ELL P2SB A LEVELS NOTES

ELL P2SB NOTES Language, in general: - Is a social practice because it creates social realities (When counselling, reassuring, pleasing, entertaining, breaking bad news etc. → all actions) - Discourse: language + context → without context, language is meaningless - All discourse is ideologically motivated to serve a particular agenda Concept / Idea What Critical Discourse Analysis Approach Lazar, 2005 In terms of GENDER THEME, Discourse is analysed in order to show the complex and subtle ways in which taken- for-granted social assumptions and hegemonic power relations are discursively produced, perpetuated, negotiated and challenged. Linguistic determinism Wittgenstein Language determines our thought. What we can say will be what we can think. Language change will lead to social change but not the opposite, language precedes thought. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (Language relativity) Benjamin Whorf & Edward Sapir Lang influences thought and non-linguistic behaviour

Linguistic reflectionism Fairclough Language reflects our thought. What we can think will be what we can say, Or language = reality Assumes that social change will lead to language change but not conversely, as though precedes language Subject Construction Fairclough, 1995 *seems to be constructed through the use of pronouns & referents Subject positions determine the kind of relations that exist between the writer and reader, accounting for whether these are symmetrical or asymmetrical ones Who is the power skewed towards? Producer of the text or reader? Reader- Response Theory Stanley Fish Meaning adheres not in the text, but in the reader. Knowledge is not objective, but always socially conditioned. All that one thinks and knows is only made possible by the social context in which one lives. → Language choices often take into account the social culture in which the text will be situated in order to cater to the needs of the intended audience

The 5 Metaphors of language effects Phillip Wolff & Kevin Holmes 1. Thinking for speaking: lang influences speaking when we think about how to express something 2. Meddler: linguistic representations conflict w/ non-linguistics representations 3. Augmenter: lang enables and extends certain kinds of thought 4. Spotlight: Directs attention to certain aspects salient in thinking 5. Inducer: lang as a priming mechanism to induce certain ways of thinking Verbal hygiene Deborah Cameron, 1995 Prescription and proscription about what constitutes as proper / correct / acceptable in a range of contexts Can be manifested in both prescriptivist and descriptivist attitudes bc it’s the struggle to control language Euphemism Treadmill Steven Pinker, 2003 When certain words begin as euphemisms to describe culturally taboo / sensitive matters, and end up being dysphemic, thus having to be replaced by other euphemisms. E.g. retard → spastic → mentally impaired → intellectually challenged → developmentally disabled Kommentar [1]: ?

Labels of Primary Potency Gordon Allport Classifying and labelling when describing people leads us to overlooking other features of an individual - May lead to false assumptions (preconceived notions) - Can stigmatize a person or group, creating feelings of shame or disgrace - Reduces one to that single characteristic Social construct Berger & Luckman, 1966 e.g. a kiss, which has no inherent meaning in its physicality, yet is perceived as romantic A process of construction, deconstruction and reconstruction of meaning in something by wider society which is reproduced and disseminated, leading to make that meaning natural and inevitable within that society. Social reality (some concepts) Nicola Woods, 2006 Language and social reality are intricately connected. We both construct and negotiate our way through the social practices of the world we live in. Other Self Simone de Beauvoir, 1949 For GENDER Those whose identity is differentiated from and defined relative to a more dominant group Those whose identity is the norm upon which that of other less dominant groups are based

Other Edward Said For ETHNICITY If want to quote in general, use LEVINAS Seeks to foreground how different / deviant non Westerners are in the eyes of the West. - Endocentric in nature (judge another culture using the norms and values of your own culture) - Ideological assumption that only your own culture is ‘normal’ and ‘good’ (His book, ‘Orientalism’, speaks of how the Middle East was being exoticised by the West) Hegemony Gramsci, 1971 Maintenance of social order not through physical violence, but through ideology in propagating and normalising values of the dominant class so that they become common sense to all in society. e.g. Racial harmony in Singapore- ideology propagated by the govt Enculturation Learning of norms of society through its dominant institutions Interdiscursivity A discourse overlaps or is embedded within another discourse Ideological Square Van Dijk, 1998

Intertextuality Julia kristeva, 1966 Texts are dependent on other texts Louise Rosenblatt, 1938 The reader’s role is an active, not passive one. …. The writer must select significant images that will stimulate this reader to undertake the process of sensuous and intellectual recreation. Wolfgang Iser, 1972 The reader uses various perspectives offered to him by the text….(a) process which results ultimately in the awakening of responses within himself. Mooney et al, 2004 We usually place the adjective expressing the most ‘defining’ characteristic closest to the noun. ● Shows our ‘default’ way of thinking about what is being described à illustrates the pervasive influence of surrounding social constructs

AGE THEME - Is a social construct o Widely reproduced in pop culture both explicitly and implicitly - There is in general a different discourse specific to each stage of life o Can be reproduced or contested through language o In bottom up (everyday interaction) or top down (by public institutions e.g. govt and media) [CHILDHOOD] Discourse of infancy → à cognitive, material and physical dependency on parents and society, which excludes them from public life Discourse of childhood → à sense of innocence and purity Both are monolithic views, where babies and children are seen in a simplistic and utopian light. - Lack of Agency o Often positioned as Object of a sentence w/ a dynamic verb OR Subject of a sentence w/ stative verb e.g. Give children a healthy start in life / Every child deserves a future. - Absolute language o ‘every’ o ‘whatever (it takes)’ - Interdiscursivity: discourse of childhood often overlaps w/ issues of o Objectification of women o Legitimizing male misbehaviour

Benevolent Paternalism Babies and children are seen as deserving of special protection given their helplessness and innocence. e.g. disproportionate horror towards suffering of children evident in media coverage of wars / major events à discourse of childhood utilised by govts and voluntary organizations to elicit empathy in the aftermaths Exploitative Paternalism Where the simplistic and utopian vision embodied in discourse is misunderstood or misused for less altruistic ends. e.g. foreign aid White Saviour Industrial Complex Teju Cole Phenomenon of voluntourism, usage of the helplessness and innocence of children to up one’s reputation [YOUTH] Discourse of adolescence → idealism, fearlessness Discourse of young adulthood → Innovativeness, rebelliousness, entitlement, fragility Defined by the search for identity. Often intersected discursively with - Discourse of economics: blame millennials for n