Analysis of All-Male Fox Panel Laments Female Breadwinners

The clip that I have chosen to look into includes a discussion panel with all males discussing the role of women in today’s American society. This video is very biased, with male dominated comments and thoughts being expressed. The issue in subject is based on the idea that ‘women have become the breadwinners’ in America, meaning that the woman of the family is the one who goes out and earns the money to support the family, which is seen by the panel as ‘terribly wrong in American society’ as well as a ‘scandal’. I find this a very controversial subject. Typically, it is thought that the male of the family is the individual who will work to earn to support the family, however with the latest equality regulations in place meaning that men and women are equal in not just employment, but all aspects of life, I do not find it surprising that women are seen as the one who earns money.

With today’s economic recession, it is understandable that both parents of a family work to earn a sufficient income to provide for their family. The recession has affected many people through job cuts for both genders, not just ‘men who were hit hard by the economic recession’. The semantic field of the language is generally negative based around damage to families due to women providing financially, which implies that the men on this panel do not think that this should be the case.

The language used by the men in this debate is very effective. The lexical field is related to damage, with the use of words such as ‘torn’, ‘scandal’, ‘terribly’ ‘bad’. Rhetoric’s are used to add emphasis by one male, stating that ‘having the mom as the premier breadwinner is bad for kids and bad for marriage’ implying that a working woman will lead to the breakdown of marriage relationships and family life.

 Quotes taken:

“Women have become the breadwinners in this country”

“Our society is being torn in so many directions”

“Scandal”

“4 out of 10 families, the woman is the primary breadwinner”

“Men who were hard hit by the economic recession”

“Terribly wrong in American society”

“Impact for generations to come”

“54million abortions”

“Disintegration on marriage”

“¾ of people surveyed recognised that having the mom as the premier breadwinner is bad for kids and bad for marriage”

Language Change -'Money'

Language change

For this task, I am going to be looking into the word ‘penny’ and the history of this word. The word penny is used to define a British bronze coin and monetary unit which is equal to a hundredth of a pound. It is also known as a small sum of money used in sentences such as ‘we didn’t get paid a penny’.  It is believed that the word originated from the Old English word for ‘pawn’ as in the sense of a token.  The word penny can be traced back to Old English being penig, pening, penning and pending. Penny is such a close word to penig in particular, which shows similarities between the use of the word then and now. In German, the word for penny is pfennig, which is closely linked to the Old English term and the term we use today.  Offa, an Anglo-Saxon king is said to have introduced the coin known as the penny around 790 AD, made entirely of silver. The Anglo-Saxons are thought to have invaded Britain starting in 450 AD, coming from German which could be the cause for the close link in the German and English word for penny.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=money&year_start=1500&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cmoney%3B%2Cc0

Above, I have used Google’s NGram to look at the use of the word over 500 years. Unfortunately, this can only be traced back to the 1500’s, which does not help with working out the origin of the word in comparison to the citizens of the UK at each time. As you can see, the usage of the word fluctuates hugely between the mid 1550’s and 1650, peaking in the 1620’s. In the late 1750’s the word use begins to rise again, leading to more subtle fluctuations up until 2000.

There are various idioms which use the word penny. Below, I am going to discuss some:

‘Bad penny’ this phrase is used to describe a worthless person. This could be because in today’s society, a penny is not worth a lot and cannot be used to buy much, meaning it is almost worthless on its own, which is used to describe a person.

‘A penny for your thoughts’ This English idiom is used when asking people to volunteer their opinions on an issue that is being discussed.  When this saying originated, a penny was worth a lot more than it is today. Therefore, a penny for your thoughts likely indicated that thoughts were valuable. This saying can also be said in a sarcastic tone, which indicates that someone’s idea is bad or worth only a penny in modern value.

‘Not have two pennies to rub together’ This is a more modern saying than ‘a penny for your thoughts’, as the value of a penny has decreased significantly in modern times. When the word is used in this context, it is to describe being very poor as pennies are seen as worthless.

‘Spend a penny’ is a phrase used to describe using a public lavatory. The origin of the word is the use of coin operated locks on public toilets, meaning people had to pay to use public toilets. This was used mostly for women’s lavatories in the UK in the 1900’s, as men’s urinals were free of charge. This saying is not as common as previously, as the charges have changes and it was always a coy euphemism which now seems rather dated.

Slang terms

Cash

Dosh

Dough

References:

http://www.wisegeek.org/what-does-a-penny-for-your-thoughts-mean.htm

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=penny&year_start=1500&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cpenny%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Cpenny%3B%2Cc0-1

http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/saxons/when.htm

 http://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-the-penny

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/penny

Elision of the word 'Because'

Elision is the term used to define the omission of a sound or syllable when speaking. There are many words in the English language which have gone through elision as time has passed. One word that particularly interests me is ‘because’. It is not very often that you hear people pronounce ‘bee-cause’, as it is normally shortened through the omission of the sound ‘be’. The word ‘because’ is commonly pronounced as ‘cuz’ which is also used as slang by the younger generations today. The origin of this word is Middle English from the phrase by cause which was influenced by Old French par cause ‘by reason of’. The word because has now been through elision and is used in various different contexts. ‘Cuz’ is often used in a sarcastic way, when an individual is asked a question in which may embarrass or anger them, which has changed massively. The meaning of the word has not changed, however the pronunciation and way in which it is used, has changed. 

Hairy Maclary

It is apparent that the child reading out Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s dairy is a confident reader however towards the end of the story; the reading of the child becomes separated. On the last page of the book, the child mis-pronounces ‘trotted’ with a ‘sh’ sounding like ‘shtrotted’ which clearly makes no sense. Looking at the lineation of the book, the word ‘shop’ is underneath ‘trotted’ which could mean that the child’s eyes looked at the line underneath therefore causing this sound before realising it was the wrong line.

Lineation of 'I Want a Cat' - Tony Ross

The lineation of the text in Tony Ross’ children book ‘I Want a Cat’ aids children to read fluently whilst showing expression. The first sentence is on a single line, and comes to an end displayed by a full stop. The next sentence starts underneath the previous, which could be due to a subject change. Putting this sentence on a below line causes the child to have to move their eyes, which will create a natural pause which emphasises the previous full stop. This line ends in the middle of a clause with the word ‘so’. The reason that the line ends on this word could be because elongating this word adds exaggeration and emphasis before starting the next line with ‘loudly’. This gives a build-up effect on what will come next in the story whilst allowing fluent reading as it gives the child a chance to be looking ahead at what words follow. The next line may begin with the adverb ‘loudly’ for the reason that when children read, they tend to pause between lines and when starting a new line, add more emphasis. The emphasis on this adverb may be an increase in volume, which links directly to the meaning of the word, adding effect. Another reason that this adverb may be at the start of a new line could be because if it was on the previous line following ‘so’, the third clause may be mistaken for a new sentence, which does not work alone. 

Overview

From looking at this short transcript, it does give the impression that Evie is already confident in using language and may be in the telegraphic stage. Her confidence with language may be due to her being in a known environment with her grandmother. Because Evie is in a known environment, she can experiment with language, talking about local topics. Evie’s grandmother uses strategies to guide, scaffold and prompt the speech that is already in Evie’s zone of proximal development.

Point/paragraph one:

In the first paragraph, I would discuss Nelson’s linking to Evie’s surroundings such as being in a known environment and explore how this encourages the development of her speech.

An example of this is Evie’s Grandma using toy animals to create a conversation which involves physical activity. ‘Cat’ ‘Tigger’ ‘Bath’.

Point/paragraph two:

I would then look at child directed speech features that the grandmother uses in order to help the development of speech including scaffolding and Skinners operant conditioning theory.

Point/paragraph three:

This would focus on Evie’s zone of proximal development through looking at the virtuous errors that she makes and how her Grandma aids her.

Point/paragraph four:

I would link this to the previous point on virtuous errors, looking at the support that is giving from her Grandma. This would also include the prompts/interrogatives Grandma uses to help Evie converse linking to child led discourse.

‘Shall we put them in the bath?’ is a prompt to develop the activity into the next stage so that they can move on and add more in terms of discussion.

Point/paragraph five:

This would be based on the learning and development of social skills. I would look at the way Grandma is encouraging social skills including turn taking in conversation and physical aspects such as facial expressions.

Point/paragraph six:

I would look into power for this point, looking at the agenda shift and who sets them, powerful participants (Grandmother), and how the Grandmother encourages Evie’s speech by allowing her to choose topics etc. 

UNFINISHED introduction - draft 1

‘How does a child’s language change dependant on who they are conversing with?’

For my investigation I am looking into the development of a child’s speech, including the way that their language is subjective to who they are conversing with. This includes child directed speech from the other participant(s) in the conversation. I have chosen to investigate the development of a child’s speech as I find the way they learn to talk very intriguing, and I am also interested in how or why the way they talk may or may not vary depending on who they are talking to. I am going to investigate what this is due to. For example: the child’s natural instinct, child directed speech etc. Personally, I am interested in the whole development of children, not just specifically how they develop language but I am very interested to investigate theories based around children developing language and try to apply these theories to the data that I will collect.

There are numerous theorists who have done personal investigations to try and answer the unsolved question of where does language come from or how does it develop? Theorists are constantly developing new ideas as to how