Coursework Ideas Homework:

Idea 1) The difference in language use dependant on age- it's an interesting investigation because age is something that we all progress through, and perhaps our language use will change in time to come in comparison to future youth? My current ideas on age are that older people tend to converge closer to the RP accent and use more standard English, in comparison to the language use of young people - who often use colloquialisms, and diverge away from RP to express their individualism. Young people tend to like to use slang and ''alternate" words to avoid their conversation being heard and understood by others, whereas older people tell it how it is. Older people tend to talk for a purpose, to get something across, whereas young people often talk for the sake of it, or if they need something, the audience is often people of the same age group, although the attitude taken is different, the older community take what they're saying seriously and use language to get their opinion across, young people tend to take the opposite approach. The subject which is being spoken about will be very different due to the generational gap, the older generation would often talk about: routine, hobbies, shopping, surroundings, weather etc., in contrast to youth, who talk about pop culture, music, friends, events, life situations, love etc.

-Reference face theory, cooperative principle and politeness theory.

Idea 2) The difference between the way in which men and women use language. It's weird to think that language varies dependant on gender, you'd assume that everybody uses the same structure when talking, uses the same linguistic features.. evidently not. I think that women use more fillers when talking (often because they're gossiping) and subject change a lot more, females also are more inclined to use standard English, in comparison to men who are 'lazier' when using language and use more non-standard English, they tend to use less fillers but use hedging a lot more, I'd say that men use deixis more than women in attempt to hide what they're talking about.. but maybe that'll come in during my investigation? Women often use language to communicate whatever they're thinking, whereas men often use language to communicate their needs / desires. The audience could be males or females, probably around the same age. The attitude for women is often optimistic and enthusiastic about what they're saying, men are more passive. The subject varies a lot dependant on gender, as women are more inclined to talk about love, relationships, friends, current affairs, shopping, hobbies etc. Men are more inclined to talk about sports, hobbies, work, computer games etc.