Session 15
This was the last session of the seminar ‘English in the Information Society’ for the current semester. We had he final discussion of the content of this class and we heard the last three presentations on our specific topics, which were the following:
- Grishchenko- Lexicography and social networking sites
- Bohnes- Hypertext
- Nunnemann- English as a lingua franca
The last one was actually my presentation. Under Preparations for Session 15 you can find the slides I used.
Preparations for Session 15
Due to the fact that I have to present on my so-called ’specific topic’ next session, here are my preparations for this:
English as a lingua franca
pdf: English as a lingua franca
Session 14
In this session we heard and discussed three very interesting presentations on our specific topics:
- Gern- The language of science fiction fan sites
- Wilkens- Age and language on Facebook, MySpace, or Youtube…
- Heidtmann- Language and opinion: maybe Hugo Chavez?
Next session we are going to proceed with the other members of the seminar presenting their work.
Session 13
Today we talked about the homework on Terminology which was due for session 10. We concluded from the discussion that categorising is always a central part of terminology. Moreover, it helps to make your vocabulary quite easy. In this context, categories are a set of definitions for a term. Normalisation plays an important role, too. Terms are standardised and each term only has one meaning. This means that technical terms are on the one hand by definition unambiguous. On the other hand, they only have this characteristic in a restricted and well defined domain in reality. Another characteristic of the usage of certain terms is that it is a mark of group cohesion.
A concept closely connected to this aspect is the word jargon. By using certain terms from specific domains, the user indicates that he or she knows something and belongs to a certain social group.
What we also discussed in this session were the different types of definitions:
- ostensive definition: by showing
- dictionary definition: by noun phrases
A dictionary definition typically consists of hypernyms and is organised according to a taxonomy, i.e. hierarchically organised. Moreover, the definition is part of a taxonomy itself. The genus proximum in a definition is the nearest kind and the deferentia specifica are the characteristic diferences between two concepts. A definition employing these features is then a relational type of definition.
Our task for the next sessions is to prepare the presentations on our specific topics we chose.
Session 12
As we did not complete our discussion last session about the findings we gained from the internet research task on the functions of language, we proceeded with this topic during session 12. The two main language models we looked at were the Organon Model by Bühler and the Language Model by Jakobson (which is an elaboration of Bühler’s model).
Bühler includes three functions in his Organon model: the representational (a semantic function), the expressive and the appelative (both pragmatic functions).
In his elaboration of the Bühler model, Jakobson includes the following functions of language:
- phatic: opening and closing a channel, sometimes through intonation; the phatic intonation is used in German also when a channel breaks down; relation between message and channel
- conative (= the appellative function in Bühler’s model): means to try to establish the channel for communication
- expressive (= the same as in Bühler’s model)
- representational (= the same as in Bühler’s model)
- metalingual: the coded self; if you talk about your own communication; for example in cases of misunderstandings
- poetic: relation to the message itself; sign referring to the sign; sound symbolism; rhyme; choice of words; sign gives coupling between different parts
As the poetic function was the most difficult to understand Mr. Gibbon explained this one with the example of a poem called ‘The Way through the Woods’ which can be found here:
http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/6518-Rudyard-Kipling-The-Way-Through-The-Woods
Then the class had the task to look at a homepage and look for the functions from Jakobson’s model to be found on that webpage. The results had to be presented as a PPT presentation. I worked together with Evgeny. For our analysis we choose the homepage of the bbc:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
We summarised our results in the following presentation:
BBC functions
Session 11
As we had some preparational work to do which had to do with Twitter, we talked about this topic again. Thereby we came to the conclusion that Twitter is kind of a generalisation of text messages. The short entries that the users can make there are similar to sms, as they are also restricted to a certain amount of characters. An additional function which twitter has, is that you can browse it according to certain key words.
Furthermore, we started talking about language and its functions in general. During this discussion we touched upon aspects like the Sapir- Whorf hypothesis which states that language influences our perception of reality. That means, that language structures our reality and thus, has a very close relationship to reality. Moreover, it was said during this discussion that the main function of language is ‘to deceive people’. Another thing that was mentioned was the Principle of Expressability.
Then the members of the seminar got the task to work out a short presentation on models about the functions of language. This is what I found:
The Functions of Language
Preparations for Session 11
Our task for the next meeting of this class was to research on twitter. Here are the questions we had to answer:
- The structure of the Twitter website
- The functions of Twitter
- The language of Twitter
- How does the language of Twitter relate to its functions?
- Why has Twitter gained such a high profile recently? For example why has access to Twitter been blocked in Iran?
The answers can be found in the following presentation:
research-task-on-twitter
Session 10
Due to the recent developments in Iran and the major role that the internet, or especially Twitter, played in them, we turned on the topic again. At the example of Twitter and its function of being able to directly, without a mediating instance, communicating news and information to people all around the world, we discussed the situation in Iran. As the regime there banned certain internet homepages such as Google and prevented people from sending sms by closing down the networks, a lot of the especially younger people went on to post messages and pictures on Twitter. The fact that certain internet homepages were made inaccessible in Iran, shows the impact of them on the information society. This impression is even stronger by the regime and its fear of such institutions as the internet or mobile phones. Webpages like Twitter really shake the political and the newsmedia establishment as they deny their authorities to gain control over them.
The next thing we talked about were the presentations on a special topic that everyone has to give in one of the last two sessions this semester. Everybody should have a powerpoint presentation on his or her special topic containing practical aspects and examples. I chose as my ’special topic’ English as a lingua franca on the internet.
Preparations for Session 10
Under the following link you will find my preparations for the session number 10. The tasks given were concerned with the topic ‘terminology, terminography, lexicography’.
- Research the web for information on ‘terminology’, ‘terminography’, ‘terminological databases’, ’standards for terminology’
- What is the difference between ‘lexicography’ and ‘terminography’?
- Pick one terminological domain, and construct a small terminological database using a spreadsheet program
preparations-for-session-10
Session 9
In today’s session we talked about language and its different dimensions:
- geographical
- social
- functional
We did nice drawings in form of diagrams including the realisations of these dimensions, which are register, sociolect, and dialect, on the blackboard: dimensions of language.
First of all we discussed the register, which allows for variations in terms of phonology, grammar, prosody and lexicon. The example that came up for the variations in register was different characters in a cartoon such as Donald Duck. His character has a modified voice, whose pitch makes him unique and identifiable among the other characters.
Furthermore, Mr. Gibbon added that a register is vocabulary that is restricted to certain functions. Here we came up with the example of the technical language in the field of computation. Other fields that have a vocabulary with special words are specific fields such as Linguistics and the stock market. It must be added here that there are certain levels of these registers which lay people share as well. These are then more informal levels.
Our task for the next session was to complete the tasks given on Mr. Gibbon’s homepage on the topic of terminology:
http://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/~gibbon/Classes/Classes2009SS/EnglishInTheInformationSociety/
