- See Below: Functions, Register and tenor
- Questions relating to function and tenor, face needs and social distance/purpose
- Questions relating to register
- Questions relating to informal register and linguistic features
- Questions relating to tenor, social distance , lexical choice and identity
- Questions relating to discourse and pragmatics; intent and purpose: coherence, cohesion and inference
- Questions relating to spoken discourse features; turn-taking; conversational features; prosodic features
- Questions relating to sentence types and structures
Functions, purpose, tenor and register
The functions refers primarily to the “six” functions: referential; emotive; conative; phatic; metalinguistic; poetic. (Roman Jakobson)
The purpose(s) refers to the many reasons a text is created. A text can have more than one purpose. There is no set list. Area Study 3 and 4 draw heavily on social purpose and face needs.
The intent(s) refers to the addresser’s intentions and message.
The situational context “refers to the extralinguistic circumstances that influence language use, including “field, tenor, language mode, setting and text type”.
The cultural context refers to the “extralinguistic circumstances that will influence language use, including the values, attitudes and beliefs of the speaker, writer and/or interlocutor(s) or audience.”
The intent(s) refers to the addresser’s intentions and message
The register “involves language variation that is defined by use. The register involves “features across a range of subsystems”. ((lexicology, syntax, semantics, discourse)
The tenor “refers to the relationships between participants in a language activity and relates especially to social distance”.
The tenor (tone and style) relates to and influences face needs.
The intent(s) refers to the addresser’s intentions and message.
Relevant characteristics and features of language in the text: stylistic features: lexical and syntactic patterning devices.
STUDY DESIGN
Area Study 1: Informal Language
“Students investigate
- how informal language can be used to meet and challenge others’ face needs, both positive (the need to be liked, respected and treated as a member of a group) and negative (the need to be autonomous and act without imposition from others);
- how informal language choices can build rapport by encouraging inclusiveness, intimacy, solidarity and equality; and
- how informal language features such as slang and swearing patterns are important in encouraging linguistic innovation and in-group membership.” (VCAA, Study Design)
Formal language (Unit 3)
- the features and functions of formal writing and formal speech as represented in a range of texts from literature and the public domain
- the role of discourse features and lexical choice in creating textual cohesion and coherence in formal spoken and written texts
- stylistic features in formal speech and writing, including phonological patterning, syntactic patterning, morphological patterning, and lexical choice and semantic patterning
- the use of formal language for various social purposes, including: – maintaining and challenging positive and negative face needs – reinforcing social distance and authority – establishing expertise – promoting social harmony, negotiating social taboos and building rapport – clarifying, manipulating or obfuscating
- Summaries for Exam Revision
- Return to: Contemporary examples 2022 for language variation
- Return to Essays Made Easy: English Language
- References to linguists and relevant commentators (which ones?)