin" in its non- standard form.

·         It assesses participant’s awareness of their own accents as well as how they wished to sound.

·         Men over-reported their non-standard usage – implying that men wished to sound more non-standard, assuming that they used more of the covert prestige forms

·         Women over-reported their standard usage – implying that women wished to sound more standard, assuming that they used more of the overt prestige forms.

Jenny Cheshire

·         1982 Reading Study – relationship between use of non-standard variables and adherence to peer group norms.

·         Identified 11 non-standard features and measured their frequency of use in boys and girls in a Reading playground, differentiating between those who approved or disapproved of minor criminal activities

Bernstein

Language and Social Class – Restricted code and Elaborated code – 1971

·         Restricted code - Has a limited vocabulary, looser syntax, uses more words of simple coordination.

·         Elaborated code - Has a more formally correct syntax, having more subordinate clauses and fewer unfinished sentences.

Language and Gender theories

Deborah Tannen

Her theory, the difference model, explains that being two separate genders impacts our language and can cause miscommunication. She tells you that men dominate conversation and interrupt more frequently than a woman to gain status. Tannen basis` her theory on 6 contrasts, one being competition vs co-operation.

Robin Lakoff

·         Her research (1975) is known as the `deficit approach`, this explains that male language is stronger, prestigious and more desirable than a woman’s. It also informs you that men speak more than women.

Pamela Fishman

·         She believes that women use hedges, polite forums and question tags to help continue a conversation and get everyone involved. She calls this “conversational shitwork” to hold the conversation together and keep it flowing.

Janet Hyde

·         She proposes a “gender similarities hypothesis” which explains male and females are similar on most but not all psychological variables. She tells you that there are more similarities between male and female language than differences and any variations in speech could be down to age, occupation, status, class etc.

Christine Howe

·         She explains her theory to return to the point of men and women’s language differences due to their gender. She explains that men are more likely to respond quicker to what is being discussed so they can put their viewpoint across before anyone else.

O'Barr and Atkin's

·         Her research is interesting, and seems to suggest that it is not so much differences in the sexes' language, more the situations that they face which result in the difference. This theory is known as the dominance theory: if there is a difference in language, it is because males have always dominated in both the home and workplace, and females have had to play the domestic roles.

Zimmerman and West

·         Dominance theory. They were investigating the presence of uncooperative interactive features, such as interruptions, in conversation. They wanted to find out whether the gender of conversation participants affected the use of these features.