Organized Babel

-interlanguage
Interlanguage is the type of language produced by second and foreign language learners who are in the
process of learning a language.
In language learning, learners mistakes are caused by different factors these include:
-

Borrowing patterns from mother tongue

Extending patterns from the target language
Expressing meanings using the words and grammar which are already known.

Interlanguage is a system based upon the best attempt of learners to provide order and structure to the
linguistic stimuli surrounding them. By a gradual process of trial, error and hypothesis testing, learners
slowly and tediously succeed in establishing closer and closer approximations to the system used by native
speakers of the language.
THE VARIABLE SHAPE OF INTERLANGUAGE: the concept of interlanguage had had a strong impact on the
field of language acquisition. Studies in interlanguage focus on the linguistic and psychological aspects of
second language acquisition research .
Before the 1960s language was not considered to be a mental phenomenon. Like other focus on human
behavior, language is learned by process of habit formation. A child learns his mother tongue by imitating
the sounds and patterns he hears around him.
By approval or disapproval, adults reinforce the childs attempt and lead the efforts to the correct forms.
Under the influence of cognitive linguistics, this explanation of first language acquisition was criticized.
Language, in fact, cannot be verbal behavior only since children are able to reproduce an infinite number of
utterances that have never heard before.
This creativity is only possible because a child develops a system of rules; they pass through similar stages
acquiring grammatical rules.
However wrong and inappropriate learners sentences are grammatical in their own terms, since they are a
product of the learners own language system.
The various shapes of the learners language competence are called interlanguage. It is neither a mother
tongue nor a second language, but it contains elements of both.
So, errors need not to be seen as signs of failure only, but as evidence of the learners developing system.
While the behaviorist approach led to teaching methods which use drills and consider errors as signs of
failure, the concept of interlanguage liberated language teaching and paved the way for communicative
teaching methods.

TOGETHER YET SEPARATE : IS ENGLISH WE SPEAKIN

Generally, when we say that people speak English, we mean that they can manage the pronunciation,
grammar and vocabulary of the standard form of the language.
In many instances, it may be assumed that people in the traditional English-speaking world can and do use
the standard when they have to because of schooling and exposure to the media, but broad dialect
speakers do not come high on any social, cultural, economic or linguistic scale.
VERTICAL IMAGERY : BASILECTS, MESOLECTS, ACROLECTS
BASILECT: is the colloquial variety used for informal intranational communication.
MESOLECT: is ay variety of language in a Creole continuum that is . between the basilect and the
acrolect.
ACROLECT : is the standard used for international communication and formal or public intranational
interaction.
IDIOLECT: it is the distinctive speech of an individual considered as a linguistic pattern unique among
speakers of his/her language or dialect.
Because each of us belongs to different social groups, we each speak a language variety made up of a
combination of features slightly different from those characteristics of any other speaker of the language.
Idiolect includes:
- the appropriate vocabulary depending to various interests and activities
-pronunciations reflective
- variable styles of speaking that shift subtly depending on where you are addressing.
But almost the speakers make use of several idiolects, depending on the circumstances of communication.
For example, when family members talk to each other, their speech habits typically differ from those any of
them would use in, say, an interview with a prospective employer.
It must be noted that the very existence of the term idiolect as a proper object of linguistic description
represents a defeat of the Saussurian notion as an object of uniform social understanding.
A famous example of an individuals idiolect is Ernesto Guevara who frequently used the word Che
meaning roughly hey you!

Saussures Langue-Parole
While langue specifies the abstract code which users of particular language all have access to, parole
specifies their linguistic behavior, i.e. what they do with language.
LANGUE is the whole system of language that precedes and makes speech possible.
A sign is a basic unit of language; learning a language, we master the system of grammar, spelling, syntax
and punctuation. These are all elements of langue.
Langue is a system in which there is a large number of elements whereby meaning is created in the
arrangements of its elements and the consequent relationships between the arranged elements.
PAROLE is the concrete use of the language, the actual utterances. It is an external manifestation of langue.
Its the usage of the system but not the system.
Parole describes the individual personal phenomenon of language as a series of speech acts made by a
linguistic subject.

DIALECTS AND CREOLES

DIALECT: it is a regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar or
vocabulary, especially a way of speaking that differs from the standard variety of the language. It is
sometimes thought that only a few people speak regional dialects.
Many restrict the term to rural forms of speech, as when they say that dialects are dying out these day.
But dialects are not dying out at all.
Country dialects are not widespread as they once were indeed, but urban dialects, for example are now on
the increase, as cities grow and a large number of immigrants take up residence.
Some people think of dialects as substandard varieties of language spoken only by low-status groups, but
comments like thus fall to recognize that Standard English itself is as much a dialect as any other variety: its
a dialect of a special kind because its the one to which society has given extra-prestige.
Regionalism : is a linguistic term for word, expression or pronunciations favored by speakers in a
particular geographical area.
PIDGIN AND CREOLES:
A pidgin is a reduced language resulting from contact between groups with no common language. It often
serves as the means of communication between two language groups.
For example, they are often used between immigrants and locals or missionaries and natives in order to be
understood by each other without having to learn the language.
In a pidgin, gender and case as well as other elements of language are often dropped from the base
European language.

The phonology is extremely unstable and changes often; moreover, characteristics of a pidgin change very
tremendously from speaker to speaker.
Articles, prepositions, auxiliary verbs and subordinate clauses are often absent or sporadic.
Pidgin sentences are often little more than strings of nouns, verbs and adjectives.
Although the substance of the idea gets across, many of the details on contextual information gets lost in
the pidgin version.
In the XIX when slaves form Africa were brought over to North America to work on the plantations, they
were separated from the people of their community and mixed with people of various other
communication. Therefore in order to finally communicate with their peers on the plantations and with
their bosses, they needed to form a language. So pidgin arose because of the colonization . pidgin is also
called contact language.
There is always a dominant language(most of the time French, English, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch)
Which contribute most of the vocabulary of the pidgin; its called the superstrate language.
When a pidgin becomes the native language of an entire community (often as a result of slavery or other
population displacements) is called Creole.
Pidgins and creoles are used in third world nations created in response to changes in the political and social
environment of the community they are spoken in.
There are over 1000 pidgins and creoles spoken today and most of them are based on European languages.
A Creole has grammatical rules which are more uniform from speaker to speaker and one could say that
the transition from pidgin to Creole is a natural process which usually occurs as generation pass and they
learn pidgin as their first language.
NATIVIZED VARIETIES AND ANGLO-HYBRIDS
Code-switching is the practice of moving between variations of languages in different contexts. Everyone
who speaks has learned to code-switch depending on the situation and setting.
In 1977 Carol Nyers-Scotton and William Ury identified CS as the use of 2 or more linguistic varieties in the
same conversation or interaction.
CS is a practice of moving back and forth between 2 languages, 2 varieties or registers of the same
languages.
CS occurs more often in conversation than in writing; so code-switching is but of a number of the linguistic
manifestations of language contact and mixing which variously include borrowing on the lexical and
syntactic levels, linguistic convergence, interference, language death, pidginization and creolization among
others.
Code-switching has several functions:
-people may use code-switching to hide fluency or memory in the second language;

- CS is sometimes used to mark switching from informal situation (using native languages) to formal
situation;
-CS is also used to align speakers with others in specific situation
The two monolingual grammars cooperate in the production of code-switched utterances, ut none of the
rules are altered in any way. Not only an element from two languages present in these same sentence,
these elements are integrated into a unified syntactic structure by a complex interaction of constraints.
The right approach, therefore, seems to be to avoid both the strong linguistic independence model and the
merged system model in favor of an interactionist model of overlapping systems.
SPANGLISH:
The combination of Spanish and English has been going on since the days of Joan Cabot and the
Conquistadores , but only recently, it has reacted a broader audience as more and more Spanish speakers
continue to emigrate to the USA, Thats why a great number of Spanglish words are certain to enter the
mainstream. But Spanglish is less the introduction of new words than the distortion of sound and meaning
of Spanish or English words.
Spanglish employs a form of spelling pronunciation:
Words are pronounced the way they are spelled and are not respelled unless they cannot be pronounced
and recognized.
Some possible reasons for Spanglish are:
-

Moving from one language to another

Adaption of an English word to Spanish form
Straight phonetic translation

CRACKS IN THE ACADEMIC MONOLITH

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Braj B. Kachru considers English in a global context, but focuses on totality and variety rather than a
standard usage. Kachru proposes a variant of the ENL|ESL|EFL model:
ENL is the language of people born or raised in countries where English is historically the 1st language (UK,
USA, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, and NEW ZELAND); there are around 350 million ENL speakers around the world.
EN has not a single variety but it has differences in territories.
Its the inner-circle English, seen as norm-providing variety, especially through the standard forms of
British and American English

ESL is spoken by people living in territories like India, Nigeria, Singapore, countries former colonized by
Britain and where English gained importance in administration. In ESL countries, English serves official
purpose within the country in law, education and government.
Its the outer circle English, seem as norm-developing variety
EFL, for its speakers, doesnt serve any purpose in their countries; its historically learned for
communication with ENL speakers and with other non-native speakers; involves countries such as China,
Japan, Israel, etc
Its the expanding-circle, seen as the norm-dependent variety
In such a model, it would appear that, although the existence of and need for norms are recognized, any
international standard or standards are likely to be, or to become, much less homogenous
THE ENGLISHES
Its any variety of English including those developed by communities in which English was not indigenous in
modern history.
They are not uniform but they share some criteria:
-

Development through education system

Development in an area where English was not spoken by majority of people
Nativization by own language features

MODELS OF ENGLISH
CHRONOLOGICAL MODEL-MAKING
The English language begins with the Anglo-Saxons. The Romans, who had controlled England for centuries,
had withdrawn their troops and their colonists by early 400s.
As the Romans withdrew, the Britons re-established themselves in the western parts of England while the
Anglo-Saxons invaded the eastern parts in the middle 400s.
So Britons are the ancestors of the modern day welsh. The Anglo-Saxons apparently displaced or absorbed
the original Romanized Britons and created new kingdoms: northumbria, Mercia, east Anglia.
The language we now call English is actually a blend of many languages and even the original Anglo-Saxon
was already a blend of the dialects of west Germanic tribes living along the north sea coast.
The history of English is conventionally divided into 3 periods:
-

Old English
Middle English
Modern English

BIOLOGICAL MODEL-MAKING
English is an Indo-European language of the Germanic branch and It has had significant contributions from
other IE languages.
A family of language consisting of most of the languages of Europe as well as those of Iran, the Indian
subcontinent and other parts of Asia , a number of any of the people speaking Indo-European language.
The term is used to refer to the family of languages which were originally spoken throughout much of
Eurasia, west of the Ural and also in the Indian subcontinent.
The language from which all these languages descended is called proto-Indo-European and it can be
reconstructed by historical and comparative linguistics and its possible to situate the homeland of protoindo in the euro-Asiatic steppe of south Russia .
Its believed to have been spoken before 4000bc or perhaps before 8000bc; apparently had 3 genders for
nouns, pronouns and adjectives, 8 cases for nouns; agreement between adjectives and nouns and a free
accent.
GEOPOLITICAL MODEL-MAKING
In the last two decades of the twentieth century, 2 models have radically departed from tradition by
focusing neither on chronology nor biology but on the geopolitics of English.
They are all pluralist constructs whose creators have sought to make sense of the present-day diversity
within the English language complex, in the process freely using such terms as englishes, new englishes,
and modern englishes
McArthur:
The Scottish linguist divided the world englishes into:
-

Inner circle (world standard English but not existing in an identifiable form)
Outer circle(regional varieties made up of standard and standardizing forms)
Crowded fringe (dividing world in 8 separate regions and describing sub-varieties of the 8
standardizing forms)

Braj Kachru:
Divided world English into:
-

Inner circle( country where English is a native language)

Outer circle(ESL countries)
Expanding circle (EFL countries)

STANDARDNESS
Standard English
SE is that dialect of English, the grammar, syntax, morphology, slang and vocabulary of which are most
widely accepted and understood.
Here, widely, means both socially and geographically, that is, the dialect that raises critical judgments
about itself and is generally considered prestigious.
It is perhaps worth remembering that the chief difference between standard and non-standard varieties
are not in their superior or inferior linguistic structures, but in the different level of social acceptability
accorded to term and in the fact that non-standard varieties are not.
If SE is a dialect, Received Pronunciation (RP), where received is to be meant in its 19th century sense of
accepted in the best society, is the accent most generally associated with it( other names by which this
accent is known are BBC English or Queens English).
The speech of Londons West End(or more in general of the upper-classes living there) started to be
identified with SE; whereas that of the East End was identified with Cockney.

HIGH ENGLISH EAST MIDLANDS DIALECT

In Britain, the courtly literary and administrative level of the east midland dialect gained ascendancy
because of :
-

Politics of the nation state : some of the regions that spoke the some language developed a sense
of unity- political and virtual causing higher forms of language typical in particular cities and
courts;
Greek and Latins heritage: there was a downward flow from classical forms into higher forms of
vernacular making them increasingly symbols of status and vehicles of leaving especially for learned
people;
Literature : vernacular genres, song, sonnet and novel, come from Italy, Spain, France, Germany as
well as distinctive material typical of their own lands;
Religion: the translation of the bible (1611) known as the Authorized Version of King James;
Technology: preparation of text facilitate by the use of fixed shapes an sized of materials.

So English language gradually become a fixed entity and by the 19th century standardization described a
complex range of social, cultural, industrial and linguistic process .

THE LANGUAGE OF NEWSPAPERS

THE NATURE OF NEWSPAPERS LANGUAGE
English newspaper writing dates from the 17th century. The first newspapers carried only news, without
comments, as commenting was considered to be against the principles of journalism. By the 19th century,
newspapers language was recognized as a particular variety of style, characterized by a specific
communicative purpose and its own system of language means.
It includes a system of interrelated lexical, phraseological and grammatical means serving the purpose of
informing, restricting and, in addition, of entertaining the reader.
As a result of this diversity of purposes, newspapers contain not only strictly informational, but also
evaluative material, comments and views of the news-writers, especially characteristic of editorials.
NEWSPAPER FORMATS:
Newspapers are divided into two main categories: tabloids and broadsheets.
Broadsheets are serious-minded newspapers:
-

Headlines are small: they usually extend over to columns

The print tends to be smaller; front page headlines, however, are sometimes an exception;
Long and detailed articles about national and international events;
The photos are small;
Lexis is more formal and specific;
The angle adopted tends to be more factual;
The tone is often controlled
Punctuation is used traditionally and formally; dashes are less frequent;
Cohesion is created through referencing and lexical repetition rather than through conjunctions;

Tabloids are less serious newspapers:

-

Headlines are typed in bold print and may extend across the whole page
The front page headlines can occupy more space than the whole article they refer to;
Shorter articles about less important events
Lots of stories about famous people
Photos are large and often in color;
Lexis is often emphatic with short and sensational words
The angle adopted is human; news stories are directly linked to people. The tone is conversational
and the approach sensational and dramatic.
About punctuation, commas are often omitted after initial adverbials and between strings of
adjectives; dashes make the style informal
Coordinators in initial position are common

The style of tabloids is distinctive with its sensational approach and dominant front page headlines, while
the style of broadsheets is distinctive with its factual approach.

At the present, the differences between tabloids and broadsheets are breaking down;
-

Many of the broadsheets have stories about famous people;

Tabloids used to be cheaper than broadsheets, but The Times is now the cheapest national
newspaper;
The Times and The Independent have both switched to a compact-sized format.

NEWSPAPER IDEOLOGIES:
The headlines of new items, apart from giving information about the subject-matter, also carry a
considerable amount of appraisal , thus indicating an interpretation of the facts in the news item that
follows.
But also editorials are characterized by a subjective handling of facts, political or otherwise, and therefore
have more in common with political essays or articles and should rather be classed as belonging to the
publicist style then to the newspaper.
THE FUNCTION OF NEWSPAPER LANGUAGE
The modern newspaper carries material of an extremely diverse character. On the pages of a newspaper
one finds not only news and comments on it, but also stories and poems, crosswords and so on. Since these
serve the purpose of entertaining the reader, they cannot be considered specimens of newspaper style.
Nor can articles in special fields, such as science and technology, art, literature, etc, be classed as belonging
to newspaper style.
The function of brief news, items and reports is to inform the reader. They state only facts without giving
commentary. This accounts for the total absence of any individuality of expression and the lack of
emotional coloring. The vocabulary used here is neutral and common literary. It is essentially matter-offact, and stereotypical forms of expression prevail. But apart from thus, a newspaper has its specific
vocabulary that can be found in its other feature as editorials, articles and advertisements.
As the newspaper also sacks to influence public opinion on various social, political or moral matters, its
language frequently contains vocabulary with evaluative connotation.
These cast some doubt on what is stated further and make it clear to the reader that those are not yet
affirmed facts.
Elements of appraisal may be observed in the very selection and way of presenting the news, not only in
the use of specific vocabulary but in syntactic constructions indicating a lack of surely on the part of the
reporter as to the correctness of the facts reported on his/her desire to avoid responsibility.

FEATURES OF NEWSPAPER LANGUAGE

Nucleus includes over-line, headline, sub-head or summary line, lead, wrap-up; includes satellites
HEADLINE
The headline and the lead are the basis for how the story will develop. Similar information may be found in
the body of the story.
The lead, which follows the headline, often in bold font, elaborates the headline but it is not an
introduction. It can contain the main idea of the news story, that is the focus of the story or what the story
is about. The event can begin at the point which is considered to be of the greatest interest.
The lead should also give some or all of the 5Ws. The headline may also be followed by a subhead or
summary line which qualifies or elaborates the headline before the lead, and a by-line, which tells who
wrote the story.
An over-line can appear above the headline to clarify it.
The rap-up (the optional paragraph) of a story is not a conclusion, but indicates a resolution.
The satellites may:
-

Reformulate the information given in the nucleus

Add information to it
Give causes and conditions

The satellites of hard news stories are based on 5Ws which are essential to news stories
Analysis of newspapers involves a consideration not only of reporting styles but also of headline styles since
both of them reveal much about ideology and aims of an individual paper.
Headlines will be the focus of our analysis.
To catch the readers attention, headlines need to be simple, easily readable and appropriate to the kind of
paper in which they are printed.
The choice of words for a headline is affected by the ideas to be expressed and by the kind of reader
associated with a paper. The structure is often described as telegraphic.
Headlines may have a visual function. The picture can give meaning to the headline or add an extra
dimension of meaning.
Language features of headline are:
-

The omission of words (usually function words or punctuation)

The use of short words
The use of words with strong connotations
The use of noun phrases
The use of gimmicks (puns, word play, metaphor, rhyme)
Special political and economic terms
Lofty bookish words including certain phrases based on metaphors and thus emotionally colored;

Newspaper clichs: stereotyped expressions, commonplace phrases familiar to the readers

Abbreviations (acronyms)
Neologism
Foreign words

Newspaper tradition, coupled with the rigid rules of sentence structure in English, has affected the word
order of brief new items. The word order in one-sentence news paragraphs and in what are called leads
( the initial sentences, in longer news items) is more or less fixed.
Journalistic practice has developed the five-w-and-h pattern rule and for a long time strictly following way :
subject-predicate-adverbial modifiers of reason-adv.mod. for place-adv.mod. for time.
Intertextuality means reference to familiar phrases which are already known to the reader, many coming
from film and book titles.
TYPES OF NEWSPAPERS REPORTS
There are two types of news:
-

Hard news, which focuses on politics, economy, war, disasters, accidents, science, technology, law,
crimes and protests
Soft news, which focuses on people, places, issues that affect the reader0s lives, community
problems, etc.

A hard news story is usually an account of what happened, why it happened and how the reader will be
affected. Hard news has little value after 24/48 hours.
Soft news is usually timeless, that is the story happens over a longer time span. It could appear any day
over reasonably long period without affecting its newsworthiness.

THE LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISING

THE NATURE OF ADVERTISING
One important issue that comes up in the analysis of advertising is how much of the process is conscious on
the part of the readers, and how much of it is unconscious or unavoidable.
It is not easy to avoid at least some comprehension of an advertisement, when you are presented with one.
The situation is much like when you are sitting to a stranger who is talking on a mobile phone: it0s very
hard to ignore the communication together.
The almost unconscious act of getting the basic meaning of an advertisement is quite different from further
issues of interpreting regarding whether you find an advertisement convincing or not, whether you think
that it might influence your behavior or not, or whether you approve the kind of scene and social values
that appear into the advertisement; advertisement is the inevitable outcome of a capitalistic society.

The natural order of the language is modified, shaped and stylized by the copywriter according to the
product of the advertisement and the target group of purchasers.
The target group being the most important factor in the field of commerce in the view of their socioeconomic background, psychosocial set-up, need and aspirations.
THE FUNCTION OF ADVERTISING
The main function of advertising is to persuade and then to provide information.
Different kinds of advertising use different techniques to create the necessary illusion of superiority, so,
advertisers usually base their work upon the claim, the verbal or print part of an ad that exalts the
behavior of the product.
Some claims are lies and some other are honest statements about a superior product, but many of the
circulating claims dont fit into neither category and due to the careful selection of words, lay between
truth and falsehood.
Examples of claims are:
-

The unfinished claim : the ad claims that a products is better without specifying the second term of
comparison
The were different and unique claim
The rhetorical question: this technique demands a response from the audience. A question is asked
and he viewer or listener is supposed to answer in such a way as to affirm the products quality.

FEATURES OF ADVERTISING LANGUAGE

LANGUAGE AND TONE:
The language provide a conversational tone with the viewer, puns and word play are also common feature
LOGOS AND SLOGANS
Two of the most powerful tools in marketing are logo and slogans; these small and simple communication
tools help the marketer to consistently convey their intended message to potential consumers.
A brand is a name, term, symbol or design (or some combination of the four) that identifies the goods and
services of an organization so that they can be differentiated from the competitors. A brand is composed of
many elements, including the perception that consumers have of the product.
Brands also consist of other defining elements: one of these is a brand name. this is the part of the brand
that can be spoken, such as Starbucks, ecc
Another component of brands is the brandmark or logo, a graphic representation that could include an
element of the name.
A trademark is a brandmark that has been granted legal protection from use by unauthorized organizations;
trademark is identified by a small circled R beside the brand name.
Another potential mark of brand is a copyright, a legal right on a literary, dramatic, artistic or musical piece.

Finally, a patent is the legal right to the development or marketing of a new product, process of material.
Slogans are catchy phrases, sometimes set to music, that help consumers remember the product or service
being advertised.
Logos and brand names appeal to the visual memory; slogans reach the auditory memory.
There are different types of slogans:
-

Play on words
An explanation of what products do
A description f the product
A benefit of the product
Something about the company

LEXICAL CHOICE
Advertisers often un special words or phrases; these words or phrases are often misleading and are called
weasel words.
Advertisers are free to use them as long as they stick to the rules. The government decides what these rules
are
TYPES OF ADVERTISTING
There are many ways to spread an advertising message;
-

Television advertising: TV commercial is a popular way to mass-market messages to large audiences;

Although this medium has the ability to reach a high number of potential buyers, it is also one of
the most costly forms of advertising (a 30seconds TV commercial during the super bowl costs about
$3 million in 2009)
Infomercials are another form of television advertising different than commercials; infomercials are
longer and contain more information and have more of a personal tone. They are also costly to
produce and a higher effect in impulsive buys due to their persuasive nature
Print advertising: magazine and newspapers ads have another way to spread the word about a
product or a service. Print also offers the ability to target a specific audience based on geography or
common interests; usually includes larger display ads more expensive than classified advertising.
Online advertising : in an increasingly popular method for promoting a business. There are many
forum of online advertising; banner ads are displayed on web pages.
Billboard advertising: large ads displayed on structures in public places; commonly located along
highways to catch motorists attention. Another kind of billboard ads are mobile banners, fixed on
the side of trailers.
In-store advertising: it takes place within a retail store; this gives the store an attractive display that
draws attention to the new product. Other types of in-store ads are banners and display cases.
Point of sale advertising is a business or place where a product or service can be purchased; also
called point of purchase.

THE LANGUAGE OF POLITICS

THE NATURE OF POLITICAL LANGUAGE
Politics is concerned with power: the power to make decision, to control resources, to control other
peoples behavior and to control their values.
Rhetorically, it is the language of persuasion; political language is characterized by:
-

Use of metaphors to make abstract concrete;

Use of euphemism to make things more positive than they otherwise might be;
Use of structural parallelism;
Use of pronouns with care to foreground or hide agency, and to include or distance the speaker
and the audience;
Use of presupposition: allows the politicians audience to make assumptions about the existence of
information what is now made explicit in what the political actually says.

Why do politicians choose their words carefully? Because they believe in the power of language to
influence thought; they believe implicitly in linguistic relativity.
We can distinguish three main aspects of language as an aspects of politics:
-

The discourses which distinguish parties, positions and strategies;

The genres associated with forms of governing;
The styles of political leaders

THE FUNCTION OF POLITICAL LANGUAGE

Linguists are interested in the words and structures politicians use to create a certain view of words. This
world view will be directly linked to their purpose and audience, and will affect the language they choose in
order to achieve a set goal.
Lexical and syntactical choices can affect the votes, persuading people to vote for certain policies or
personalities.
As well as the actual words and structures used, however, linguists are also interested in the pragmatics of
political language; pragmatics considers the meaning beyond what has actually been said and concentrates
on the way meaning is constructed in different contexts.
Political language can be informative (Referential function) or persuasive (conative function).

FEATURES OF POLITICAL LANGUAGE

MANNER: With politicians seeking a more down-with-the-people image and mass media hunting down
comments in the most unexpected places, political rhetoric has increasingly moved away from heightened
oratory towards language which can be heard on the streets (putinism, blairism, obamism).
The term Bushism is a neologism that refers to a number of unconventional words, phrases,
pronunciations and semantic or linguistics errors that have occurred in and defined public speaking of
former US President G.W. Bush
LEXIS: The naming of politicians is often significant, sometimes their role title is used rather than their name;
this can be appropriate when their individual identity is irrelevant because the actions associated with the
role would be the same whichever individual was involved.
GRAMMAR : The framing of questions is also important. In a democracy, the very nature of alternative
parties, and therefore alternative ways of tackling issues is central to the whole process of government.
Interrogations by wh- are often used to frame questions.
TYPES OF POLITICAL LANGUAGE
Spin-doctor is often used to describe public relations experts as well as political corporate representatives
whose job is to put a positive spin on events or situations.
The verb spin-doctoring is also commonly used to describe the work of a spin-doctor.
Yellow journalism is exaggerated writing that is disguised as feet. It involves taking a factual story and
writing it in a sensational or distorted way. It may be used to invoke fear, uncertainty or even sympathy in
readers.
The topics which quality newspapers discuss in texts on their front pages, in editorials and comments
should therefore be good examples of political texts.
Politics is indeed a rather wide and flexible notion. Seem from a functional perspective, we can say that any
topic can become political, or politicized. In other words, what is considered political, depends on the
participants in the communicative context.
Nevertheless, there are some types of text and forms of talk which are political in a more narrow, or
prototypical sense. These are texts that litter discuss political ideas, beliefs and practices as a society or
some part of it, or texts are crucial in constituting a political community or group.
It is mainly these prototypical political texts that have been the object of DA(discourse analysis is a sort
of deconstructive reading or a critical thought).
A range of analytic methods have been applied, including textual, pragmatic, discourse-historical and sociocognitive approaches to a variety of phenomena of political discourse in the media and in other domains.

THE LANGUAGE OF LAW

THE NATURE OF LEGAL LANGUAGE THE LAW IS A PROFESSION OF WORDS
The use of language is crucial to any legal system not only in the same way that it is crucial to politics in
general, but in the special respect that lawmakers typically use language to make laws, and courts typically
use language to state their grounds of decision. So philosophers of law need a good philosophical
understanding of the meaning and use of language. But philosophers of law here also tried to draw an
insight from philosophy of language to deal with other problems they face.
There are two areas of philosophical interest in law and language result:
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The use of language in law

Using philosophy of language to address problems of the nature of law

Should we try to account for a law as an assemblage of signs? The objections are insurmountable. Law is
the systematic regulation of the life of a community. A law is a standard that is part of such a systematic
form of regulation. Many such standards have no canonical linguistic formulation.
Lawyers in common law systems are familiar with such norms: murder is a criminal offense, not because
any person or institution uttered a ruling that it should be so, but because the institutions of the legal
system customarily treat murder as an offence.
There is another conclusive reason not to say that law is an assemblage of signs: when a lawmaking
authority does use language to make law, the resulting law is not an assemblage of signs, because being
the lawmaking a communicative act, obviously more complex than the mere assembling.
THE FUNCTION OF LEGAL LANGUAGE
The main function of legal language is referential (to convey information). Its subordinate functions are
conative (persuasive) and metalinguistic (discussing language itself). It is always formal, whether written or
spoken, although a meeting between solicitor and client will be less formal than cross-questioning in court.
FEATURES OF LEGAL LANGUAGE
Legal philosophers have tried to explain the normativity of the law the fact that the law of a community is,
or represents itself, as a guide to the conduct of the members. One easy way to express this abstract
feature of law is by pointing out that the law can be stated by making normative statements.
Language and law are inextricably linked in many ways: rules are expressed, understood and interpreted by
language; legislation too is a special form of expression, as is a judge opinion.
We might think about:
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How does the language of rights or the language of power harness, constrain and change our
perceptions of law?
How language works to shape and enrich our understanding of law?

Analytic techniques from many other disciplines like literature, philosophy, neuroscience, economics,
geography, anthropology and psychology each reveal new insights into the way we perceive language and

law in general, how we work with language in law and how we might understand the place of language in
specific areas of law, including Contract or International Law for example.
The relationship between law and language extends to broader notions of language as communication too,
like the crucial role of silence and non-verbal communication. In essence, the relationship between law and
language is varied and complex.
But investigation into law and language is quite extensive, emanating not only from the field of linguistics,
but also from other social sciences.
TYPES OF LEGAL LANGUAGE
Lawyers in England are divided into barristers and solicitors; barristers usually spend more time in court.
The usual procedure for a client is to instruct a solicitor who would then engage a barrister on their behalf
but the division in now breaking down.
Much of the solicitors time is devoted to conveyancing (the act of transferring the legal title in a property
from one person to another) and drawing up wills and contracts. Solicitors can form partnerships with
other solicitors (barristers may not do thus).
The majority of barristers work in London, although some barristers have set of chambers in the larger
provincial towns such as Manchester and Birmingham. The established barrister will often specializes in an
area of laws.
The attorney general is the main legal advisor to the government. Into the common law tradition, anyone
who represent the state, especially in criminal prosecutions, is such an attorney.
As In-house Counsel you will represent a company in litigation matters in court. The duties will include
conducting necessary discovery, trials, depositions, mediations etc
CASE LAW: case law comes from the decisions made by judges in the cases before them. In the deciding a
case may find two basic tasks:
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Establishing what the feels are, meaning what actually happened;

How the law applies to those facts.

RATIO DECIDENDI/OBITER DICTA: The explanation of the legal principles on which the decision is made is
called ratio decidendi (reason for deciding).
All parts of the judgment which do not form part of the ratio decidendi of the case are called obiter facta
(things said the way). These are often discussion of hypothetical situations but none of the obiter facta
forms of the case law.
COMMON LAW: before the Norman Conquest in 1066 different areas of England were governed by
different systems of law. When William the conqueror gained the English throne in1066, he began to
standardize the law.

THE LANGUAGE OF RELIGION

THE NATURE OF RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE
The concept of language as well as the varied uses to which man puts it, is pretty intriguing. These
language associated complexities are usually brought to the fore if they are intrinsically and consciously.
The language varieties informed by Christian religious adherents in the context of church sermons are also
very interesting.
THE FUNCTION OF RELGIOUS LANGUAGE
Christians, especially the clergy, employ different linguistic resources to achieve communication goals in
different religious contexts like teaching or preaching ( sermons), prayers, songs or Christian literature. The
use of language in sermon delivery is either targeted at the conversion of sinners or the instructions for
Christians , and is usually manifested as encouragement, motivation, exhortation, persuasion, rebuke,
correction or warning. In all cases, the goal is to re-echo the words of apostle Paul in Timothy that all
scripture is given by inspiration of god and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness (KJV)
Sermons serve a horatory or teaching communicative function. This concept is an adaptation of Norman
Jakobsons analysis of the communication act.
Jakobson classifies sermons under conative function of communication messages with conative
functions are directed towards the reader or listener.
The syntactic as well as semantic aspects of sermons reflect religious language, which is usually dogmatic
and rigid.
FEATURES OF RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE
Some of the peculiar linguistic /stylistic features examined include the use of complex sentences, register,
diction, anaphora, repetition, archaism, tone, and rhetorical questions.
STYLE: an investigation into the language of church sermon is, to some extent, that of style.
Crystal and Devy identify linguistic variables such as individuality, dialect, time, province, status,
modality and singularity as markers of style.
LEXIS: the language of sermons has its appropriate diction, vocabulary or expressions that distinguish it
from those of other fields of human Endeavour. The defining feature of these linguistic varieties is what
Yule identifies as jargon. He defines jargon as a special technical vocabulary which helps to create and
maintain connections among those who see themselves insiders in some way to exclude outsiders.
REGISTER : in religious language there are two kinds of register
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Agricultural register : most biblical settings are agrarian; this accounts for the extensive use of
agricultural terms in most biblical books. These terms are used in sermons having different
semantic sense.
Legal register : the word witness in a biblical sense connotes divine approval or certification
evidenced in signs and wonder or miracles, whereas a witness in legal parlance is a human being
who gives evidence in the law court to prove or authenticate a claim.

LITERARY EVIDENCE : Anaphora and repetition in which the same word or a group of words is used to
began successive clauses or sentences
Rhetorical questions are mainly used to enhance the interest and the participation of the congregation.
TYPES OF RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE
SERMONS: a sermon is simply a talk on a moral or religious subject, usually given by a religious leader
during a church service. The divine characterization of sermons usually puts the preacher and the audience
in a positional asymmetry with the former on the higher plane.
Consequently, sermons are often delivered without any appeal to the hearer0s sentiments, personal
opinions, ego, status, culture, expectation.
HYMNS, PSALMS, SACRED WRITINGS