Speech Communities

450 words - 2 pages

It is hard to imagine that American English is closer to that of Shakespeare than the English of London. Roberts asserts this, but offers no explanation. However, we (and they) typically think of American English versus London English (is that English English?) as simply the difference in pronunciation"”"to-mA-to" versus "to-mOtto". The differences must run far deeper, including lexicon, sentence structure, implications, interpretation, and more.Roberts provides an explanation for the process of speech evolution, and ties it largely to the process of young people moving among various communities (spe ...view middle of the document...

" One must ask if this could ever happen, and more importantly, if it's desired. Certain segments of America revel in their unique speech adaptations, and apparently work to maintain uniqueness as a form of social and ethnic identity through speech identity.Later, Roberts says that language differences in America tend to correlate with education or profession rather than with birth. In America, an individual can move to a different class level by personal effort"”the hallmark of a meritocracy"”rather than by birthright. But in England, language and class are riveted together and indelibly define one's life and lifestyle.Roberts asks if one type of English is better than another, and concludes that the best English is wherever the discourse occurs. He further suggests that the very best English can be found at San Jose State College.Roberts asserts that the characteristics of good English are clarity, and precision. He also suggests that our portrayal of "better" is related to our characterization of the society that speaks in a manner with whom we wish to identify. We label ourselves (create our identity) by our speech patterns. In other words, "...correct speech is that which sounds normal and natural to one's comrades."

More like Speech Communities

Racism And Its Effect On Communities - LAS141 - Essay

1067 words - 5 pages ... 2 Racism and its Effect on Communities Racism has been a cancer to societies for as long as societies themselves have existed. A very large majority of the atrocities that have occurred throughout history have stemmed from the evil of racism. It seems as though racism is a problem that will never fade away, no matter how much society advances. You can find racism anywhere in the world and its effects have been devastating to many. There is no ...

Discourse Community, How Are These Communities Working In The Technology. - Eng 352 - Essay

654 words - 3 pages ... Tshimanga 1 Michael K. Tshimanga Dr. Longo ENG 352-463 21 Oct 2018 Discourse Communities 1) Who are the audiences and purposes for this article? The audience for this article is the general public. The article is written in such a way that any ordinary person would be interested in the prospect of nuclear fusion. For example, the author begins the article with a description of where the experiments are being conducted. He specifically states ...

The International Communities Had An Important Role In The Abolishment Of Apartheid. - School - Essay

1336 words - 6 pages ... made it extremely difficult for SA to trade with the world. Thus proving that the International community did not want any interaction with Sputh Africa due to the Apartheid system as these declerations where only put in place to force South Africa to abolish Apartheid OUA also asked for SA to be expelled from a number of UN agencies such as the world of health organisation also known as WHO. Thus proving that international communities made it hard ...

Research Paper On Obesity On Low Income Communities - English 101 - Research Paper

1382 words - 6 pages Free ... and nutrition, causing the epidemic of obesity in these communities. For an adult, obesity is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) that is greater than thirty. A BMI is a person’s height divided by their weight, then squared. For a person to be considered at a healthy or average weight, they must have a BMI between 19 and 25 for adult women and 20 to 25 for adult men. “An adult with a body mass index (BMI) between 25 and 29.9 is considered ...

Bell Hooks Keeping Close To Home - English - Outline

439 words - 2 pages ... paragraph on 36 Main Idea: By sharing resources and building strong community, black people have created their own values in opposition to those of the privileged; however, the media make the less privileged feel they should assimilate the values of the priveledged. --telling of one’s personal story helps maintain community Section 4: 36 – 38 Main Idea: If educated working class people want to be understood in their home communities, they must use ...

An Essay On The Speech Of Martin Luther King, "I Have A Dream" And "the Ballot Or The Bullet" By Malcolm X. The Differences And Similiraties Of These Two Speeches

1734 words - 7 pages ... ; Blacks should own their own businesses and have their own politicians in their communities. However, his choice of language differs from Martin Luther King's speech. He has used the everyday way of words. He also repeats some of the words in his speech, perhaps to make sure the audience has the message. E.g., on page 16, the last line and line 36th where he repeats "You and I" a couple of times. He also uses the least amount of figurative ...

English Assessment 2 - Rabbit Proof Fence - Year 9 - Essay

1137 words - 5 pages ... and suffering that they went through because of us Australians. This speech was said at Parliament house in Canberra in February of 2008. He informs the audience present at the hearing as well as the indigenous communities of his intentions to improve the equality and close the gap between the Aboriginals and the Australians. Kevin Rudd cleverly uses repetition of the phrase “we say sorry” to emphasise the fact that he is accepting all the things ...

Internet Crimes Informative Speech - Burges High School - Informative

407 words - 2 pages ... Internet Crimes – Informative Speech New times brings new crimes. Cybercrime is defined as any crime involving computers or computer networks. This can include online credit card fraud, identity theft, harassment and bullying, and the distribution of child pornography or any other illegal material. Today I’m going to talk about the history of cybercrime, the agents that are responsible for establishing justice in cases and how this can affect ...

A Brief Overviewnof Aborigional Studies - Aborigional Studies - Assignment

1269 words - 6 pages ... 1. Material culture = Shirt, axe, kayak, blanket, photograph, house. Non material culture = Swear word, prayer, dance, leaders speech. 2. Two aspects of material culture are snowshoes, and birchbark containers. Two aspects of non material culture are moon ceremonies, and vision quests. 3. Nomadic nations include; Inuit, Dakota, Siksika, Cree, Naskapi and Innu. Sedentary nations include; Haida, Nisga’a, Iroquois, Nuu-Chah-Nulth and Salish. 4a. It ...

Language And Gender: Do Women And Men Talk Differently?

3238 words - 13 pages ... , J. & Cameron, D (eds.) (1989) Women in Their Speech Communities. London: LongmanCrawford, M. (1995) Talking Difference: On gender and Language.London: SageFreed, A.F. & Greenwood, A.(1996). Women, men, and type of talk: What makes the difference? Language in Vol.25, No.1, pp. 1-26Holmes, Janet (1984): "Women's Language: A Functional Approach". General Linguistics 24/3: 149-178.Horesh, U. (2001) Language and Gender: Women's language and ...

Sociocultural Perspective By Lev Semenovich Vygotsky - Macewan - Essay, Assignment

1698 words - 7 pages ... it provides a theoretical basis for other researchers in the field (Mooney, 2013). Vygotsky believed that the sociocultural perspective is essential for children’s learning (Rathus, 2013). “Socio-cultural” refers to the environment surrounding the children is constructed by their families, communities, socioeconomic status, education, and culture (Mooney, 2013). According to sociocultural perspective, in addition to personal experience, children ...

Police Brutality And Excessive Force - Public Speaking - Essay

1175 words - 5 pages ... Eric Garner, who said, "I can't breathe," during a fatal altercation with New York police. "We must tell the people ... 'Don't wait till tragedy knock on your door. Start doing something now in the communities to help your neighborhood, help your communities.'" Reference(s): http://abcnews.go.com/US/mothers-movement-speak-democratic-national-convention-speech/story?id=40882052 http://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/criminal-justice/police ...

PERSUASIVE SPEECH Littering And Pollution - Nimitz - PERSUASIVE SPEECH

929 words - 4 pages ... PERSUASIVE SPEECH OUTLINE Using Problem-Solution Organization Pattern TOPIC: Littering and Pollution ORGANIZATIONAL PATTERN : Problem-Solution SPECIFIC PURPOSE: To persuade the audience that littering and pollution are dangerous and harm the environment and the air around us that we breathe every day.   PRIMARY AUDIENCE OUTCOME: I want the audience to join/support the nation wide organization that is taking action into helping the environment ...

Artificial Intelligence Key Definitions Of AI - University Of Memphis SCMS - Artificial Intelligence Key Definitions Of AI

717 words - 3 pages ... they are able to input into it. So, what is Artificial Intelligence? AI has become a big controversy by those who fear that it will evolve in ways that can only cause danger to us, while others believe it can improve our communities in ways that we can’t. AI has many definitions depending on its entity that provides the definition, but all come from the same foundation that is the same. Personally, AI can improve our communities in many ways, but ...

Public Opinion In California

1731 words - 7 pages ... to beheld for that purpose, or at any general or special election"While residents expressed their support for public housing by voting infavor of proposition A, the process did not start as a public issue. Residentsallowed for the creation of new public housing units, rather than forming agrassroots public demand for better and/or more public housing dwellings.Other communities in California do not hold so favorable an opinionregarding public ...