Language, society and power, Sintesi del corso di Lingua Inglese

Scarica Language, society and power e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! LANGUAGE, SOCIETY and POWER CHAPTER 1 - LANGUAGE Why study language? Language always works successfully in different situations/contexts. It is a key to develop ourselves as human beings and members of society, because it maintains any kind of relationship. Understanding the function of language is fundamental to understand people. There are different ways and linguistics areas (not completely separated) to analyse language: 1. SEMANTICS: looks at the meaning of the words used; 2. SYNTAX: concerns the words’ order; 3. SOCIOLINGUISTICS: how social factors (age, social class, ethnicity…) affect the language use; 4. PHONETICS, PHONOLOGY, MORPHOLOGY: concern the sounds that make up words. 5. PSYCHOLINGUISTICS: how our brain understands and processes language; 6. APPLIED LINGUISTICS: how we learn and teach language; 7. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: how we can have conversation with computers; 8. ANTHROPOLOGY: how people in different cultures use language; 9. PHILOSOPHY: looks at the relationship between words, meaning and the real world; 10. FORENSIC LINGUISTICS: whether someone is guilty of a criminal offence; 11. NON-VERBAL LANGUAGE: e.g. sign languages; Language: a system Language is a rule-governed SYSTEM. These rules are “building codes”, which tell speakers how to combine the different parts of their language. They are established, for ex., by phonetics, syntax and morphology. Linguists examine them in order to discover the things that make communication possible. This is why linguistics is descriptive. The set of the building codes that has to be followed in order to form correct utterances is called GRAMMAR. The theoretical linguist Chomsky made an important distinction between: • COMPETENCE in a grammar: means to have knowledge of the grammar; • PERFORMANCE of a grammar: refers to the way speakers actually use language. Anyway, a person can have grammatical competence, but lack of COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE: it consists of the rules of social relationships and cultural conventions, which make us able to use language appropriately in each context. This is also called “sociolinguistic or pragmatic competence”. Language: a system with variation A standard language presents several varieties or dialects, according to: • Accents: the way people pronounce words; • Vocabulary: the words people use; • Syntax: the word order. People often use the term “dialect” in a pejorative way, to indicate a variety subordinated to the standard language. This concept is related to power. People perceive British English as the original one, while the other varieties (Australian, Indian, American) are spin-offs. Nevertheless, linguists consider all varieties equally. The potential to create new meanings To create new words, we have to follow the building codes about how to construct an acceptable word in a language. For example, we can use existing words in a new way, changing their functions or class word. In dictionaries, we can’t find these new uses, so most people believe that they are illegitimate. We have to remember that dictionaries are descriptive but also conservative, so they include new words only when they have demonstrated a permanent use. The rules of language: PRESCRIPTION vs DESCRIPTION Linguists and lexicographers don’t judge the use of words as correct or incorrect, because the meaning of words changes in different contexts and uses. • PRESCRIPTION: claims that certain uses are correct or incorrect, according to the language rules. Prescriptivists have very strong ideas about how language should be used, in order to avoid the breaking of the language. So, they record rules in books and teach them to students. Disapproving some people usage of language, in relation to grammar and meaning of words, is called complaint tradition. • DESCRIPTION: describes what people do with language. For linguists, changes are inevitable and interesting, because they are always linked to the building codes. In fact, also descriptivists can perceive something as incorrect: if a sentence doesn't conform to the building codes, it can't communicate a clear message, and it results incorrect. Rules are often dictated and maintained by members of the higher groups of society: they can sanction the members of the speech community if they don’t follow the linguistic rules. Language: multiple functions According to Jakobson, the components of communication are: 1. THE ADDRESSER: the person who is speaking; 2. THE ADDRESSEE: the person being spoken to; 3. CONTACT: the medium of communication that can be written, verbal or visual; 4. MESSAGE: the content sent and received; 5. CODE: words or hand signals, which both addresser and addressee have to understand; 6. CONTEXT: social and linguistic environment where the massage is sent and received. Each of these factors implies a different function of language: 1. EMOTIVE or EXPRESSIVE function: is the speaker’s attitude towards the content; 2. REFERENTIAL function: is the information; DENOTATIVE function includes ideas and conventions: 3. CONATIVE function: is related to the addressee and includes imperatives or vocatives; 4. PHATIC function: its purpose isn’t to communicate information, but to communicate; that is to say, making small talk, saying something insignificant; 5. POETIC function: draws attention to the message for its own sake; it implies the emotive and conative functions; 6. METALINGUAL function: is language that refers to language (e.g. when we ask to repeat or rephrase). In addition, • CONNOTATION: is the subjective or personal aspect of meaning. It is related to the emotive function; • DENOTATION: is the literal definition. It is related to the referential function of language. Power There are different ways in which power can be exercised through language. For example, having competence in a prestigious language (such as British English) can bring benefits to speakers, because they are thought to be more educated, capable and polite. So, they can have access to better employment and so on. In addition, physical and institutional power have an influence on how language is understood, but the power comes not only from the position of the speaker, but also from the kind of language that is used. This is called symbolic power, which highlights the link between power and symbols, that is, power and language. Ideology Symbolic power is supported by ideologies. Language is fundamental for the creation and the maintenance of an ideology: we can be encouraged to do things because we have internalised certain values. Ideology is a set of beliefs, values and behaviours, considered natural, normal and universal. But we tend to identify only the beliefs of the others, because we consider ours as normal. Fairclough calls this naturalisation: transforming particular ideologies into common sense. The dominant ideology of a particular social group is called hegemonic ideology. CHAPTER 3 – LANGUAGE AND POLITICS Politics is the process by which members of a community discuss and decide about how they are governed. These discussions are linked to power. Politics and ideology Ideology is a way of thinking and it has an effect on thought and behaviour. In relation to politics, ideologies are connected with beliefs about the organisation of society, about how to achieve and maintain the goals. Our beliefs, our sense of what is right has an effect on the arguments we find convincing. Lots ot linguistic tools are used to persuade people. Persuasive Strategies According to Aristotle, persuasion can take place in 3 ways: • logos: the argument itself; • pathos: the connection between emotions and ideas; • ethos: we trust the idea because we trust the speaker. Three part lists and parallelism Three part lists are very common in persuasive texts, because they distill any message into key takeaways: they have a pleasant rhythm and are easy to remember; moreover, three things sufficiently provides proof of a pattern. Three part list is a particular form of parallelism. Parallelism is the use of 2 or more sentences placed next to each other, with the same syntactic structure. This means that we understand them in relation to each other, so we can create contrastive pairs and we can emphasise the positive against the negative, the pros and the cons. The most common form of parallelism is repetition since if we want to emphasise something, we repeat it. In addition, it provides a focal point for the reader. Pronouns The use of the first and second person is common in persuasive speeches. We may include the audience (inclusive we) or exclude the audience (exclusive we). If you consider yourself a person rather than a number, you feel part of “we”, of the society. You is useful since it doesn't distinguish between singular and plural. Presupposition Semantic presupposition consists of an information embedded in the sentence, that is taken for granted in the meaning of the text. In other words, the text doesn’t tell the reader that something exists before discussing it: it simply discusses it. It is indicated by possessive pronouns, subordinate clauses, questions… Pragmatic presupposition is something implied by the text. Metaphor and intertextuality A metaphor creates an equivalence between two concepts and invites evaluation; it states that x is y, so it doesn’t need a verb. A simile simply draws a comparison; it states that x is like y. Intertextuality is the strategy of understanding a metaphor thanks to historical and cultural knowledge. For ex, this is a global spring refers to the Arabic Spring: political movements leading to change government (the spring implies a new start). Words and weapons Euphemism: is a word used to make something more benign, that otherwise might be unpleasant. So, it wants to background negative aspects and highlight positive ones. This makes actions/things more acceptable, and it is related to taboo areas such as death, war and weapons. Dysphemism: is the opposite. It makes something more disagreeable and unpleasant than it might be. Toys and ideology Who we are is related to dominant ideologies and we can find those ideologies everywhere, even in children toys: gun toys prepare children for specific kinds of warfare; children learn to identify with soldiers and they see them as a representation of their own nation and society. In addition, they identify an enemy in a generic way (a bad person). That particular view of war becomes part of the children's mentality and this has consequences over our and their identification. Student as customer Students are usually described as customers, because higher education is becoming part of the market economy. This metaphor implies some beliefs (the customer is always right and services depends on market demand). So, the relationship between students and university is transactional: they give money in exchange for goods and services. But students don’t buy their degrees. In reality, the relationship is interactional: students must undertake the activities provided by the university in order to receive a degree. It is an opportunity to benefit. CHAPTER 4 – LANGUAGE AND THE MEDIA Mass media Mass media have a significant effect on how people understand the world. Mass media broadcast news 24 hours a day on television, radio, newspapers and the World Wide Web, and this news reach a mass of people. Manufacture of consent The language of news provides important information about how power is created and exercised. Chomsky and Herman described how media functions, in both economical and ideological terms. They identified 5 filters that influence the representations produced; so, they represent events in particular ways, in polarised views. Since information is altered by these filters, the public agreement is not a real agreement, rather a manufactured consent. Filters are: 1. Media ownership; 2. Advertising income; 3. Where the news come from; 4. How groups respond to stories; 5. Communism must be avoided. Audience is unaware of these filters. So, these filtered representations become part of our collective common sense/ideology. The application of filters is an automatic process that occurs without conscious intervention, so we have to be careful, because news can be a partial representation of what actually happens, because it depends on the writer’s point of view. Lexical choices can change people's point of view. Semantic unity A text is more coherent if it has semantic unity. It is obtained by assigning some theme or topic to the discourse. A title evokes several values and an implicit narrative structure: our common knowledge or background gives us a way to read and understand the story, a sense of the shape and direction. News values (Bell) News values explains what is relevant and newsworthy for the people producing the news, that is to say, why some stories are chosen and why others aren’t. This is related to 2 of Chomsky's filters: where stories come from and how we respond to them. News values are: negativity, recency, proximity, consonance, unambiguity/clarity, unexpectedness, superlativeness, relevance, personalisation, eliteness, attribution, facticity (spiegazione pag 72). In addition, there are 4 different types of news stories: 1. HARD NEWS is the basic product: it talks about accidents, conflicts, crimes, etc. 2. SOFT NEWS relies on personalisation, eliteness, consonance, superlativeness and attribution. 3. FAST NEWS are news that need to be reported quickly, but they will probably be out of date as quickly. 4. SLOW NEWS refers to events that develop over a longer period of time. However, fast and slow news aren’t exclusive. For ex, voting results are fast news, but changes in government or lifestyle are slow news. Experts and news Media play a role in creating what is true, that is to say, facticity: figures, dates and statistics are important for hard news. An important issue is how experts are positioned in relation to one another. News online Internet brought some radical changes in the news spreading, because: 1. the internet allows hypermedia: the integration of different channels of communication (such as written texts, pictures, motion pictures, sounds); 2. internet is more personal because of the small amount of labour now needed to produce different versions of the same story; 3. interaction between producers and consumers has increased (this has consequences for who counts as an expert); 4. mass media is now synchronous: the message is sent and immediately received or talking on the phone; 5. the availability of media products isn’t subject to the past physical restrictions, and the products are losing their fixity. In addition: • print journalism is mono-linear (from the writer to the reader) and the content and the format of the printed page are fixed; • online news can be published, edited and re-published again. So, they are immediate and subject to change. Presenting news on the internet The same story can be reported in different ways. Generally, the most important information is reported first and this structure, called inverted pyramid, reinforces the main story. On the contrary, people may start to read the story, but they may not finish it. The structure of a story is also related to the layout and the navigation tools available to the news producers. They can be: • the kind of advertising used and where they are placed; • the devices the audience uses to read the news; • the size of the paper the stories are printed on (for ex, large newspapers are usually folded, so the most important news is usually placed above the fold). • the news values. Online newspapers also have to provide coherent navigation tools. They include: headings for different sections, search functions, short introductions to articles that enable the readers to click through to the full story. This means that the organisation of online news has to take account of the multimodal nature of the internet. With online news, the line between producer and consumer has broken: consumers are now part of the process of news production. New ways of doing news (twitter and the citizen journalist) Founded in 2006, Twitter is a microblogging application/platform which allows people to author and disseminate messages of 140 characters, called tweets. Hashtags are an essential feature of Twitter: they are used to identify the subject of tweets and allows users to find tweets about that topic. Television programmes, institutions, associations use hashtags so that people can follow and comment about them. So, it relies on user generated content, and its form and content depend on how people use it. Twitter and other social networks enable people to engage in citizen journalism. It is a non-professional journalism which produces news content and everyone, with a smartphone, have access to the public sphere. For this reason, it can be very difficult to interpret messages or to know what to trust. It requires specific kinds of literacy. CHAPTER 6 – LANGUAGE AND GENDER Sex: is the biological state of male and female; Gender: is the state of male and female socially constructed. Sex has little influence on gender, and there are expectations of behaviour, clothing, habits and speech according to biological sex (this is the performing gender). There are several examples of everyday sexism and they can be easily found in language. Inequality at the lexical level 1.MARKED TERMS A sexism example is the lexical asymmetry, that is to say: terms referring to equivalent positions for women and men aren’t used in the same way, they have different connotations. An example is the difference between bachelor and spinster, which mean “unmarried adults”: bachelor reflect a positive view of men’s single life, while spinster is very unattractive and is associated with loneliness. Master is a position of authority, mistress refers to a loose sexuality. Another example is the use of marked terms referring to women. A term is marked (for sex) when it is in contrast to a neutral and generic counterpart (that is the masculine term). For example, actor is general, while actress refers only to a female actor (prince/princess, waiter/waitress, host/hostess). Another example of asymmetry is found in titles: while there is just one available for men (Mr), women need to be identified in relation with their marital status (Miss, Mrs, Ms). This shows the traditional social importance of marriage for women. 2.GENERIC HE The male term isn’t sexed, so it’s generic and refers to both sexes. However, several attempts have been made to encourage the use of unmarked pronouns to indicate both women and men in the same situation: they is the most common and it is also used in singular forms (every student/everyone should bring their books to class. But 'every' and 'everyone' need the singular form). Prescriptivists argue that number agreement is more important than representing both sexes, so in that case we should use he. 3.WORD ORDER Even the word order can demonstrate gender inequality: when both a male and a female are mentioned in a noun phrase, it is common for the male term to be placed first. This word order is linked to power: this conventional ordering may be an indication of women's less powerful position in the social hierarchy. But this doesn’t occur in domains that are considered feminine, such as parenting and children. 4.SEMANTIC DEROGATION Semantic derogation is another example of gender inequality. It is the process by which a word acquires a negative meaning over time, like 'spinster' and 'slut' (it meant “a woman of dirty and untidy habits, then it became linked to loose sexual morality). A “stud” is a promiscuous male, but it hasn’t a negative connotation. Desserts are also used to refer to women, as they were sweet to be eaten and shared. Animals acquire a negative connotation once associated with women. Differences in language use Women's language is characterised by a number of features, such as the avoidance of swear words, the use of fillers (you know, sort of), the use of tag questions, intensifiers, standard syntax, high levels of politeness. People expect these linguistic features from women. TAG QUESTIONS have more than one function: • A modal meaning: expresses uncertainty; • An affective meaning: indicates lack of confidence. Women use more affective tags, while men use modal tags. Gossip Gossip is usually considered meaningless, unreliable and sometimes malicious. People generally discuss and give opinions about people, events and feelings. Gossip features are: • shared floor: more than one person speaking at once, without any objections; • back channelling or minimal responses: signals that participants are paying attention to the speaker, without interrumptions; • hedging: using expressions such as 'I mean' as signal that the speaker knows it is a sensitive topic and he's trying to express respect for other speakers' points of view. Features of men's talks Male talk is competitive and hierarchically organized, because they prefer a one-at-a-time floor. Men prefer masculine and impersonal topics such as cars, technology and sports, but these topics are actually personal for the men who talk about them. Men also signal they are listening by remaining silent. In men talks, there is some simultaneous talk, but it is overlaps rather than interruptions. Gender and power The structure of gossip may be different from group to group, but its aim is the same. But women's gossip is more marked than men’s gossip. It is the androcentric rule, which is part of a largest process of linguistic subordination. The speech of subordinate groups will be interpreted as linguistically inadequate and negative by comparison with that of dominant groups. We need to consider if the talk takes place in the public or private domain: • Public talk aims at informing or persuading, and it is often associated with higher status, power and men; • Private talk has interpersonal functions, such as making social connections, developing relationships... This context isn’t as highly valued as public talk. Performing gender identity Gender performances depend on social expectations about how a man or a woman should behave/act. Researchers have studied how young men in a fraternity use the world 'dude'. It expresses solidarity and friendship but without being too affectionate and enthusiastic, because social expectations for heterosexual men are that they shouldn't be too lovely with their friends. So 'dude' is a right compromise. CHAPTER 7 – LANGUAGE AND ETHNICITY How people articulate and understand their ethnicity varies according to the communicative context and the people they are interacting with. Ethnicity Ethnicity is related to a group of people sharing sociocultural characteristics, such as a place, ancestry, history, religion, culture and language. However, if we are part of the ethnic majority, we don’t define ourselves as ethnic, because we are unmarked and represent the norm. Basically, we use ethnic and ethnicity to describe minority groups and, as in the past ethnos was used to indicate the outsider of the nation, this may explain the pejorative use that still exists today. Race is used as synonymous with ethnicity, but: • race is connected to biology and physical characteristics; • ethnicity is linked to the identity of a particular social group. Ethnicity, the nation state and multilingualism The relationship between nation, language and ethnicity is very important. There is a persistent idea that nations should be homogeneous in terms of language and ethnicity, but this not always happens. Racism and representations of ethnicity Since minority ethnicities generally can't afford positions of power in the social hierarchy, they are considered negative. Racist discourse is a discriminatory social practice which can be manifested in speaking and writing. There are two types of racist discourse: • racist discourse directed at ethnically different 'others', • racist discourse about ethnically different 'others'. People construct racist discourse in 3 further ways, creating a contrast between us and them: • difference: the other isn’t like us; • deviance: the other behaves in a way that we consider amoral; • threat: the other is dangerous. Reclaiming terms If a discourse can is racist depends on context, including who is speaking. A term may be: • racist, when a person from the out-group uses it in a pejorative way, to demean someone; • a positive identity marker, when it is used by the group itself. For example, nigger is a derogatory term which refers to African Americans, but they usually use it to identify themselves and reject the majority groups. In Australia, wog was used to identify migrants from Italy and the Mediterranean, but now is used positively to claim a common migration experience. Ethnolect Ethnicity implies linguistic variations. WOGSPEAK: The wogs’ ehnolect, called “New Austrelian English”, raises the intonation at the end of a declarative sentence, causing a longer and more opened vowel (above all for Greek speakers). AFRICAN AMERICAN ENGLISH: The distinguishing features of AAE are: the copula deletion (he late instead of he is late) and habitual be (use “be” for habitual actions: John be late instead of He is always late). AAE is perceived as linguistically deficient, as a degenerated form of English, although linguists have demonstrated it is logically structured like any other language. This negative attitude towards AAE is an example of linguistic subordination. This misconception can have serious consequences in terms of education or access to employment. At the same time, AAE carries many positive connotations within its community of speakers, and this puts speakers in a difficult position, because the language symbol of their ethnic identity is a way for discrimination in the society. This dilemma is called linguistic push-pull. CHAPTER 9: Language, class and symbolic capital Social class is generally considered the position of a person in a social hierarchy, according to his wealth. However, other factors contribute to this, such as: education, the place of living and the language used. Attitudes to class The idea that there is a correct and standard form of the language is at the basis of the most powerful ideology. It has social consequences, because any non-standard variety is considered deficient in relation to the standard. The standard variety is used to claim and maintain power, since language is the reflection of a particular social group: the language spoken by a marginal group will also be marginalized, so these marginalized. Attitudes towards a group’s language reflect attitudes towards the group itself. Linguistic accommodation is a strategy which consists of adjusting the way one speaks in relation to the audience, in order to gain prestige and reduce the social distance. Class as others People belonging to low social classes are generally defined as others, because they imply a set of clothing, behaviour and language characteristics. They can be also defined as: • BOGANS in Australia, associated with crime, hard rock music, beers, old cars, truck suits and boots. If a bogan acquires wealth, he is still considered a 'cashed up bogan' (to protect his power and status). • CHAVS in UK are young people who have a loutish behaviour because of their low social status. Their linguistic features are associated with other marginalised varieties of English: the use of \v\ instead of \Θ\, the drop of H and ING, specific vocabulary, topics and style. • PITTSBURGHESE: in Pittsburgh, a non-standard English can have both positive and negative interpretations. The working class’ features are in some situations considered uneducated and sloppy, while in others are related to the city's identity, authenticity and local pride (2 person plural 'yinz'). Linguistic variation NEW YORK CITY The American sociolinguist Labov conducted a research in NY on the relationship between social class and linguistic variation. Labov defined social stratification by the prestige of 3 department stores and he noticed that clerks reflected each social stratification, also in their speech. For example, the R pronunciation had high prestige, so Labov identified an item sold on the 4th floor and then asked clerks where he could find that particular item, so that they could repeat “4th floor”. Speakers in all 3 stores tended to increase the ‘r’ pronunciation, because they payed more attention to their speech; so, in some cases they 'borrowed' prestige from the store in which they worked. NORWICH In standard English, ING is fully pronounced, while in other varieties, it is pronounced as N. A research in Norwich showed different pronunciations according to the situation. This happened because the middle class was aware of the inferior social value of their variety. GLASGOW Rhoticity is associated with non-standard Englishes, and it is used above all by the working class. A research on Glasgow teenagers showed that: those of the working class didn’t use that feature, because they wanted to be standard in speech like them. Social networks In this context, social networks refer to people’s relations and interactions in a community. Social networks can be described in terms of: • density relates to the number of people, people interact with; • plexity relates to the different kinds of ties, people have with others. Social networks are more common in traditional working class neighbourhoods and imply conformity to local linguistic norms. Communities of practice A community of practice is a group of people who share a common goal or activity, and they develop their own linguistic norms. Those norms evolve and develop according the members of the group. Symbolic capital Symbolic capital refers to intangible attributes that a person can have or accumulate to establish or improve his position in a group or in the society. These attributes can be a degree, an important relative (an uncle who is a judge), a mastery of a prestigious language… Men are usually identified by their profession and activities, while women are usually judged by their appearance, including clothes and how they speak. CHAPTER 10 – GLOBAL ENGLISHES Kachru’s model of World Englishes considers the different varieties of English around the world and provides a visual representation through 3 concentric circles: • Inner circle nations: are countries where English is the first language; they are nations composed of people migrated from UK (US and Australia are regarded as authentic speakers of English); • Outer circle nations are countries where English isn’t the only official language; they are colonised nations (India); • The expanding circle includes countries where English is taught and learnt as a second language, but it isn’t official. All these varieties of English count as “English”, but there are differences in terms of phonology, syntax, lexis, but also of domain and power. Learning English A language is considered language rather than variety according to its power and ideologies. British English is usually considered the original/authentic/standard English. It’s important learning British English because of its power as an instrument of international communication, and it permits interaction among its non-native users. But valuing the other varieties results in insufficient attention, because they are used only to interact locally and they are considered non-standard or deficient in some way. So, they aren’t useful if the goal is a high power job in an inner circle nation. This causes the linguistic insecurity: the case in which speakers of outer and expanding circle nations accept the negative attitudes towards their variety. If they consider it as inferior, they contribute to its marginalisation. Others support its protection and maintenance. Lingua franca core British English is very difficult to acquire as a second language, above all because of its complex sound system. Jenkins proposed a “lingua franca core” as a practical pronunciation model of English for learners. It is based on intelligility and the successful communication over prestigious sounds (for ex, the substitution of TH with V/F). Inside the inner circle there can be linguistic differences. I ain’t may be interpreted as a lack of education or lower social class, but it is a logical solution to the gap of amn’t in the English verb paradigm. Singlish There are different Englishes spoken in Singapore because of its large number of speakers. So Singaporean community is diglossic: a variety is considered high (Standard English, which is encouraged because of its international importance) and the other low (Singlish and other regional varieties). The first is used in education, government and formal interactions, while the other is used by friends and relatives. Indian English We can find a similar situation in India, where English is Indians’ mother tongue but there is a variety of English, called Indian English, which bears traces of contact with other languages, above all with Hindi. Pidgins and Creoles A pidgin is a language which arises as a lingua-franca in a situation where speakers of different languages are in long-term contact. They combine the linguistic resources of all the speakers’ languages for a successful communication. The language providing vocabulary is called lexifier, while the language providing the syntactic structure is called substrate. After an extended period of usage, it becomes fully developed and serves as a mother tongue. The language at this stage is called a creole (for ex, the Hawaii Creole English). Linguistic marketplace In the context of Global Englishes, knowing the value of a variety of English on the linguistic market is important to understand the linguistic resources a person has. British English is the most valued variety in the global linguistic. So, people who want to enter the international job market must have an excellent command of English. This is due to the globalization of all types of markets. Call centres In call centres, employees of a business company provide services to customers over the phone. The call centre may be located in a foreign country to save money, so an employee must have an excellent command of Englis, even the “right” accent, to cross linguistic boundaries. Linguistic imperialism Because of the political and economic dominance of English speaking countries, the English language is dominant/hegemonic. It forms part of a neo-imperial project, which encourages the growth of freedom and trade, action and free movement of money. English can be seen as the capitalist neo-imperial language, which serves the interests of the world. It can also be considered a killer language, because it kills minority languages, which are in danger of extinction. But language death occurs when populations are forced to use the dominant language in socio- economic contexts, and the long-term effect is extinction. Discourse in advertising and linguistic landscapes The use of English in commercial contexts permits audience to understand the text; so it informs, persuades and sells. English does a symbolic work through stereotypical associations with the language because it is linked to concepts of modernity, globalization, mass communication and wealth. CHAPTER 11 – PROJECTS Data is any language used by people, in all kinds of situations. It can be found everywhere, both in written and spoken forms. Written data is easier to work with because you don’t need to transcribe it. One way of collecting spoken data is to record people, but if they are conscious about being recorded, they are more likely to perform and they change the way they speak. This is a problem for researchers who study natural speech. This is called the observer’s paradox. Transcribing Then, you have to transcribe recorded data, in order to construct its written representaion. Some details of the talk are indicated with symbols and other typographic conventions. In addition, transcription is a very time consuming process, because time will increase if there are several speakers or if the quality of the recording is poor. It can take a few times of listening. Data analysis Data analysis requires spending time looking at and thinking about the material. Everyone has their own method to work with data and examine a particular feature (for ex, transitivity in persuasive texts). Projects are suggestions for researchers to help develop their methods, because they suggest features you can analyse and questions you can ask about your data. At the same time, every data has specific limitations, because you can study only how these people use language in these situations.