Introduction

Please note a new website is coming soon at www.routledge.com/cw/mullany.

This provides guidance for university lecturers and college tutors, teachers and students, as well as a range of extra activities. The activities are designed to supplement those provided in the book itself and incorporate the core concepts around which the book is organised.

As such there is no prescribed way in which to use the materials and we encourage you to use and adapt them as they suit your needs as teachers, students and language enthusiasts. The materials provided here have been chosen because they provide an opportunity to put into practice the analytical skills that are introduced in the book. We hope that the resources we have chosen demonstrate the variety and breadth of material that is available and that can be introduced into your classroom.

We will post additional suggestions for work and material here.

If you come across useful exercises and activities, or devise some of your own that you would like to share with the wider community and readership of the RELI books, please email them to the authors (find us easily on the web). Remember to assure us that the material is yours to pass on. If we think it is suitable, we will add it here, with an acknowledgement of its source.

Additional suggestions for reading (Section D)

The RELI Introducing English Language book gives Further Reading (at the end of Section D) suggestions for each strand through the book. These are the key, introductory, or classic texts that you should start with if you would like to deepen your knowledge. Each RELI book in the series contains similar Further Reading specific to their own particular area. These are reproduced below, as suggestions for follow-up research in each topic.

General introductions

Barry, P. (1995) Beginning Theory, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Chapman, S. (2000) Philosophy for Linguists: An Introduction, London: Routledge.
Green, K. and LeBihan, J. (1996) Critical Theory and Practice: A Coursebook, London: Routledge.
Joseph, J., Love, N. and Taylor, T. (2001) Landmarks in Linguistic Thought II, London: Routledge.
Leitch, V.B. et al. (eds) (2001) The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism, New York: W.W. Norton.
McCabe, A. (2011) An Introduction to Linguistics and Language Studies, London: Equinox Publishing.
Taylor, T. and Harris, R. (1997) Landmarks in Linguistic Thought I, London: Routledge.

Gender

Bergvall, V.L., Bing, J.M. and Freed, A.F. (eds) (1996) Rethinking Language and Gender Research: Theory and Practice, London: Longman.
Cameron, D. (ed.) The Feminist Critique of Language: A Reader, 2nd edn, London: Routledge.
Mills, S. (1995a) Feminist Stylistics, London: Routledge.
Mills, S. (1995b) Language and Gender, London: Longman.
Weatherall, A. (2002) Gender, Language and Discourse, Hove: Routledge.
Wodak, R. (ed.) (1997) Gender and Discourse, London: Sage.

Race

Bhabha, H.K. (ed.) (1990)Nation and Narration, London: Routledge.
Bonfiglio, T.P. (2002) Race and the Rise of Standard American, New York: de Gruyter.
McLeod, J. (2000) Beginning Postcolonialism, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Said, E.W. (1993) Culture and Imperialism, London: Chatto and Windus.
Spivak, G.K. (1996) The Spivak Reader (ed. D. Landry and G. MacLean), London: Routledge.
Thomas, G. (1991) Linguistic Purism, London: Longman.
Young, R. (1999) Postcolonialism: A History, Oxford: Blackwell.

Society

Adorno, T.W. (1991) The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture (ed. J.M. Bernstein), London: Routledge.
Barthes, R. (1972) Mythologies (trans. Annette Lavers), London: Jonathan Cape.
Eagleton, T. (ed.) (1994) Ideology, London: Longman.
Mooney, A. and Evans, B. (2015) Language, Society and Power: An Introduction, London: Routledge.
Williams, R. (1961) Culture and Society 1780–1950, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Williams, R. (1977) Marxism and Literature, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Performativity

Parker, A. and Sedgwick, E.K. (eds) (1995) Performativity and Performance, London: Routledge.
Searle, J.R. (1969) Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Intention

Bennett, A. (ed.) (1995) Readers and Reading, London: Longman.
Burke, S. (ed.) (1995) Authorship: From Plato to the Postmodern: A Reader, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Gibbs, R. (1999) Intentions in the Experience of Meaning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kamuf, P. (1988) Signature Pieces: On the Institution of Authorship, Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Miller, J.H. (1987) The Ethics of Reading, New York: Columbia University Press.

Cognition

Gavins, J. and Steen, G. (eds) (2003) Cognitive Poetics in Practice, London: Routledge.
Langacker, R. (2008) Cognitive Grammar: A Basic Introduction, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stockwell, P. (2002) Cognitive Poetics: An Introduction, London: Routledge.
Ungerer, F. and Schmid, H.-J. (1996) An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics, London: Longman.
Werth, P. (1999) Text Worlds: Representing Conceptual Space in Discourse, London: Longman.

Creativity

Attridge, D. (2004) The Singularity of Literature, London: Routledge.
Carter, R. (2015) Language and Creativity: The Art of Common Talk, London: Routledge.
Pope, R. (1994) Textual Intervention: Critical and Creative Strategies for Literary Studies, London: Routledge.
Pope, R. (2004) Creativity, London: Routledge.

Figuration

Ortony, A. (ed.) (1993) Metaphor and Thought, 2nd edn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Richards, I.A. (1965) The Philosophy of Rhetoric, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Interpretation

Cavallo, G. and Chartier, R. (eds) (1999) A History of Reading in the West, Cambridge: Polity.
Eco, U. (1990) The Limits of Interpretation, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Using the web for resources and analysis

The internet is an amazing resource both for examples of language usage and for analysis and commentary on language. The global reach of the web means that you can gain access to languages and users across the world in ways that would have been prohibitively expensive only a few decades ago. You want to see an English-language newspaper in Japan, or an advert for a club night in Sydney, or a children’s rhyme in Melanesian English, or a conversation in a West African creole? It’s all just a few clicks away. Equally, you will find more analysis and theorising about language on the web than could be contained within the walls of any University library.

However, the web has developed faster than our critical reading skills. It used to be simple to recognise valid and high-quality work: it was published in serious books and journals that had gone through a process of editing and approval by qualified people. Easy access to the web now means that self-appointed hobbyists, journalists, politicians, amateur commentators, bloggers, creative writers, the unqualified and the ignorant all have equal space to set forth their views. This is very democratic but rather useless for the serious student of language who aspires to disciplined thinking and exploration.

As a rough rule: Assume that 90% of the material on the web is not to be trusted. This is probably an exaggeration, but remembering it will ensure you are never caught off-guard. Secondly, you should look not only for how interesting or persuasive facts are, but you should look really closely at their provenance. For example, an essay posted by Professor I.M. Serious at Major University is likely (though not definitely) to be a reasonably well-argued and proper piece of research or comment. This is because Prof Serious has put his name to it and his professional reputation is on the line. Whereas Timmy Twit writing on his Eye-No-Langwidge blog is probably (though not definitely) producing unsupported and wildly inaccurate nonsense. Timmy Twit might have a college degree and might be a creative writer, but he is not to be trusted.

Another way of proceeding (and this applies to traditional paper as well as web resources) is to assume everything you read is probably wrong. Then, if you can’t think of a reason why it is wrong, you can go on with the assumption that – at least for the moment – it is probably ok.

Another question to ask of web-postings is: why is this material here? Is it to make a personal or partisan point, or does it aim to contribute to a debate? If the website looks very slick, who has funded it? Who supports it? Who is advertising there? What is the agenda behind the ‘information’ you are being presented with? Remember, nothing is neutral, and there is no such thing as an objective fact when it comes to language study.

Finally, you will find many sites offering essays ‘guaranteed’ to get you high grades, or collections of essays that you can copy and pass off as your own. It goes without saying that this is unethical, but you should also be aware that you are probably a better thinker and writer than the contributors to these sites, and your teacher will know it. Anyway, what is the point in stealing someone else’s thoughts. Are you really such a pathetic example of a person? You’re a chimp.

Academic publications

If you are attached to a big university or college library, there is nothing better than sitting amongst the stacks skimming through a pile of books and journals. You need to learn how to gut such texts for useful material – you are not reading a novel, after all. You are probably studying alongside many other students on the same programme, and of course this means that everyone will be after the same books as you. Aside from getting to the library earlier in the course than anyone else, it is always a good idea to broaden your search for material. For example, most libraries are organised so that similar material sits on the same shelves, so find the book you need, and then read the books up to a metre in either direction. You will chance upon relevant material that was not on your reading list, your thinking will be stimulated, and your teacher will be impressed.

If your local library is not extensive, or you are not attached to an institution at all, most libraries these days see themselves as portals to a world of electronic knowledge. Your librarian will be pleased to help you discover their electronic resources in the form of journals, books, archives and other material.

You must also discover Google Scholar (scholar.google.com and national variations). Use the advanced search options to find online books and articles from keywords in the title, author, or in the body of the text. Refine your search by specifying, say, arts and humanities research, or limit your sweep to the last couple of years. Very often, you will be able to click through to the articles themselves. If not, your college or librarian will be able to give you special access passwords to allow you to access other content. Failing this, the abstract and references of the article are often freely available, and they alone might give you enough material to use, or to decide whether to track the article down further.

Lastly, it is always worth searching for key people in the field. Almost all academic researchers in English language studies have a webpage at their college departments, and they usually list their publications. Go and see what they have been working on recently. You will often be able to download articles directly from these pages. As a last resort, you can always email the person to ask for a copy: remember to be polite, say who you are and why you are interested in their work. Most academics are delighted to be approached in this way, though you should take silence as a sign of busyness with their own students, rather than rudeness.

Course templates and assessment suggestions

The flexi-text style of the RELI books presents a range of different options if the textbook is being used as a week-by-week course book, or equivalent. The book has been designed to allow for a very general course led by an experienced course-leader perhaps with relatively inexperienced class tutors; or in support of a more closely-directed and guided pedagogy with an course-leader who wants to bring in their own research work and expertise. The book allows for many different shades of teaching style and organisation.

Running through the textbook material by topical strand presents a logical progression through the linguistic rank scale, starting off with the smallest unit structures of the English language and moving up the scale to the broader areas of study (strands 1–5). Strands 6–13 then develop and expand upon these foundational areas.

Twenty-first century words

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is continually adding words to its online and hard-copy dictionaries in order to reflect current language use. This article from 2014 reports some of the most recent additions:

Hofherr, J. (14 August 2014) ‘Oxford’s Online Dictionary adds 21st century-friendly words’, www.boston.com/news/nation/2014/08/14/oxford-online-dictionary-adds-century-friendly-words/zl0QtAXlzcWJttYBDef86H/story.html

Do any of these words reflect the twenty-first century so far? What other words would you suggest?

You can continue to track updates at the OED website: www.public.oed.com/the-oed-today/recent-updates-to-the-oed

‘Mind your slanguage’: slang and language change

The following two articles report separate incidents in which school faculty have introduced a ban on their students using slang:

BBC Author (7 February 2013) ‘School bans words like “nowt” from the classroom’, www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/21367833

Coldwell, W. (16 October 2013) ‘Banning slang will only further alienate young people, innit’, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/16/banning-slang-harris-academy-alienate-young-people

Read the articles and assess the range of opinions that have been expressed both in the article itself and in the comments that accompany the article. Consider which opinions you agree with the most based upon what you learnt about the English language when reading the textbook.

Read the following article about Australian slang in English:

Nunn, G. (26 May 2014) ‘Is Aussie slang dying out?’, www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/26/is-aussie-slang-dying-out

Consider what role our exposure to Australian slang plays in our perceptions of Australia’s national identity.

What factors are important to the assimilation of slang terms taken from other cultures and languages?

Around the time of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, The Guardian was one of many publications offering a glossary of South African slang terms:

Hambly, V. (26 February 2010) ‘Talk the talk: A-Z of South African slang’, www.theguardian.com/travel/2010/feb/26/south-africa-world-cup-slang

Consider what aspects of local and national culture are captured in slang terms. Does slang reflect some groups of people better than others?

How do you think locals would respond to tourists using slang terms?

The OED word of the year: 1906–2014

Below are some of the winners of the ‘Word of the Year’ competition run by the Oxford English Dictionary from 1906 to 2014. Why do you think these words won in these particular years? What can these examples tell us about the importance of historical context in terms of the advent of neologisms and language change more generally?

  • 1917: camouflage
  • 1919 peace rally
  • 1934: Gestapo
  • 1936: male chauvinism
  • 1947: bikini
  • 1943: passion killers
  • 1957: Mr Nice Guy
  • 1966: tower block
  • 1949: Big Brother
  • 1970: Big Mac
  • 1979: karaoke
  • 1987: to email
  • 1994: metrosexual
  • 2004: chav
  • 2005: sudoku
  • 2006: bovvered
  • 2007: carbon footprint
  • 2008: credit crunch
  • 2009: simples
  • 2010: big society
  • 2011: squeezed middle
  • 2012: omnishambles
  • 2013: selfie
  • 2014: vape

To find out more about the 2014 word of the year and how the words are chosen you can read the following article from the OED website:

Oxford Dictionaries (17 November 2014) ‘The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is… vape’, www.blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2014/11/oxford-dictionaries-word-year-vape/

The following article reports on South Africa’s Word of the Year from 2013:

Dlanga, K. (13 December 2013) ‘What is South Africa’s Word of the Year?’, www.mg.co.za/article/2012-12-13-what-is-south-africas-word-of-2013

This article from The Guardian discusses Australia’s Word of the Year 2015:

Groves, N. (5 February 2015) ‘Mansplain is Australian Word of the Year’, www.theguardian.com/books/australia-books-blog/2015/feb/05/mansplain-is-australian-word-of-the-year

Word of the decade in American English

The following article from The Washington Post reports on the American Dialect Society’s word of the decade for the 2000s. The discussion touches upon a range of important issues relating to words, meaning and sociolinguistics, including age and social class background and also how this affects the judging process:

Zak, D. (9 January 2010) ‘American Dialect Society picks “tweet”, “Google” as top words for 2009, decade’, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/08/AR2010010803692.html

Consider the words that are mentioned in this article. Have you ever used ‘dracula sneeze’ or ‘sea kittens’? Do you know what they mean? Would you use ‘H1N1’ or ‘swine flu?’

The winning words decided upon by the American Dialect Society, after much debate, were ‘tweet’ for the year 2009 and ‘Google’ for the decade. How often do you use these words?

Consider the potential differences that exist between different varieties of English in the inner, outer and expanding World Englishes circles. How would these differences in language affect the words that are voted to reflect different years or decades in different global locations?

In 2014 the American Dialect Society announced that its choice for word of the year was a hashtag: ADS Author (9 January 2015) ‘2014 Word of the Year is “#blacklivesmatter”’, http://www.americandialect.org/2014-word-of-the-year-is-blacklivesmatter

Consider what effects the language of the internet and in particular, social media has on language use more broadly. What does this suggest about the role of technology in modern society?

Globalisation: World Englishes corpora

The International Corpus of English corpus (ICE):

As highlighted in B10, the ICE corpus is a unique collection of data taken from a range of geographical locations where individual research teams are given the task of compiling one million words of written and spoken English data. The homepage for this exciting and ambitious corpus project is as follows:

www.ice-corpora.net/ice/index.htm

Corpora have been collected from the following locations. Those marked with an * can be freely downloaded from the website above:

  • Canada*
  • East Africa*
  • Great Britain
  • Hong Kong*
  • India*
  • Ireland & SPICE
  • Ireland*
  • Jamaica*
  • New Zealand
  • Nigeria (written)
  • The Philippines*
  • Singapore*
  • Sri Lanka (written)
  • USA (written)*

The website contains further details and gives regular updates on new locations which are being added to the ICE corpus.

The Vienna-Oxford International Corpus of English (VOICE)

The homepage of the VOICE corpus can be found at the following link:

www.univie.ac.at/voice/

You can gain free access to the VOICE corpus by following the instructions on the homepage of this website. The site also includes links to a range of research papers and articles on the topic of English as a lingua franca that have been published using the VOICE material.

Semantic ambiguities

Puns are a form of word-play that capitalise on the semantic ambiguity of homophones, homographs, metonymic and metaphorical language. But in the case of homophone-based puns, humour can be lost because of dialect variation, as shown in the following article:

Trawick-Smith, B. (27 May 2014) ‘“Courtney Act” and Non-Rhotic Puns’, www.dialectblog.com/2014/05/27/courtney-act-non-rhotic-puns

Consider the appeal of pun-based stage names and the role of word-play in performed identities. Should such performers be concerned about the humour being lost in dialectal variation?

Can you think of any other examples of puns that are lost in certain dialects?

Impoliteness and language attitudes

The following web-links expand upon the issue of Gordon Ramsay’s language choices (discussed in B3) and develop how this relates to (im)politeness and cultural expectations through representation in the mass media. What are your opinions on the linguistic issues raised in these articles? Do you think that British broadcasters are right not to bleep out some of the swearing that other countries refuse to broadcast? Why/why not? Where do you think the limits should be in terms of the amount, content and intensity of swearing broadcast in the media?

BBC Author, (19 June 2008) “Australia’s ire over chef’s f-words”, BBC website.

www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7462876.stm.

Daily Mail Reporter, (20 June 2008) “How Gordon Ramsay’s foul mouth pushed Australia to crack down on TV swearing” Daily Mail Online.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1027700/Gordon-Ramsays-foul-mouth-pushes-Australia-crack-TV-swearing.html.

Jamieson, A. (6 December 2008), “Anger as Gordon Ramsay’s swearing on US shows ‘unbleeped’ for British TV”, Telegraph Online.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/3569380/Anger-as-Gordon-Ramsays-swearing-on-US-shows-unbleeped-for-British-TV.html.

Sweney, M. (11 May 2009) “Gordon Ramsay criticised over ‘sheer intensity’ of swearing on C4 show”, The Guardian.

/www.theguardian.com/media/2009/may/11/gordon-ramsay-ofcom-swearing.

Swearing in the mass media

The following web-links will take you through to materials which discuss swearing in the mass media in different varieties of English. Consider your opinions on the issues that are raised in these articles. Do you think swearing is appropriate in charity advertising? Do you think swearing has lost its power to outrage? Is there too much swearing in The Guardian? Do you think the Australian press complaints commission were right in their decision to ban the advertising posters?

In May 2015, The Guardian reported on a noticeable increase of profanity in charity advertising.

Marrins, K. (8 May 2015) ‘Up yours! Why charities keep giving us the finger’, www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2015/may/08/charities-campaigns-profanity-shock-tactics

Consider the views raised in the article. Is swearing appropriate in conveying a highly emotive message? How does this compare to other approaches associated with charity advertising?

In April 2010, The Guardian had cause to examine its own censorship practices:

Marsh, D. (14 April 2010) ‘Is there too much swearing in The Guardian?’, www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2010/apr/14/swearing-guardian

The article raises the point that a number of news stories are concerned with swearing in the public eye. Do you think this is indicative of modern society? How does this reflect attitudes towards swearing and towards censorship?

Wheeler, B. and Duffy, J. (4 February 2004) ‘Has swearing lost its power to outrage?’, www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3460123.stm

BBC Author (28 March 2007) ‘Australian advertising posters withdrawn as they contain “bloody”: So where the bloody hell are you?’ www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6501439.stm

Pragmatics and speech acts: Apologies data

The following web-links will take you through to further instances of political apologies. Consider the issues that are raised in these articles in light of what you have learnt about apologies in your study of pragmatics and speech acts:

Syntax and stylistics

In the stylistics strand, we highlighted that stylistic analyses can be carried out at any level of the linguistic rank scale.

The following electronic journal article provides a very interesting and engaging illustration of how a stylistic analysis can be produced by using syntax as an analytical framework. This piece focuses in particular upon analysing two contemporary post-apocalyptic novels, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Russell Hoban’s Riddley Walker.

It goes on to discuss teaching practices based upon the application of this kind of stylistic analysis in the classroom, with suggested discussion questions. It also considers how stylistics can be used to analyse and compare the spoken dialogue of film adaptations with novels, based upon the film version of The Road (2010). Comparative work between film scripts and the original novel upon which such adaptations are based provides another potentially fruitful area for the development of student projects and seminar activities:

Boyne, M. (2009) ‘Sentenced to Destruction: A Stylistic Analysis of the Syntax of Two Post-Apocalyptic Novels’, Crossing the Divides: Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Teaching and Researching English, Vol.5. The Higher Education Academy English Subject Centre, http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~aezweb/working_with_english/5/boyne_2009.pdf

The work of the CLiC Dickens project at the University of Nottingham’s Centre for Research in Applied Linguistics is an example of ‘corpus stylistics’. It demonstrates how computer-assisted methods can be used to study literary texts and to reveal recurrent textual patterns that operate above and below the level of explicit conscious awareness.

CLiC Dickens: A corpus tool to support the analysis of literary texts:

http://clic.nottingham.ac.uk/concordances

The tool allows you to search for specific phrases and words across the Dickens canon, or by looking at specific texts. It then presents each occurrence of that language feature as a series of lines, with information about where those examples appear in the text.

What insights does the tool offer in relation to a particular author’s style? How do we get a broader view of how certain characters are depicted in the novels? How do such tools support our impressions of the novels, as a way of collecting linguistic evidence?

Methods and ethics

The growing importance of ethics in English language and linguistics data collection has been clearly emphasised in the textbook. The British Association of Applied Linguistics has published its guidelines on good practice, including research ethics for collecting language data. This document will help expand upon your knowledge of the importance of ethics and also give some practical guidance on ethical practices and procedures:

www.baal.org.uk/dox/goodpractice_full.pdf.

About the Authors

Louise Mullany is Associate Professor in Sociolinguistics in the School of English Studies at the University of Nottingham.

Peter Stockwell is Professor of Literary Linguistics at the University of Nottingham. He is series consultant for the Routledge English Language Introductions series.

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