'Migrant crushed in lorry' article comparison

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34388412 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/calais-crisis-live-man-dies-after-1500-storm-channel-tunnel-as-theresa-may-prepares-to-chair-10423025.html

This first article is fairly short and tells all the facts without much extra detail."Calais officials said the man was "crushed" by pallets and was found by a Hungarian driver at about 07:00 BST. " The information necessary is given with facts about the time and location without any extra details. There isn't any emotion or personal opinions given in the article. By doing this the BBC are making the article unbiased.

This article gives a lot more information than the last. This talks a lot about the background of the story and how it came about."They said that both on Monday night and in the early hours of today there had been repeated breaches of the security fence by groups of around 50 migrants at a time." This background information gives the reader a bit of knowledge on the subject. The article also gives opinions on the subject. The article gives a quote from David Cameron giving his opinion on the subject."I have every sympathy with holidaymakers who are finding access to Calais difficult because of the disturbances there and we will do everything we can to work with the French to bring these things to a conclusion." This makes the article slightly more personal. 

The similarities between the two articles is they both contain a lot of facts to do with timings and locations."A young Sudanese asylum seeker was crushed to death by a lorry early today after migrants attempted to enter the Channel Tunnel as the crisis in Calais continued." and "Calais officials said the man was "crushed" by pallets and was found by a Hungarian driver at about 07:00 BST.". Both articles also have strap lines "Police said up to 1,500 attempts to break through security fence had been made " and "A 20-year-old Iraqi has been found dead in a UK-bound lorry in Calais port, French authorities have said." Strap lines make the readers interested and want to read on. 

Our language is changing

In our modern world we see a lot of changes everyday. One aspect of our lives that is changing rather rapidly is our language. The younger generation are developing a whole new language that older people struggle to understand. The main reasons for the change in the way young people speak is due to texting/typing. Older generations are often unaware of these new words and their meanings leaving a gap between younger and older people.

Abbreviated words are used more now than ever. Words such as "bae" meaning 'babe' or 'before anyone else' and "swag" which is used to describe someones style, are part of young peoples everyday vocabulary. The words are often used by teenagers and people even younger when talking to their peers. However words such as "lol" have diffused into the older generation. Many adults now use this term when texting and using it with the meaning 'lots of love' rather than its original meaning 'laugh out loud'. 

Now more people use emoticons to talk to others online rather than actually typing. Emojis are the new craze for young people. They are essentially a range of small pictures from smiley faces to animal's. People can send these on their own or accompanying a message. They are used to share your emotions with the other person most of the time.

The word "like" is used in almost every sentence some teenagers say. "Like" is young peoples "um".The word has become a filler, purely filling in pauses where the person has to think what to say

The way people speak majorly depends on how they text. Text talk can often be used sarcastically when spoken. A lot of teenagers don't actually use these slang terms in a serious manner. Adding numbers into their texts e.g. "gr8" and "m8" are often used sarcastically or in a joking manner.

Sources: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/may/01/icymi-english-language-is-changing-faster-than-ever-says-expert

Last accessed: 26/09/15

Trends

In our recent English lesson we discussed texts with spoken elements. We collected a lot of examples and from these we have been asked to find trends.

One trend is that a lot of the texts use shortened/slang words. 'I'm lovin' it' by McDonalds is an example of this. The missing 'g' in lovin' gives the text its spoken element. Another example of this is 'Shop 'til you drop with no broadband limit' from a broadband advert. This shortened word gives a spoken element almost makes the adverts seem more friendly and enticing.

Another trend in the texts is that they often direct it at the person reading. The words 'you' and 'you're' are used a lot. 'Have it your way' and 'It will blow your mind' both by Burger King are written in second person, to make the person reading feel a bond with the company or product. Another example of this is 'Because you're worth it' by L'Oréal, again this makes the potential customer feel more of a connection to the company/product. This is called synthetic personalisation, meaning the company is trying to make a false relationship with the audience.

A final trend in the texts is using sounds within words. For example 'P-P-P-Pick up a penguin' by penguin chocolate bar. This repetition of the letter 'p' is eye catching and gives the text its spoken element. Another example of this 'They're bootiful' again this gives this text its spoken element by playing on words and sounds.

Diversity of language

http://www.academia.edu/9835669/Language_diversity_what_how_and_why_2015_._Emagazine_London
In this article by Ian Curshing he talks about why language is diverse. Ian believes that it is to do with our social groups and ages. Ian says that the language we use is part of forming our identities. Older people may speak differently to someone younger than them because of their age and their surroundings.
Ian believes that when people travel they bring their accent with them and when they leave they may leave behind part of their language.
Last accessed: 15/09/15

http://edl.ecml.at/Home/Thecelebrationoflinguisticdiversity/tabid/2972/language/en-GB/Default.aspx
This article talks about diversity in language. It discusses all languages having their own history, identity and value. The article also talks about the structure of language and how different languages are structured. This means that every language differs in sounds, grammar, vocabulary, and patterns of discourse.
Last accessed: 15/09/15

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11304255
This article speaks about the 6000 languages spoke around the world and how we may be losing a lot of them. The article says that we lose about 259 languages a decade. In the United Kingdom half a million people speak Welsh, a few thousand Scots are fluent in Gaelic, about 400 people speak Cornish.
Last accessed: 15/09/15

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2248956/Europes-exotic-city-Its-Manchester-153-languages-spoken-population-500-000.html
This article talks about Manchester being one of the most exotic cities in Europe. The article opens with telling you that in  Manchester there are 153 languages spoken by a population of 500,000. two thirds of Mancunian school children are bilingual. Manchester is more diverse than London but is rivaled by New York and Paris. Manchester is smaller than London but on a ratio has a larger range of languages.
Last accessed: 15/09/15

Favourite and least favourite words

In our recent English lesson we learnt about how people like and dislike different words. We each decided which were our favourite and least favourite words. We then shared these with each other and placed the words shared in different groups. The groups ranged from foods, taboo words, misused words and adjectives.
I found that words that are misused are majorly disliked. Three examples of the words misused are, "literally", "like" and "sweat". There was only one misused word that someone liked and that was "mint". I believe misused words are disliked a lot because people find it frustrating when they are used in the wrong context and not the words themselves.
There were six taboo words and four of them were disliked. The words "cl**ge" and "b****nd" were both liked. This was because of the sound of the words rather than the meanings.
In the group of words that are names of food there was only one liked out of the six. This word was "honey". I believe this was liked as its a soft word and it can be used as an affectionate term as well as the food. Disliked words were "sprout", "gravy" and "asparagus". I believe a lot of these words were disliked because the person didn't like the food and therefore had ill feeling towards the word.
Finally, adjectives was the group with the most liked words in it. Some of these words included were "amazing", "lush", "naive" and others. I believe these words were liked because of the way they sounded and not necessarily their meanings. The two disliked words in this category were "peng" and "moist". I think these words were disliked because of how they sound rather than their meanings.