Is it semantics or pragmatics?

https://languagedebates.wordpress.com/tag/pragmatics/

One of the lovely year 12s asked for clarification on the difference between semantics and pragmatics. It's a question that's been asked many times, and one that linguists are still pondering. There's a link above to a useful blog post by someone far more knowledgeable than me. Have a read and see if it makes the answer a little clearer.

12B and 12C1 homework set Tues 27th due Tues 4th Oct - wouldn't be a bad idea for Y13 to revise too!

Homework – What do you know about Grammar?

Have notes available to check in class on Tuesday 4^th October

Note: You need to know definitions and examples.

            E.g. An adjective describes or modifies a noun, e.g. the irresponsible father.

Assumed – you must be 100% confident with the words in this column	Learn now – you should research what the following terms mean, make notes, and learn the concepts	Challenge – if you are already fairly confident with much of column 2, research some of these terms
Nouns	concrete, common, abstract, proper, plurals	Count and non-count nouns
Adjectives	Comparative, superlative
Adverbs	Adverbs of place, time, manner, degree, frequency
Verbs	Regular verbs and irregular verbs Main verb Auxiliary verb Tense (past, present, future)	Modal auxiliary verbs Primary verbs Aspect (continuous, perfect) Subject–verb agreement
Pronouns	First, second, third person	Subject form, object form, possessive, demonstrative
	Determiners	Indefinite and definite article
	Preposition	Prepositional phrase
	Conjunctions	Types of conjunction

13C Homework outstanding and deadlines

We have quite a lot going on at the moment, so here are the deadlines:


For Tuesday 27th September


- hand in the completed child language essay that we planned together in class
- annotate the text on ash trees and plan an answer to the question 'how does this text create meaning and representations'. Write your first paragraph to this response


For Thursday / Friday next week


- Original Writing. Arrive at the lesson ready to write your first draft in the computer room. You need everything with you to be able to do this, including 2 annotated style models, the completed A3 sheet that draws together your findings from your style models and a plan - yes, even those of you who don't like planning!
- Read the booklet on the acquisition of Lexis. I will give you this next time I see you. If you are eager to start this now, you can find it on the google drive (the document is called CLA Lexis and Semantics) or pop into the English office and ask for it.


I know I'm expecting a lot of you at the moment - I have confidence you'll rise to the challenge :)

Year 12 Week Three: what we've covered and homework

This week we have drawn together the notions of genre, audience, mode and purpose and learnt 7 key frameworks that we will be using in our studies to inform our language analysis:

• Grammar (syntax and morphology)
• Graphology
• Lexis
• Discourse
• Semantics
• Phonology
• Pragmatics

For Tuesday 27th September, please learn 5 new terms from the vocabulary sheet that I gave you at the start of term. Use a dictionary to find and write down the definition, then use the word in your own sentence to show your understanding of it. Be prepared to teach your word to the rest of the class.


For those who still have work outstanding (writing about the context of the Tyrell's Popcorn text), you need to complete this with urgency.

Y13 Useful article for CLA

Lovely article from the BBC here - will be useful in a few weeks when we cover Grammar acquisition.

Year 13 Week 2

We have now covered phonology, so you should be starting to draw together your notes and could start making some revision materials. Use my earlier blog post to check that your notes are comprehensive. Check off the terminology you have learnt against the A3 sheet I gave you last week and start to learn it.


I have put a document about reduplication here in the google drive for those of you would like some wider reading.


Revise phonological acquisition concepts and theories for as assessment next week :)


13C - for Thursday's lesson, please make sure you bring 2 style models that match what you are intending to write. 1 of your style models should be fully annotated. Transfer your ideas onto the A3 sheet to draw together some style points that you are going to try to use in your own writing.

Year 12 Week Two - the terminology onslaught continues

I won't upload the powerpoints from this week as there wasn't much on them in terms of key concepts, but see below for some of the vocabulary we have covered this week.


Key Vocabulary
Controlling Idea
GAMP
Genre
Intertextuality
Audience
Implied and actual reader
Implied and actual writer
Purpose
Primary and secondary purpose
Mode
Context of Production
Context of Reception


Homework for Tuesday 20th September: Read all of the texts about dogs and create a table that states the Genre, Audience, Mode and Purpose of each one.


Write a short explanation (no more than 1 side of A4) of what contextual factors need to be taken into account when reading the Popcorn text. You should be using some of the terminology from above.

CLA Phonology Concepts Revision

Make sure your notes include references to all of these concepts so that your revision will be easy-peasy:

Key concepts (AO2)

-       Babies live in an auditory world - remember to think about the sounds in words and not the written forms of the words

-       Babies predisposed to discern sounds – favour mother’s voice from few hours after birth and recognise own language. Mehler

-       Phonemic contraction occurs by 10 months – sounds reduced to those of babies’ own language

-       Proto-words  and babbling follow CVCV pattern favoured by English (cooing is just vowels - easier)

-       ‘Mistakes’ that children make: Substitution, deletion, addition, assimilation, metathesis, consonant cluster reduction, weak syllable deletion, final consonant deletion, reduplication 

-       Fis phenomenon (comprehension precedes production) 

-       Cruttenden 1974 football results (intonation takes long time to reach adult understanding)

-       Stages - Phonological acquisition very varied between different children but general patterns: initial consonants easier than final ones, plosive sounds easier (p, b, k etc); David Olmstead – age of 4, some sounds still difficult: l (middle of words), th, ch, dg (judge); Grunwell stages; Phonological development generally complete by age 6 – 7. 

Welcome back! Y13 Week commencing 5 September

Welcome back everyone - it was lovely to see you all.

Work set in class this week was as follows:

• Read the chapter on the First Year from David Crystal (A3 sheet) and answer the questions in the CLA booklet (green cover)
• Sort your folders, including AS material, and get ready for new content (Child Language, Language Change)
• Read the booklet on Phonology. You don't need to complete the activities, but read/annotate/highlight/make notes
• Learn some vocabulary from the sheet. No deadline for this at the moment - this is an ongoing task but I may set some specific words at some point
• Sign up to Twitter! (see link on the right)
• 12C - start collecting style models for your coursework

Phew - that's it for this week. See you on Tuesday :)

Year 12 Homework 1

Read the following article (Article about A-Level English) and answer the questions below. You don't need to hand the answers in, so you can answer them in note format if you wish, but I will be looking at your note-taking skills. Be ready to explain your answers in class, though.

1. What do you understand by the phrase 'modern cultural references'? Paraphrase it. 
2. Give two reasons why people have criticised the A-level. Do you think these reasons are valid?
3. What is the 'crumbling castle' view of language?
4. What viewpoint does Laura Barton hold about this subject? Where does the reader first understand this viewpoint?
5. Find at least two pieces of vocabulary that you would not ordinarily use in your own writing. Write down the words and their definitions. 

 * The version of this article that you have read was the online version. What genre features in this article would you not have found 25 years ago?

*Underline 3 uses of language that stand out to you for any reason.